Improving streaming SQ

Audioengr,

My Aurender is A10, not the N10.  The A10 is the one box Streamer/DAC combo.  What do you recommend in this case?

I started this thread so I thought I should chime in.  I access Tidal thru my Aurender A10's Conductor app and stream fully decoded MQA files with my $19.99 subscription.  When I checked my Tidal subscription on my iMac I found that it was set to "Hi-FI" not "Masters" so I changed it.  I can't tell a particle of difference.  Prior to the change both the window on the A10 and the display on the Conductor app showed 24bit/48,96,188,192, or 352khz depending on the track.  It still shows the same thing and sounds the same so, for me, moving the button to "Masters" did not improve anything.

 In settings though, I was able to find a tab under "Sound" called "Sound Output".  It has two choices, "Default built-in output" or "Built-in output".  If you click on Built-in output, you can enable/disable 3 features: Exclusive Mode, Force Volume (which I assume is the volume normalization), and Passthrough MQA.

The text under Exclusive Mode reads:"With Exclusive Mode, Tidal has exclusive use of the audio device.  This option only has effect for HiFi and Master playback"  Does anyone know what this means?  Also, I wonder if disabling MQA decoding has any effect on SQ for those without MQA DAC's?"

rhljazz,

Thanks for trying to help.  However, I can find no such slider button on the main page.  On the left, from the top down is my user name with icon, "Home" and "Explore".  Then, under My Collection, I see icons for My Mix, Albums, Tracks, Videos, and Artists.  Then comes My Playlists with an icon for New Playlists.  I can't find a slider button.  What am I missing?

rhljazz,

Thanks again for trying to help.  However, there is no gear wheel in the upper right of MY app, only the search box.  Could this be an iMac vs. PC difference?

Thanks to all who have contributed to this discussion.  No one seems to have any direct experience with the Artistic Fidelity GISO GB Isolator, but I did find a dealer in Germany who is willing to refund my $$ if I'm not completely satisfied with it, providing I pay with PayPal  and pay return postage.  I may do this.  Although audioengnr's solution would probably sound  best, I'm not looking to spend over $2k to find out.  

However, in researching I did find that Transparent Audio makes a two port $155 Plug-In Protector that accepts the ethernet cable from your wall, plugs into your power conditioner and then provides for a shorter ethernet cable to reattach to your streamer (In my case the Aurender A10.)  My local dealer demoed this contraption that they affectionately call the Transparent Widget.  Of course the 1 meter piece of ethernet cable happened to be Transparent's $275 cable so total cost would be $430.  They streamed Tidal and Qobuz (16/44.1) for the demo and both I and another customer did hear a significant improvement in SQ.  The dealer said it had something to do with "draining" the noise.  FYI in case any of you have local Transparent dealers and want to listen for yourselves.  

Regarding Tidal, it was interesting to learn that there is a difference in apps between Desktop and Android.  I would still like to know what the "Exclusive Mode" brings to the table and if non MQA DACS are in any way affected by the MQA Passthrough.