Levinson 585 and MQA

I was at a demo with the guys from ROON | T+A | Wilson | MQA. They were showing off ROON and MQA amongst others. I forgot which part of the chain was doing the MQA (likely a separate DAC). I do not think ROON supported MQA those days. This system was over $100K. They played tunes with MQA on and MQA off. I was not that moved by MQA. Now my hearing was a little shot by visiting other demo rooms that day but I was expecting a bigger bang with MQA.

I have MQA now in my Matrix DAC and I don’t have a wow reaction to my Tidal streams with MQA. I think the next DAC I am buying does not have MQA, I have not even checked because it is not a selling point for me.

BTW - the 585 is a great integrated. Loved it,

Qobuz will get you there, and cheaper.

Levinson is smart staying away from compression schemes.

I doubt you'll hear a degradation from not having MQA, but Roon will do at least a partial unfolding for you. It also integrates Tidal and my music library really well.

Best,

E