My old wavelength audio DAC is still usable

@jond @digepix 
I listened the same song in both formats MQA and CD (24/96 I guess). 

1. MQA directly from RCA out of Node2 to CD in of my preamp.
2. 24/96 from Digital out of Node2 to Wavelength and to cd in of my pre.
3. MQA from Digital out of Node2 to Wavelength then to CD in of my preamp.

Results:
3 sounds best, then 2 second. 1 sound the worst.

Question: My Wavelength cannot decode the MQA, why I can get the best music production? I thought the digital out for my Node2 has to be MQA format, and it is not compatible to my DAC.

Thanks

@jond there might be the way, I will find out.
@erik_squires the digital out on 3. I will find the way to check it somehow. If it was not MQA, then it should be 24/96, the sound I heard should be the same as the cd format. No it sounds much beter, much lesser noise.
 Thanks 

@anwar thanks for the link.
I will read it several more times to get better understanding the subject.