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Question about DAC and MQA

Hello,

So I just signed up for Tidal today and will be checking it out.

I chose Audiophile Quality of course during setup and played some Master versions of some tracks.

So Tidal displays "Masters" when playing the tracks and it goes through my external DAC to my AVR.

Does that mean my DAC is compatible with MQA?

I ask because I can not find any documentation explicitly stating that my DAC is compatible and it is not listed under MQA Partners either but it seems to be playing.

Is that how Tidal MQA works, meaning either it will play or it won't play if it it not compatible or is it converting down somehow?

New to Tidal and MQA.

DAC is Questyle CMA400i.

Thanks
jay73

Showing 1 response by jay73

jay73's avatar
jay73 OP
219 posts
 
Hi Lalitk,

Thanks for your input and suggestions.

I am streaming Tidal using the Windows Desktop Software through my computer.

Today I also signed up for Qobuz to check out through it's trial period.

Through Qobuz I made sure to select some tracks that were 24/192 but I see on my DAC, the indicator light remains on 44.1/48, so as with Tidal, the DAC is not compatible with Qobuz.

Now besides the technicalities, it still sounds good at CD Quality, same with Tidal.

But I am not sure if I will stay with either service since I am not getting the full benefits with my DAC.

For streaming, I could add a Blue Node to the system and get one of these services with full benefits if I really wanted to but then again, it's a matter of if I want to pay for the services. That is something I will really need to think about.

If I use such a service just once in a while, I might just use Spotify (I know, the horror, lol).

Thanks for your input, that cleared things up a bit.
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