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Understanding MQA/tidal/ DA conversion

Hi - I have both an oppo 205 and 203, and considering selling one to help fund a Levinson integrated. The new 5802 and 5805 day they can handle MQA and apparently high rates of digital conversion. I find all the dsd/dxd/pcm DoP lingo a bit confusing so the cut through question is can the oppos, when used for streaming tidal, output the highest quality signal from Tidal Masters and can the Levinsons convert that signal to its maximum potential? If yes I think using either of those as a transport would have seemingly equal outcomes of just pushing the digital signal out.

esthlos13
melm
1,082 posts
 

I agree with @vinylvalet 

Do yourself and the audio world a favor and let MQA pass away.

hgeifman
2,230 posts
 

Absolutely.  Forget Tidal/MQA and subscribe to QoBuz.   It offers hi-res albums and more than 1,700 playlists.  

esthlos13 OP
90 posts
 

appreciate the suggestion, my constraint is we have a TIDAL family plan so we're all paying $30 a piece for the full year, so will have this for at least the next year or more as I'm the only one who cares about the HIFI component, the rest just like the service.

So with the QOBUZ piece though, would the Oppo (or any streamer) output a high rez signal directly to the DAC?  I have tried but don't fully understand how it all comes together.  I need Digital Audio for Dummies....

 

hgeifman
2,230 posts
 

I stream QoBuz hi-res albums (24/96 and 24/192) from my Aurender music server to my DAC.  It works perfectly and sounds great.  

2psyop's avatar
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2psyop
1,598 posts
 

No problem with Qobuz but I have tried Tidal MQA and with many recordings it sounds great, really great. But not all MQA recordings sound great. And as others have mentioned you must have a DAC to fully unfold the MQA file. That's kind of a pain. I have a Bluesound Node and Vault which are MQA compliant. I don't know if Oppos are MQA capable, but it should be easy to find out.

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