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Streamer MQA

Chrise36

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No i am saying he is probably hearing differences between usb and spdif because he has not compared in the same level.
 

abdo123

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No i am saying he is probably hearing differences between usb and spdif because he has not compared in the same level.
the level would be determined by the Topping DAC unless the bitstream is modified. so it's essentially level matched.
 

Chrise36

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If he had different volume setting on the phone vs the cca he has to level match
 

Jimbob54

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could a mini pc fit?

Absolutely- all a streamer is really is a headless PC- running some variant of one of the operating systems. Of course, they probably have phone apps and/ or remote controls to get around the screen/ keyboard thing but yet. All Roon Nucleus boxes are , for example is quiet mini PCs with a decent storage.
 
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nerone

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Absolutely- all a streamer is really is a headless PC- running some variant of one of the operating systems. Of course, they probably have phone apps and/ or remote controls to get around the screen/ keyboard thing but yet. All Roon Nucleus boxes are , for example is quiet mini PCs with a decent storage.
so i can broadcast in mqa via a wireless keyboard, right?
 

norcalscott

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Got the RPi 4 going, the best bang for buck streamer out there.
USB into the DAC (which isn't an MQA one but the uPNP stuff works, as does gapless)

Decided to get the Volumio 15 day trial anyway. Tidal would be a bit useless without it, but fine for own collection as a music player
No luck connecting Qobuz (got the trial too) - don't know if it counts as another device, shouldn't do??
Another option, if you are using Android, is to use BubbleUPNP to pick up Tidal and stream to Volumio. This does not require the paid Volumio subscription and it works quite well. I do this from my Samsung S21=>BubbleUPNP=>Tidal Connect(in BubbleUPNP)=>Volumio=>DAC

Sound quality with this path is really good on my system, but it does require Android. Not sure if there anything equivalent to BubbleUPNP on iOS.
 

Jimbob54

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so i can broadcast in mqa via a wireless keyboard
No

You currently use your pc wired via USB to dac don't you? Running tidal app?

The wireless keyboard just means you can control the pc from across the room

 

Jimbob54

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They've been saying that going on two years now. Doesn't appear to be happening.
Taking lessons from Spotify. Or the other way round. Shit shows the pair of them.
 

G-rig

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Just get volumio works well enough with Tidal, couldn't get Qobuz to work
 

Pat

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Another option for using a Pi is mConnect (on Android or iOS) to Volumio or Moode via DLNA to the Pi to your DAC - the DAC will light up the MQA light so it's bit-perfect (not to be confused with quality).
 
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nerone

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Another option for using a Pi is mConnect (on Android or iOS) to Volumio or Moode via DLNA to the Pi to your DAC - the DAC will light up the MQA light so it's bit-perfect (not to be confused with quality).
can i use Pi 3 or only Pi 4 to transmit Mqa from android via Mconnect?
 

Pat

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can i use Pi 3 or only Pi 4 to transmit Mqa from android via Mconnect?
I've used mConnect on both Android and iOS to stream to a Pi 3B running Volumio and Moode (at separate times of course) to two different MQA capable DACs and it's worked great. I've also used BubbleuPnP on Android but I prefer the mConnect UI.
 

lso1964

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I have a RPI4 with Dietpi and https://github.com/shawaj/HiTide, it's working like a charm but a nightmare to get it working.
I have enablet MQA passthrough to my Gustard X16 DAC via USB, it sound fine to me on my Goldenear speaker.
Forgot read more here:
 

artsky

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I know this is an old thread, but I am thinking of getting a e50. My current setup is Volumio latest free version, RPi4 and D10s. Will get the e50 for Tidal's MQA. Will my planned upgrade have no issues (of course I need to also upgrade to the paid Volumio)? Thanks!
 

norcalscott

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I know this is an old thread, but I am thinking of getting a e50. My current setup is Volumio latest free version, RPi4 and D10s. Will get the e50 for Tidal's MQA. Will my planned upgrade have no issues (of course I need to also upgrade to the paid Volumio)? Thanks!
Once you upgrade to paid Volumio, you will then be able to use Tidal Connect, and it will pass MQA metadata from the RPi to your DAC. Keep in mind that Volumio and the RPi will not do an unfold of MQA, only "pass" the metadata - for that reason the DAC will need to be able to do the rendering and not all DACs can do that. For example, my SMSL SU9 can do the full MQA decode and rendering, so it works well with Volumio. However, for the e50, I am not sure if that needs MQA to be unfolded prior to being able to render it. See this thread for a discussion about that.
 

G-rig

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I would recommend paid Volumio, keep the RPi4 for a gapless network streaming (from pc webface and phone app/control), and just get an MQA DAC if that's what you really want. I'm not up to date with decoding vs unfolding but without an MQA dac I think the quality will be capped at 16bit 44.1 to 48kHz (as with my Adi2). I've got an iFi zen 1 which works perfectly with my pc & headphone amp (haven't tested with volumio but I'd expect the full quality from the RPi4). I wanted the Adi2 for the outright quality, hard volume control, remote & balanced outputs (for use with active monitors) so wasn't that concerned with MQA. The QoBuz trial was nice and did sound good, not as much content and $$, the interface could use some work. Edit qobuz didn't have a similar thing to Tidal connect (which works well), or shows up in the tidal player as an audio device, but you can seem to search/play favorite qobuz albums etc through volumio

It's good that Volumio works quite well, have never had a NAS or an easy way to play my own FLAC content with FooBar and all these manual uPnP setups that take a computing degree to set up.

edit: Depends on your setup, you're more likely to hear the difference with higher res with headphones vs speakers as they are usually more detailed. As long as you have lossless as a minimum :).
 
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