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NODE 2i + SMSL SU-9 + MQA problem connecting

lateparty

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Feb 11, 2020
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Thanks mate - how long did it take to ship and did it get shipped through DHL? Just looking at options as local stock seems to be nonexistent!
It took like a week-week+0.5 from payment, couldn’t believe it was express international for free! I can’t remember if it was FedEx, DHL or other. I had a few packages arrive over that time. I think the longest amount of time was spent in processing. Shipping was fast when it happened.
 

boblo

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Nov 15, 2020
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Hi,

I have the SU-9 too and I was going to buy the Node 2i, but after reading this... So is there any other streamer similar to the Node (in features and price) with MQA decoding through the USB output? I would like to have the full MQA experience.

Thanks
 

boblo

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I have another question:

Would the new Gustard X16 be a good solution for full MQA decoding/rendering with the Node 2i? It has a similar price to the SU-9 on Audiophonics... I'm seriously thinking about it. I also think it is slightly better than SU-9.
 

netizen

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Jan 18, 2021
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I'm a little bit confused. They claimed full MQA decoding, is that means unfolding MQA even from optical and coaxial inputs?
 

mermayer

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Jan 20, 2021
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Saxony
I'm a little bit confused. They claimed full MQA decoding, is that means unfolding MQA even from optical and coaxial inputs?
Bluesound says:
Your Bluesound NODE will decode MQA on a single unfolding of up to 24/96 on an external DAC that does not support TIDAL. So - you will be able to play TIDAL content. Depending on the content though you will max out at 24/48 or 24/96 at best.

If you have an external DAC that is certified by MQA, you may bypass Bluesound's MQA rendering process in the Bluesound NODE 2 or VAULT 2 and send the pure untouched music bits directly via TOSLink Optical or Digital COAX output for processing by your external DAC.

In the Player Selection Drawer, press the Settings icon next to the selected NODE 2 or VAULT 2
From the Audio Settings page, set Tone Controls to Off
Set Audio output levels to Fixed
MQA External DAC will no longer be grayed out, set this to Yes
Close Audio Settings

The Bluesound NODE 2 and VAULT 2 will now bypass MQA processing.
 

netizen

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Yes, that's correct. I do understand it on the same way. But my post was about SU-9 DAC.
Actually I'm looking for external DAC which can take MQA from Coaxial. If I don't find such, probably I will go with RME ADI-2.
 
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I'm in the same exact boat as you - I have both the Node 2i and the SU-9. There's a lot that I was able to glean/adapt from that post about the X16 as it applies to the SU-9. Essentially, (I believe) we are getting a max of 24/96 sent to the SU-9 via coax, but oddly only if we disable the MQA output of the Node. When I've put my Node into MQA External DAC mode, I never get more than 48k on the SU-9. Disable it, and boom suddenly I'm getting 96 on MQA material (The SU-9 displays Hi Res and 96k). My hunch - we are getting BETTER than "regular" 16/48-44.1 audio, but perhaps not the absolute best possible? To my ears, Tidal MQA source material with this DAC and streamer sounds wonderful and noticeably better than regular "HiFi" Tidal, but of course that's entirely subjective. I personally have a very low FOMO level about this setup.

For the folks who want to use Tidal and want the full MQA experience - I think the best thing to do is wait a month or two. The Tidal Connect feature keeps getting more robust, but it's not quite there yet. The only thing I can't do is send my Tidal session from my Android phone to my laptop, or vice versa. Maybe this is different on Mac/iOS? The upshot is this - once Tidal Connect can work reliably between my phone and my computer, I'd definitely consider getting a small fanless mini PC and using that as my streamer. Those things cost ~$150 depending on options, and once I have it setup with Tidal, I can connect it to my SU-9 via USB, toss it in my cabinet with all my other gear, and control it remotely. Since the SU-9 accepts Tidal MQA over USB (and so few streamers have USB out) that seems to me to be the best possible option, if you truly want more than what you can already get out of the Node 2i/SU-9 currently. I personally would not spend big $$$ to get a DAC that might give you a higher sample rate on MQA, mostly because I think there will be much cheaper routes to accomplish this in the future, with the DAC I already have.
 

mash

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Oct 8, 2020
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Interesting....the people in the support thread do seem to be getting above 96 at the X16.

"These files, when coming through the Gustard, in fact show either OSF 192Khz and 352Khz respectively, indicating that the MQA files were fully unfolded by Gustard after the initial unfold by Node 2i. "

I don't actually use a Node2i (I have Roon) but I was looking at using this approach for my daughter's setup and ran across the support post while doing research.

An RPi solution could work but the one obvious option (Volumio) looks like it requires an annual fee for its native Tidal support. I don't know all of the RPi options to know if its available in other OS/Players but I would love to see an open source Tidal connect solution (like there is for Spotify), that way I think you would start seeing it pop up in other RPi OS/Players (like RopieeeXL).
 
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Interesting....the people in the support thread do seem to be getting above 96 at the X16.

"These files, when coming through the Gustard, in fact show either OSF 192Khz and 352Khz respectively, indicating that the MQA files were fully unfolded by Gustard after the initial unfold by Node 2i. "

I don't actually use a Node2i (I have Roon) but I was looking at using this approach for my daughter's setup and ran across the support post while doing research.

An RPi solution could work but the one obvious option (Volumio) looks like it requires an annual fee for its native Tidal support. I don't know all of the RPi options to know if its available in other OS/Players but I would love to see an open source Tidal connect solution (like there is for Spotify), that way I think you would start seeing it pop up in other RPi OS/Players (like RopieeeXL).

It's certainly possible, all I know is that I've never seen anything clock above 96k on my SU-9. It's entirely possible that the material I'm listening to isn't available at 192 kHz - I remember someone once posting a playlist of 192 kHz material and thinking "yeah.....I don't know any of those artists/bands."

I ran Spotify for years using a Roku Stick using the Connect feature on my laptop/smartphone. The options for HDMI DACs are very limited, but you can just get an HDMI to SPDIF converter for like $40 more. I remember the Tidal implementation on Roku as being rather garbage (and no Connect feature), but Spotify's as quite good. Especially with Spotify rolling out "HiFi" later this year, might be an option worth considering for your daughter. With Spotify Duo being $13/month, a solid option. There's a chance that they upgrade the Roku implementation for Tidal Connect, but I highly doubt it'll ever have MQA.
 

Crohnic

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Jan 10, 2021
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I'm in the same exact boat as you - I have both the Node 2i and the SU-9. There's a lot that I was able to glean/adapt from that post about the X16 as it applies to the SU-9. Essentially, (I believe) we are getting a max of 24/96 sent to the SU-9 via coax, but oddly only if we disable the MQA output of the Node. When I've put my Node into MQA External DAC mode, I never get more than 48k on the SU-9. Disable it, and boom suddenly I'm getting 96 on MQA material (The SU-9 displays Hi Res and 96k). My hunch - we are getting BETTER than "regular" 16/48-44.1 audio, but perhaps not the absolute best possible? To my ears, Tidal MQA source material with this DAC and streamer sounds wonderful and noticeably better than regular "HiFi" Tidal, but of course that's entirely subjective. I personally have a very low FOMO level about this setup.

For the folks who want to use Tidal and want the full MQA experience - I think the best thing to do is wait a month or two. The Tidal Connect feature keeps getting more robust, but it's not quite there yet. The only thing I can't do is send my Tidal session from my Android phone to my laptop, or vice versa. Maybe this is different on Mac/iOS? The upshot is this - once Tidal Connect can work reliably between my phone and my computer, I'd definitely consider getting a small fanless mini PC and using that as my streamer. Those things cost ~$150 depending on options, and once I have it setup with Tidal, I can connect it to my SU-9 via USB, toss it in my cabinet with all my other gear, and control it remotely. Since the SU-9 accepts Tidal MQA over USB (and so few streamers have USB out) that seems to me to be the best possible option, if you truly want more than what you can already get out of the Node 2i/SU-9 currently. I personally would not spend big $$$ to get a DAC that might give you a higher sample rate on MQA, mostly because I think there will be much cheaper routes to accomplish this in the future, with the DAC I already have.

I setup a RPi4 for Tidal Connect the other day. Some guy wrote the code and posted it to Github and I found an article going over the install. https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/148974-tidal-connect-on-raspberry-pi/

Set MQA to true and it sends the stream to my SMSL M500 via usb. M500 then does the unfolding.

Took a bit of poking around the code but had it up and running in about an hour.
43B86C02-F173-404E-8D93-8E9EDAEBBFCE.jpeg2C45BE8C-4A77-49B8-99FF-E3C03E56FB63.jpeg
 
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I setup a RPi4 for Tidal Connect the other day. Some guy wrote the code and posted it to Github and I found an article going over the install. https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/148974-tidal-connect-on-raspberry-pi/

Set MQA to true and it sends the stream to my SMSL M500 via usb. M500 then does the unfolding.

Took a bit of poking around the code but had it up and running in about an hour.
View attachment 122982View attachment 122985

My understanding is that there's some issues with the legality of that, since MQA needs to be licensed on the device level, no?
 

mash

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Yes, this is my understanding and why the author of RoPieeeXL is not adding it to that distribution.

That said....the last thing that Tidal needs right now is yet another area where they offer less funtionality than Spotify.
 
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Yes, this is my understanding and why the author of RoPieeeXL is not adding it to that distribution.

That said....the last thing that Tidal needs right now is yet another area where they offer less funtionality than Spotify.

Yeah I really agree with you there! Today my Windows 10 version of Tidal suddenly stopped seeing any Connect devices, and my Android version is currently skipping two songs for every one click of the skip button. Good times, good times....
 

Triumph_900

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Nov 23, 2019
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As has been stated, the Gustard X16 should support MQA from the Node2i to the X16 DAC via COAX. Here is a link that explains how to set it up:

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/e...ayback-Node-2i-with-Gustard-X16-External-DAC-
I read it all and I found exactly what I was looking for. It works (properly setting the Node 2i) and this is a great alternative to the Brooklin+ Dac (it was the only Dac, with the Liberty, that I could find managing Mqa through Coax) in terms of pricing when it's about MQA full decoding via Coax.
thanks.
 
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