I2S(via HDMI) hat- how to play MQA?

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nonolet

Member
Joined 2021
#1
Hi everyone.

I recently bought this

RASPBERRY Pi AK4118 Coaxial I2S Optical Digital Interface For DSD DAC Sound Card | eBay

RPI hat so that I can switch from PC to RPI not having to pull out the USB cable from PC and put it back to RPI.

My plan was that I keep USB connection to PC and connect my DAC(Topping D70S) and RPI via either SPDIF coaxial or I2S.
Then I would just have to switch my DAC's setting from USB to IIS, except that I still have to connect power to RPI everytime...

As I have never tried I2S connection, I tried I2S first.

It worked - somewhat unexpectedly, as I have expected many troubles because I am relatively a total noob doing RPI FI.

But, just then, I realized that although I have succeeded to get it work by selecting 'generic I2S DAC' in the volumio's playback setting,
when I play MQA songs on my ipad's mconnect upnp app,
my DAC's screen was saying it was on PCM, not MQA.

Will there be any possible way to play MQA with this I2S connection?

My Topping D70S DAC supports MQA, and when I use USB connection, it plays MQA without any problem(volumio set to 'no I2S DAC' and 'Topping D70S' automatically selected).

Well, in fact not without any problem, because when bitrate changes for various MQA songs, I have to replay the song several times as often there is no sound.

If you have any idea whether this is my DAC's fault or TIDAL's fault, it would be really appreciated too.

Anyhow, have anyone successfully played MQA with RPI via I2S coaxial/optical/HDMI I2S hat?

If so, please share your setting/experience/how-to.
 
#2
If you look at the specs for the D70s you will notice that MQA is only supported with USB input. That's probably because the DAC chip itself does not support MQA and the USB interface has to do all the MQA processing. IIS input usually bypasses the USB circuitry and feeds signal almost directly to the DAC chip so nothing in there to do MQA processing.
 
#3
I2S is the raw format that your DAC works with and as stated above your DAC does not Know what MQA is. MQA is not a file format or stream. Its simply a network of data manipulation filters, that change the record. If you want the sound to be as little manipulated and changed as possible, go I2S. I want my files to sound as close as possible to the recordings and not hear something that was changed by a lot of filters.
MQA is supposed to „sound better than the recorded data“, but is not the recorded data what i want to hear as close to the original as possible and not a ton of filters that someone thinks is good for me ? Heard it a lot of times, but in my opinion MQA is crap.
 
#5
wealas said:
If you look at the specs for the D70s you will notice that MQA is only supported with USB input. That's probably because the DAC chip itself does not support MQA and the USB interface has to do all the MQA processing. IIS input usually bypasses the USB circuitry and feeds signal almost directly to the DAC chip so nothing in there to do MQA processing.
Click to expand...

I see now... It seems it is the XMOS' USB chipset which enables MQA full-decoding.
Thank you so much!
 
#6
LinuxGeek said:
I2S is the raw format that your DAC works with and as stated above your DAC does not Know what MQA is. MQA is not a file format or stream. Its simply a network of data manipulation filters, that change the record. If you want the sound to be as little manipulated and changed as possible, go I2S. I want my files to sound as close as possible to the recordings and not hear something that was changed by a lot of filters.
MQA is supposed to „sound better than the recorded data“, but is not the recorded data what i want to hear as close to the original as possible and not a ton of filters that someone thinks is good for me ? Heard it a lot of times, but in my opinion MQA is crap.
Click to expand...

I thought what MQA is about was to have higher hz info coded beneath very lower hz info.
To me Tidal MQA sources play with more detail and better soundstage, but who knows, maybe it's mastering or filtering as you said?
After all, I have difficulties even distinguishing over 192kbps MP3 sources!
 
#7
nonolet said:
I thought what MQA is about was to have higher hz info coded beneath very lower hz info.
To me Tidal MQA sources play with more detail and better soundstage, but who knows, maybe it's mastering or filtering as you said?
After all, I have difficulties even distinguishing over 192kbps MP3 sources!
Click to expand...

MQA is a scam, don't worry about it, but yes, in most devices it is decoded before the DAC chip.
 
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