Shoutout to Lumin
 

Thanks to Lumin for generating a updated and organized listing of current MQA titles available from Tidal. The list even includes the latest releases from last Friday. :thumbsup:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1599853719

Jim - I agree with you, this is great initiative on the part of a manufacturer. It gives me even more confidence in my investment in purchasing the Lumin U1.

Silly question: Is there a way to confirm that your Lumin is truly playing MDA? I heard there may be a light that illuminates on certain devices when MDA is properly playing...not sure if this applies to the Lumin or not.

Andrew.......The Lumin U1 doesn't "play" MQA files, it passes them to a MQA DAC that then unfolds the files to full resolution. The MQA light you speak of will usually be found on the DAC display providing the DAC you are using supports MQA. I don't believe the McIntosh D1100 supports MQA.

Jim.......Thanks for the MQA Tiltles link. Very useful for those interested.

Yes, Thank you!

MQA For Civilians


https://www.computeraudiophile.com/c...for-civilians/

The Lumin U1 with their latest Beta firmware provides MQA Core decoding (first unfold) which can then be passed to an MQA Rendering DAC resulting in fully decoded MQA.

Thanks Dan - Annoying that the D1100 does not support MQA. I wonder if a future firmware iteration that would provide MQA unfolding could be in the cards for Mcintosh if MQA really takes off and gets decent market adoption?

It looks like you can still enjoy at least some of the sonic improvements from MQA, even if your DAC (such as in my case the Mcintosh D1100) does not support MQA. As per an article in The Absolute Sound - "MQA's Unexpected Twist": The announcement on January 5 that Tidal would begin streaming MQA files (and suggestions that many other streaming services would soon follow suit) was accompanied by an unexpected twist—that MQA decoding can be performed in music-player software rather than exclusively in an MQA-compliant DAC. That is, you can listen to decoded MQA with your existing DAC. In addition, software decoding is limited to a maximum sample rate of 96kHz. Files that were originally at 176.4kHz, 192kHz, or 384kHz will unwrap only to a maximum of 96kHz, not the original sample rate. There is no such limitation with an MQA-equipped DAC. For whatever political or business reasons, you can now listen to MQA without an MQA DAC, but with the knowledge that the sound will be better when decoded by an MQA-equipped DAC.

Andrew.......Does your McIntosh MD1100 display the MQA sample rate that your are decoding when streaming MQA music files from Tidal? If so, what does it display?