DAC’s and Streamers

[rushca01]

Can someone help me understand/wrap my head around something I don’t understand.

I just purchased a Schiit yggy which will be here sometime this week. I’m also looking at adding a Auralic G1. I’m having troubles understanding which unit is doing what tasks. I DO understand the yggy is doung the digital to analog conversion but what I don’t understand is what the G1 is doing. Is it decoding files internally before sending them to the DAC? I have read that the yggy does’t unfold MQA but I also read on the Auralic website where it says it’s software will unfold MQA??? So who’s doing what??

[doggiehowser]

A DAC like the Yggy does one thing - convert an established known I2S SPDIF or USB or AES protocol of digital audio streams into an analog signal which your amplifier can accept.

A streamer is more or less like a computer in the wild Wild West of computer audio.

Computer audio accepts a variety of audio formats which can be WAV AIFF FLAC AAC MP3 and even from YouTube etc.

You first have to read or stream these files from somewhere - a network drive, a computer or even the internet (streaming services like TIDAL, Spotify, Apple Music etc)

Next step the file format has to be decoded into a digital audio stream that the DAC can understand (I2S USB SPDIF AES etc)

Then that stream is sent to the DAC.

MQA is a way of folding (lossy) high resolution audio into a 16/44 PCM stream.

When you send the unadulterated 16/44 stream to a non MQA DAC, the DAC sees the 16/44 and decodes it as 16/44

The same unadulterated stream sent to an MQA DAC triggers an MQA flag internally which performs the two stages: unfolding (to 24/96) and decoding (filtering applied) to up to 24/192 (or higher but AFAIK it is only up to 192 today)

MQA relaxed the MQA enforcement about a year ago so that some software today can perform the first stage (unfold to 24/96) and send that to a non MQA DAC like the yggy. That’s what your Auralic is doing. It’s not the full MQA experience but it is pretty close considering most MQA files on TIDAL is only 24/96 or 24/44 or 24/48.

Hope this helps.

[rushca01]

Originally Posted by doggiehowser

A DAC like the Yggy does one thing - convert an established known I2S SPDIF or USB or AES protocol of digital audio streams into an analog signal which your amplifier can accept.

A streamer is more or less like a computer in the wild Wild West of computer audio.

Computer audio accepts a variety of audio formats which can be WAV AIFF FLAC AAC MP3 and even from YouTube etc.

You first have to read or stream these files from somewhere - a network drive, a computer or even the internet (streaming services like TIDAL, Spotify, Apple Music etc)

Next step the file format has to be decoded into a digital audio stream that the DAC can understand (I2S USB SPDIF AES etc)

Then that stream is sent to the DAC.

MQA is a way of folding (lossy) high resolution audio into a 16/44 PCM stream.

When you send the unadulterated 16/44 stream to a non MQA DAC, the DAC sees the 16/44 and decodes it as 16/44

The same unadulterated stream sent to an MQA DAC triggers an MQA flag internally which performs the two stages: unfolding (to 24/96) and decoding (filtering applied) to up to 24/192 (or higher but AFAIK it is only up to 192 today)

MQA relaxed the MQA enforcement about a year ago so that some software today can perform the first stage (unfold to 24/96) and send that to a non MQA DAC like the yggy. That’s what your Auralic is doing. It’s not the full MQA experience but it is pretty close considering most MQA files on TIDAL is only 24/96 or 24/44 or 24/48.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the excellent post, I’m going to have to re-read it a few times to understand.

If I recall, Schiit used to state that they didn’t play nice with MQA..but maybe now with the relaxed enforcement and the streaming device performing the first stage they kind of are?

[wklie]

Originally Posted by doggiehowser

some software today can perform the first stage (unfold to 24/96) and send that to a non MQA DAC like the yggy. That’s what your Auralic is doing

The first part of the quoted sentence is correct - Tidal desktop app, Audirvana, and Roon can perform the MQA Core decoding (first unfold) of MQA.

Auralic is doing its own proprietary upsampling for MQA music, it does not perform the MQA Core decoding necessary to extract the musical information from 22/24kHz to 44/48kHz embedded inside the MQA music file or stream.

Streamers that can perform MQA Core decoding and send it to another DAC include Lumin product line (U1 MINI / U1 / T2 / X1 can output to USB), Aurender with MQA Core decoding upgrade (not free), and dCS Network Bridge (no USB output).

Disclosure: Our company is obviously a MQA licensee.

[jdandy]

doggiehowser.......

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by rushca01

Can someone help me understand/wrap my head around something I don’t understand.

I just purchased a Schiit yggy which will be here sometime this week. I’m also looking at adding a Auralic G1. I’m having troubles understanding which unit is doing what tasks. I DO understand the yggy is doung the digital to analog conversion but what I don’t understand is what the G1 is doing. Is it decoding files internally before sending them to the DAC? I have read that the yggy does’t unfold MQA but I also read on the Auralic website where it says it’s software will unfold MQA??? So who’s doing what??

rushca01.......From Auralic's website: The ARIES G1 connects over Wi-Fi to digital sources like network attached storage, Internet streaming services like TIDAL and Qobuz, Internet Radio, and USB drives to bring high performance streaming to your home audio system.

With the Auralic G1 you will still need music file sources connected to you G1 by either an Ethernet cable from your router, or by WiFi connectivity to your router. You will also have the option of connecting a hard drive via USB to the G1 and/or a NAS (network attached strorage). Then your Auralic G1 will feed a digital signal via a high quality coaxial or AES/EBU cable to the Yggdrasil DAC.

[FloridaBoy]

[QUOTE=jdandy;946970]rushca01.......From Auralic's website: The ARIES G1 connects over Wi-Fi to digital sources like network attached storage, Internet streaming services like TIDAL and Qobuz, Internet Radio, and USB drives to bring high performance streaming to your home audio system.

With the Auralic G1 you will still need music file sources connected to you G1 by either an Ethernet cable from your router, or by WiFi connectivity to your router. You will also have the option of connecting a hard drive via USB to the G1 and/or a NAS (network attached strorage). Then your Auralic G1 will feed a digital signal via a high quality coaxial or AES/EBU cable to the Yggdrasil DAC.[/QUOTE]

Couldn't he do the same thing using an Arcam rPlay? Parts Connexion has them on sale for $299 and free shipping. He still has to have a NAS and could use a refurbished Mac Mini with jriver for a lot less $$$ than the ARIES G1. He would need an IOS device to use the jriver remote app.

That is my plan and my Arcam arrives today. I got a fully refurbished 2012 Mac Mini for about $450 on the auction site. I'll be using a MHDT Labs Orchid Dac.

[chimaera1982]

I added a lightly used U1 Mini now feeding a Denafrips Terminator through AES/EBU replacing my old oppo 103. Source files is 256 gb local usb stick on the U1 mini with AQ Jitterbug. Still getting used to the interface. Not used to the playlist style interface. Oppo was click on the album and it’ll play back to back whole album until completion. Whereas now you have to create playlist. Beside this learning curve (unless you can teach me how to use the app otherwise). Been liking it so far. Early times...

[FloridaBoy]

I received the Arcam and it sounds great. I run it into my Dac. You install the PlayFi app on an IOS device to access music services, Tidal, Spotify etc. as well as internet radio and a NAS. I'm using wifi but it can also be connected to an ethernet cable.

I looked at the Auralic G1 and I fail to see what it offers over the Arcam. Thoughts?

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by rushca01

Thanks for the excellent post, I’m going to have to re-read it a few times to understand.

If I recall, Schiit used to state that they didn’t play nice with MQA..but maybe now with the relaxed enforcement and the streaming device performing the first stage they kind of are?

rushca01.......There is absolutely no MQA decoding going on in the Yggdrasil DAC. Most often the first "unfold" of the MQA decoding is being done by the streaming service you are using. In that case the Yggdrasil will play the higher bit rate and resolution that ia provided in the digital stream, but provides no additional level of MQA decoding. There is no MQA decoding going on inside the Auralic G1, either.