Question Meridian Explorer 2 MQA Dac to Cambridge Audio CXA60. MQA output??

LewisBell92

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Meridian Explorer 2 MQA Dac to Cambridge Audio CXA60

Hi Everyone,
New to the forum following a recent HiFi purchase. I have gone for the Cambridge Audio CXA60 and Q Acoustics 3050 floorstanders with Tidal HiFi streaming as the source.

My question is this.... I am a Tidal Hifi user and therefore have access to MQA Masters. I had previously been listening to these masters through a Merdian Explorer 2 DAC and Oppo PM3 headphones. However, if I were to have my Meridian DAC plugged into my laptop and then a 3.5mm RCA to the CXA60 receiver from this DAC, would I get the full MQA master playing through the speakers. ie. has the Meridian unpacked the MQA file, therefore allowing the Wolfson DAC (non MQA) within the CXA60 to be able to read the format and out the full 192kHz (or whatever the MQA may be)??


The Wolfson DAC within the CXA60 is 24-bit/192kHz compatible but I am unsure whether it would still need to be MQA compatible even though the Meridian has unpacked the file?

I hope that makes sense, the staff in the Richer sounds store I bought the system from were unable to answer my question so I would greatly appreciate if anyone could advise me on this.

Thanks everyone.

Regards,

Lewis
 
... if I were to have my Meridian DAC plugged into my laptop and then a 3.5mm RCA to the CXA60 receiver from this DAC, would I get the full MQA master playing through the speakers?
Yes because you wouldn’t be using the CXA60’s internal DAC. Simply connect the Explorer2 to the A1, A2, A3 or A4 inputs using a 3.5mm to stereo RCA cable like this...

QED Performance J2P Graphite

... and the Explorer2 will do the full-fat MQA decode.
 
Thanks for the speedy reply. Much appreciated.

That's good to know I can take advantage of the MQA Masters.

Just a final one, suppose this is a bit subjective. But, would you expect the DAC within the Meridian to be better than the wolfson dac within the CXA?

I need a good few hours of listening to decide but it will be interesting to see whether Tidal CD quality stream with CXA dac sounds better or worse than the MQA master stream with the portable meridian dac.

Thanks again.
 
So if you use your laptop as a source then I am not sure if you can do any comparisons unless it is a mac or has a combined 3.5mm optical/analogue port.

The meridian input is via usb but only outputs analogue signals which connect to the CXa analogue inputs A1 etc.

The cxa does not have usb input and will,only take optical other ciax spdif digital input. So unless your laptop has a digital outlet then the only choice is the meridian.

Hope this helps and us correct going on pics and specs of the kit.
 
So long as the explorer (or an MQA compatible DAC) is being used as the DAC with the tidal app, then yes - you get MQA decoding and thus be able to play Masters. If you use digital out from laptop to a digital in on the CXA, then you can only play back regular FLACS (I think the [M] marked albums will not appear in the tidal app in this case).

In practice if you choose to use the other DAC, then I do not think you will loose much unless you taste in music happens to be one of the few that is both reasonably catered for and has great quality production in the first place. (MQA encoded mediocre production is still mediocre).

I use a dragonfly red with a MacBook pro into a Yamaha A-S2100 amp for tidal MQA and TBH for my taste in music genres there seem to be very little that is MQA. I also find that a lot of what is available with MQA isn't produced to a high enough standard to warrant use of MQA anyway. I suspect MQA is best suited to high quality acoustic/classical recordings with little processing the the end to end MQA process can be applied.
 

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