Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music Explorer² with PC - not getting MQA

Nick; thanks again.

Selecting the second WASAPI item in the list i.e. "WASAPI (EVENT): SPEAKERS (Meridian Explorer2 USB DAC AUDIO)" seems to have changed things.

The first light (nearest USB input) is brightly illuminated white, the second light has a white-ish/ green-ish tint to it. It's much fainter than the first light - not at all easy to tell even when I switch the room lights off. But I have to say; it now sounds very good even through my cheapy Sennheiser headphones.

I need to download something that should illuminate the Blue light to be sure.

Here is a (very poor!) photo:



I have to say the photo shows greater differences than I can see with my eyes. In reality it is very difficult to see whether the second light is green or not. Though if I play a Hi-Res non MQA track; the second light becomes bright white; so I guess I'm there.

Many thanks Nick!

Hi,

It's only the first light that changes colour, so with one white light, you're getting 44.1kHz. I had similar problems (on a Mac however) and wasn't quite sure about the colour or if the second and third lights were on.

The green or blue light is quite obvious when it does show up!

The second light illuminated (white) tells you that you have a higher (2x) rate (88.2kHz/96kHz) than the basic PCN (with one white light).

Three white lights indicates 176.4kHz/192kHz) operation.

Sorry, I can't help otherwise.

Brian

Yes, when we played Kate Rusby MQA the green light came on and it was obvious enough.
With the Mozart, the Blue light was on clear.
Well done getting sorted Danny.
This was on my Laptop through Roon.

Chris 😎

As has been said, it's pretty unambiguous when you get the blue light (and this isn't the greatest photo).



Edit: this out of focus shot taken from further away shows how blue the light is!

Thank you all; especially Joel for posting the photos.

It's obvious that I'm not yet in MQA land. I have downloaded the Kate Rusby MQA tracks and I certainly do not have the green light on.

It seems that selecting the Explorer/WASAPI in the drop down menu isn't enough to give me MQA.

Does anyone know if I have to make any other adjustments in Foobar and/or in the laptop itself?

Thanks

I don't know anything about Foobar, but on your images it looks like you might have a fade in/out set. Try setting those to 0.

Also make sure within the Windows Sound options that you turn off all enhancements.

T

Thanks Ian.

I have just checked; and the fade in & fade out sliders are set to their minimum position.

Thanks

I've just checked that and it would appear that enhancements are already switched off:



If I'm wasting my time with Foobar; I'm happy to look at another music player that will do the job and be within my very limited ability to configure.

Roon would do it very easily.

You could check out the free trial here.

@Drongo
Well, please don't hesitate to try with Roon (on Windows10Pro) - and a SBT - because I can't get the flippin' thing to work !

However, I can get Roon to pass MQA to my Explorer2 when it's directly connected to my PC or Surface3Pro - and all the lights light-up, so that may be something you'd like to investigate.

Are there any other options for Device other than "DS : Speakers (Meridian Explorer² USB DAC audio)"?