Like many of us I’ve been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to hear the MQA process in my system. In order to properly evaluate the MQA process I need to make sure whether I am using the correct settings/workflow and seek clarification on exactly what signal is being sent to my DAC.

My understanding is that the desktop Tidal app performs MQA decoding in its software and pushes the decoded digital signal out to ones’ sound card or external DAC.

In my case I run the Tidal app on my home office iMac and its output is sent to an Explorer 1 (Non-MQA capable). So if my logic is correct, on my desktop system the Tidal app is performing the MQA decoding and sending the decoded digital signal to my Explorer for conversion to an analog signal output.

Where things get fuzzy for me is how this process is performed in my main hi fi system. (Networked MC200 / external DAC.)

Here is my workflow: I am opening the Tidal app and selecting a few albums in the “Master”section and selecting them as my favorites and they are added to the “my music” folder. Then I open control MAC and navigate to the Tidal section wherein I scroll through “my albums” and select a particular MQA encoded recording and “add it to my library”.

All this is well and good and I am able to stream the Tidal MQA encoded albums through my MC200 / external DAC into my main system.

What I am unclear on is whether (and where) the signal being fed into my MC200 via this method is being “decoded”. My thinking is that I am just hearing the MQA encoded (but not decoded) album via this method.

Put differently, is the MQA decoding being performed in the Tidal cloud? If I were to turn off my iMac or quit the Tidal app, where would the MQA decoding take place?

I’m not trying to be ungrateful for the added sonic benefit Tidal offers via MQA Masters, but I also don’t want to erroneously infer that I am getting a “decoded” signal via this method.

Any clarification is appreciated.


MC200, Aqua La Scala DAC, Conrad Johnson CT5 pre/LP70S amp, Verity Audio Parsifal Ovation speakers.
Shunyata Hydra power conditioner, Asst. Shunyata, Nordost, & Siltech cables.