I was thinking about that when I made my post above. In theory yes there is no reason an 861 or any preamp can't be configured to pass through encoded MQA, since it's just 16/44.1.

The problem is, it needs to be asynchronous before the Decoder because it fully reclocks it out. If the SPDIF/PCM form of MQA is coming in slightly to fast or slow the Decoder needs to throttle it, and cannot in SPDIF form, Hence Ethernet feed into the 218 for MQA.

- Fiddler (IMHO)

If you think listening to music is fun, try learning an instrument.
HT: G61RSL, 4x5K, 5.5KHC, 2xSC6000, Transporter, HD621, Philips BDP7501 4K, Tivo, 65" LG OLED 4K C6
Computer: Foobar2000, 5K, Mojo, HiFiMan HE1000 V2