Applies to

Studio

Origin

Audirvāna Remote

Operating System

macOS

Windows

Linux

According to the MQA decision, software players can only make the first unfolding of an MQA signal, which can decode only up to 96kHz.

But you can upsample this after to whatever you want, like 768kHz or DSD, by enabling upsampling (please read this article to know more about this)

Getting MQA decoding in Audirvāna

According to the MQA decision, software players can only make the first unfolding of an MQA signal, which can decode only up to 96kHz.

Thanks to the MQA decoder integrated into Audirvana, non-MQA-capable audio devices can benefit from the high resolution (doubled sample rate compared to the encoded file).

In this case, Audirvana brings, in addition to the general Sound Quality improvement, the decoding of the MQA file that would be played only at a little above CD quality otherwise, losing all its high-resolution benefits.

Note: decoding the signal beyond twice the sampling rate of the encoded fil(for the few rare recordings made above 96kHz) can only be done in a MQA DAC.

You then have two options when it comes to decoding MQA in Audirvāna:

• If you do not have a MQA device

You have nothing to do; by default, Audirvāna will perform the MQA decoding.

• If you do have a MQA device

By default, Audirvāna will detect automatically if you use an MQA Decoder or MQA Renderer device if it's a USB device.

UPNP devices not certified as "Plays with Audirvāna" (please read this article to know more about it) that can decode MQA need to be set manually as an MQA device.

Note: if your device is not detected properly, please manually set your device as MQA

Manually set MQA decoding:

• You need to click on the icon at the top right of Audirvāna to see your device settings:

• Change the MQA detection setting:

MQA decoder: Audirvana does not process audio, as the DAC does all of the MQA decoding.

MQA renderer: MQA's first unfolding is done in Audirvana, and no other audio processing is done as the DAC is doing the other unfolding.

Note: Using a MQA Renderer, you could see a MQA logo at the bottom right side of Audirvāna:
- The Blue color means that the file is "Studio authenticated."
- The Green color is for other MQA audio files.