|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
88.97.21.18
In Reply to: RE: How to utilise Tidal MQA effectively posted by ben33 on January 26, 2017 at 21:25:29
Is there an error in your question? You say:
" I can't stream the MQA via the chromecast but I can't connect the Macbook Air/Ipad "
Should that first "can't" read " can" . The "but etc." following suggests that it should ( if both can'ts are correct then the right word would be "and").
I have no knowledge of Chromecast but Tidal via Chrome per se allows the processing of the first "fold" in MQA to be done in the online player. That does not therefore require an MQA equipped DAC. So with MQA encoded tracks using just the online player you effectively get 24/96 resolution.Which is going to be the majority of what is on offer anyway.
Your question seems, accordingly, to be about connectivity. But you say that " I am using a Google Chromecast Audio, optical line out into the CXA's DAC " So what is the difference that stops you continuing to do this? That is you are telling us that on the one hand you connect by optical and on the other you that can't do this.
Follow Ups:
Apologies, I meant I can't stream MQA via chromecast (tidal have confirmed that this is not currently possible) AND I can't connect the Macbook Air or Ipad due to lack of optical output from the mac's and lack of USB input in the Cambridge. Therefore I can't get the MQA music from the computer to the amp. Make more sense now?
Thanks for the clarification.It is not possible to get MQA if the file streamed from Tidal is reformatted in any way which it may be by the Chromecast device. Same with Bluetooth I would think as that uses a codec too.
So , on the face of it, what you wnat to do requires another solution using another way of accessing Tidal where its output is not reformatted in any way which seems to me requires a hard wired solution.
The obvious way is to use a USB output on the Macbook Air and connect that to a DAC. In fact to the DAC in your Cambridge amp. The review link posted shows a rear view of the CXA60 and there is a USB input. I wonder if Cambridge have updated an earlier version that you have without the USB? The review is of a 2016 model.
If you really don't have USB on your amp then you will need either a USB DAC or a USB/co-ax (SPdif) converter and use the co-ax input on the amp. remember the DAC in your amp does not need to decode MQA. That is done within the Tidal player app (at least up to 24/96).
That is probably the best way but you could also connect the headphone output from the i-pad to an analogue input on your amp. that would use the i-pad's inbuilt DAC but I don't like it as much as using the amp's DAC for various reasons. However it is a cheap solution.
USB/SPDif converters are available at many price points. So to recommend one it would be good to have some idea of any financial constraint.
Edits: 01/29/17
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: