Hi Damien,
Re the Cobalt, it was NOT recognized by auto MQA in Audirvana when I plugged it in the very first time. I had to set that manually. Now that It has been set manually, Audirvana remembers the setting. The Dragonfly Red was auto MQA recognized the very first time I plugged it in.
So I did another test, on my actual music server, a Mac Pro 2013 soup can, with less then 1 week clean install (full disk re-format) with OS 10.15 Catalina and latest AV version .34 and that has never seen the Dragonfly Cobalt. Below is the debug info from that, and as you can see MQA autodetect is off.
Also put the Dragonfly Red in the soup can, and Auto detect MQA is OFF as well. When I manually turn it on, the the option below reads “Not MQA”. I can then manually set it to MQA rendered. So Audirvana does not know that Dragonfly Red or Cobalt are MQA capable, and does not know which flavor of MQA it can do. Everything has to be set manually the first time. Thereafter AV remembers.
Did another test, with first plugging in Cobalt, then starting AV. This time Autodetect MQA is ON and recognizes as MQA rendering. So it seems that sequence of connecting equipment and booting up software matters. Hope that gives you some clues.
Best wishes
Daniel
Audirvana Mac Version 3.5.34 (3564)
macOS 10.15.4 with 32768MB RAM
Registered to Daniel Geiger
SIGNAL PROCESSING:
Polarity Inversion:
Globally: OFF
Per track: ON
Effects plugins NOT ACTIVE
UPSAMPLING:
SoX with 2x upsampling
SoX filter parameters
Bandwidth at 0dB = 99.5
Filter max length = 30000
Anti-aliasing = 100
Phase = 66
AUDIO VOLUME:
Max allowed volume: 100
Replay Gain: None
SW volume control: OFF
LIBRARY SETTINGS:
Sync list: 1 folders
AUTO: /Volumes/Music Server DLG/Music
iTunes/Music library synchronization: not synchronized
Library database path: /Users/danielgeiger/Library/Application Support/Audirvana/AudirvanaPlusDatabaseV2.sqlite
ACTIVE STREAMING SERVICES
=================== AUDIO DEVICE ========================
CoreAudio audio path, buffer I/O frame size: 512
Max. memory for audio buffers: 29696MB
Local Audio Engine:
Exclusive access: Enabled
Integer mode: Enabled
Preferred device:
AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0
Model UID:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:21B4:0085
UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:AudioQuest:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:AQDFCB0100104715:1
Active Sample Rate: 96kHz
Hog Mode is off
Bridge settings:
Sample rate limitation: none
Sample rate switching latency: none
Limit bitdepth to 24bit: OFF
Mute during sample rate change: OFF
Selected device:
Local audio device
ID 0x29 AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0 Manufacturer:AudioQuest
Model UID:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:21B4:0085 UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:AudioQuest:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:AQDFCB0100104715:1
4 available sample rates up to 96000Hz
44100
48000
88200
96000
Audio buffer frame size : 29 to 4096 frames
Current I/O buffer frame size : 512
Volume Control
Physical: Yes
Virtual: Yes
MQA capability
Auto-detect MQA devices: No
Not a MQA device, user set to not MQA
DSD capability: Unhandled
Device audio channels
Preferred stereo channels L:1 R:2
Channel bitmap: Ox3, layout:
Channel 0 mapped to 0
Channel 1 mapped to 1
Audio channels in use
Number of channels: 2
Use as stereo device only: No
Simple stereo device: Yes
1 output streams:
Number of active channels: 2, in 1 stream(s)
Channel #0 :Stream 0 channel 0
Channel #1 :Stream 0 channel 1
Stream ID 0x2a 2 channels starting at 1
8 virtual formats:
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
8 physical formats
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
Local devices found : 5
Device #0: ID 0x3c Built-in Output Manufacturer: Apple Inc. Model UID: AppleHDA:120 UID: AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,1:0
Device #1: ID 0x43 DisplayPort Manufacturer: Apple Inc. Model UID: AppleHDA:120 UID: AppleHDAEngineOutputDP:0,1,0,1,1:0:{1006-9226-153203B9}
Device #2: ID 0x34 Display Audio Manufacturer: Apple Inc. Model UID: Display Audio:05AC:1105 UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:Apple Inc.:Display Audio:B9033215:2,1
Device #3: ID 0x29 AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0 Manufacturer: AudioQuest Model UID: AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:21B4:0085 UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:AudioQuest:AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt v1.0:AQDFCB0100104715:1
Device #4: ID 0x2d Vincent Manufacturer: Shengya audio Model UID: Vincent:262A:9123 UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:Shengya audio:Vincent:200000:2
UPnP devices found : 1
Device #0: ID 0x0 Charles UID: uuid:BO5EBO5E-F00D-F00D-FEED-7C010A9412FB Location: http://192.168.7.31:8091/XD/BO5EBO5E-F00D-F00D-FEED-7C010A9412FB.xml