MQA playback and AU

Hello. When playing an MQA file, does the connected AU work? Realtime Settings does not show at the same time, only on playing Flac files.

Hello @Vad62,

Which plugin are you trying to use?

I am used SonEQFree. Maybe it doesn’t work with him, then tell me a good equalizer for Mac.

According to the MQA gospel, it shouldn’t

That’s one of Many reasons, that a lot of us loathe MQA

You need to output bit perfect stream for MQA to work.

That’s quite funny, a bitperfect lossy file:crazy_face:

Nothing weird about that. If it’s not played bit perfect checksum won’t match and it can’t be identified as MQA. That’s the whole “authenticated” mantra.

When i play an MQA file (Tidal Master), it seems the plugin is simply bypassed. I’d rather it utilize the plugin and not be MQA authenticated. Is this possible?

That is a pity. There is another software, that can handle EQ and MQA.

I actually found a better way. I’m now using SoundSource (for Mac) as a systemwide AU plugin host. This hosts Dirac Live.

Then i’ve setup Audirvana to decode the first MQA unfold in software which gets you to the 88.2khz/96khz which is fine for me. I’m no longer using my MQA-enabled DAC for any MQA decoding.

This is working well.