Ztella zorloo DAC: no Tidal MQA with exclusive access

Connection with external Audio Devices USB DAC
1

Any suggestions why I need to disable exclusive access in order to have my ztella zorloo DAC process MQA?

It works ok in the Tidal app with exclusive access enabled (e.g. purple LED lit)
And only works in audivarna with exclusive access disabled (e.g. purple LED lit)

on 2020 macbook air / Big Sur 11.2.3.
Have latest Audivarna and firmware on the ztella

audivarna has ‘autodetect MQA devices’ enabled and shows ‘MQA Renderer’

20210427_143036
20210427_1430364032×1816 987 KB
20210427_143014
20210427_1430144032×1816 1.02 MB

2

on further poking around, it seems the issue is the ‘Integer mode’.
With that disabled, the DAC renders the MQA properly (and audivarna shows that in the bottom right corner)

3

Resolved this by downgrading firmware to 7686 on the ztella.
(Note: it stopped playing any sound on macOS 11.3.x)
Download the old firmware from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yMBG_idvtIY4HbBdO7Oylh8EfDwMADsE/view