MQA using Tidal Connect and SMSL C100 doesn’t work

[RobertOrmandi]

I use Toslink to connect the Wiim Mini to the DAC and RCA to connect the DAC to the AMP. I’ve enabled MQA Beta, audio channel is stereo, the volume is fixed and the equalizer is disabled. The DAC has a MQA led which should light up if MQA content is passed AFAICT, but I never had a chance to see this. Otherwise, without MQA, the setup sounds amazing, but I really wanted to listen to this with MQA turned on… Any idea how to debug this or what do I do wrong here? Of course, the content I stream is MQA supported (per Tidal’s UI) Thank you for the help!

 

[Mr Ee]

I use Toslink to connect the Wiim Mini to the DAC and RCA to connect the DAC to the AMP. I’ve enabled MQA Beta, audio channel is stereo, the volume is fixed and the equalizer is disabled. The DAC has a MQA led which should light up if MQA content is passed AFAICT, but I never had a chance to see this. Otherwise, without MQA, the setup sounds amazing, but I really wanted to listen to this with MQA turned on… Any idea how to debug this or what do I do wrong here? Of course, the content I stream is MQA supported (per Tidal’s UI) Thank you for the help!

It seems your dac only supports mqa over usb, so it won't light up using the wiim.
Best you'll get is to select No MQA in the mqa beta screen so that the wiim does the first unfold, up to 96khz.
And then, as the dac doesn't care about mqa unless via usb, all those settings normally required, such as fixed volume etc., don't matter.

 

[Achim1811]

I can definitively say that the C100 "M*A" only handles via USB.

 

[RobertOrmandi]

Thank you both, this is definitely an explanation. May I ask that where did you find this info? I couldn’t seem to find it in the user manual. Or was this like a trial and error type of finding? Doesn’t this constraint from the dac seem weird? I assume there is no way to send input to the usb port of the dac from Wiim Mini, right?

 

[Achim1811]

It is definitively in the manual. And beside this at least disputable feature the C100 is a brilliant buy for the small money. Enjoy and forget MQA. But thats only my very subjective thinking about

 

[RobertOrmandi]

Thanks, for the pointers and the recommendation, greatly appreciated! My bad for not noticing this earlier.

Yeah, I’m leaning towards not dealing with MQA at all, or just trying it out once supplying source from a computer to make the overcurious audiophile in me satisfied

 

[Mr Ee]

Doesn’t this constraint from the dac seem weird? I assume there is no way to send input to the usb port of the dac from Wiim Mini, right?

It's not uncommon for mqa to only be supported over usb.
Correct, no way to send to usb from mini (or any current wiim), although I'm sure someone will tell me there's an optical to usb adapter

 

[Achim1811]

It's not uncommon for mqa to only be supported over usb.
Correct, no way to send to usb from mini (or any current wiim), although I'm sure someone will tell me there's an optical to usb adapter

Quite sure adapters for nearly every connection exist. But very often all this adaptering comes to a limit and simply does not do what it is proclaimed to do

 

[dangermouse]

Yeah, I’m leaning towards not dealing with MQA at all...

Keep leaning. MQA is a busted flush.