saintintn

It’s funny, I have been away from listening to these speakers for about two weeks and spent Friday night listening to Tidal via the KEF Stream iOS app. It sounded amazing. Honestly I’ve got Roon (MAC) and a huge collection of FLAC and DSD files and I’m scratching my head as to why I need any of that. I’m streaming Roon via wifi, but why bother? Has something changed? I don’t remember Tidal through the iOS app sounding so good.

I find that the Roon wifi connection is best with my LS50W's. I agree that my analog sounds better than my USB, but it's close.

Tried that. Didn’t help.

Well, this is a new one. Have had my LS50W’s for just under a year and had the right channel stop outputting sound. The selector on top still lights up and the left channel still puts out sound. Tried all inputs (WiFi, analog, optical, usb) and balance knob on back of left speaker. No sound from right channel. Bizarre. Sent them back to KEF so they could see what’s going on. Anyone else run into this? Btw, best sounding speakers I’ve ever had. I won’t be swapping them out for something different.

I’m using a Mac Mini via USB from Roon. I think the rca analog is just as strong as the other connections, if not stronger. I tried streaming via AirPlay to my toslink connected 3rd gen Apple TV. It was quite underwhelming. Now that Roon connects wirelessly to the LS50W’s, that’s the way to go, IMHO.

Yes, into RCA input. You use Dragonfly for MQA decoding from Tidal. It's an MQA Renderer.

What are you guys using for multiple analog sources? I’m using a Rogue Sphinx amp as it has an incredible phono stage and have my turntable and SACD player (analog) going into it. Have used my Dragonfly Red DAC via usb and Roon for MQA as well, but prefer using the usb input on the LS50W with an ifi purifier 2. Have thought about using a vintage Marantz or Yamaha receiver with preouts as their phono stages are very good and I love the vintage vu meters. I hide my Rogue in my cabinet.

Gosh, so where exactly would you use the DFR for MQA? At what point in the chain, if you will?

To test the theory, I set the Midi Audio to 16/44.1 on the DFR and played Another's Arms (Master). The light is green. When I unchecked Passthrough MQA and played it again, the DFR showed magenta. I have upgraded the DFR to the version that decodes MQA, but it doesn't appear to be doing it when I check the MQA Passthrough box.

So, I can get the magenta by setting my Mac to play 24/96 via Midi Audio. But is that just Ghost Stories being upsampled from 16/44.1? How do I know that MQA is being properly decoded, in other words into true 24/96? I selected MQA passthrough, so the DFR should be the device decoding it.

In Midi Audio, what is the Master Volume setting for the DFR? Might be at zero? Or the Tidal App is at zero. Otherwise, not sure.

Good topic, guys. Hey, can you guys do a test for me? All my Tidal Masters albums give me the blue light in the DFR except for Coldplay Ghost Stories (Master version). It's been consistently that way. Thanks!

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