What will wiim send to DAC

[kevinek]

Hi! I would like to upgrade my system with external DAC. I know it should has optical input but what will wiim send when using Tidal MQA or Amazon ultra? Will it downgrade to 24/192 in Amazon's case? Will it send only FLAC from MQA in Tidal's case? Should I look for DAC with mqa support? Will it change after MQA implementation in november? Or maybe analog RCA output will be better than optical? What are Your suggestions?

 

[Brantome]

The WiiM mini currently supports lossless Amazon Music HD and UHD tracks bit perfect up to 24/192 which is the highest resolution Amazon supports, so there’s no downgrading involved. Optical out into a good DAC will outperform the WiiM’s analog output I’d say - the WiiM’s DAC isn’t bad, but can be bettered by more modern external DACs, price alone would dictate that.

 

[kevinek]

Thanks. And what about mqa now before official support?

 

[onlyoneme]

MQA tracks being passed thru unaffected.

 

[kevinek]

Could You recommend some good DAC with optical in and future mqa full support? And please write what files are sended now if I have wiim connected through optical do Yamaha r-n602 which doesnt support mqa, is it just flac core?

 

[onlyoneme]

At a moment you need DAC with MQA decoder support to get MQA track fully unfolded. In the future DAC with MQA renderer function would be enough, as first unfold could be made by WiiM.
AFAIK if there is a master MQA version of the song available, kind of a stripped down lossy MQA track is being sent in the form of flac. If not, real lossless flac is sent.

 

[kevinek]

Thanks!

 

[kevinek]

Topping E50 will do both or rendering only?

 

[onlyoneme]

Topping E50 will do both or rendering only?

Both on USB, but only rendering on toslink.

 

[kevinek]

I see. Thanks again!

 

[kevinek]

I still dont get it. I changed my subscription to Tidal HIFi plus today. I played master album in wiim home app connected optical to my Yamaha r-n602. Yamaha's DAC doesnt support mqa and wiim mini eighter. But when I checked yamaha it displayed PCM 44. Shouldnt be FLAC there in case of mqa files?

 

[onlyoneme]

DAC doesn't know the source stream format. It can get for example uncompressed audio data represented by PCM or PDM (DSD) form.

 

[kevinek]

But when I play FLAC Yamaha displays FLAC.

 

[onlyoneme]

When you play directly on Yamaha I guess, but it does work as a streamer that way.

 

[kevinek]

Yes. So what am I listening now while playing tidal masters? Lossy or lossless? FLAC or something else? Does it make any differenc if i have tidal hifi or hifi plus?

 

[onlyoneme]

It's always lossy if you get MQA. It doesn't matter if it comes in FLAC form or not.

 

[kevinek]

so it is better to listen to deezer than tidal?

 

[kevinek]

How can I play straight FLAC there?

 

[onlyoneme]

You can find plenty of articles on the internet regarding MQA. I do not want to start another debate on its being lossy or lossless.
You can get lossless flacs on deezer for sure. And even hires ones on amazon music.

 

[kevinek]

Yes. I know that all. But tidal states they are playing FLAC in hifi plan. Deezer is great but doesnt support chromecasts correctly (not even FLAC) and I turned it off some time a go. And I just cancled Amazon today because I dont wont to switch address to get cast and also its app is broken now (it freezes on search section) and it is almost useless inside wiim home app. How You are using wiim mini?