MQA Dac playing non MQA sources

there will be no problem with an mqa-able dac playing non-mqa music

an mqa capable dac simply has the ability to sense a digital fed signal with mqa encoding, in which case it will do some additional processing to take advantage of mqa ... if no mqa signal, it will play the music normally

op

Looks like the Node will play MQA if needed say with Tidal. That being said I can come out of the Node to a external DAC then to the McIntosh and the quality outstanding - Right?

short answer is yes

the node 2i does mqa decoding but it has a ’starter level’ (read: very mediocre) onboard dac... most folks seeking very good sound will use the node 2i as streamer, take its digital output and send to a proper and higher quality outboard dac... then you need to make sure that the outboard dac decodes mqa if you want to really hear what mqa does... (bear in mind, many/most believe mqa gives inconsistent and questionable sound quality gains compared to very good dacs that don’t bother with mqa)

@canoe

if you spend a little time, describe the rest of your system (be specific) and room, and musical preferences, the type of sound you like (lively, smooth, warm, super clear/crisp etc etc) we here would be happy to make specific suggestions for you, give you the type of sound you seek

you know that if you want to play with mqa, you will need a tidal masters subscription yes?