Benchmark dac2 and mqa

I had the MQA guys, ROON guys, T+A guys, and Wilson guys in the same demo room showing people how good MQA was. They demoed with it on and off. My ears were a little ringing from a prior speaker demo in another room. So when I say I could not tell a difference on an uber expensive system with MQA on and off, there is a bit of uncertainty in that observation.

However, even at home with my DACs (including the Benchmark DAC3B) that both support MQA and do not, I cannot tell a difference either.

One of these settings is “pass through mqa” which is supposed disable software decoding. When I choose this setting the music still plays. Shouldn’t it not work if my dac truly doesn’t support mqa?

MQA audio files are in standard formats (such as FLAC) and compatible with regular audio players. With no decoding, the file will play like a standard audio stream at 1x resolution.

Thanks for the reply guys. Think I understand what’s happening a little better now. I hear a very slight difference between pass through and not. I hear very slight increase in air when I don’t use pass through or maybe I don’t. Don’t think I’ll worry about it any more