Meridian MQA

[Flashman]

I understand that MQA works best when decoded, but the good folks at MQA also say that MQA-encoded files will sound better than conventional files even when NOT decoded.

....

Flashman, can you point us to a reference from MQA about this?

You can get this information directly from the MQA website.  The link below will take you to a Q and A where you will find this statement:

"MQA can be played on any audio device, whether that’s inside your home, your car, from your phone or anywhere else you might be – perfectly fitting into the way you listen to your music today. Without an MQA enabled product, the sound will be better than CD quality. To truly unlock the richness of MQA you’ll need a device or software with an MQA decoder. On playback of MQA content, the player indicates you are hearing exactly what the artist recorded and approved in the studio."

http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/how-it-works

[mauidan]

http://www.stereophile.com/content/mqas-...F677X5L.97

[Hifi_swlon]

Wow, that's a hell of a claim!

I've decided I'm just too cynical, and also not interested enough in (or probably clever enough to understand) the theory behind it.

I'm just going to wait until there's actually material around and decoding DACs, assuming it actually takes off. I'll decide with my ears but I just keep reaching for the catch..... I guess buying everything again is one.

[Flashman]

Wow, that's a hell of a claim!

I've decided I'm just too cynical, and also not interested enough in (or probably clever enough to understand) the theory behind it.

I'm just going to wait until there's actually material around and decoding DACs, assuming it actually takes off.  I'll decide with my ears but I just keep reaching for the catch..... I guess buying everything again is one.

 Yeah, it's a bold claim but I like the feedback of some respected people on how it really is different.  As to cost, I've already decided to stream via TIDAL (well, maybe a rare purchase of a CD or hi-res file) and I have already bought a Bluesound Node 2, so, for me, the listening chain will cost no more than I am already paying.  BRING IT ON!

[Music or sound]

I understand that MQA works best when decoded, but the good folks at MQA also say that MQA-encoded files will sound better than conventional files even when NOT decoded.

....

Flashman, can you point us to a reference from MQA about this?

You can get this information directly from the MQA website.  The link below will take you to a Q and A where you will find this statement:

"MQA can be played on any audio device, whether that’s inside your home, your car, from your phone or anywhere else you might be – perfectly fitting into the way you listen to your music today. Without an MQA enabled product, the sound will be better than CD quality. To truly unlock the richness of MQA you’ll need a device or software with an MQA decoder. On playback of MQA content, the player indicates you are hearing exactly what the artist recorded and approved in the studio."

http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/how-it-works

That statement about not decoded MQA is not consistent with my listening experience - see my reply above

[mauidan]

http://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-t...-time-2016

Read the comment by dce22

[Hifi_swlon]

Flashman, can you point us to a reference from MQA about this?

You can get this information directly from the MQA website.  The link below will take you to a Q and A where you will find this statement:

"MQA can be played on any audio device, whether that’s inside your home, your car, from your phone or anywhere else you might be – perfectly fitting into the way you listen to your music today. Without an MQA enabled product, the sound will be better than CD quality. To truly unlock the richness of MQA you’ll need a device or software with an MQA decoder. On playback of MQA content, the player indicates you are hearing exactly what the artist recorded and approved in the studio."

http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/how-it-works

That statement about not decoded MQA is not consistent with my listening experience - see my reply above

Yeah, I'd kind of concluded that from skip-reading the huge thread on the Roon forums too.

In the end I gave up, it seems like they (MQA) haven't really given everyone all the details they need to understand it (maybe they wont if its proprietary) and they've made a total mess of the press release for it.  It seems like a bit of a debacle but also to get the 'full' benefits, you'll need to buy an MQA certified DAC as well as the MQA files themselves. I suppose you might get lucky with a firmware update, and also get the data from streamed sources like Tidal, so in that case it would be win-win if it was actually good - but the reality is very few people have heard it for real and on their own systems.  I don't think they've even announced when certified MQA capable DACs will become available?

If it is amazing new technology that transforms the listening experience for us with no downsides, then that will just be amazing.  But I'm just going to wait until it falls in my lap rather than worry about it.  I use Tidal and Roon, so I'll most likely get access to the format, but who knows what Devialet will do on the DAC side - I can't imagine it will be immediate whatever it is.

[Rodney Gold]

Any messing with the MQA stream in the digital domain ..like dsp , upsampling etc render it useless.. well useless for me with room correction

As others have said , a cocked up announcement , silence from MQA/Meridian on questions some ask and way too much confusion

This thread is quite revealing as to what it all is and some questions and concerns.. not too long

http://www.audiostream.com/content/mqa-c...VPqbUxM.97

[Confused]

I'm not sure that I really get the point of MQA. I think you have to consider the whole chain from recording studio (or live recording) to your hifi. Lets say something was studio mixed and recorded in 24bit, and ended up as a master file in 24/96. How can you get any better than having your own exact copy of this 24/96 file? This is the philosophy behind Linn Records "studio Master", although it is not unique to Linn. The one frustration with this approach is that the majority of record companies almost never disclose the format of the "studio master". There is a lot of stuff out there being sold as 24bit, DSD, etc. with no indication of what the "master" format is, a format that more often than not will be a poor starting point for the format it is being converted to and sold as. But this is a digression, the concept is sound. If the record company advised that the studio master copy was 24/48, would you not want your own copy to be unconverted, uncorrupted and also 24/48? What could be better? So what place does MQA have here? Well if the studio master copy is in any format other than MQA, then as far as I am concerned, MQA has no place in the audio chain whatsoever, all it can do is colour or corrupt the sound. If MQA was the original format for the studio master, this may be a different story, but how much material is, or will be, originally mastered in MQA? Not much at the moment, that is for sure.

Then we have the question of MQA being a better format for streaming in high quality, with MQA nicely reducing the file size. OK, I can see some merit here, but broadband speeds are getting ever higher, 3G becomes 4G and 5G approaches. My PC will download a 24bit album in the time it takes me for a quick visit the lavatory, my 'phone will stream high definition video, and these speeds are only getting faster. Is MQA a response to a problem that either doesn't exist, or at least a problem that progress in internet technology is quickly eliminating anyway?

My only experience with MQA was a demo at a hifi show, using headphones and an MQA vs MP3 comparison. I didn't learn much from this. I would one day be very interested in hearing music via the full MQA chain, that is recorded / mastered with MQA and reproduced through a fully MQA compatible DAC. At the moment I am not aware of anything that I would want to listen to that is recorded with MQA, and I suspect that the DAC's in my little Devialet's will never be truly compatible either. Maybe one day there will be lots of music that I would want to listen to mastered in MQA, maybe, but for sure there isn't at the moment. It reminds me a little of SACD, and to this day there are only a tiny handful of recordings available on SACD that interest me. Even with these SACD's, I have no idea what format they were originally mastered in, so maybe a download of 24/44.1 file or whatever would be better than an SACD anyway.

I do find MQA quite fascinating in many ways, but the more I think it through, it does appear to be totally irrelevant, to myself at least.

[PhilP]

I'm not sure that I really get the point of MQA.  I think you have to consider the whole chain from recording studio (or live recording) to your hifi.  Lets say something was studio mixed and recorded in 24bit, and ended up as a master file in 24/96.  How can you get any better than having your own exact copy of this 24/96 file?  

I'm naturally sceptical too   but according to the audiostream article MQA encoding will actually improve the studio master by 'applying specific filters and processing based on the actual gear in use on the A/D side".

Presumably different types of recording equipment introduce different types and degrees of distortion  (MQA talk about 'missing timing detail') and by knowing what this distortion is the clever people at MQA can correct for it.

Quite how much the master file is changed isn't clear but the differences are apparently audible to many who have heard them. Presumably they would be apparent in a file-file digital comparison.

Of course the MQA encoding/decoding process will most likely introduce distortions of its own...  I don't know how they could be corrected??