Meridian MQA

[Confused]

@Pim - I do not think there is any intention to actually record or master into MQA format.  The idea is that the master will be in very high resolution PCM or DXD format and kept by the record companies as the "crown jewels" and never released.  We then get the MQA version, which needs to be "unfolded" in licensed products, hence giving the record companies a degree of control whilst still being able to offer "hi res" content to the public.  There is still some debate about the "good stuff" in MQA, such as being able to reverse engineer known issues in historic ADC conversions, but this could be offered in standard 24/192 format, it does not need anything in the origami process for it to be delivered.  In fact, you could not have MQA as a master because it is not a truly lossless format, in terms of it's ability to be recovered back into the source file after compression into MQA.

Anyway, below is a link to another MQA related YouTube video.  This is relevant to the Chris Connaker presentation posted above because it reproduces exactly the same "mysterious" frequency dip at about 22kHz that was included in the Archimago MQA article.  The link below actually predates the Archimago's article.  However, when a slide was presented showing the "dip", the MQA guys at the presentation went into meltdown over the fact that Archimago is a pseudonym, and attached Chris for allowing Archimago for contributing anonymously on his site.  This conveniently shut down any technical discussion as to what the "dip" might be.  If one were to be cynical, you might think that this is a classic case of attack the man, not the issue, as used in cases where explaining the issue might be problematic.  I think I have seen the "dip" reproduced by four or five different people now, it is well known by many and I am sure MQA know about it if I do. Archimago being anonymous is totally irrelevant in this particular instance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JZm3VppCfQ

So is the "dip" embarrassing or indicative of anything significant?  Probably, yes.  The MQA process does add noise at very high frequencies, not a problem in itself as this is inaudible and filtered out.  The dip at 22kHz is exactly what you would expect if the source file was 44.1kHz and then upsampled into a higher resolution carrier.  So, you get a dip at 22kHz and MQA generated noise after.  That's the theory.  I do not think it is possible to definitively prove that this is what is happening, but it does fit the facts.  Also, if there was a good technical explanation for this, then the MQA guys had every opportunity to explain.  Instead, they chose to "attack the man", which does make it look a bit like they deliberately avoiding the technical issue because they were embarrassed by the truth, which could well be that some "Master Authenticated" material on Tidal is in fact tweaked and upsampled 16/44.1. (which would still turn on the MQA LED on your MQA authenticated DAC, of course)

You decide.  The truth is out there!