Thread Rating:
  • 1 Vote(s) - 4 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Meridian MQA
(05-Apr-2018, 13:09)Confused Wrote: News from KEF:

https://www.kefdirect.com/mqa-basics

It does not sound like KEF are that keen on MQA either ....

Nor is leading record producer Tony Faulkner:

">I opened it to the Letters section and there was a letter from a Tony Faulkner
>slamming Stereophile's coverage of MQA. I wondered if it was the noted 
>recording engineer Tony Faulkner who called the coverage of MQA in the
>magazine "rubbish?"
Indeed it was the real Tony Faulkner. We had been having an email exchange 
for quite a long time about MQA, and all his emails before that one were 
marked "Not for Publication." This one wasn't so I asked if he would mind
me publishing it. "Go ahead" was his answer.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile"
Innuos Statement 2TB SSD with Next-Gen PSU (with Roon lifetime)
MacBook Pro (with Air)
Draytek Vigor 2860v-Plus/Devialet Original d'Atelier CI Nos. 54A&B/Magico M3 pair
Shunyata cables (digital/interconnect/loudspeaker/power)/Shunyata power units (Triton/Typhon)

 Dialog/Phantom Gold/Tree pair
Missing Link cables (power)
England
Reply
And another one out:

https://audiobacon.net/2018/06/22/exogal...velopment/
                                                    Lifetime Roon, Mac mini, int. SSD, ext. HDD, tv as monitor, key board and track pad on bean bag as remote,Devialet 200, Od'A #097, Blue jeans speaker cable,                                     
                                                                                                                                                                            Dynaudio C1 MkII.
                                                                                                                                                                              Jim Smith's GBS.
                                                                                                                                                                        Northern NSW Australia.
Reply
A nice balanced debate about the pros and cons of MQA took place at RMAF 2018. A degree of sarcasm there, but I believe that a balanced debate was the plan, the MQA execs and associates present had other ideas...

Well worth a view if you are interested and have 40 minutes to spare.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSv0lcHlawk
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
Reply
(08-Oct-2018, 23:11)Confused Wrote: A nice balanced debate about the pros and cons of MQA took place at RMAF 2018.  A degree of sarcasm there, but I believe that a balanced debate was the plan, the MQA execs and associates present had other ideas...

Well worth a view if you are interested and have 40 minutes to spare.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSv0lcHlawk

Thanks for that link Confused. That's 42 minutes of my life I'll never get back   Angry
                                                    Lifetime Roon, Mac mini, int. SSD, ext. HDD, tv as monitor, key board and track pad on bean bag as remote,Devialet 200, Od'A #097, Blue jeans speaker cable,                                     
                                                                                                                                                                            Dynaudio C1 MkII.
                                                                                                                                                                              Jim Smith's GBS.
                                                                                                                                                                        Northern NSW Australia.
Reply
(09-Oct-2018, 01:25)Pim Wrote:
(08-Oct-2018, 23:11)Confused Wrote: A nice balanced debate about the pros and cons of MQA took place at RMAF 2018.  A degree of sarcasm there, but I believe that a balanced debate was the plan, the MQA execs and associates present had other ideas...

Well worth a view if you are interested and have 40 minutes to spare.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSv0lcHlawk

Thanks for that link Confused. That's 42 minutes of my life I'll never get back   Angry

Pim - Please accept my sincere apologies for your wasted 42 minutes.  If I am ever in your area, I will buy you a beer as compensation.  Although in fairness, I think it becomes pretty apparent in the first 5 minutes where the presentation is heading, but in case this is not obvious, for others viewing I can confirm that after the first 5 to 10 minutes, the following 30 or more do not get much better.

I also think a bit of explanation is in order.  Those heckling the presentation are either senior MQA personnel, or in a couple of cases members of a closed Facebook group run by MQA, who's members appear on forums sometimes promoting MQA but more often attacking those that dare to criticise MQA.  Personally I would prefer a reasoned technical debate, it is quite enlightening to see what is going on though, if a little sad.

For those interested in a decent MQA technical debate, look elsewhere!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
Reply
Thanks for the explanation. That tells me why I got tired of the interruptions by some of the audience and gave up after a few minutes. It seems I didn't miss anything I might be interested in.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.

Brisbane, Qld, Australia
Reply
(09-Oct-2018, 18:24)Confused Wrote:
(09-Oct-2018, 01:25)Pim Wrote:
(08-Oct-2018, 23:11)Confused Wrote: A nice balanced debate about the pros and cons of MQA took place at RMAF 2018.  A degree of sarcasm there, but I believe that a balanced debate was the plan, the MQA execs and associates present had other ideas...

Well worth a view if you are interested and have 40 minutes to spare.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSv0lcHlawk

Thanks for that link Confused. That's 42 minutes of my life I'll never get back   Angry

Pim - Please accept my sincere apologies for your wasted 42 minutes.  If I am ever in your area, I will buy you a beer as compensation.  Although in fairness, I think it becomes pretty apparent in the first 5 minutes where the presentation is heading, but in case this is not obvious, for others viewing I can confirm that after the first 5 to 10 minutes, the following 30 or more do not get much better.

I also think a bit of explanation is in order.  Those heckling the presentation are either senior MQA personnel, or in a couple of cases members of a closed Facebook group run by MQA, who's members appear on forums sometimes promoting MQA but more often attacking those that dare to criticise MQA.  Personally I would prefer a reasoned technical debate, it is quite enlightening to see what is going on though, if a little sad.

For those interested in a decent MQA technical debate, look elsewhere!

Confused, all in good spirits mate (Cognac, whiskey, rum)  Smile No need to apologise but I'll never knock back free beer.
It was indeed quite clear in the first five minutes this was a train about to de-rail but for some reason I still watched the lot of it.

I'm not sure what to make of this now. It's clear the MQA crew weren't happy with Chris Connaker's presentation but there was so much mud throwing going on that it was too hard to work out who to believe. One fact remains; MQA have not yet accepted the challenge to convert a real high resolution file into MQA and let it be reviewed by anyone who's critical of MQA. There's also not one song I know about that's actually been recorded in MQA as a master. So if the propaganda that lots of mastering engineers are behind MQA is true, then why don't they use it?
                                                    Lifetime Roon, Mac mini, int. SSD, ext. HDD, tv as monitor, key board and track pad on bean bag as remote,Devialet 200, Od'A #097, Blue jeans speaker cable,                                     
                                                                                                                                                                            Dynaudio C1 MkII.
                                                                                                                                                                              Jim Smith's GBS.
                                                                                                                                                                        Northern NSW Australia.
Reply
@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!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
Reply
In case you haven't already seen it, Archimago has a post on his blog about this: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/10/mu...-talk.html.

I found it an interesting read (without having watched the video, I must admit).
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)