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Tidal MQA?
#15
(07-Apr-2018, 04:25)birrr Wrote:
(06-Apr-2018, 23:13)Gremlin Wrote: You will certainly get no better sound quality and probably worse sound quality.

It's as simple as that.

Really?? That's different from what I heard/read.

@birrr  You mentioned that you did not want this thread to be a debate regarding MQA, I respect that, and for anyone who does want the debate there are plenty of other places for that.

I have read a lot about the pro's and con's of MQA, and I think it can be summarised very easily.  MQA is technically a 'lossy' format, in this respect it is difficult to see how it can outperform a lossless format such as simple 24/96 PCM.  Furthermore, MQA claim to improve sound quality using special 'deburring' techniques and similar, but most of this has now been pretty much debunked, nothing more than audio filtering techniques that already exist in software like HQPlayer and SoX.  I think it is this kind of stuff that @Gremlin is referring to.

There is a flip side to this though, there is some evidence that most of the music released on MQA is a different master when compared to the PCM release, sometimes less compressed, or maybe a better overall EQ, this kind of thing.  For this reason, MQA can sound better, irrespective of all the folding and unfolding nonsense.  Of course, a different master may sound worse to some ears, this is a subjective point as to what is definitively 'better'.  Without question, the MQA version can sound different.  In fact, this is proving to be a bit of an issue with those who want to compare MQA to conventional PCM, it is very difficult to find any music where both the MQA and PCM versions are definitely from the same master.  The difference between masters can be massively bigger than the difference between PCM and MQA, so how can you tell which is best?

Now back to your original question.  One point I would like to make here is that the 'last unfold' is nothing more than upsampling in the DAC with some filtering, the last unfold is not adding audio data.  I very much doubt that this method would improve the sound quality within Devialet's ADH core, remember the ADH is doing it's own upsampling anyway.  This last unfold also uses minimum phase filtering, from my experience (and others) with HQPlayer on the Expert, this is not the best for use with ADH.

So I think if you are using Tidal to do the initial unfolding (or maybe Roon in the future), then you are getting all the MQA goodness that you need with a Phantom.  I really would not worry about that last unfold, in real terms it makes little difference and with ADH products like the Phantom it could make things worse.

Some manufacturers have struggled with MQA implementation, to the point which the MQA implementation has compromised performance with conventional formats, I suspect Devialet will leave it well alone due to the complexities of ADH, and it might be best if they do just this.
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Messages In This Thread
Tidal MQA? - by birrr - 04-Apr-2018, 03:25
RE: Tidal MQA? - by ragwo - 04-Apr-2018, 18:06
RE: Tidal MQA? - by Taucher669 - 04-Apr-2018, 20:07
RE: Tidal MQA? - by streamy - 04-Apr-2018, 22:11
RE: Tidal MQA? - by Gremlin - 05-Apr-2018, 00:50
RE: Tidal MQA? - by Jean-Marie - 05-Apr-2018, 07:10
RE: Tidal MQA? - by streamy - 05-Apr-2018, 21:53
RE: Tidal MQA? - by Gremlin - 06-Apr-2018, 00:53
RE: Tidal MQA? - by NevB - 05-Apr-2018, 06:32
RE: Tidal MQA? - by birrr - 06-Apr-2018, 22:53
RE: Tidal MQA? - by streamy - 06-Apr-2018, 23:38
RE: Tidal MQA? - by Gremlin - 06-Apr-2018, 23:13
RE: Tidal MQA? - by birrr - 07-Apr-2018, 04:25
RE: Tidal MQA? - by Confused - 08-Apr-2018, 08:59
RE: Tidal MQA? - by NevB - 08-Apr-2018, 06:45
RE: Tidal MQA? - by dorisam - 02-Jun-2018, 20:06
RE: Tidal MQA? - by ogs - 02-Jun-2018, 21:17
RE: Tidal MQA? - by Damon - 03-Jun-2018, 00:55
RE: Tidal MQA? - by snbeall - 16-Jun-2018, 14:45

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