MQA? What exactly does "authenticated" mean?

[bmoura]

If this means that only people with MQA hardware decoding equipment - ie Meridian equipment - will be able to play MQA-encoded streams, then this is clearly a complete bust - IMHO of course.

 

Meridian says that one of the first products with MQA will be their flagship Model 818 Audio Core/DAC which they quoted a list price of $15K. It will get MQA via a ROM upgrade.

 

Meridian also plans to sell MQA licenses to DAC makers and pro audio equipment makers. Very much as they licensed MLP with Dolby Labs during the days of DVD Audio.

 

Whether it catches on depends on the interest of the streaming companies and consumers - not to mention the mastering engineers who would need to get new equipment to create the MQA encoded files.

 

Time will tell.

[miguelito]

Meridian says that one of the first products with MQA will be their flagship Model 818 Audio Core/DAC which they quoted a list price of $15K. It will get MQA via a ROM upgrade.

 

Meridian also plans to sell MQA licenses to DAC makers and pro audio equipment makers. Very much as they licensed MLP with Dolby Labs during the days of DVD Audio.

 

Whether it catches on depends on the interest of the streaming companies and consumers - not to mention the mastering engineers who would need to get new equipment to create the MQA encoded files.

 

Time will tell.

Look at a very simple example: HDCD. A great technology and one that is available in a ton of CD player - from cheap to expensive - and also comes for free with every Windows computer. I can't imagine Meridian will be anywhere more "open" than HDCD.

 

Where's HDCD now? Case closed.

[bmoura]

Look at a very simple example: HDCD. A great technology and one that is available in a ton of CD player - from cheap to expensive - and also comes for free with every Windows computer. I can't imagine Meridian will be anywhere more "open" than HDCD.

 

Where's HDCD now? Case closed.

 

A good comparison. Most people ended up listening to HDCD encoded albums without the complimentary decoder. How will MQA sound without decoding?

 

My experience is that music fans will get better sound by buying the 24/96 and DSD versions of this music vs. MQA. We will see how the market responds.

[miguelito]

A good comparison. Most people ended up listening to HDCD encoded albums without the complimentary decoder. How will MQA sound without decoding?

 

My experience is that music fans will get better sound by buying the 24/96 and DSD versions of this music vs. MQA. We will see how the market responds.

I don't see a technology like this being incorporated without three key components:

1- Undeniably superior

2- Disruptive - not compatible with what you have

3- Widely adopted at both ends (production and reproduction)

 

This is a dead end in my opinion.

[miguelito]

A good comparison. Most people ended up listening to HDCD encoded albums without the complimentary decoder. How will MQA sound without decoding?

 

My experience is that music fans will get better sound by buying the 24/96 and DSD versions of this music vs. MQA. We will see how the market responds.

If something with an MQA logo ends up being a seal of quality mastering, then I would like this to flourish even if I never bother to decode MQA. The biggest blunder in the current recordings is crappy mixing/mastering far and above any bitrate/bitdepth issue out there.