MQA at CES

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What I don't understand is who would buy MQA files instead of normal hires FLAC or DSD download? Is download time or the space needed really an issue to someone?

 

If MQA has some magic processing, it could be all performed before encoding the thing as FLAC. Heck they could encode the "fancy" result as DXD FLAC. Then the listener doesn't need to have any special decoding stuff at their side.

 

This has kind of been my thought on the whole thing, unbiased by any actual data.

 

Sounds like the magic is in the DSP and not the compression algorithm, so they're not really comparing apples to apples.

 

I'm in no hurry to upgrade my DAC for MQA. I'll wait and see how it plays out.

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Nice letter. Equal parts defensive and evasive. I still have no idea what MQA actually does to improve sound quality.

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Projecting what, exactly?

 

Someone asked a question about human voices sounding processed, and he didn't really address it at all. Just a bunch of glittering generalities about how great the singers and MQA are.

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Hmmm...

 

I guess I interpreted the comment differently than Mr. Silverman.

 

As in the singers have voices with a lot of character and whatever MQA does to the recording made them sound artificial somehow.

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francisleung,

 

I assume neither your DAC nor the software you used to upsample the FLAC files supports MQA decoding? I think all you are listening to is upsampled Redbook.

 

Not many people have been able to do A/B comparisons of MQA and hi-res PCM/DSD encoded from the same source, and Meridian has not been very forthcoming with technical details of what MQA encoding actually does. There's not really much to do except speculate.

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Linn pretty much discounted it...

 

Sort of went off on a tangent, but the take home message was that customers don't trust closed formats. Starting at 9:10.

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I don't want to speak for Miska, but I currently have no plans to spend money on a new DAC to buy into a closed system that may fail. Ergo...

 

I don't care what the decoded file sounds like.

 

Except that I am actually a little curious.

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Yes, apodising it is, though they have implied it is more than that as well. I also don't believe they are claiming they can make hires of redbook. What they are claiming is they can more fully realize what redbook or even hires can accomplish. That some information has been compromised in the conversion which they can unravel and come closer to what the conversion should have been. Not adding lost info, just straightening out existing info. Again without more transparency we are left mostly guessing.

 

None of which should require proprietary encoding/decoding, no?

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MQA certified condoms?

 

Definitely a fix for timing errors.

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Michael Lavorgna follows up on MQA:

MQA Continued | AudioStream

 

Kindly, do not shoot the messenger.

 

On the contrary, that actually demystified a few details for me.

 

I don't think anyone has claimed that MQA is just another compression algorithm, but it does involve compression and there will always be questions about how that affects sound quality.

 

Neither do I think that anyone has claimed to know what properly decoded MQA sounds like without listening to it, but in a vacuum of technical information, people are going to wonder aloud whether it is just a parlor trick.

 

MQA has bungled this roll out a bit and this article is obviously intended to repair that, so maybe scolding potential customers for a little healthy skepticism isn't the greatest idea.

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Looks like Technics Tracks has added a section for MQA downloads.

 

https://tracks.technics.com/GB/just-added

 

7digital has some of the same selections in MQA, just not advertising them in their own section yet, apparently.

 

https://us.7digital.com/artist/kate-rusby/release/the-mark-radcliffe-folk-sessions-kate-rusby-5038939?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2&origin=www