New Amarra 4

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4 hours ago, mav52 said:

Newbie on this topic/   I read that A4L support MQA http://www.sonicstudio.com/amarra/amarra4luxe.php#features

How does that differ from Tidal since A4L still has to use Tidal to get the files and you still need a MQA DAC for the complete unfold. .   Do I have this correct.  I'm just thinking why !   Thanks in advance.

 

2 hours ago, mav52 said:

So the software does the unfolding and the MQA capable DAC still needs to do the rendering.!

Amarra, like the Tidal app, will give you MQA 1x "unfolding" and up to 24/96 output on its own, no special MQA DAC required.

 

Some MQA DACs, like the AudioQuest DragonFly (Black and Red), are MQA "renderers" that require the 1x software decoding ahead of them in the chain, then do 4x unfolding and up to 24/192. Renderers are supposed to be portable devices.

 

There are also MQA DACs that can do all the work themselves, like the Mytek Brooklyn+, the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital, and many others. For those DACs you would actually turn off the software decoding in Amarra, and send a bit perfect stream. It seems to me these DACs may be superior to MQA renderers not because of how they handle MQA, but because they are larger, with external power options, more features, more processing power, and more room for creative circuit design.

You'll find more about MQA here, with graphics:

 

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On 11/19/2017 at 7:36 PM, mav52 said:

Thank you for the info

 

De nada. It's nice to be able to sample the results of MQA using software decoding alone, before spending money on a new DAC. Whether you like MQA may depend on what type of music you prefer, and of course your ears.

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4 hours ago, DancingSea said:

I personally don’t give a hoot about MQA and it’s questionable motives. Bring on native DSD capability soon!

 

The website says "Listen to your DSD files using DSD to PCM conversion (or Native DoP coming soon!)" Interesting. I don't think I've ever seen the term "Native DoP". But as far as I know, DoP (DSD over PCM) is indistinguishable from Native DSD, so alright then.

 

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who can hear a difference between DoP and Native DSD, using other software of course. My DAC does only DoP.

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3 hours ago, quark said:

 Does FLAC work in iTunes now? 

 

Nope. You'd need to first use flac-to-m4a converter software on each file. Or use a third-party player like Amarra.

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6 hours ago, bhobba said:

My gut feeling is in the fine print somewhere it says - only works for Apple machines now.  Does anyone know if that's true or am I doing something stupid?

 

The MQA section of the A4L web page still says:

* Currently for Mac only (Windows coming soon!)

 

As @DancingSea notes, only Sonic Studio can define this instance of "soon".