botrytis Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 8 hours ago, Confused said: These are fine, as long as you do not try to fold and unfold them three times. You will end up lighting them more than once. I mean THC at 37%, 4 puffs and you are out. Maybe mQa will ship a case with every mQa DAC. It might be the only way to really enjoy it. Current: Daphile on an AMD A10-9500 with 16 GB RAM DAC - TEAC UD-501 DAC Pre-amp - Rotel RC-1590 Amplification - Benchmark AHB2 amplifier Speakers - Revel M126Be with 2 REL 7/ti subwoofers Cables - Tara Labs RSC Reference and Blue Jean Cable Balanced Interconnects Link to comment
Daccord Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 8 hours ago, JoshM said: After some experimenting, I found that the MQA dropouts occurred because I have an Ideon USB isolator between my Mac Mini and DACs. When I removed the isolator, the dropouts stopped. Sorry, I think this says more about USB "isolators" than it does about MQA. However, at least USB gadgets are easy to avoid and don't try to extract pennies from every musical transaction. MikeyFresh 1 Link to comment
The Computer Audiophile Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 3 minutes ago, Daccord said: Sorry, I think this says more about USB "isolators" than it does about MQA. However, at least USB gadgets are easy to avoid and don't try to extract pennies from every musical transaction. But if everything accept MQA works through the isolator, that suggests to me that MQA and the isolator don't mix. Not sure which one to blame, but I won't make assumptions or judgements. botrytis 1 Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
FredericV Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 5 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said: But if everything accept MQA works through the isolator, that suggests to me that MQA and the isolator don't mix. Not sure which one to blame, but I won't make assumptions or judgements. Propably the isolator is not fully compliant with USB standards (or the combination of the isolator with his cables) and is messing with bits which will confuse the mQa decoder. I once had something very similar with an iFI USB power plant and a dual USB cable from another brand: with regular PCM there would be not so subtle dropouts, but with their own dual cable it would not occur. From this perspective mQa works as designed. I actually keep a Mytek in stock for this purpose. It's an easy tool to visually confirm bitperfect output of music servers. lucretius 1 Designer of the 432 EVO music server and Linux specialist Discoverer of the independent open source sox based mqa playback method with optional one cycle postringing. Link to comment
UkPhil Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 10 hours ago, Mayfair said: I was looking forward to Nina Simone: The Montreux Years, too. Because of what I think is its uncertain provenance and uncertain authenticity as a unMQA-ed FLAC download, (who said MQA is irony-proof?), I looked elsewhere and discovered that Qobuz has the July 1976 Montreux concert (plus a couple of bonus highlights from her July 1987 Montreux concert) as a 16-bit 44.1 kHz download released in 2011. https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/live-at-montreux-1976-nina-simone/yfu4dl6vmqw4a So I bought it. It's not only a great concert, it also sounds great IMHO. Qobuz does not seem to have any MQA signalling, I tested it yesterday Mayfair 1 Link to comment
Popular Post GoldenOne Posted June 29, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 29, 2021 Just got Topping D90 and D90SE in to test, both of them MQA versions. On D90 it is using the MQA renderer upsampling filter for all content. Filter selection does nothing..... Will check D90SE in a sec Archimago, lucretius, Currawong and 4 others 6 1 https://youtube.com/goldensound Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara Link to comment
Popular Post GoldenOne Posted June 29, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 29, 2021 Update: D90SE does not exhibit the same behaviour (I imagine because ESS' MQA integration allows for getting around the gapless issue but just a guess) VIdeo of D90 issue: MikeyFresh, BassFace, lucretius and 3 others 4 2 https://youtube.com/goldensound Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara Link to comment
UkPhil Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 1 hour ago, GoldenOne said: Just got Topping D90 and D90SE in to test, both of them MQA versions. On D90 it is using the MQA renderer upsampling filter for all content. Filter selection does nothing..... Will check D90SE in a sec A shocking revelation but it doesn’t surprise me their are quite a few ESS chipset DAC’s that possibly do this, I have a Project S2 ESS DAC which was confirmed by the developer switches out when non MQA sources are sent infact it’s noticeable in the millisecond gap you can here between tracks when they are mixed in playlists Link to comment
Jud Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 1 hour ago, GoldenOne said: Update: D90SE does not exhibit the same behaviour (I imagine because ESS' MQA integration allows for getting around the gapless issue but just a guess) VIdeo of D90 issue: My recollection is that unless the DAC's particular firmware specifically permits, once MQA filtering has been used for any track in a listening session, it will be used for all further tracks in that session, no matter what the listener selects. See if what you're finding with the D90 at least might be due to this "precedence effect." One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature. Link to comment
Samuel T Cogley Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 Isn't this "precedence effect" the reason that iFi was pushing "GTO"? Link to comment
Popular Post GoldenOne Posted June 29, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 29, 2021 1 hour ago, Jud said: My recollection is that unless the DAC's particular firmware specifically permits, once MQA filtering has been used for any track in a listening session, it will be used for all further tracks in that session, no matter what the listener selects. See if what you're finding with the D90 at least might be due to this "precedence effect." I'd not listened to MQA at all. Got the device in, plugged it in, turned it on, first thing I played was a test tone from the APx software lucretius and MikeyFresh 2 https://youtube.com/goldensound Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara Link to comment
svart-hvitt Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 3 hours ago, GoldenOne said: Just got Topping D90 and D90SE in to test, both of them MQA versions. On D90 it is using the MQA renderer upsampling filter for all content. Filter selection does nothing..... Will check D90SE in a sec Does this mean the D90 is broken (by design) from a technical point of view? Link to comment
Popular Post GoldenOne Posted June 29, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 29, 2021 1 minute ago, svart-hvitt said: Does this mean the D90 is broken (by design) from a technical point of view? Depends how you'd define 'broken'. Many would argue that the MQA renderer filter is problematic. But there is no 'perfect' filter. The main issue is that there is no choice to opt out of the MQA filter, or to use a proper filter that actually has decent attenuation by 22.05khz, and the device is presented as if you do have that option, even though you do not. MikeyFresh, botrytis and March Audio 3 https://youtube.com/goldensound Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara Link to comment
svart-hvitt Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 38 minutes ago, GoldenOne said: Depends how you'd define 'broken'. Many would argue that the MQA renderer filter is problematic. But there is no 'perfect' filter. The main issue is that there is no choice to opt out of the MQA filter, or to use a proper filter that actually has decent attenuation by 22.05khz, and the device is presented as if you do have that option, even though you do not. If the D90 applies a special filter (mqa) for material which is conventional lpcm, the design is flawed, broken. Should the panther be playing golf or be headless? Link to comment
The Computer Audiophile Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 2 hours ago, Jud said: My recollection is that unless the DAC's particular firmware specifically permits, once MQA filtering has been used for any track in a listening session, it will be used for all further tracks in that session, no matter what the listener selects. See if what you're finding with the D90 at least might be due to this "precedence effect." 🤮 Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
Jud Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 4 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said: 🤮 Now think about what that means for the comparative listening sessions where reviewers heard tracks produced for that filtering, then listened to tracks not produced for that filtering, through what they thought were different filters. MikeyFresh 1 One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature. Link to comment
Popular Post The Computer Audiophile Posted June 29, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 29, 2021 8 minutes ago, Jud said: Now think about what that means for the comparative listening sessions where reviewers heard tracks produced for that filtering, then listened to tracks not produced for that filtering, through what they thought were different filters. The birth of a new reviewing world 😳 svart-hvitt, lucretius, JSeymour and 1 other 4 Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
Popular Post botrytis Posted June 29, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 29, 2021 10 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said: The birth of a new reviewing world Fixed it for ya The Computer Audiophile and Confused 2 Current: Daphile on an AMD A10-9500 with 16 GB RAM DAC - TEAC UD-501 DAC Pre-amp - Rotel RC-1590 Amplification - Benchmark AHB2 amplifier Speakers - Revel M126Be with 2 REL 7/ti subwoofers Cables - Tara Labs RSC Reference and Blue Jean Cable Balanced Interconnects Link to comment
AudioDoctor Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 On 6/28/2021 at 12:31 PM, JoshM said: I hope one of our tech sluths can figure out of the Qobuz and HDT files are MQA-free. This is a release I was really looking forward to… AS I see it, if they mastered (ruined) the entire project with MQA they could then convert it into any format they wanted but the damage would already be done. It could be a FLAC file with no MQA except in the mastering. botrytis 1 No electron left behind. Link to comment
Confused Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said: 🤮 Oh dear, over done it on the Marijuana Quality Authenticated cakes again? botrytis 1 Windows 11 PC, Roon, HQPlayer, Focus Fidelity convolutions, iFi Zen Stream, Paul Hynes SR4, Mutec REF10, Mutec MC3+USB, Devialet 1000Pro, KEF Blade. Plus Pro-Ject Signature 12 TT for playing my 'legacy' vinyl collection. Desktop system; RME ADI-2 DAC fs, Meze Empyrean headphones. Link to comment
Popular Post Archimago Posted June 30, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 30, 2021 4 hours ago, GoldenOne said: Depends how you'd define 'broken'. Many would argue that the MQA renderer filter is problematic. But there is no 'perfect' filter. The main issue is that there is no choice to opt out of the MQA filter, or to use a proper filter that actually has decent attenuation by 22.05khz, and the device is presented as if you do have that option, even though you do not. Good work @GoldenOne. Yeah, no surprise that this kind of thing would happen with mQa DACs. Another reminder of how this so-called "technology" hampers DAC designs and the ability for companies to have freedom in their filter implementation (if they want to avoid stuff like obvious gapless disruption). Unfortunate that Topping has fallen into this dishonesty with the faux filter settings which again isn't particularly surprising when doing business with such a company and seems to permeate almost every aspect of mQa. lucretius, UkPhil, JSeymour and 6 others 7 2 Archimago's Musings: A "more objective" take for the Rational Audiophile. Beyond mere fidelity, into immersion and realism. R.I.P. MQA 2014-2023: Hyped product thanks to uneducated, uncritical advocates & captured press. Link to comment
Popular Post KeenObserver Posted June 30, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 30, 2021 So. MQA certified DAC's poison non MQA music. I suppose that's one way of saying that MQA "sounds better". And MQA requires DAC makers to sign NDA's to hide this fact. Fortunately, there are independent, ethical, testers that reveal the truth. Do legitimate businesses require these NDA's? MikeyFresh, Rt66indierock and lamode 3 Boycott Warner Boycott Tidal Boycott Roon Boycott Lenbrook Link to comment
Currawong Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 On 6/28/2021 at 9:04 AM, Mayfair said: Does anyone know whether there is actually a non-MQA version of Nina Simone's Montreux Years? I captured the output of the Qobuz version of track 1, and it looks like MQA, with a band of noise above 16 kHz, so very possibly not. Ignore the extra at the end of the track, it continued to track 2 before I stopped it. If they did their "white glove" treatment of it, then it might be ok. Mayfair 1 Link to comment
UkPhil Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 3 hours ago, Currawong said: I captured the output of the Qobuz version of track 1, and it looks like MQA, with a band of noise above 16 kHz, so very possibly not. Ignore the extra at the end of the track, it continued to track 2 before I stopped it. If they did their "white glove" treatment of it, then it might be ok. Interesting, does anyone have a tidal account to see if their is a true mQa version to stream under its master catergory ? Link to comment
Popular Post BassFace Posted July 1, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted July 1, 2021 2 minutes ago, UkPhil said: Interesting, does anyone have a tidal account to see if their is a true mQa version to stream under its master catergory ? Cancelled mine 2 days ago, Im done with Tidal lol UkPhil, lamode and MikeyFresh 1 2 Link to comment
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