AudioQuest adds MQA Support to Dragonflies via firmware

[Rt66indierock]

3 hours ago, Wavelength said:

 

If you choose pass through then the MQA is basically not enabled.

 

Why do people think this is all about upsampling and decompression.

 

Guys if the files were compressed and require decompressing in a certain format then how do NON-MQA DACS playback MQA files?

 

Look it's much more than what everyone is speculating about. This is probably part of the problem with companies who think MQA is a bad thing. Maybe not, they might be a lot smarter than I am. But as a musician for some 50 or more years, I can tell you this is the real deal. Lowering the noise floor is a real undertaking.

 

Anyway, before you pass judgement you should listen.

 

Thanks,

Gordon

 

 

Gordon,

 

I’d love to listen with your DAC and MQA firmware but there is no music to buy in the United States for 80 to 90 percent of the music buying public. So when do you think I’ll be able to buy some classic rock and country music? I would like to evaluate MQA the same way I evaluate any audio piece of equipment but I’ve given up that all nine of my reference albums will ever be available to download in MQA.

 

As of last night there are less than 2,800 albums you can listen to on TIDAL so why bother with the format? After people have been pushing hi-res albums for years and we have less than 16,000 albums out in the world. Maybe it’s time to actually face up to high resolution audio will never be mainstream product.

 

Take care it was nice meeting you at RMAF 2016.

[Rt66indierock]

40 minutes ago, MarkS said:

 

At the risk of being unhelpful, I think some would answer your question by saying that MQA sounds better and more MQA titles will come.

 

There are 46 million plus tracks on TIDAL. MQA will be failure at a lot larger number than you would like. Some people say it sounds better, Jud says it doesn't. I'll listen when that is possible and make up my own mind.

[Rt66indierock]

2 hours ago, Wavelength said:

miguelito,

 

First decompressed was used out of context. Tidal downloads in FLAC you don't decompress FLAC, you uncompress it. This was the wrong term and confused several people.

 

I don't know exactly how MQA determines which filter to use or how to unfold the data. The USB stream has some identifier in it that tells the MQA library in the DragonFly that it is MQA and what filter to load into the ESS DAC chip and also how to unfold the data DSP and other things.

 

If any of you remember Pacific Microsystems HDCD format what they did was embed in the LSB a signature for their custom filter and output level. MQA maybe doing the same thing.

 

Really why do we need to know details like this? Why don't you just enjoy what we spent months creating for you.

 

Thanks,

Gordon

 

Gordon,

 

We need to know more because all the people who really know can’t talk because of NDAs with MQA. All the people talking have proven they don’t know much about MQA. MQA involves record companies who don’t treat artists and customers fairly. MQA has group of journalists pushing it that have shown over the years we should take what they say and promote with caution.

 

I believe we should ask questions until we get answers that make sense, are repeatable across the readers of Computer Audiophile and allow those of us want the technical details to get them. The evasion of straightforward questions and the lack clarity in the promotion MQA just raise more questions.

[Rt66indierock]

3 hours ago, ShawnC said:

Doesn't MQA have the right to it's trade secrets or patents?  Wouldn't that be the competitors quest to figure out what's going on and try to make it better/cheaper.  Just asking.  

 

ShawnC

My first questions were about which masters they were using. I thought it was common knowledge there was no master of “Riders on the Storm.” This signed off by the artist marketing pitch has a few problems when say Foghat has no one left alive who can properly sign off on the master. Or in the recent past I’ve been around negotiations where the actual owner of the music is a family partnership not the artist who passed away many years ago. Hard to have the artist sign off on any new version of his work.

 

I’ve asked about recording an MQA master and never received a satisfactory answer.

 

And of course whenever I’ve asked about downloads in the United States all I get is crickets.

 

None of these questions involve trade secrets or information they patented.

[Rt66indierock]

1 hour ago, ShawnC said:

Good luck with that.  It seems the folks at MQA don't respond here and the ones that do get torn apart by the naysayers.

 

ShawnC we are having plenty of luck getting information since January 2, 2017 on Computer Audiophile compared to all the other audiophile sources of information combined. You just have to know when, to whom and how much pressure to apply.