Popular Post Andyman Posted February 5, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted February 5, 2018 52 minutes ago, Brinkman Ship said: The Brinkman Ship has docked and I can report on between 8-10 hours of listening to MQA and Non MQA files (When it is FREEZING out, plenty of incentive to get cozy with music, wine, and a great system). The listening took place at a long time friend's East Side apartment. The system was beyond reproach: -MSB Reference DAC / Roon / Tidal -VPI Prime table / Audio Research PH9 -Audio Research Ref 6 Preamp -Ayre MX-R Twenty Mono Block Amplifiers Wilson Alexx speaker system Wireworld cabling for all Audience power conditioning, Symposium Acoustics isolation devices and platforms My host has a very large digital library stored on a NAS. And a decent size vinyl collection. We listened to approx. 50 albums where we confirmed there was both an MQA version, and an official 24 bit digital download and where we could confirm the mastering was the same. We listened to quite a few new releases as well. Volumes matched as close as possible. I had my host select albums play MQA streams from Tidal, then the same tracks from his NAS without telling me which was which, and we turned off the display of the DAC. We also muted the first 3 seconds of every track. We repeated the process with me selecting tracks from Tidal and his NAS. We also broke things up by playing tracks from his vinyl collection of some of the same albums. Verdict: In each an every, case, without exception, we both preferred the non MQA version. Some by a little, and some it was not even close. The MQA version created a whole in the center and an artificial Left and Right Spread, and a digital sheen that was off putting to say the least. We both concluded MQA was DESTRUCTIVE to the music. It was quite an eye opener. It sounded like what happens when you hit the "3D" or "Loudness" buttons on mid level home theater receivers. MQA was putting far too strong a stamp on the music. We even preferred his 24 bit vinyl rips to the MQA versions. MQA screws up the tonality and the soundstage. Period. Bob Stuart, John Atkinson, Michael Lavorgna, Robert Harley, Jim Austin, John Darko (did I miss anyone?).. you should all be ashamed of your selves. MQA is by far the biggest farce ever perpetrated in "high end audio". Couple this with all the data presented here, the measurements, and looking behind the curtain at the financials, the motives, and the players, it is clear MQA is a wholesale fraud. Well Mr Ship, you certainly had me fooled. Right up until “without exception” I was expecting a TKO at the very least for MQA. I owe you a thought apology (whilst not getting involved in the debate, I certainly had you down as an undesirable in my head). It will be interesting to see whether ESL and others discount your findings due to lack of (especially volume matching - close enough won’t cut it ) rigour. I have my own thoughts on such things but don’t like ab-ing or whatever. Appreciate your efforts. beetlemania and tmtomh 2 Link to comment
Andyman Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 3 minutes ago, esldude said: In the spirit of attempted bias control . A simple thread and weight should suffice. Link to comment
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