Popular Post church_mouse Posted February 22, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2018 34 minutes ago, Rexp said: In general, Tidal MQA is better sounding than Tidal flac, do you agree? In my system, to my ears, when I tested MQA using Audirvana unfolding, the MQA sounded different and worse - in fact it was tiring to listen to a whole MQA a!bum. I am not making a general statement that MQA is worse, just a contrary experience to your statement that in general MQA sounds better. If the industry allowed MQA to exist simply as a clearly marked alternative, then I would have no qualms. The possibility it may become an enforced standard would end my acquisition of new music based on my current experience. MrMoM and MikeyFresh 2 David MacMini, Mytek Manhattan I DAC, Avantone The Abbey Monitors, Roon Link to comment
church_mouse Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 26 minutes ago, Rexp said: Try the album discussed in this thread without the unfolding, interested in your opinion. Ever inquisitive, so I will happily give it a go today. David MacMini, Mytek Manhattan I DAC, Avantone The Abbey Monitors, Roon Link to comment
Popular Post church_mouse Posted February 22, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2018 @Rexp My report on my very subjective listening to the Steve Reich Pulse/Quartet MQA/non-MQA album. Let me be clear that this is my system, my ears, my subjective sound preferences and is a polite reply to Rexp, who very nicely asked me to have a listen to the album. I listened over speakers and through my headphone set ups. I streamed the MQA from Tidal and the non-MQA from Qobuz using Audirvana. I applied no upsampling. Pulse is not a piece I know and, having listened to it so many times today, definitely will not be going on to my favourites list. Quartet I do know, and was lucky enough to hear a local live performance of it a few years ago. A general observation is that the MQA version came across as somewhat louder and more forward, with a "blooming" at the lower end - most noticeable on Pulse, where the start and end of individual bass note changes seemed to get lost a little. However, listening through speakers to Pulse I did not have any aversion to the MQA track, but I preferred the less forward non-MQA presentation. This preference was greater when listening through headphones - the Pulse track seemed a bit more strident in MQA. Something else I noticed through headphones on all the tracks - the non-MQA produced a more even balance across the soundstage. For the Quartet movement, especially the Slow movement and the second Fast movement, my preference for the non-MQA was far greater. There was an unpleasant harshness and un-naturalness to the vibraphone in my listening set up, with the Slow movement being particularly difficult to listen to in MQA (especially through my headphone set ups - in fact, I had to stop listening to the MQA Slow movement during my final headphone listening session; it was giving me a "MQAgraine" headache). Certainly, in the live performance I heard, the vibraphone did not "klang" as I was now hearing it via MQA. So, for me, MQA still seems to be a "no thank you". MQA may well sound fantastic through other systems and other ears, but my ears can't be changed and I have no current desire to change my system either. MrMoM, Spacehound, MikeyFresh and 1 other 1 3 David MacMini, Mytek Manhattan I DAC, Avantone The Abbey Monitors, Roon Link to comment
Popular Post church_mouse Posted February 22, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2018 1 hour ago, Rexp said: Thanks for the feedback, I can enjoy the whole album in MQA, sadly I can barely get through one track in flac, cheers No problem. It was an interesting listen. Do you find all other non-MQA redbook flac so barely listenable or just this one? MikeyFresh and Spacehound 1 1 David MacMini, Mytek Manhattan I DAC, Avantone The Abbey Monitors, Roon Link to comment
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