MQA

Posted by: Mr Underhill on 04 March 2018

Just in case anyone has missed it Chris on comnputeraduiophile has given space to Archimago to so a summary of his position / research on MQA. Good, loooong condensation of subject matter that is spread over a number of locations.

For those of you who haven't followed Archimago he is not enamored of MQA, and does present research to back up his contentions. Chris, who is comnputeraduiophile, has been (from memory) quiet positive.

Personally I use a R2R NOS dac that doesn't truly process anything above 16/44.1. My main concerns are that MQA doesn't harm PCM files, and that content isn't locked into a proprietary format.

I WAS disappointed to find that Sonore have backed out of doing the first MQA 'unfold' in OS2.6, I was looking forward to doing some tests.

M

Posted on: 03 April 2018 by charlesphoto

Sonore have also bucked the trend and are not offering MQA unfolding, despite the fact they’ve coded the software for it already. Good for them I say.

Posted on: 03 April 2018 by simes_pep

It is a licensing issue for Sonore, why paid for the first unfold to be done in the Sonore pre-DAC layer, when this is going to be done in the Roon Core.

Again on the Meridian 8000’s Ruby Anniversary Editions with the full MQA conversion in the ID41 cards in the 808, so not just the first unfold, but the complete MQA path from Master encoding to Speaker, the SQ was breathtaking. Transient response, dynamics, sound stage separation all better, sharper, focused when compared to HiRes or DSD versions of the same albums.

Posted on: 03 April 2018 by Innocent Bystander
simes_pep posted:

It is a licensing issue for Sonore, why paid for the first unfold to be done in the Sonore pre-DAC layer, when this is going to be done in the Roon Core.

Again on the Meridian 8000’s Ruby Anniversary Editions with the full MQA conversion in the ID41 cards in the 808, so not just the first unfold, but the complete MQA path from Master encoding to Speaker, the SQ was breathtaking. Transient response, dynamics, sound stage separation all better, sharper, focused when compared to HiRes or DSD versions of the same albums.

How could it be better than the hi res version, assuming a genuine copy of the hi res version is made? Or do you mean it was a different mastering? If so, then that will always mean it may sound different as many of us have heard, nothing to do with MQA. So what is there to guarantee that the mastering for an MQA file is better than some other mastering? Of course, if the idea is that a recording will only be made with MQA mastering, or otherwise dumbed down, that is another matter. 

Posted on: 03 April 2018 by simes_pep

Because MQA is not just about the decoding process, but there are differences in the sampling & encoding processes of the Master recordings over standard formats. Hence full conversion has the potential to sound different. On that Meridian system, on the albums listened to, the MQA versions had better SQ than the HiRes FLAC or DSD versions.

Posted on: 03 April 2018 by simes_pep

I also listened to streamed MQA through the Meridian headphone amp & PSU through a pair of Senhensier HD800 Pro headphone, so a dedicated high-end headphone setup.

There was also the new Pro-ject Pre Box S2 Digital product, which at €349 offers a ESS Sabre ESS9038 dual DAC with MQA conversion.

Posted on: 03 April 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Innocent Bystander posted:

How could it be better than the hi res version, assuming a genuine copy of the hi res version is made?

it can’t..  MQA effectively adds artefacts and some EQ to minimise the effects and possibly spice up the sound... the full MQA chain and decoding process uses its own DAC reconstruction, but from what I have seen it’s nothing very special compared to modern DACs with their DSP and reconstruction such as with Chord Electronics for example with their extra large FIR filter kernels.

Simon

 

Posted on: 03 April 2018 by Peter Dinh

Probably MQA does not truthfully re-produce  what is recorded on a CD, but I quite like the MQA sound.

Posted on: 04 April 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Peter, and there is nothing wrong with that all..

Posted on: 05 April 2018 by Frank Yang

One of the problems with MQA as I see it is that you cannot use the Naim streamers to listen to the Tidal New Master albums since MQA is not properly unfolded.

Posted on: 05 April 2018 by Innocent Bystander
Frank Yang posted:

One of the problems with MQA as I see it is that you cannot use the Naim streamers to listen to the Tidal New Master albums since MQA is not properly unfolded.

You see Naim as the problem if you want to use Tidal, because they use MQA. I see the the problem as the likes of Tidal wanting to use MQA, rather than streaming hi res in a non-lossy format, which we can all enjoy to the max, Naim or not.

(The alternative of course is to buy albums in hi res, but clearly some people prefer the rental approach.)