MQA and Naim

There are a substantial quantity of Albums on Tidal which have been ‘MQA’d, that are from a ‘Pre - Digital’ age. Recorded no doubt at the best quality available at the time.

I would be very interested to know how by applying MQA processing to such a recording could create Hi Resolution Music. What is not their at the recording, suddenly appears in these ‘Mastered’ format.

Pure marketing hype! 

It is the same as LP, to Cassette, To CD, to downloads, now Hi-Res! How can we fleece the customer out of their hard earned cash?

Idris Roberts posted:

There are a substantial quantity of Albums on Tidal which have been ‘MQA’d, that are from a ‘Pre - Digital’ age. Recorded no doubt at the best quality available at the time.

I would be very interested to know how by applying MQA processing to such a recording could create Hi Resolution Music. What is not their at the recording, suddenly appears in these ‘Mastered’ format.

Pure marketing hype! 

It is the same as LP, to Cassette, To CD, to downloads, now Hi-Res! How can we fleece the customer out of their hard earned cash?

Of course applying MQA processing to a low resolution recording cannot create 'Hi-resolution music', and I don't think that MQA would make that claim.

This should not really be an MQA specific question because the same question (and answer) could apply to any hi-definition music downloads, MQA or not. 

You seem to be assuming that recordings from a pre-digital age cannot possibly be hi-resolution, but I think that very many people including a large number on this forum would disagree. I am fairly sure that most owners of high end turntables will be of the view that many (if not most) of their best LPs have been recorded on analogue tape decks. Further, it is accepted by many owners of high end systems (witness 'The Tape Project') that reel to reel master copies of original analogue masters provide the very best source material available today, albeit an impossibly expensive source for most including me. Then of course you have analogue FM Radio which I think you will find is still felt to better its digital equivalent by many on this forum.

Hi-res versions of albums (e.g. the Doors albums) that pre-date digital recording are bought by many people, and quite a few believe that they sound better than their CD quality digital versions. MQA simply provides a way of reducing the size of the files for convenience in respect of bandwidth costs. It also makes some more controversial claims about the positive benefits of MQA itself in the mastering process, but you don't really need to buy into this. If you believe that nothing in the pre-digital age can be termed hi-resolution, then you not only have to dismiss MQA versions of albums from this era, you have to dismiss 'standard' hi-resolution files, Vinyl LPs and reel to reel master tapes from the era.

In respect of Tidal, which is my focus in respect of MQA, MQA Masters (i.e. so called high resolution music) are available for free, or at least for no additional outlay over the normal subscription charge. I personally won't be purchasing MQA downloads - for th etime being at least.   

Nothing wrong with a hi res digital copy of an analog recording - and assuming it is from the mastertape not an LP the vinyl limitations will not be there, just the limitations of original analog tape. As for MQA, the value in terms of sound will depend on whether you like its characterising effect.

Otherwise digital files from LPs, which would preserve the vinyl sound, already having been through the effective ‘filtering’ of vinyl - whether hi res sounds better than 16/44 is likely to depend on the record and the ripping, but presumably the likeability of an MQA version would similarly sound good if you like its effect.