MQA Discussion
 

James
You guys have been sitting on the fence too long on MQA. The downloads available prior to Tidal finally opening the floodgates this week did little to generate much excitement. Those of us who are MQA compatible are hearing some of the best digital sound to date. On the four sites I have been following the releases on the 5th there are many doubters who have become converts. Nothing in this hobby is accepted by everyone.

HI

Yes it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

james

How this plays out?

I was hoping you would be telling us the good news, that you have a firmware update this next week for our BDA-3's. Lol!

I'm impressed. The masters are well done. I've never heard led zep sound this good. There's an opeth album which I am very familiar with and the mqa master is great.

Now, if these same masters were offered without the mqa "shell" would they sound as good? IMHO they would

Hi

No not ready to commit yet - there are just too many unanswered questions and there appears to be a real polarizing aspect to the debate.

james

So I may be a little confused... is it supposed to sound better than say DSD or high end PCM ... or is it just supposed to sounds a lot better than the MP3 files that they are similar to in size? I'm not sure I understand the goal.

Resistance is futile. I think the polarization is due to lack of access. I think that is changing now thanks to Tidal!

I see it as a potentially (yet mostly only advertised) solution to streaming Hi Res with less bandwidth. BUT and it is a BIG but, you need new equipment (if I understand things - but may not). I hate having to purchase new equipment for new digital - but have done it in the case of DSD.

So:

1 does it sound better?
2 does it stream better sound at less bandwidth?
3 does it require new - proprietary - equipment?

The goal is music streaming.

I don't think MQA is better than other hires music per se, but it is much more friendly on bandwidth needed for streaming services.

And with TIDAL support, it seems like the floodgate has opened. I expect that most studios are less keen on releasing a full DSD or full DXD/HR PCM version for download but are happy to release them for streaming with some copy protection built in.

Potentially though, if MQA's filtering and reconstructing filters are used correctly, I reckon it could make hires sound better than conventional HR PCM.

MQA has flip flopped on this issue so it is not surprising that you were mistaken in your understanding :)

In the latest TIDAL native app for Mac and PC, the software will decode the MQA stream to 24/96 if you don't have an MQA compatible DAC.

1. like with most formats, mastering is more important than just being hires
2. yes - but with caveat, see 1.
3. no