Quote:
Originally Posted by clpetersen
cmarin - if there is any system out there should should be able to discern the MQA difference, yours should be it. Impressive to say the least.
I will point out one thing with Jim Lesurf's article - it is well written, lucid and correct - for the MQA processed bits. The full data set consists of original content concatenated with MQA bits*. For example, in a 24 bit signal, 16 bits are the original CD (Redbook)** and 8 are MQA. Thus you can recover the original CD in a non-MQA DAC, etc.
However, trying to understand MQA by reading their patents is risky endeavor. Meridian should allow expert dissemination of their approach. Either they are onto something or not. Their patent has issued (see below) so they have protection.
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* see claim 1 (if interested)
US Patent 9,548,055"Doubly compatible lossless audio bandwidth extension"
issued January 2017 to Peter Craven of Meridian.
Abstract:
"An encoder for digital audio signals at a higher sample rate creates a stream for consumer distribution at a lower sampling rate, with compatibility for standard PCM players without a decoder. In conjunction with a suitable decoder, two enhanced playback options are supported, the first option allowing full lossless reconstruction of a noise-shaped higher sampling rate signal, the second option allowing lossy bandwidth extension even if an intervening transmission chain has truncated the least-significant-bits of the encoder's output signal."
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**potentialy with some filtering (noise-shaping) applied, i.e. a new mastering applied to the original content, but still Redbook.
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Hi clpetersen,
Thank you for the kind words. And please let me share a few personal comments.
First, in my experience I have found that results are very system dependent.
Second, in terms of whether DSD is yesterday's news I have to mention my recent extended experience with several DACs: Aqua Formula, NAGRA HD, Playback Designs MPS 5, and the Pacific Microsonics Model 2. The former two were on long term loan and the latter two are my long term references.
All listening comparisons were done with the Sound Galleries Monaco 2015 server and the new 3.16.0 version of HQPlayer which upsampled the native file resolution to the maximum that each DAC could handle.
Without getting into DAC to DAC comparisons, what I can say is that the performance of each DAC was an order of magnitude better with the new 3.16.0 version (and the highly computationally intensive xtr filter) than the previous baselines.
These were jaw-dropping differences in each case. Yet it required only a software change in the SGM/HQPlayer - a zero marginal cost that was on the order of a major component change.
And the DSD DACs? Well the two DSD DACs, Playback Designs and NAGRA HD, made me pause and rethink my previous PCM centric perspective. Perhaps a DSD DAC coupled with the powerful and transparent SGM server, and the advanced signal processing HQPlayer filters, could be the future.
DSD DACs yesterday's news? Nah. At least not in my music room.