Mqa

[SteveJ]

I know there is quite a bit of discussion one way and the other regarding MQA. I am looking for listening experience please.

If you have listened to MQA, especially on Tidal, what are your impressions with respect to sound quality?

Were you listening on a DAC that can perform the final rendering?

I am using Tidal and am looking for a low end MQA DAC, Pro-ject Pre Box S2, Mytek Liberty or Brooklyn DAC + for my office computer system.

[For The Love of Music]

A full MQA is nice feature to use and does up the sound quality. I don’t listen exclusively but like it. I have full unfold on my DAC and partial on my Aurender.

[W9TR]

The Brooklyn DAC+ is a very solid choice. I borrowed one from a friend and found it to be a good performer.

[rnrmf1971]

I listen through a Bluesound Node 2i which can do the full MQA through its analog outputs, but I find the coaxial digital out to my Marantz SA-10 to sound better, so I guess I get the first unfold. I'm listening at 96/24 or thereabouts, I think.
It sounds good and comparable to Qobuz HiRes although I like the Qobuz sound a bit more - both from the analog outputs and digital outputs of the Bluesound.
Tidal sounds really good and has a great music library.

[SteveJ]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm leaning toward the Brooklyn DAC+. That seems to be the entry level for hi end.

W9TR, you have a Yggdrasil, I'm guessing have an affinity for vinyl, and liked the Brooklyn DAC+?

[W9TR]

Hi Steve,
I own a Benchmark DAC3 HGC and borrowed a friends Brooklyn DAC+ to do a shootout. They sound very similar to each other. The Benchmark was slightly more engaging on Redbook than the Brooklyn. For hi-rez pcm they were identical. The Brooklyn DAC+ gets the edge for MQA decoding as expected.

I also own a Yggdrasil and to my ears, on my system, it provides a more satisfying and organic result in terms of the sheer enjoyment of the music I play through it. No DSD or MQA, though.

But this thread is all about MQA. I can certainly vouch for the Brooklyn DAC+ as a solid decoding engine for MQA.

Tom

[audphi]

Originally Posted by SteveJ

I know there is quite a bit of discussion one way and the other regarding MQA. I am looking for listening experience please.

If you have listened to MQA, especially on Tidal, what are your impressions with respect to sound quality?

Were you listening on a DAC that can perform the final rendering?

I am using Tidal and am looking for a low end MQA DAC, Pro-ject Pre Box S2, Mytek Liberty or Brooklyn DAC + for my office computer system.

I've listened to MQA files (mostly from Tidal) with several different products/systems. I've used various Aurender, MOON by Simaudio, Innuos, and Roon products to get both full and partial "unfoldings."

The two main takeaways for me have been (1) classical via MQA is uniformly improved and (2) everything else is hit and miss. For non-classical files, I've heard MQA sound really good and I've heard it sound worse than redbook, typically due to problems in the lower frequencies (bloated or ill-defined bass).

I now view MQA capability as a nice thing to have but not at all essential. When MQA first came out, I thought that its real promise lay in hi-res via streaming. But with Qobuz now available in the US we can now get hi-res via streaming without all of the technical manipulation. So....

Last thing: I've recently found that I prefer MQA files unfolded once and fed to a Chord Electronics DAC using a Hugo M Scaler much more than MQA files fully unfolded and rendered with an MQA-capable DAC. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but there you go. (Disclaimer: I'm an authorized dealer for Chord Electronics.)

[wklie]

Originally Posted by audphi

I've recently found that I prefer MQA files unfolded once and fed to a Chord Electronics DAC using a Hugo M Scaler much more than MQA files fully unfolded and rendered with an MQA-capable DAC. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but there you go. (Disclaimer: I'm an authorized dealer for Chord Electronics.)

By unfolding once to MQA Core, you recover the musical information stored in the MQA track. Chord and MQA represent two extremes of DAC filtering approach. My observation is that some people prefer one approach while some others prefer the other.

[PeterMusic]

I'm with audphi. I heard a couple of MQA demo tracks at my dealer, and they were terrific compared to Redbook.

But listening format impact--MQA, Redbook, SACD, etc--is small compared to mixing and mastering quality that exist across releases of the same material. This is especially true for rock music that has fallen victim to the Loudness Wars.

Plus you've got variations on streaming vs CD rips, and certain DACs such as the Yggy offer huge sound quality value if you sacrifice MQA.

MQA may be nice, but should not drive your decision

[sid325]

I decided to ditch Tidal/MQA when I bought my Yggy and only stream Qobuz now. I’ve been very happy with the combo.