MQA Discussion

[gbaby]

Originally Posted by Sea music

I thought I would share my MQA experience. First the equipment. Bluesound
that can decode my Tidal to 96kHz. My N100H Aurender that is not MQA compatible as of yet, but still plays at 48kHz when Master is selected on tidal.
And my Mcintosh Mct 450 playing red book cd's not Sacd. Why not Sacd?
Because I simply did not have one to match up with the Tidal Masters selection.

I used Natalie Merchant "Tigerlilly" MoFi gold cd. This is an excellent recording,
and sounds as good as most Sacd's that I own. First up is the Aurender against
the Mct 450. In the past I have not heard much difference between the two when both playing 44kHz sources. With the Master at 48kHz I definitely prefer
the Aurender. Second I compared the Bluesound at 96kHz against N100H playing
at 48kHz. I would say it was a tie. That in itself is amazing because they are not
that close when both playing 44kHz. The Aurender is clearly better.

What did I hear? More pronounced bass but still very clear. More detail. What
I came away with is how much I like the Aurender and its sound. And that
with Tidal Master and a relatively inexpensive Bluesound you can achieve very
good sound. All equipment was playing through a Mcintosh C2600 preamp.
Hopefully Mcintosh will release an MQA update for my very new C2600. I don't
see Aurender doing it for my N100H as they already have the A10 out.

There would have to be a lot more comparison than this to convince me.

[morfeeus]

Originally Posted by nicoff

MQA is not a drug.

Correction

Music is and has always been for all here, being audiophiles, "the drug".

MQA being another avenue or format, just introduced commercially to the audiophile public, has hurdles to climb. Time is required for us all, in experiencing and truly judge what its potential may be, as to the benefits in offering over and above audio capabilities to whats present.

Personally, l trust the many reviewers who have had the positive experience and disclosed their thoughts.

The MQA avenue being streamed or downloaded, is an obstruction to those many, who have not accepted or adapted to , other than cds or vinyl, for acquiring music in this new world, for acceptance.

l have been an audiophile since the mid 70's. Just clarifying my experience. And have no issues moving forward, if the new format "brings it"!

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by gbaby

There would have to be a lot more comparison than this to convince me.

I don't know anyone on this forum who tries to convince people to like or dislike anything in this hobby. There are enough sites where people go on for hundreds or even thousands of posts trying to sway others opinions on digital vs vinyl, SS versus tubes, tube A versus tube B, upgraded power cords, interconnects, speaker manufacturer A vs B, .............

It's usually only when someone tells us we aren't hearing what we hear or what we prefer is wrong that the occasionally testy posts pop up.

[James Tanner - Bryston]

Hi All.

I hope it's ok to mention this in a Bryston thread. The PS Audio website has a forum sector under their Directream DAC where MQA is being heavily discussed in a thread "MQA Controversy". (There is no PS Audio propaganda in the thread).

It's worth a read. Particularly from pages 18 on when Paul McGowan (PS Audio head) and Ted Smith (their digital guru) weigh in. Paul is very concerned at the detrimental affect MQA could have in long term music sound quality and raises some very good points not discussed here. He also shows why MQA's claims in regards to bettering older music releases is impossible. Ted explains fairly plainly in various posts why MQA is no great sound quality breakthrough and discusses the Koch interview and why he's quite right with his conclusions.

Graham

[BuffaloBill]

More technical findings that MQA is a compressed format where original signal information is lost, i.e., less than CD quality.

[scirica]

Separating fantasy from reality. This is good stuff.

[Douglas]

All this waiting, in vain, for ever increasing formats, higher resolutions etc. to stabilise so that we could buy DAC'S / Network players that would not be obsolete in 2 years is driving me back into the loving arms of Vinyl

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by Douglas

All this waiting, in vain, for ever increasing formats, higher resolutions etc. to stabilise so that we could buy DAC'S / Network players that would not be obsolete in 2 years is driving me back into the loving arms of Vinyl

How I prepare for a hour of listening to vinyl.

[Douglas]

Originally Posted by Still-One

How I prepare for a hour of listening to vinyl.

[James Tanner - Bryston]

Originally Posted by Still-One

How I prepare for a hour of listening to vinyl.

LOVE IT