Lumin support of MQA?
- Thread starter Ritmo
- Start date
soundqcar
Member
Peter, I think the reason why there was little or no clamor for it, at least on this site anyway, is because we assumed it was in the offing...
http://www.audioshark.org/lumin-169/lumin-mqa-9275.html
http://www.audioshark.org/lumin-169/lumin-mqa-9275.html
byrdparis
New member
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2016
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- 126
Even though it's not me who said that, I regret someone (I'm not sure who) gave a premature response originally.
Not supporting it may prove to be quite problematic.
There was official notice given to dealers in September stating that if MQA becomes a reality (and a standard), LUMIN would support it. Well, it's here. Pressure will mount. What's odd is that I sent a note to On Li and Nelson in May 2015 (more than 18 months ago) telling them about MQA and strongly encouraged early adoption. But Lumin didn't listen to me about Tidal either and ended up playing catch up with Tidal integration. Guess the same will happen with MQA.
What I wonder is if someone will come out with an MQA decoder box that can sit between your Aurender/Lumin U1/PC/MAC and decode MQA and pass it on to the "DAC of your choice"?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
There was official notice given to dealers in September stating that if MQA becomes a reality (and a standard), LUMIN would support it. Well, it's here. Pressure will mount. What's odd is that I sent a note to On Li and Nelson in May 2015 (more than 18 months ago) telling them about MQA and strongly encouraged early adoption. But Lumin didn't listen to me about Tidal either and ended up playing catch up with Tidal integration. Guess the same will happen with MQA.
What I wonder is if someone will come out with an MQA decoder box that can sit between your Aurender/Lumin U1/PC/MAC and decode MQA and pass it on to the "DAC of your choice"?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
soundqcar
Member
Fair enough Peter.....thanks for the reply.
Certainly with the announcement and rolling out of available content just days ago, no one could be blamed for not jumping in with both feet until we see how this all plays out. Speaking only for myself, I have enjoyed your Lumin A1 like few other products I've ever owned in 25+ years in this hobby. In the hotly contested streamer category, your user interface, and more importantly the sound, is 2nd to none to these ears.
It seems Lumin was started in order to push the digital envelope within an all-in-one package. If MQA turns out to be the real deal, I hope I'll be able to enjoy its positives on my A1.....just as I do today.
My $.02
And the same goes for my Lumin T1, which is the best sounding piece / upgrade i made, no CD player have been close to the sound of the Lumin T1 ( haven't tryed Accuphase 720 or Esoteric high End players ) and i for sure hope i can keep it for some years. Although i am not sure how important MQA really is or will be. we just have to wait and see. But it would be nice if Lumin supported it no matter what.
because of this statement, I thought I would be safe ordering a D1 a few days ago.
One question, is Lumin waiting to see if it will become a "standard " in the industry before it jumps on the bandwagon? If so, I respect not jumping on every new thing that comes out and could potentially fail and waste a ton of resources and research for nothing.
BlueFox
New member
I have no experience with MQA, but if it works and a firmware upgrade will provide it then my vote is do it. If it requires new hardware then I'm not sure if I am ready for that. Then again if there is an upgrade program I could go for that.
Jfboynton
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- Joined
- Feb 23, 2015
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- 43
I have owned the Lumin A1, S1 & M1 & have loved them all. It would be a true shame if the best thing ever at blurring the line between analog & digital fell behind in superior performance when that has always been the goal. I agree with others that it was always understood that Lumin was in when MQA happened & was appreciative that the the folks at Pixel Magic were so forward thinking.
Votes here may not necessarily be seen.
I completed technical feasibility assessment of MQA several months ago, and I think that it should be possible to do a firmware-only upgrade to add MQA support to Lumin S1 / A1 / T1 / D1. Technical feasibility is one thing, but other factors are outside my authority.
This does not generally apply to other models from other manufacturers - some DAC designs are inherently not suitable for firmware-only upgrade to add MQA.
soundqcar
Member
Exactly Peter.....please point us to the proper "voting" avenue. I'll be more than happy to drop off my ballot.
CPP
Active member
Exactly Peter.....please point us to the proper "voting" avenue. I'll be more than happy to drop off my ballot.
Yes Peter tell us what we need to do
opcorn:To get 24-bit MQA music streamed to Lumin (but without MQA decoding):
1. Use Tidal desktop app on a computer to add a Tidal Masters music to favorite
2. Play it using Lumin from Tidal favorite
3. Observe that the bitdepth is 24bit instead of 16bit - this indicates you're receiving MQA music from Tidal. Since Lumin is not decoding MQA (yet), you will see 44.1kHz or 48kHz only, not a higher bitrate.
In this setup you can verify whether MQA's claim of MQA music sounds better even without any MQA decoding is true or not.
Note: This procedure does not generally apply to other manufacturers. Some of them may still receive 16-bit non-MQA music even if playing favorite Tidal Masters music.
1. Use Tidal desktop app on a computer to add a Tidal Masters music to favorite
2. Play it using Lumin from Tidal favorite
3. Observe that the bitdepth is 24bit instead of 16bit - this indicates you're receiving MQA music from Tidal. Since Lumin is not decoding MQA (yet), you will see 44.1kHz or 48kHz only, not a higher bitrate.
In this setup you can verify whether MQA's claim of MQA music sounds better even without any MQA decoding is true or not.
Note: This procedure does not generally apply to other manufacturers. Some of them may still receive 16-bit non-MQA music even if playing favorite Tidal Masters music.
CPP
Active member
Peter,
I hope I'm not off topic here, but I found an easier way to listen to TIDAL MQA tracks via my Lumin S1 where no TIDAL desktop app is involved.
Just use the Lumin iPad app and search TIDAL by artist as you normally would. All the MQA albums appear on the search results along with the Redbook version. There's no way to tell the MQA vs. Redbook version from TIDAL's album art so you just have to play each to see which plays at 48kHz, 24-bit.
The SQ is noticeably better than the Redbook version, likely due to the 24-bit depth. I imagine if I used the TIDAL desktop app, the tracks would unfold to 96kHz, but I'm not sure how to play music from my Mac Mini to my S1.