Interesting talk on MQA and DSD

Meaningful MQA Comparisons

Category: Reader Feedback
Created: 03 April 2016
To Doug Schneider,

I just finished reading your article on MQA and I think all the points you made are valid. There’s a set of tracks you can download for free from 2L (http://www.2l.no/hires) that includes MQA-encoded files as well as PCM and DSD copies at various sampling rates/bit depths, as well as the original digital “master.” Now you know the provenance of each file and can compare to the original. The Meridian Explorer2 I had on hand could only unfold up to 192kHz, whereas most (if not all) the digital masters are at DXD bitrates. I ended up using the 24/192 PCM transfers for comparison purposes. I found that MQA sounded decent, but it certainly wasn’t the same as the PCM version. Vocals had a thinned-out quality and there seemed to be less bass and midrange warmth present. I put down my thoughts on my blog, if you’d like to read them.

I’m glad there's somebody in the audio press that’s doing some critical thinking about MQA.

Kind regards,
Harland
United States
 
The Meridian Explorer 2 is a $299 DAC. It's primary purpose is for headphones or computer speakers (like Bose) tethered to a laptop. I don't think it's going to be the last word in anything.

I see lots of criticisms of MQA from those who have never heard it, nor those who have come up with any other viable way to stream hi res files over the Internet (MQA's intended purpose).

I have sat through several MQA demos and my thoughts are mixed. On some recordings: Elvis, Frank Sinatra, etc. it was phenomenal. On others such as Natalie Merchant, the sound was "meh". I do believe the systems I heard these demos had a lot to do with things. Until I can demo MQA in my system, the jury is out, but let's say I'm cautiously optimistic.

Will MQA become the panacea many are hoping for? Time will tell. Regardless, Meridian should at least be applauded for attempting to build a new hi res format capable of being streamed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mike
You make a valid point. If you haven't heard MQA (or Sooloos in general) through either a 818v3 or 808v6 Meridian endpoint any conclusions are moot. Who considers any DAC that costs less than $500 world class?
 
From my discussions with Stuart, sound quality is the main thing. Most people are pointing out that, technically, it's not hard to stream to high-res fully. Netflix can stream entire movies.

Doug Schneider
Soundstage Magazine
 
James Tanner - Bryston said:
From my discussions with Stuart, sound quality is the main thing. Most people are pointing out that, technically, it's not hard to stream to high-res fully. Netflix can stream entire movies.

Doug Schneider
Soundstage Magazine
Click to expand...

Yes but one of the reasons service providers have been throttling back data packages is due to bandwidth overload. Not everyone live in cities with 1000mbps fiber networks available. If they reach their goals, there will be far more bandwidth used by audio streaming services than Netflix uses. But besides the bandwidth savings, one of the main objectives was to offer something proprietary that they could fetch licencing royalties from. They had a big meeting with ESS at CES this year about building MQA decoding right into their chips. What Dustin told me is there's actually no benefit in sound quality at all vs 24/176 PCM files, just bandwidth savings. Jussi at Hqplayer has even found it adds additional artifacts. To deal with these he made a new "MQA" filter option in his software.
 
I'm not sure how DSD has failed. It hasn't failed at my house. The best sounding format is the winner for me, not the most popular. However I'm still happy about MQA as Jussi from HQplayer has created a filter to clean up the MQA artifacts, and upsample to DSD. I'm a huge fan of Tidal so the combination with a killer 1 bit DSD DAC is a lot to look forward to for me.
 
James Tanner - Bryston said:
From my discussions with Stuart, sound quality is the main thing. Most people are pointing out that, technically, it's not hard to stream to high-res fully. Netflix can stream entire movies.

Doug Schneider
Soundstage Magazine
Click to expand...

Very true. The team at PrimeSeat in Japan is streaming Stereo DSD 64fs and DSD 128fs audio over the Internet.
No MQA needed there.

I've found the sound quality of MQA decoded music to pale compared to FLAC and DSD 64fs versions of the same songs.
So MQA isn't on the radar here.

http://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/jenna-alex-first-u-s-live-dsd-broadcast/
http://primeseat.net/en/
http://primeseat.net/ja/

 
How many more years until MQA becomes available with a significant catalog of music?
 
mep said:
How many more years until MQA becomes available with a significant catalog of music?
Click to expand...

It may not. Remember that Warner Music also licensed and used the earlier HDCD encoding system on some releases,
HDCD is still around today. But never reached the level of a "significant catalog".
 
bmoura said:
It may not. Remember that Warner Music also licensed and used the earlier HDCD encoding system on some releases,
HDCD is still around today. But never reached the level of a "significant catalog".
Click to expand...

That's kind of my point. I think MQA is DOA and someone needs to stick a fork in it. It's the Wizard of Oz of digital music.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top