MQA Discussion

audio.bill said:
Another interview about MQA, but this one gives their reasoning for not supporting A-B testing. Not that we'll all agree with that choice...
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"BS : We didn’t want to do public A-B tests, because they are completely uncontrolled. You know what it’s like – you put three audiophiles in a room and you get nine opinions. In fact, we do A-B tests all the time, with people who understand the context. So, for example, whenever we were with someone who had made the recording, we’d do the A-B test on the spot."


BS actually said this....?
 
j2020 said:
[FONT=&]"BS : We didn’t want to do public A-B tests, because they are completely uncontrolled. You know what it’s like – you put three audiophiles in a room and you get nine opinions. In fact, we do A-B tests all the time, with people who understand the context. So, for example, whenever we were with someone who had made the recording, we’d do the A-B test on the spot."


[/FONT]BS actually said this....?
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Unless you are doing the a/b testing in your room, with your gear, with your music, in the manner you deem meaningful, then it BS. Nobody else's thoughts or ears matter.
 
still-one said:
Unless you are doing the a/b testing in your room, with your gear, with your music, in the manner you deem meaningful, then it BS. Nobody else's thoughts or ears matter.
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Have you done it with your 808v6?
BTW, BS refers to Bob Stuart.
 
BS also keeps mentioning MP3s. That's a complete red herring. MQA is aimed squarely at said three audiophiles...and I bet they don't listen to MP3s.
 
j2020 said:
Have you done it with your 808v6?
BTW, BS refers to Bob Stuart.
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I only have 5 MQA releases at this time. For the most part I just wanted to try out a few genre to see if the sound was similar to what I heard at the demo at a local dealer. I have 1 organ piece (blah) 1 jazz recording (not my type of music but the sound in wonderful) 1 pop recording (crappy artist in both MQA ad Tidal) 1 semi classical from 2L called Magnificat again really well recorded. I recently picked up a alt-rock compilation of MQA tracks by David Elias I have compared several tracks from this release to Tidal versions and hands down the MQA tracks are much better.

The jury is still out.

Note: name corrected based on Randy's post.
 
Randy Myers said:
Do you mean David Elias? If so did you compare the MQA to his DSD efforts.
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Yes I did mean Elias and no I did not compare. From what I read on his website all of the material was sourced from DSD content. I have demo'd DSD capable DAC'S in my system and not found a reason to move forward in that direction yet.

David's comment
I have been working with MQA Ltd. in the UK on getting my DSD masters converted to DXD and then having the PCM masters encoded as MQA. All the work was done by MQA Ltd. and the results have been very and sometimes surprisingly excellent.

I like good sound. If it sounds good, it is good. I don’t have to go too much beyond that for my own sonic barometer. Good job MQA.
 
Randy Myers said:
Do you mean David Elias? If so did you compare the MQA to his DSD efforts.
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Yes I did mean Elias and no I did not compare. From what I read on his website all of the material was sourced from DSD content. I have demo'd DSD capable DAC'S in my system and not found a reason to move forward in that direction yet.

David's comment
I have been working with MQA Ltd. in the UK on getting my DSD masters converted to DXD and then having the PCM masters encoded as MQA. All the work was done by MQA Ltd. and the results have been very and sometimes surprisingly excellent.

I like good sound. If it sounds good, it is good. I don’t have to go too much beyond that for my own sonic barometer. Good job MQA.
 
still-one said:
I only have 5 MQA releases at this time. For the most part I just wanted to try out a few genre to see if the sound was similar to what I heard at the demo at a local dealer. I have 1 organ piece (blah) 1 jazz recording (not my type of music but the sound in wonderful) 1 pop recording (crappy artist in both MQA ad Tidal) 1 semi classical from 2L called Magnificat again really well recorded. I recently picked up a alt-rock compilation of MQA tracks by David Elias I have compared several tracks from this release to Tidal versions and hands down the MQA tracks are much better.

The jury is still out.

Note: name corrected based on Randy's post.
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Isn't that pretty much the entire catalog? :)
 
still-one said:
I only have 5 MQA releases at this time. For the most part I just wanted to try out a few genre to see if the sound was similar to what I heard at the demo at a local dealer. I have 1 organ piece (blah) 1 jazz recording (not my type of music but the sound in wonderful) 1 pop recording (crappy artist in both MQA ad Tidal) 1 semi classical from 2L called Magnificat again really well recorded. I recently picked up a alt-rock compilation of MQA tracks by David Elias I have compared several tracks from this release to Tidal versions and hands down the MQA tracks are much better.

The jury is still out.

Note: name corrected based on Randy's post.
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Jim do you also have the same music in non MQA from, for comparison like DSD etc..
 
"it was all in Bob’s laptop or Bob’s head. Bob provided me with a prototype MQA decoding DAC, I prepared my masters, and sent the files to Bob. He would return three or four different versions, which I would listen to.

I didn’t have a clue what Bob had done – so I tried to describe the sound with emotional words, not engineering words. We don’t have that vocabulary. That’s how I tried to listen to the final result; not with my analytical brain, but instead relying on how it makes me feel."

So BS just threw together a few versions of what he thought sounded good? If ML can't attest to the fact that the recording sounded "as the artist intended" BS can take a stab at it! And in the process tell you how you should "feel" when listening to it? Nice marketing approach - emotional.

It sounds like they think people are idiots and do not know what good sound is.

This also explains why all the publications are emotional about MQA rather than analytical because they don't have the "linguistic craftsmanship" (AKA A Vocabulary).
 
still-one said:
I only have 5 MQA releases at this time. For the most part I just wanted to try out a few genre to see if the sound was similar to what I heard at the demo at a local dealer. I have 1 organ piece (blah) 1 jazz recording (not my type of music but the sound in wonderful) 1 pop recording (crappy artist in both MQA ad Tidal) 1 semi classical from 2L called Magnificat again really well recorded. I recently picked up a alt-rock compilation of MQA tracks by David Elias I have compared several tracks from this release to Tidal versions and hands down the MQA tracks are much better.

The jury is still out.

Note: name corrected based on Randy's post.
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So how does the 808v6 perform on other, non-MQA formats? Are you feeding the unit with the same source for all formats? Can you play back DSD with the same source?
 
I have three of David's albums in DSD. Fantastic recordings! The DSD original recordings are amazing. I am sure they do a decent job converting them to MQA. I would wonder about doing a direct comparison of the DSD and the MQA. I would be surprised if the original was not a whole lot better.
 
Randy Myers said:
I have three of David's albums in DSD. Fantastic recordings! The DSD original recordings are amazing. I am sure they do a decent job converting them to MQA. I would wonder about doing a direct comparison of the DSD and the MQA. I would be surprised if the original was not a whole lot better.
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Yup, just the kind of comparison I'd be interested in too. I'm just not sure how many units will support both DSD and MQA.
 
radioactive said:
So how does the 808v6 perform on other, non-MQA formats? Are you feeding the unit with the same source for all formats? Can you play back DSD with the same source?
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The upgrade to 808v6 placed a already very competitive unit in the same discussions with any of the top contenders from dCs, MSB, Esoteric, Nagra, Berkeley, Playback Design etc. There are a few I have yet been able to audition in my system but after hearing them I didn't walk away thinking my system didn't sound at least as good.

The 808v6 is only capable of playing DoP files via USB and I have neither.



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I wrote to MQA and asked if there were any plans to release a software version of MQA that we could download. Here is their response:

''Our future roadmap will include software players and our expectation is the roll-out of this will be towards the end of the year. As you know many streaming services also integrate into these players (like Tidal) so we are working closely with all partners on the wider roll-out.''


 
lallygagger said:
I wrote to MQA and asked if there were any plans to release a software version of MQA that we could download. Here is their response:

''Our future roadmap will include software players and our expectation is the roll-out of this will be towards the end of the year. As you know many streaming services also integrate into these players (like Tidal) so we are working closely with all partners on the wider roll-out.''
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Does that mean their DAC can be implemented in software? Sure sounds like it.

Maybe they mean there will be software players that can bitstream MQA encoded data to a DAC? Sorta like DoP?
 
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The engineers at Auralic have already done it and that was what they were going to demonstrate at CES before they were stopped.
 
radioactive said:
Does that mean their DAC can be implemented in software? Sure sounds like it.

Maybe they mean there will be software players that can bitstream MQA encoded data to a DAC? Sorta like DoP?
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I did not ask for details. I am assuming, however, from the word ''player'' that it might be a software player in the manner of Pure Music or Audirvana, etc. that we can download from the MQA site onto our computers... or perhaps a plug in to be used with such players.
In any case, I am heartened because if MQA turns out to be the ''holy grail'' of recorded music, I did not want to have to change my DAC which I dearly love. If they do release a software player, then I will not have to.
 
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