And sadly, that makes two :facepalm:
Just to catch up on the discussion, it appears that a few DAC Units that use custom ASIC Chips for their internal DAC functions (ESS, Wolfson, etc.) can become "MQA Compliant" via a FW upgrade. So building on that -- Is it possible that the FW upgrade to these units are simply upgrading the DSP functions within the DAC Unit and don't even touch the DAC Chip? I believe that would imply MQA is more of a tweak/adjustment of the signal.
I recall another Bob who came out with a technology that was the bee's knees in the 80's. It was called "sonic holography". The company was Carver and it was their C-9 model. I recall sitting and listening to it and being amazed at the expanded soundfield it created. The soundstage was 3-Dimensional and I was amazed that two speakers could pull this off. It never really caught on though. Just seems eerily familiar which is why I bring it up.
So let's just assume that MQA really does make listeners "believe" that the music sounds better. It may not be better than the original but it's the listener's perception of the sound that is what matters (esp to MQA). Think of it like treble and bass adjustments. A very flat recording could be assisted by the appropriate EQ adjustments (some might not like that, which is why I think that some people just don't care for MQA on recordings they're familiar with, but who knows) just like MQA is adjusting timing and other phase properties. The side affect is that the signal becomes lossy as a result. If you were to adjust the bass on a track and recapture that in digital form and then compare that to the original, I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be possible to recover the original form. MQA needs to modify the signal that might mean technically degrading it from the original (MQA is a lossy technique) but in the end we get the perception of better sound quality.
Just a hunch really and this is all speculation -- someone correct me please. I may be getting too far off base here. FWIW, I personally like my preamps without bass/treble controls. I want to hear the original signal, warts and all. Not sure what that means for MQA. It is fascinating the more I understand about it.
Also, RE DCS -- I think there's some kind of backstory as to why they decided to come out with the "dCS Network Bridge" as their solution to providing MQA to the Debussy and other DAC's (that aren't the Rossini and Vivaldi). Here's a link to a photo I found.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKGATg0BTd_/ I also have their marketing pdf is anyone is interested - just ask and I'll put it up here. But my guess is that it's got something to do with MQA's strict implementation requirements.
Yes..one, not 2
Read the post correctly...
