MQA - Revolutionary, Evolutionary or Hyperbole?

[MusicDirector]

I just wish the actual sound enhancing features of MQA were also going to be available in a lossless format, compressed or not. It seems silly to get locked into a lossy compression scheme in this day (presumably extending into the future) of cheap data storage and fast data processing. It's not as though Meridian hasn't used lossless compression in the past...

I'm not sure if it's a lossy format or not at this point. I'm thinking maybe it's kind of like FLAC (compressed, but supposedly lossless)?
I'm also a little confused on what they are doing exactly. I read something about doing this procedure with masters or something, I don't know. I think we know less than we think we know at this point, I'm not sure.
I think we need more info.

 

[AJ Soundfield]

I'm also a little confused on what they are doing exactly.

Probably trying to sell you the 3rd or 4th version of an album you already own.
"Master Quality Authenticated" of course. Which seems an awful lot like "Remastered".
And yes, it's lossless compression, like FLAC. "Hi Rez" sized file compressed to around Redbook size.

cheers,

AJ

 

[rbbert]

...And yes, it's lossless compression, like FLAC. "Hi Rez" sized file compressed to around Redbook size.

cheers,

AJ

Although I'm not a programmer, I have to question whether this is possible at the current state of knowledge. Even assuming that "hi-res" means only 24/96 rather than something more, we're talking about a compressed file less than 25% of the size of the original. Unlikely, IMHO.

 

[astrotoy]

My understanding is that the MQA compressing utilizes underused/unused space in the frequency - dynamic range space. Which means it is not lossless, since MQA overwrites what was in the space before, and once that space is used by MQA it cannot become unused when the process is reversed, unless one assumes there was absolutely nothing in the underused/unused space.

What appears to be attractive (to me at least) about the MQA compression, is that I could have my hirez files that I have ripped (all 192/24) in a format that 1) a person can play with a normal non hirez system, albeit with less resolution, or 2) a person can play with the proper MQA equipped DAC at full resolution. Further, to use my situation, I have about 10,000 albums - vinyl and reel to reel tapes - that I have ripped to 192/24. They take up about 35TB - which means a pretty big NAS box (I use a Synology 12 Bay 4TB each NAS to hold the rips - actually more than that with extra redundancy using the Synology RAID system and additional back ups). If I can use MQA, than my entire collection of rips will fit into 2 6TB drives, easily fitting into a briefcase. (Of course there will not be any redundancy or back up).

My understanding is that there are other manipulations that MQA does to improve sound quality that are independent of the compression. I want to make sure this is really true (remember Dynagroove?). Also there clearly needs to be a critical mass of MQA DAC's to allow MQA to succeed.

Larry

 

[o0OBillO0o]

My understanding is that the MQA compressing utilizes underused/unused space in the frequency - dynamic range space. Which means it is not lossless, since MQA overwrites what was in the space before, and once that space is used by MQA it cannot become unused when the process is reversed, unless one assumes there was absolutely nothing in the underused/unused space.

What appears to be attractive (to me at least) about the MQA compression, is that I could have my hirez files that I have ripped (all 192/24) in a format that 1) a person can play with a normal non hirez system, albeit with less resolution, or 2) a person can play with the proper MQA equipped DAC at full resolution. Further, to use my situation, I have about 10,000 albums - vinyl and reel to reel tapes - that I have ripped to 192/24. They take up about 35TB - which means a pretty big NAS box (I use a Synology 12 Bay 4TB each NAS to hold the rips - actually more than that with extra redundancy using the Synology RAID system and additional back ups). If I can use MQA, than my entire collection of rips will fit into 2 6TB drives, easily fitting into a briefcase. (Of course there will not be any redundancy or back up).

My understanding is that there are other manipulations that MQA does to improve sound quality that are independent of the compression. I want to make sure this is really true (remember Dynagroove?). Also there clearly needs to be a critical mass of MQA DAC's to allow MQA to succeed.

Larry

Larry - interesting- my understanding is that MQA has to "know" your analog to digital converter in order to be "authenticated." So your Vinyl rips will not be corrected. See above vidoes. But yes, anyone could play with or without the compression scheme, that uses the low level noise that you wont hear either way.