MQA technology and UHQCD format

[Mike]

I ordered a few of these new cd’s to try:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/feature/Worlds_First_HiRes_CD_by_Universal_Music_Japan

 

[mdp632]

I ordered a few of these new cd’s to try:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/feature/Worlds_First_HiRes_CD_by_Universal_Music_Japan

Very nice. But, don't you need an MQA CD player for playback? For example, like the Meridian.

 

[Mike]

Very nice. But, don't you need an MQA CD player for playback? For example, like the Meridian.

Great question. I’m assuming my MSB Reference Transport to MQA compatible MSB Select II DAC will work.

 

[mdp632]

Great question. I’m assuming my MSB Reference Transport to MQA compatible MSB Select II DAC will work.

Thanks. It was my understanding Meridian plays back MQA CDs currently. The Oppo 205 might get it in the future via a firmware update (MQA CD playback). There are also maybe 2 or 3? Chesky Recordings MQA CDs.

You also might be able to rip the CDs and the MQA file have a a .flac extension then play them back via USB or network to the MSB. But, then again that defeats the purpose of the physical media.

I have a feeling from your post MQA CDs might be popular (especially in Japan). Hopefully Esoteric can enable the feature (MQA CD playback)on their transports.

 

[Mr Peabody]

Oh.... he bought physical media, LOL

I thought MQA was like encoding, where anything could play it but the DAC had to be MQA compatible to decode, unfold, or whatever it does. There seems to be more and more DAC's that can play MQA, I haven't heard whether a transport would need to be anything special. Still learning though.

Great question. I’m assuming my MSB Reference Transport to MQA compatible MSB Select II DAC will work.

 

[CPP]

From a comment Daddy Bob S noted in Stereophile

"An MQA CD is a Red Book CD and is 100% compatible with any existing CD player. The audio on the disc is MQA-encoded PCM, and will play back happily without a decoder. In this case, the sound quality is slightly better than a typical CD, because the audio is already de-blurred in the studio. However. if the bitstream is passed to an MQA decoder, it is unfolded to 176kHz (in this case) and rendered to the DAC at 24-bit."

 

[still-one]

As Chris notes the way I understand a MQA CD can be played back on any transport and as long as it is fed to a MQA DAC it will work just like a streamed file. Remember just like a streamed file no DSP should be applied between the transport and the DAC.

 

[BlueFox]

You also might be able to rip the CDs and the MQA file have a a .flac extension then play them back via USB or network to the MSB. But, then again that defeats the purpose of the physical media.

I rip all my CDs. Physical media is a backup.

If I rip these CDs will the Lumin play the files at full MQA, or whatever is the appropriate term.

 

[wklie]

If I rip these CDs will the Lumin play the files at full MQA, or whatever is the appropriate term.

Yes. All MQA Full Decoder DAC are supposed to decode ripped MQA CD to get the best output. However, I would not be surprised if some of them need firmware updates if a bug appears, since there were extremely few MQA CD in the past.

 

[Kuoppis]

Whatever became of this UHQCD craze that flared up for a couple days during last year?

As I was busy with other things during last year, I did not get to follow the discussion. Nevertheless, I ordered some UHQCDs from Japan, which I now finally got to rip. Some Bill Evans, Dire Straits etc - stuff I know so I can compare.

This the highest resolution material I have ever played in my system: 352K. Does not sound bad.

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[Kuoppis]

An interesting observation is, that not only the DAC, but also Roon is identifying the tracks as 352.8K files.

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[audio.bill]

Roon itself can only provide MQA Core decoding (also referred to as the first unfold) which would likely be 24/88 or 24/96, but that specific MQA file would be decoded to 352.8kHz when connected to a DAC like yours which supports full MQA decoding or MQA rendering.

 

[Kuoppis]

I am aware of how MQA works, this is the part I find interesting. The UHQCD files are shown in Roon as 352.8K, as you can see in the picture.

I guess the Roon core is receiving information from the DAC. The files were indeed first displayed as 24/96, and after being played back once they are now indicated to be 352.8K.


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[brodricj]

Post your opinion.

 

[wklie]

https://audiophilereview.com/cd-dac-digital/a-comparison-of-sacd-vs-mqa-in-physical-format.html

 

[Kuoppis]

Bought another UHDCD with music I very much like.

Will be interesting to explore the ripping, i.e. what comes out, and the SQ.

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[Alrainbow]

It's not the player it's the dac so mike is covered I think.

 

[Alrainbow]

Mike does tidal mqa play on your setup as an app