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Any News on MQA Lately?

Earlier in the year there was lots of "buzz" about MQA, especially when it was reported that Tidal would be streaming the format.

Since then it seems like Tidal might be shopping itself for a possible sale, maybe to Apple?

I'm not seeing much MQA "buzz" on the web lately.
ejr1953
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
PS Audio said they were not at all impressed by it. Benchmark has a long blog post on the matter and just how convoluted the entire process really is.

Meh, the Brooklyn is a very good dac with or without MQA, but I was looking forward to finding yet another veil lifted... or some other ridiculous thing like that. Nothing.

Best,

Erik
Post removed 
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
I’m sorry Tomcy, your mixing up a few things.

MQA does in fact require the use the apodizing filter. What MQA adds is decoding of the high resolution data as well as their claims to time domain fixes. MQA attempts to compress 384k data (in a lossy way) into a 48kHz signal.

Think of MQA more like FLAC vs. MP3 sort of kind of. :)

The best independent critique I know if how it works is at Benchmark media’s site.

In the case of the Brooklyn, when you have MQA detection and decoding enabled it will force you to use the apodizing filter. If you disable MQA you can pick from 3 different filter types.

Best,


Erik
Post removed 
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
Well, I know the answer about sound quality already. :)

If I have to look for an "improvement" with a microscope and tweezers it's not worth it to me. :)

Remember Dolby A, B and C? That was worth paying money for. Differences were clear to anyone. MQA.... meh. I can't see myself on my deathbed going "OH, if only MQA had survived, my audio life would have been so much better."

Best,

Erik
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