“MQA is a philosophy”..John Stuart


Full quote- “In brief, MQA is a philosophy more than it’s ‘just a codec’. 
Your thoughts??
ptss
I own SACD, CD. But I now stream MQA through Tidal. Compare to 44k/16bit, MQA does sounds better. Since it come with Tidal HiFi. Why not listen to them? I recently acquired an Opportunity 205 enable me to do SACD/CD/4K/MQA. I am open to any formate that improve my listening experience.
I am constantly seeking out new music, much of which is older -- until I recently brought digital into my systems, there were many recordings I did not have access to. 
In my case, I suppose being uninformed is better than being misinformed, I gather the industry is promoting MQA and there is a fair amount of resistance to it from the audiophile community. Rather than stake out a position-- since I don't really have one-- I have a few questions:
1. Wasn't MQA through some sort of file compression, supposed to facilitate streaming of hi-rez files which could get bottlenecked in the passage from the originating server to the user's player?
2. Is DRM part of the code, or is it simply a fear that once you allow a standard like this to gain traction, that is a potential next step?


I really like the wordplay of "origami unfolding" instead of compression-decompression. My know-it-all kids explained to me that if it is lossy, it cannot be origami, they tried to illustrate this through an analogy with "real" Transformers vs. Hollywood-style transformation of a VW Beetle into a 50-ton battle-tank. They lost me then and there...

Anyway, I listen to Master Tidal on Windows 7, thru Schiit Eitr into Wadia 781i. MQA of my favorite ECM albums do not sound as good as those same CDs played through Wadia (or Naim CDS3). One explanation is that Wadia is old and outdated and/or that it sounds better from internal transport, not as good when used as DAC. Another explanation came yesterday from Tidal support: "A DAC which is MQA capable can unfold up to 8x (provided the DAC has that capability). With the desktop and/or a non-MQA DAC you will get 24bit/88.2 (96) kHz... 

In order to listen to the MQA format to its fullest extent, your equipment needs to be MQA capable. Otherwise, you will not be getting the full MQA experience but you will still have better quality than HiFi."