Streaming vs traditional

"The opportunities of man are limited only by his imagination" 

Peace out! 

willemj, Since you are a scientific guy, I’m sure you know that double blind tests that have not been published in a peer reviewed journal have zero scientific credibility. I am not a scientist, but I can assure you that that study would not survive peer review and would never be published in a peer reviewed journal.

I’m not opposed to blind testing in audio, in fact, I’m for it. It’s just not scientific evidence. It could be used to see who has the best ears or the most revealing system or who is being a little too hyperbolic in their reviews at a given point in time and in specific circumstances, but that’s about it. It can’t tell you which gear or music or format you will like in the long run.

I’m sure that Meridian has double blind tests that show that MQA sounds superior to cds. So who’s right?

I don’t know if MQA sounds better than cds. I have read comments from many people who have heard it and believe it does. I think that streaming is a great thing and right now you can get MQA thrown in for free, so anyone who is interested should check it out and decide for themselves. If you’re not sure, just wait a couple years and see whether they can convince enough people that it’s worthwhile that it survives in the marketplace. We don’t have to wave double blind studies at each other, time will tell.

You can add me to the purely personal/anecdotal/unscientific side that finds, in most instances, the MQA from Tidal through a Bluesound 2 through a separate DAC sounds better than the non-MQA.  In most instances, the semi-MQA through the arguably better DAC sounds better than the "full" MQA through the Bluesound.

Some seem difficult to distinguish.  Haven't found any MQA that sounds worse than what should be the same non-MQA on Tidal.  There are a couple that, to my ears, don't sound as good as an older CD.  Perhaps a remaster.

Just what my ears say, even as I still don't fully understand MQA and how it all gets processed.

Since this thread has drifted over to MQA, see my post here of many of the hi-fi brands incorporating MQA into their models.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/dac-streamer-mqa-wireless-besides-bluesound.
I don’t know if it will last, but I thought I read two large record companies are making MQA versions of their entire collections, Universal Music Group (UMG), and Warner Music Group (with Sony Music Entertainment on the fence right now).

To the best of my knowledge Meridian have never published any of their work in a scientific journal.