Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music Re: MQA status?

This is a very interesting question and not an easy one to answer. One thing that is clear to me is that it does appear that, in general, *artists* do care about (a) audio quality and (b) connecting with fans. The idea of MQA as a broadcast standard is not lost on Bob at all; I wonder if we'll see the likes of Coldplay or Muse gigs streamed live to IMAX (for instance)? I wonder how close to "being there" the experience might be? I wonder if we might be surprised?

The other thing is that, according to Bob [yes, again], the benefits of MQA will be audible in most equipment and, in five years time, *potentially* most equipment (including phones) could be capable of decoded MQA playback. The real trick is getting Joe Sixpack to move from "free" to paid subscription music. Do we count subscribers to Apple Music as "mainstream" (because that's already happening)?

[I've got my glass half-full hat on today]

If it costs *anything* extra to the masses .. don't hold your breath that it will be ubiquitous.

Even I will not be using it as much as I want to, as it wont cope with my Room correction or any DSP and I'm not sure that Devialet will ever include a MQA decoder (In fact I'm pretty sure they wont).

I would have to take analog out of a newly bought MQA DAC and then feed it into the AD section of my amp... no way!!!

Bob would say that your glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

I would say that the real trick is to bring the price down so that Joe Sixpack doesn't think twice about paying for it, if the intention is for it to become a mainstream product. I guess it all comes down to margins and how long they thing the tech will last.

Cheers
Tom

Another fun speculation!

None of the mods have answered my question, put directly to them, as to whether they have listened to the 2L files (unencoded) and what are their impressions. This leads me to wonder whether they are testing new firmware and equipment and are therefore listening to MQA decoded.

I understand if they are not at liberty to confirm this but it would nonetheless be very encouraging to learn that they are up to something.

I had heard that they were hoping to have something ready in a few weeks rather than a few months.

But MQA would encode from the original masters and at the very least have the benefit of alleged superior encoding bringing better than CD sound (allegedly) to CD (undecoded) spec.

Speaking for myself, I've had a chest infection for three weeks, am knackered, and haven't bought any MQA or downloaded any of the free MQA samplers from 2L yet. From what I can see, the regular CD counterparts to the free 2L MQA tracks do not appear to be available, so the "better than CD" comparison is completely moot. I could, of course compare the MQA samplers to their Hi-Res PCM equivalents, but I'm not sure what that would tell me/you/us.

I may buy a couple of items from the Onkyo site (e.g. the folk stuff thats on there), but that will be purely on the basis of music that I want to own/listen to.

Ah yes, but he'd also say that when you put your hat into the archive, you should probably err on the side of caution

Does anyone have any thoughts as to how MQA's apparent inability to support DSP room correction will affect its acceptance in the processor/HT market, including a couple of its partners? Does anyone do MCH these days without some form of room correction? From what we know now (not much) there doesn't appear to be any way to incorporate room correction and MQA, either 2 channel or MCH.

Ken

Arcam appear to have pulled out of MQA:

They were certainly included in the early Meridian press releases alongside Onkyo.

I have not seen any statement saying DSP room correction is not physically possible or any other tweaks in the digital stream eg EBA. But practical implementation is another question and also where does "authenticated" stop and post processing tweaks start? Is it still MQA then?