It's still early days. The programmed demos are only teasers. Until MQA material is out in the wild a lot of questions will go unanswered. I'm hoping Tidal will give us opportunity to do the comparisons you mentioned. I plan on picking up an Explorer 2 just for that reason. A small spend to determine if I want to make the big spend.
Originally Posted by Richard Hollinshead via email
Here's what actually happened....
A couple of the track names on the Sooloos were in an old format and they looked old to me. I was worried they might be very early (2013) experimental files. I said something like, "Are these the latest?" They were in fact all 0.9 direct from the Shard demo i.e. the latest.
The files on my laptop were from a copy of the 0.9 files used for headphone demos at the Shard and were also in use on the What Hi-Fi booth at Bristol.
The 0.9 audio standard actually pre-dated the Shard by many months. Only those involved in the development of MQA have heard any other versions, and as Bob points out [in a private email], later versions will sound the same.
I had intended to play some additional 0.9 files from the laptop that are not on the Sooloos, but in fact that did not happen because there were too many questions.
Yes, there are some differences in what this 818 displayed when the USB and Sooloos inputs were used. It's a prototype system.... Don't believe the display unless you know what the software behind it is doing.
I did comment that a momentary display of the sample rate on the 818 of "48kHz" indicated both the low data-rate of encoded MQA and the possibility of backward compatibility to 48kHz capable systems. There's nothing new in that. I said it in the slides and Bob said it at the Shard.
Of course everything I actually played was decoded full-quality MQA as indicated in plain view on the DSP8000s.
Feel free to quote the above.
Roon Developer and ex-moderator of this Forum I am #25 in the HH1 photo of fame.
Environmental chance, expectation and also more likely the playing of different tracks that have an entirely different quality of production and mastering? I imagine Richard wouldn't have been playing the same track over.
As I've listen to MQA on a few occassions I am impressed but also quite clear that even with MQA I DON'T enjoy some tracks any more or less than I did pre-MQA. The opposite may be true for Dappad for any particular track. i.e. the coincidence of changing 'whatever' but also hitting a track that 'ticked all his boxes'.
There are too many possible variable to ponder here. Anything that affects the percieved loudness, such as people moving, could affect the impact of the music
Main system - Sources (Kodi-HTPC, Vero 4k, FireTV, Sat) into Trinnov Altitude 32 (8-16) (+Roon), Trinnov Amplitude 8 amp & Vivid Audio (Giya G3, V1.5) and REL Stentor III speakers. Others: F80 + Raspberry Pi and other Pi systems.
I would like to say a big thank you to all that took the time to visit us over the weekend. I hope you found it enjoyable and educational.
A special thanks to Richard for his in depth talk about the wonders of MQA. It was very appreciated by all and a real honour for us. We all now have a much better understanding on this amazing new technology and hope that it is universally adopted.
The Meridian ensemble of Chris, Hugo and Brad were very generous with their time and so a big thank you from us for that.
Our own thoughts on MQA is that it brings a sense of realism that has never been achieved before with real depth and focus.
Great times ahead for Meridian which we will all reap the rewards of.
Kind regards,
Richard and the SSAV team.
Sevenoaks Sound And Vision - Reading Meridian Digital Dealer Since 1996 Tel: +44 (0) 118 959 7768 The Experts In Home Entertainment
They are not a one-man show so I would expect that the folks that man the trade desks at shows like Bristol will be quite far from the folks that are working on any projects like MQA licencing.
I would not be surprised if most people on the shop-floor at HQ don't know about MQA also. That doesn't mean it isn't being worked on.
IMHO most companies are terrible about the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing.
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