Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming What HiFi announces Tidal available on Sooloos in 'early 2015'

I suspect they've already hit 22 in Q1 -- that announcement says 22 is the Q1 launch target.

My guess is that it's the MQA launch. See here, for example.

But there is no hardware currently commercially available to decode MQA.

That's a Chicken and Egg scenario. I think the music files have to be available first to stimulate demand for decoding solutions.
As the files are backward compatible and supposed to sound, perhaps, better than CD they should be getting on with the massive task of transcoding ASAP IMHO.

Chris

Erm, Explorer 2, Prime... ?

As I understand MQA, it isn't a format that requires new decode (end user) hardware. Instead, it is delivery format (FLAC, etc.) independent. Its focus seems to be on capturing the original content better than other sampling and encoding methods. The result is included in exisiting container format.

See here.

See also the diagram in my earlier reference here, which says the MQAed information can be downloaded or streamed in "any format."

That is step three of the four step diagram you refer to, step four is the decode which is required to extract the MQA data, although the MQA encoded file will play perfectly without the decoder you just won't get the MQA version, decoding MQA as it says will be able to be done via sw or hw.

Russ

Yeah, you're right; I was thinking that an existing FLAC, etc., decoder would require no additional modifications, but that doesn't seem right, does it? So perhaps those decoders will have to be updated for MQA. Seems like it would be an easy software patch. Or firmware, if devices are doing it in hardware. Otherwise, why bother sticking to existing containers for the content delivery?

I may attend this event, held by my dealer, where I can learn more. . .or attend just because it sounds cool. . .

For backwards compatibility with existing equipment enabling users and providers alike to only have to have one source copy in their libraries.

To access the full AQ of MQA an MQA decoder is required in the audio path.

Regards,
Carl

Ken Forsythe gave a technical overview of the MQA technology last night in NYC to a few Hitchhikers. The result of some recently discovered medical research that explained why 24/192 digital audio files sounded 'better' and 24/384 sounded ever-so-slightly better led to a better understanding of the psychoacoustics of timing as opposed to frequency. Meridian built an encoder/decoder that allowed them to summarize the musical parts of the audio stream and hide data under the 'noise floor'.

Ken said last night that while the primary focus was on increasing the fidelity of convenient streamable audio, digital MQA files would eventually be sold on sites such as HDtracks, and because of the properties of the metadata, they can be downloaded faster & cheaper, authenticated, with very high fidelity (assuming they are decoded in HW or SW by a MQA capable DAC or SW library).

This is interesting Tidal tweet

Chris

A new Tidal update on iOS available. Mostly additional quality settings and optimisations. Cant find any reference to MQA.

In App Purchase is available offering (as trial) HiFi or half price premium service.