Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Restaurant at the End of Universe Meridian Dealers - Equipment An Exclusive Meridian MQA NYC Event

First, I would like to thank Ken for hosting the event. I wasn't aware this was a HH specific event, so on that front, I am especially grateful.

My overall comment is that MQA is a step forward. Was I blown away, no, but I was impressed. My expectations going in were very different than what I heard. I was expecting MQA to be a real powerful tool to reinvigorate older recordings. So I was thinking that all the old jazz masters and classical offerings would be the first to remaster. However, what I heard last night left me thinking that isn't the case. The challenge is that I don't know how many MQA titles have been done at this point. I am sure that like any smart company, M has picked the ones that have yielded the greatest "return". I suspect that remastering via MQA one of countless classical recordings likely yields less play and interest than something more mainstream when out there trying to sell the format to recording studios and manufacturers. So initially I was surprised that not a single classical recording was offered up as a demo last night, though in reflection, I guess it makes sense. As an aside, it sounds like they have a very large portion of the manufacturing community on board, with a couple �billion dollar� manufacturers already on board. So from a hardware perspective, it seems like they are good there.

For me, the most impressive recordings of the evening were:

Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly: Here, you could just feel the power of the low-end and the clarity in the reproduction. Really was a great list. Will be having a listen on my own tonight, to compare mental notes.

David Brubeck � Take Five: Here I was impressed

Will i AM's - ???? (sorry, no idea what the track or album is) - This was essentially EDM (electronic dance music). Apparently Will I Am is all in with MQA, so I imagine his music will be some of the first releases with the tech. By virtue of my lot in life, I spend a lot of time around EDM. I will admit that I exercise to its as well. However, the crispness and clarity to the sound was pretty spectacular. I imagine nightclubs and million dollar a night dj�s (they exist..) will want this in the arms race to put on the best show possible.

Was not impressed by the now typical M demo featuring Ella and Louis Armstrong. While the M products always seem to do justice to Louis, I struggle with Ella. This is me, but I find the reproduction of here vocals fatiguing. This was a pure old world analog recording that had been processed in some capacity via MQA. I fully acknowledge that this might be me, but I don�t have the same reaction to this on my own gear. This is what makes me wonder about where MQA will yield its greatest benefits. Looking forward to hearing something distinctive in the classical realm, an old classic recording of Rachmaninoff #3 or Bach Cello solo, to determine if there is a classical reissue wave coming, as I initially suspected.

Other demos were:

Dire Straits � Money for Nothing: Don�t have much to compare it to, not on my play list. Was on the list and suggests that Warner Brothers is an early adopter of MQA. Roberta Flack was also Warner Bros..

Norah Jones � Was a recording that I think we have all heard. MQA adds to the recording, giving it�s more range and clarity.

On the hardware front:

I was a little disappointed with some of the answers. There was a question about why you need an updated 818 if you have DSP's with MQA. It was down to "shared processing". Seems odd.

I also wanted to know why M keeps MHR for Sooloos outputs via the 818, when the incoming stream isn't encrypted. The answer was, reduced jitter... Not 100% sure I am buying that. Sort of a deal killer for me.

adding to Yetis' assessment -

Demo was in the NYC office complex listening room (home theater sized with soft wall, ceiling and floor coverings) using a pair of 8kSE's. (The 7kSEHC and rear 5200SEs in the room were not powered up.) Ken began with a powerpoint describing MQA and went on to playing the tracks noted above (rather louder than I prefer).

Personal taste, but in our opinion, Ella rocks, and sounded very lifelike in the MQA rendition. Louis' trumpet came across quite edgy (this from someone who played the instrument for 12+ years) - part Louis, part volume of the playback. This and the analog source material had background noise, but the voices/instruments rose above. Most striking of these was the circa 1900 operatic track originally recorded on wax in which the soprano actually sounded human. Also fun was Six's cymbal work in Take 5. First time a recorded cymbal sounded like a cymbal to me. The early digitally-mastered material sounded far more natural; recent recordings were good (as much as you can judge synthetic, multi-track stuff), and Nora Jones via MQA was actually listenable (personal taste showing here again).

We're sold. As I said yesterday - I've heard the future. Let's hope MQA thrives (and we can afford the upgrades to play it!)

+1 on the volume of playback, I was lucky in that I had the room to myself at West London so I was able to turn it down to my normal listening volume, louder was definitely not better in my personal opinion.

Cheers

Russ

Thanks to Ken Forsythe and Ryan D. for hosting our small group last night in New York City. Ken gave an interesting, abbreviated "history of Meridian" and "history of MQA" before launching into the 2-channel DSP8000SE demonstration of multiple tracks from the 50's (Ella and Louis 'Stars fell on Alambama') to the current day (Will.i.am and Blake Shelton).

The Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond/Joe Morello "Take 5" demonstration was eerily lifelike, it was like I was in the recording studio-the drums, instruments were reproduced in a musical, lively manner.

Roberta Flack 'Killing Me Softly' - was like listening to it for the first time, again, musical with oodles of details yet not clinical.

Dire Straights - 'Money for Nada' - very good, even better sounding than the DVD Audio.

Talking Heads - 'Once in a Lifetime' - again, terrific sound, even better than the DVD Audio 'Brick' compilation.

The 8-10 year development cycle for MQA (which applied serious brain power to the science of listening to music) has achieved streamable HD-quality digital music files than can be authenticated by the end-consumer in the car or in the living room (this step is appreciated by the producer, artists, and buyers of expensive HD audio).

In my humble opinion, getting a high quality, authenticated streamable audio format adopted by the studios, hardware manufacturers and digital audio eco-systems would be a very positive step.

If you are confused by the description of MQA so far, go listen at a friendly dealer nearby because its more about the output of the music than anything else.

I'm really curious now that I've heard the DSP8000SE's play MQA files how it sounds on a high-end conventional analog/passive speaker system. Say, a Wilson Audio or a B&W speaker system that was not designed with MQA in mind.

Here's hoping it's adopted widely in the industry (digital satellite music in the United States, Sonos DSP speakers, most streaming lossless providers like Tidal and Deezer et al, Spotify (?). HH'er Dave999 suggested licensing it for films and audio soundtracks. Plenty of applications for a "more life-like" encoding of audio.

will I am, #Thatpower (featuring Justin Bieber), from "#willpower.

I am sorry that they did not play you the MQA file of the Ravel String Quartet. This, for me, was the most impressive of all.

Are you able to give any details?

Ken did not detail which music companies have signed on to MQA. But the impression he gave is that it's happening.

Not much to add beyond what I added. Said there are 2 manufacturers over a billion dollars. I would guess that a look at the adopters of Tidal would give you a pretty good idea who will be the hardware supporters of MQA early on. He did add that they can do the MQA via hardware and software, and that hardware decoding sounds better every time. I really don't know of may examples of a hardware vs. software version outside of a VPN, and I have found hardware VPN's to work best. I would add that based on the overall presentation, there doesn't seem much concern over the adoption from the hardware side. Given how fast hardware companies are to adopt other formats, doesn't seem all the surprising.

For me, the challenge is the studios, as it's not just the studio, it's also the owner of the master tape. There appear to be a host of processes that M can do to process it via MQA, one being the application of apodizing filters. However, it's at the studio or owners discretion, the level of processing that is done.

Thanks for these detailed reviews of the event.

I hope we are able to experience something similar in the midwest. As a none DSP owner, I would also be interested to hear MQA with an analog back end.

At some point during the evening presentation, we talked about the required specification (speed?) of a power amplifier to take full advantage of the MQA timing improvement.

Does anyone remember the numbers?

Yeah but it is even better in the original multichannel.