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

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.