Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Restaurant at the End of Universe Meridian Dealers - Equipment EVENT: MQA Demo at Audio High, CA

Now this seems like a proper demonstration of MQA.
Sure wish I wasn't 3000 miles away.

How about a selection of recordings from Robert Silverman and Herbie Hancock both recorded in MQA!

And how about this for a kicker!! "Audio High recorded the complete Beethoven piano sonatas with Robert Silverman, and a set of these sonatas will be made available at the event at no charge as the first MQA files publicly available."

Audio High MQA Release Event


Oh well, so close, yet so far away,

Sounds like Ludwig missed a trick there...

Maybe the Northeastern USA HH'ers could charter a plane and fly over I agree it looks like a great demo. Cheers to Audio High!

This sounds like it was a great event. Any feedback or comments from the organizers or attendees would be most interesting.

Regards,

Wayne

I agree. That event sounded as though it should be outstanding yet there is no feedback. And there are also other events going on all over the world with no feedback. And there is no further news of MQA.

I just hope that the MQA launch is still OK as both the 808 and 818 have been delayed. And of course the 861 is not due until later in the year. Who is going to be buying the older versions of these models since the Shard event in December? How will the factory keep going?

Perhaps Bob could use his empty blog space on the Meridian site, empty for some months now, to provide re-assurance and a progress report: just a few words?

I had the opportunity to attend this event. It was a nice evening with good food, music and information. MQA was presented by 3 members of the M team and included music played through a pair of DSP8000SE speakers. The music was played using a C15 along with an 818v3.

There was a QNAP NAS in the mix also. As I am not a Sooloos owner yet I am not totally familiar with exactly where the MQA files were stored (and I didn't think to ask as I had other questions that were more important to me).

I have to say that every MQA selection was excellent. I was particularly impressed by an old digital recording by Dire Straits (money for nothing) and another song by Blake Shelton (not sure of the name) that was recorded when CD's first came out in the early 80's. With MQA these older recordings sound incredible. In addition there were also some recorded tracks in MQA by Robert Silverman (a world renowned pianist who was in attendance) that sounded like he was actually playing live in the room.

In another room there was a computer containing MQA music played through the M prime amp with a few different pairs of headphones. I am not much of a headphone person but the music through the Audeze headphones (not sure of the model number) was very nice and almost made me want to buy a pair ( I'm sure the MQA music files helped).

It was promised for those in attendance to receive some of his recordings in MQA but that is being delayed (to be sent at the time the 818 v3 is available).

Ken Forsythe from M stated that some more announcements will be coming in the near future as to more very familiar companies that will be on board for MQA support (IMO reading between the lines it seemed that there are some big names involved).

I also asked the M staff about the future of Sooloos software (as I am considering buying into it) after the Roon split off and was told that there will continue to be great support and updated software etc. from M directly (I also got the feeling that some new Sooloos hardware may be coming but again that's pure speculation on my part).

As far as MQA I am expecting to be able to use it with the new version of the 861 and I was told that new version will be a larger upgrade than just MQA (probably M's version of DTS X and Dolby Atmos I'm guessing)- but will have to wait until at least the fall.

Sounds like some exciting times to come - can hardly wait.
If you haven't heard MQA I would highly recommend auditioning it for yourself as it is amazing.

A big thank you goes out to M for a great presentation and Audio High for hosting it.

Thanks for your interesting and helpful post. What you say about future announcements is encouraging.

Ditto what Joe had to say. It was a great event and I am extremely encouraged about the future of MQA. Some of the older songs I heard, and thought I knew and did not care for, came alive and may create all manner of new (old) music exploration.

I am particularly anxious to see how MQA gets integrated into the 861 to enable the use of Trifield and MRC.

JOHN