Russ, I know it's not in Bob's hands, he just kicked the ball onto the pitch. Now it's 'Game On'. Let's see what they do with it.
Chris
No 18 in the Hall of fame I have simple tastes; I am content to settle for the best: GIK monster bass panels, rear wall. QNAP TVS 471i3. Roon into DSP5200SE via 210/ 218 zone... Explorer 2. Bluesound Pulse 2, Mini & Flex. 596v1, 518, Foxsat HD, Sony BDP, Pioneer 5090, 2 Chromecast's for LRB videos. MS200 to F80 for a Roon zone
I am sure Bob is going flat out to get it adopted and I hope he succeeds I really do, it is just I fear the studios are motivated by money, closely followed by money.
Russ
PS: Check out Tinsley Ellis, the album is Live! Highwayman.
MQA needs a lossless delivery system, so standard [lossy] MP3 would be a problem.
MP3HD which is lossless would be ok, but from what I understand that format was in development back in 2009, its aim to be compatible with existing MP3 players. I don't think it ever caught on with the dominance of FLAC, ALAC, ...
I wouldn't expect that a MQA encoded MP3 would match the quality of MQA encoded lossless format. Even with MQA's encoding tricks, there will be less bits available if they want to keep the file sizes similar. Since these MP3 tracks are playable on any MP3 player, there is a huge market already in place. Once hardware manufacturers start including MQA decoding into their devices, those MP3's will just sound better. I believe that MQA encoded MP3's will be a major force in keeping MQA from being just another niche format.
Where / from whom did you hear that MP3 files could contain MQA encoded data? I'm interested in digging a bit deeper it to this as what you are saying seems at odds with the message from Meridian, which is that MQA encoding needs a lossless delivery system.
I too have heard discussions of manufacture building in hardware MQA decoder into there DAC but that was for High-Resolution MQA files not MP3.
Hi Thanks for link, I can see the section of interest, I've highlight the pertinent sections.
Originally Posted by SoundGuys - MQA
MQA is completely backwards compatible and there is no real need for new hardware to enjoy it. Basically how it works is “folding” the lossless audio file and then embedding it into an MP3, or any other file format. That file can then be played back in two ways. One way is in its natural format without a decoder. The file is still technically an MP3 and can therefore still be played and enjoyed in all of the usual ways.
I believe they have misinterpreted the press releases -- I'll make enquiries and report back.
In the meantime have a read of this TheAbsouteSound MQA article by Robert Harley esp. the MQA in Practise section.
An interesting point I read earlier today was that apparently Apple insist that ALL music uploaded to them for re-sale HAS to be in 24/96 format. Whilst we know that Apple use ALAC, doesn't that mean that they have a huge library to hand that would be perfect for some mass conversion using MQA?
861v4/ID40/LPS, HD621, Roon, BAT VK-600se, Impulse Ta'us. Director/Heed Canamp with HD600s.
But that wouldn't really qualify as MQA as there would be no-way to cover the authentication.
For example, if the files originated from upsampled files and became MQA then we would be back to the earlier HD Tracks complaints. The MQA would not really be authenticated along the whole audio chain.
Now, whether they could licence the compression technology and put out MQL (e.g. MQLossless) is another matter. They could stream 96/24 this way.
What the consumer doesn't need is MQA decoders AND an bespoke Apple/iTunes equivalent.
Thanks for the link. Lots of good info in one place and will take a while for me to work through, but I read the part about the files having to be lossless. Too bad. The MP3 format would have been the perfect "gateway drug" to get the public hooked on better sound.
Google Search
|
Meridian Systems
|
Meridian Streaming
|
Restaurant
|
WiKi
|
Duncan's Meridian Info
|
Board Rules
|
Restaurant Rules
