Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music Re: MQA status?

I'm guessing that there are very few of these products in customer's hands. Therefore no pressure on the studios to produce the software yet. Maybe a smaller producer like 2L or Chesky will be the first to start the flow of MQA files out to the consumer. They took the chance with hi-rez, it would seem logical for them to follow on with MQA.

Why not simply release the new MQA products (eg 818v3) ahead of the MQA release, fully enabled to work with MQA when it arrives?

By definition, these products will produce excellent results with non-MQA sources and should represent a significant upgrade on existing products.

I wouldn't purchase any updates while the MQA audio files are not available and no guarantees on release have been given?

YMMV

Russ

Fair point, but I suspect that if M had marketed the 818v3 as a major upgrade primarily in conventional sound quality with the added bonus of MQA in due course, many people would have bought it or upgraded from v2. Bear in mind that the v3 will have a much better 24/192 DAC than the v2 and will also be able to handle DSD natively.

This approach might have made life a little easier for the dealers, who can't have sold many v2s since the MQA announcement last December.

Agree that everyone's circumstances are different but I suspect M are getting very close to being able to say with certainty that MQA will fly, even though there are loose ends that still need tying up.

SE speakers / upgrades et al were marketed as essential for the best of MQA.

Prospective customers listened to a small number of MQA tracks from upgraded 818 source!

Difficult to understand the difference considered here relating to 818/808 upgrades.

What is stopping the release? Surely not just the availability of recorded material!

Hector

If there's no rush to produce the hardware (because of lack of content) then why not take time? Perhaps the chips will be cheaper/better in 6 months time!

Cheers
Tom

My understanding is that the hardware is already available at M - upgrade kits and new v3 machines.

Maybe M intend to wait until Tidal is actually up and running with MQA.
After all, imagine if you'd spend say £1k upgrading your kit or sustantially more on a latest generation 818, only to find that MQA never gets released. Imagine the potential backlash at Meridian.
Looks like they're playing their cards right to me.

FWIW, I'm expecting a performance boost with all material as a result of the MQA R&D. The 818v3 could (potentially) apodize RBCD to 176k and transmit to DSP loudspeakers using MQA over MHR.

Total speculation on my part, but it seems "logical".

+1.

Even if MQA does not fly (highly unlikely in my view) the compression technology behind MQA will be used by M to improve the performance of DSPs on standard material. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the existence of MQA material is a red herring, but there is still plenty to squeeze out of the existing formats.

VK and Altus
Thank you for your insight, this is my guess / understanding too.

Hector

So why the delay then?