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

Source?

I'm not sure what your source is, but my dealer just said 6-8 weeks for 818v3 upgrade kits.

I'm sure though that it will be amazing when it finally comes.

Is the (so called MQA) upgrade the same for 808.5 as 818.2 as previously stated by Meridian Rep and PP.

If so could M or PP confirm this point.

Hector

That's consistent with what I've heard - half a dozen 818v3 units in the first production run expected to be available at the end of September or shortly thereafter, with the upgrade kits 6-8 weeks later. Firmware upgrades on SE speakers to be issued at the same time to make them MQA ready, but no timetable for MQA to be inferred from this. MQA timetable now the responsibility of MQA Ltd rather than Meridian.

Audioquest and Mytek Digital added to the list of hardware vendors supporting MQA.

Soundserge

HQ just tweeted that they've been listening to the 818v3 and to contact a dealer for more info. Sounds like the release is near.

This is an interesting comment from Jason V Serinus at stereophile in his RMAF report about dCs' new Rossini product.


Soundserge

No Meridian presence @ the West-Deutsche HiFi Tage 2015 @ Bonn this weekend, but the national distributor (Germany) was there & he thinks he might be getting a demo 818v3 in the next few days.

Casual discussions with some Analogue & Digital hardware vendors drew some withering (and baseless) criticism / dismissal of MQA !

It would be nice to see a couple other familiar faces supporting MQA. Do we think Meridian is keeping the good stuff for themselves, limiting the bleeding edge of the tech for themselves, thus keeping other high end DAC developers at bay? Onkyo, Arcam, Mytek, what a motley crew. I guess DCS would change that, though it's only a rumor?


Then you read this and it makes you wonder, what is the Meridian plan?
AudioCircles - Comments on Aurelic and MQA..

Yetis,

MQA needs mass market acceptance of its technology for it to be successful, and that means content. Until the content starts to come through there is little point people licensing the technology. That some have is great but it will take time.

dCS dacs start at £8k here in the UK and work their way upwards, not exactly affordable for your Average Joe (or Josephine). I'd rather have ONKYO (who also sell Hires downloads) than dCS if I were faced with a choice. Motley, maybe, but I'll guess that ONKYO owners in aggregate purchase more music value-wise than dCS owners by a considerable margin.

It is not in Meridian's interest to keep the bleeding edge stuff for themselves, rather who should they devote the most time and effort (and cost) to get over the line?

I agree that in the interest of uptake, Onkyo supporting MQA is more relevant than dCs doing so (still speculation at this point). But, should dCs support MQA, it would be a positive endorsement as I understand some people there have done quite a bit of research into time smearing effects on SQ.

In other news, MQA wins a RIHPA (Rocky Mountain International HiFi Press Award) in the Innovation category

Soundserge

I have been away and so could not respond to your question. But as you can see from other threads the new kit seems to be arriving more or less as I suggested.