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

According to this What hifi video Onkyo/Pioneer won't have their software ready until the end of '1st quarter' but 7 digital say there should be 'tens of thousands of tracks by the end of January'.

Anyone's guess if Meridian are on the same timeframe. Part of me thinks something may come tomorrow when the 7 digital catalogue officially goes out but I doubt it.

Hi folks- I have been away on 3 week vacation break (ended so soon ) but I see MQA is still a work in progress but seems like we are getting there slowly but surely.

You can check stereophile blurb HERE

I would say save your money for SE!

regards,
Kishore

Well for £2.97 I just downloaded the Kate Rusby MQA tracks for Onkyo Audio and to say they sound 'Natural' is an understatement.
I am playing it through Roon and MS200. Roon shows FLAC 44.1KHz 16bit 2Cha

The audio wave form shows it not to be hot and compressed.

Go on, treat yourselves lol Chris 😎

What are the file extensions? The only MQA files I've seen are in the format "filename.mqa.FLAC". Is it the same for your files?

I love all the negative posts by sceptical readers, it's all so predictable.
This Kate Rusby is just great as it is, and if all music was recorded this well, we are onto something.
Chris, undecoded, 😎

I can't see any mention of MQA in the file name, but it was sold as MQA and it does sound very Natural. This could just be great production of course.

Given the emphasis on the role of the DAC in the fingerprinting process, wouldn't SE speakers take care of the whole decoding/unfolding all by themselves and wouldn't just sending an 'untouched' MQA file be sufficient?

In that case, perhaps current MSx00 (and other legacy) devices would suffice for MQA compliancy for SE's as they just need to pass the file through the digital chain. 818v3, Prime and Explorer 2 need to be fully certified since they have analog out.

Without new firmware MS200s et al would upscale and apodize the MQA files as they currently would not recognise the MQA encoding. This would in all probability kill the ability to render the MQA in all its glory.

@ChrisLayerUK

Not my bag, baby, but for 3 quid I thought I'd try one of the first MQA downloads made commercially available....and I can now rightfully complain that I have the media but not the hardware / firmware to play it on...

My impression, before the higher-highs & blacker-blacks brigade wake up on this lazy Sunday morning, is of 3 extremely well-recorded tracks, very clear & pure, with a very open / wide / wall-of-sound - read homogenous & realistic - soundstage.
As alluded to, not at all to my taste, but definitely a high-quality piece of music from the start to the end of the production chain.

I have DSP8000.2 SE-update speakers with the 3.07 firmware, playing through an 861v8 (inc. ID41) which is fed by Roon. When played, the files simply show "PCM 2CH 44K". Within the metadata, although bought from Onkyo, it says "Purchased from 7Digital.com".

I appreciate this Domonic, but MQA files are reported to be better than CD even when undecoded.
These files sound great to me even undecoded. Chris 😀

Which seems is possibly the Easter egg in all of this. If you want digital output post MQA, it's either 96kHz or it's in a closed system. The closed system at this point, being a modern Meridan DSP. If this is indeed the case, it's not a positive for MQA's future, you must conceded.

It also suggests that encryption is very much part of MQA, an assumption I have held since day one. The music industry clawing back what they view was stolen from them. We deal with increasingly frustrating levels of encryption and DRM for video. Why should music be any different?

Thanks Rolski for that. It's nice to hear your impressions on a system far superior to mine, and even though it's not your type of music, our impressions on the overall quality and production concur.
To be fair, I can live with undecoded MQA if the quality is this good across genre's.

It shows just how good Meridian systems are already. Chris 😎