Looking at the relative file sizes of MQA versus plain vanilla 16/44 FLAC got me wondering about the MQA encoding process.

Below is a screenshot of the files for the Dena Piano Duo MQA album:
[Linked Image]
This shows that the MQA album files are considerably larger than the plain vanilla 16/44 FLAC files - suggesting to me that in this case the MQA file is based on a 24/96 underlying PCM file. [Edit: based on the 2L test bench files sizes this could be a 24/192 underlying PCM file][2nd edit: it is actually 24/352 in original resolution per album booklet, which is very informative]

However, the Kate Rusby album files look like this:
[Linked Image]
In the Kate Rusby case the two sets of files are about the same size, suggesting that the MQA files are based on a 16/44 underlying PCM file - ie not high resolution at all. Sooloos identifies the Kate Rusby MQA album as "CD" quality, whereas it identifies the Dena Piano Duo album as "high resolution". [Edit: based on the 2L test bench file sizes, the Kate Rusby MQA album could be based on a 24/96 underlying PCM file - but then why does Sooloos classify it as "CD" quality? I'm confused]

Which got me wondering how the download sites are producing the MQA files. Is it possible (or indeed likely) that the Kate Rusby MQA album is simply a plain vanilla 16/44 album that has been run through an MQA encoder? Has Kate really "signed off" on the sound?

It also begs the question of how the buying public will know what it is buying. The 2L website is better than the Onkyo website in this respect in that it places the MQA album in between plain 16/44 and 24/96 PCM but it still does not indicate the underlying sample rate.

To me this undermines the confidence in the cradle to grave nature of MQA but it also suggests another possibility. If the Kate Rusby MQA album really does sound better than standard 16/44 FLAC on non MQA equipment, is there scope to offer a bulk conversion of existing standard 16/44 FLAC libraries into 16/44 MQA via a batch conversion process? In other words, are we likely to see the likes of Foobar and dBpoweramp buying a MQA encoding license, and then offering a conversion routine to convert standard FLAC into MQA FLAC, rather like to do for say WAV to FLAC etc.

Wouldn't it all be simpler if everything was in MQA!

Last edited by Altus; 2016-01-10 18:41. Reason: see 2nd edit
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