Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music MQA listening impressions (without a MQA decoder)

Asa

I personally think the "better than CD quality" claim is valid on those albums I have listened to but I am quite prepared to accept that this is not the case with all material and on all systems. In a way, I think it is probably better for the moderators to remain impartial in the interests of discussion rather than to heavily endorse something such as this. Anyone can download the free material and try it for themselves (and please post your impressions) and those that are really interested can buy the 16/44 versions and make a direct comparison. It's a pity that the test albums are all classical - and therefore probably unfamiliar to many on this forum - but nevertheless they are still informative.

The more interesting test, in my view, is how full fat MQA sounds against the equivalent hi res recording. In four hours of listening to MQA versus standard hi res (on two separate occasions) I found it harder to tell the difference between the two versions and on some material could not reliably tell which was which, or indeed, which I preferred. It was certainly harder to determine than the difference between undecoded MQA and 16/44. Which leads me to the tentative conclusion that most of the benefits are in the first stage de-blurring process - and are therefore available to all on current systems. Of course, this view may change with more extended listening.