Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music MQA : How to experience MQA through my 861v8 processor.

Not really an issue as I see it. Few manufacturers make digital speakers. Of course, Linn "invented" them last year but we know that they're not going to play in the MHR arena.

It remains to be seen how M handle the Auralic fiasco of course, MHR would have been a solution for that but then the DACs in the chain afterwards would also need MHR which is not going to happen.

I believe that the speaker is able communicate over SL what its capabilities are; for the oldest SL speakers which do not do this, absence of capability information can be used to infer capability!

I imagine, but don't know, that all legacy (pre-SL) DSP speakers will be lumped in the same boat.

Thanks again.
So, in hardware terms, are we hypothesising:

MS200/MS600 => (optional AC200) => MQA device => DSP

or:

MS200/MS600 => MQA device => (optional AC200) => DSP

or:

MS-MQA-capable-replacement => (optional AC200) = DSP

And, it seems, that all the above would demand that the MQA material is either stored in Sooloos or streamed (Tidal) via Sooloos. What about other files that one might want to play from (say) a laptop or disc-spinner? To do that, the MQA device would need a USB and SPDIF input as well. So we are quickly moving towards an 818-type solution.

There is a gotcha...

Currently, you can set the MS200 and MS600 (not sure about the AC200) to either pass-through (bit-perfect; essential for MQA) or up-sample (for RBCD). I would suggest that a firmware update would be needed for these devices to *recognize* (but not decode) MQA and not up-sample it, but continue to up-sample RBCD.

Gianni

Would you mind putting in where the data gets converted and what data type will be being delivered at the different stages in your suggestions?

Cheers
Tom

It seems reasonable to expect that Meridian in due course will offer a suitable MQA end-point (other than Explorer2 et al) that is not mostly restricted to headphone listening.

To ofset others' accusation of Meridian's so-called 'walled garden' approach to MQA: that is, use Meridian kit or nothing else, it further seems logical to expect other manufacturers will also in due course offer their own hardware version of a 'licensed' MQA end-point.

Gianni,

Sorry, I misread you reference to AC200 to mean MC200. I hadn't contemplated having the AC200 in the mix. Of your options the last one makes most sense to me.

I have a though that might make the 861 actually work with MQA...

if the MQA file is transported via the Sooloos system (not unpacked) to the ID41 card in the 861v8 (not unpacked) through to MQA ready SE DSPs that will unpack the MQA files - resulting in us hearing the full MQA experience?

any comments on this by anyone with knowledge of how the process of unpacking would work in the SE Speakers?

But wouldn't that mean you potentially either "destroy" the hidden part of the MQA file as it passes through DSP (processing), or you lose all the benefits of DSP - with which I specifically mean Room Correction - and therefore get "uncorrected" music out of the DSP speakers ?

Hi you may have missed this:
Regards,
Carl

Check out the CES 2015 Q&A (pinned at the top of this sub forum. Bob was quite clear that anything other than bypass would destroy the MQA.

Plus, at this time, our understanding is that DSP loudspeakers will NOT perform full unpacking of the fully packed MQA file; a separate decoder is needed.

Meridian systems have a distributed architecture so what this potential means is that the 861v9 may [decode the MQA stream, apply room correction (and other DSP actions) to the decoded stream.

Then encode streams to MLP and then output to the DSPs / send to the internal DACs.

As for MQA DAC correction profiles, SpeakerLink is source/destination aware, which should enable the correct Meridian DAC profiles to be used.

I see Meridian which a very close working relationship with MQA limited, being in a very good position to be able to engineer this.

Regards,
Carl