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

OK, missed that...
just hoping I guess...

Based on this I guess Meridian sales have 2 options:

A. Offer a 2ch MQA input card to current 861v8, generating quick sales with minimum effort.

B. Let engineering do the whole multichannel 16ch-24ch and HDMI 2.0 switching with Immersive Audio and smart virtual speakers to provide for Atmos and DTS:X in a simple and well sounding way based on research and include multichannel MQA that is working with a high precision MRC with no time smear or detrimental effects in mid and treble apart from where it is actually applying the RC algorithms <250Hz(?)

HoHo. They are bound to go for option B!

Don't you mean "output" card on option A? Input can be via ID41.

For B, the 861 design changes required would be massive - can't see it happening for quite some time.

Gianni,

I read the 808v6 literature and it describes the DSP speakers as endpoints. So the 818 or 808 that can render will pass via SpeakerLink a good bitstream. The challenge I see, which is unclear in the literatature, is whether the stream can be passed through the 861 and subjected to processing or must be passed through direct. As has been pointed out, processing for MRC and say Trifield are critical to many of us.

Wanting for word from the mothership.

John

I do not understand the "big" problem here with MQA and signal processing.
MQA is just different data as "before", they are stored in different way as a regular CD get stored (in the 861). It's still music, just the 861 has to unpack/decode it, make all processing and then repack/encode it again.

So MAYBE more processing power is needed, but the absolute time for processing
is not very important as it doesnt matter when the processing take longer and the latency (time difference between in - and output) has increased.

That is only important for video and if it's really necessary to delay the video (what I don't think), it's not a big deal as that technique is already used.

So the same processing time can take longer, no need here for processing power.

So I see no reason why we need new HW.

So if I follow this logic in the Explorer² with a SBT topic and configure one of the Analogue inputs on my 861v8, I'll be able to get MQA into my DSP8000.2-USE's...

Not full-fat MQA of course, and the (line) analogue output of the Explorer2 will be ADC'd, but (most of) the timing & frequency benefits should still pass-through / be apparent, correct?

Signal chain will therefore be :-

MQA files on NAS (LAN Ethernet) ->
Roon (LAN Ethernet) ->
SBTouch (USB out) ->
Explorer2 (Analogue line out) ->
861v8 Analogue in (ADConversion) ->
DSP8000.2-USE's (MHR SpeakerLink).

Any predictions of the bit-rates during this process?

Hi,

It will not be MQA ... it will be an analogue representation (from the Explorer2) that has then been re-digitised, processed and output at 96k via SpeakerLink to your SE DSPs.

1 - The ADC will add temporal blur.
2 - The DACs in the SE as good as they are (without MQA correction) will add further temporal blur.

I suspect #1 and the 96k limit will be of most significance.

It's worth giving it a whirl and you might like what you hear but imho it can't be considered as listening to MQA.

Regards,
Carl

Hi Carl,
Er, yes, that's all obvious - as I allude to - hence my comment "not full-fat MQA of course, and the (line) analogue output of the Explorer2 will be ADC'd, but (most of) the timing & frequency benefits should still pass-through"....

But do you (or does anyone else) really believe that the amount of temporal blur added by the 861v8 ADC + DSP8000-USE DAC will be of a noticeable or critical magnitude ? This is a genuine question, so thoughts / comments are welcomed & encouraged ! I know that MQA is the solution to the "damage" that's (currently) done to the signal, but it'd be interesting to know how much effect each stage of the chain might contribute.

If it's the case that the degradation of one ADC -> DAC cycle (and the potentially concurrent upsampling or downsampling) is so "destructive", then I hope that MQA decoding not only takes account of the part of "the chain" that's been involved up to the creation of the music-file, but adds-in a certain amount of additional specific calculation to pre-empt the "degradation" that will be introduced during processing.
As the chaps @ Meridian / MQA are extremely clever, I'm absolutely sure that that's the case ! This does of course mean a specific algorithm (or more likely, a specific compensation variable within the algorithm) for every single end-to-end usage-case, which is clearly an impossible task / ask.

The Roon + SBT + Explorer2 combination is surely a reasonable way of perhaps enjoying some of the benefits of MQA for many people, until the official or appropriate hardware / firmware's released....
Perhaps it's the closest that some will ever get to full-fat MQA ? Anyway, I'll try & dust off the required kit again after having put it all away just 2 days ago (!), create a new config file for my 861v8, and see how or if it works !

Happy listening !

I don't see any logical reason to go with an Explorer2 interim for anyone with an 861v8/ID41. It will simply not be worth it apart from the amusement of a blue light.

Hi Crion,
Based on what knowledge / logic exactly ? Just curious....

Isn't much of the goodness of MQA undoing the undesirable artefacts of an AD conversion and capturing timing hints at a far higher temporal resolution than the recorded base signal.

So will you just not be putting a different, non MQA compensated set of artefacts back in, at a resolution far less than the MQA timing hints have captured also reintroducing the temporal blur.

It's skimmed MQA with lard added.