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

Hi Matt,
Not sure that I understand your question entirely.

My understanding of the benefits of MQA, from the information available, is that time-smearing (as well as other artifacts) are either "prevented from occurring" (on new recordings which include a MQA encoder) or are retrospectively compensated-for by their very clever clean-up algorithm.

The magnitude of the "damage" to the audio signal - the purest / original state of which I imagine is what comes out of the speakers @ the mixing desk - has been sold to us as significant where digital audio / processing is concerned.
A 44.1/16 CD (WAV ?) file that you either play through your system, or is streamed, is then (for example) further "damaged" by your own playback system by the various filters & DAC processing etc etc etc.

What comes out of a MQA endpoint - my interpretation - is as close to what was heard in the studio as possible, because the actual "damage" done to the audio has been "repaired" and there's also some pre-compensation for the "damage" that your equipment adds-in later - but only if the details of that equipment are known to MQA (or in our case, Meridian).

So yes, if you take the analogue out from an Explorer2 and then send it through another ADC-DAC cycle, albeit a 96/24 or 192/24 cycle (in comparison to a CD-level 44.1/16 cycle) then you'll potentially "do damage".
However, remember that when you pass the Explorer2 output through - let's say - an analogue pre & power-amp & some unknown speakers, you'll also degrade the signal to some extent. And that's even before we talk about room acoustics & physiological factors, which can far outweigh all of the rest we're talking about anyway !

As I've noted before, the question is, while we're - or at least some of us are - waiting for an 861v8 hardware / software upgrade, what's the least-worst option available to us to allow us to join the party ?

Yes, the output from the Explorer2 will be damaged, and yes, I'd be re-applying one of the processes that MQA was specifically created to negate.
But no-one, apart from Meridian / MQA, knows by how much the audio is damaged & repaired. If the audio wave is inherently damaged by (let's say for the sake of argument) 10% from the Master Mix, does MQA recover 8%, 9%, 10% ? Theoretically, it should be possible to recover to a level of 100%, but there are always losses.

So, to return to the topic (!) and to try to address your point (I think), through the understanding that I have, which might end up being wishful thinking, I think I'm getting a 99% repaired signal out of my Explorer2, and then sending it through a Meridian flagship processor - admittedly with losses - which will only lose me another couple of %.
So, until I'm able to "join the club", and as the tsunami of MQA releases (tee-hee !) starts to hit us, I'm quite pleased to be able to enjoy 95% of the available signal purity as a pose to the 90% I had "yesterday" !

Again, bear in mind this is largely based on logic, speculation and the publicly available information : I may be completely wasting my time and in the wrong ball-park entirely.

But isn't it fun to use your brain, think about these things, and try....?!