Ok Everyone, got my "flack jacket" on....
I am really smitten by MQA, streamed from my Windows10 Tidal app.
I have enjoyed a PS Audio DirectStream DAC now for 2 1/2 years. When Tidal started streaming MQA from Warner Music, I bought a Meridian Explorer2 DAC ($199 on Amazon) to see what all the fuss was. I found some of the older titles sounded a little better, but some of the more recent ones knocked my socks and shoes off!
When I read that Universal Music signed up to do MQA, I purchased a Mytek Brooklyn (MQA) DAC, and now use it for MQA and the DirectStream DAC for everything else, as the DAC chipset in the Brooklyn is good, but no match for the DirectStream DAC with "regular" AIFF & FLAC files.
From what I've experienced, many of the titles I'm really familiar with seemed to have been "re-mixed", as well as re-mastered. I listen to just about everything but country & rap (yes I tried, I did make it thru three songs on Jay-Z's "American Gangster" album!), and enjoy classical music and, unfortunately the MQA classics from Warner are not the best sound quality, one of Universal Music's labels is DG, so hopefully the future holds better sounding classical music on Tidal.
Many DAC manufacturers have held off jumping on the MQA bandwagon. I presume that now with Warner, Universal & Tidal (about 2/3 of the music business) has signed up to do MQA, that either DAC manufacturers will adapt their hardware to do "end-to-end" MQA decoding, or that some DAC chipset company like ESS will add that to future chipset offerings.
I am really smitten by MQA, streamed from my Windows10 Tidal app.
I have enjoyed a PS Audio DirectStream DAC now for 2 1/2 years. When Tidal started streaming MQA from Warner Music, I bought a Meridian Explorer2 DAC ($199 on Amazon) to see what all the fuss was. I found some of the older titles sounded a little better, but some of the more recent ones knocked my socks and shoes off!
When I read that Universal Music signed up to do MQA, I purchased a Mytek Brooklyn (MQA) DAC, and now use it for MQA and the DirectStream DAC for everything else, as the DAC chipset in the Brooklyn is good, but no match for the DirectStream DAC with "regular" AIFF & FLAC files.
From what I've experienced, many of the titles I'm really familiar with seemed to have been "re-mixed", as well as re-mastered. I listen to just about everything but country & rap (yes I tried, I did make it thru three songs on Jay-Z's "American Gangster" album!), and enjoy classical music and, unfortunately the MQA classics from Warner are not the best sound quality, one of Universal Music's labels is DG, so hopefully the future holds better sounding classical music on Tidal.
Many DAC manufacturers have held off jumping on the MQA bandwagon. I presume that now with Warner, Universal & Tidal (about 2/3 of the music business) has signed up to do MQA, that either DAC manufacturers will adapt their hardware to do "end-to-end" MQA decoding, or that some DAC chipset company like ESS will add that to future chipset offerings.