MQA ? Pono? What's better than the CD?

I have not heard MQA, and neither have most people due to the lack of source material 2 years on.

BUT... it is a new enterprise by Bob Stuart (Meridian)  so it needs to be taken VERY seriously.

Also, rumor has it that MQA makes even regular redbook CD source material sound better.

There is an interview with him online somewhere if you search.

The flip side is that I am starting to get the idea that there is not a huge amount of SQ to be gained with higher sample rates, more bits, etc. when compared to speakers and room treatments, plus better mastering of source material.

IF you have the very best $35,000+ speakers in a listening room that was built solely for listening to those speakers, then things will likely be different for you.

Hi Jim!

As a music storage format, FLAC predates Pono by a few years. :) But I rip or download FLAC unless I'm buying DSD.  Also I do like the sound of the Pono portable player, but given it's limitations I ended up going with Fiio and with an extra amp almost as good. One of the Fiio players does android, so you can do Tidal while on the move.

I have a Mytek Brooklyn, which IS great and lets me listen to MQA files as well as DSD. My personal opinion, after listening to a number of tracks is that MQA is almost useless. It would be interesting if Tidal was streaming it. I've listened to MQA and compared a number of tracks in FLAC to FLAC/MQA, Besides the compression there's absolutely no sonic benefit to my ears. As far as I can tell it's just a marketing gimmick for Meridian to wet their beak on licensing. 

Only MQA really requires "remastering." Converting from WAV to FLAC to ALAC or MP3 is a simple software job anyone could do.

Best,


Erik

I understand that MQA is separate from Meridian

That makes it sound a lot better, I take it back, MQA rocks.... er, not. :)

https://www.meridian-audio.com/news-events/meridian-audio-launches-mqa-master-quality-authenticated/

What is MQA ?

See the link I just posted. :) Enjoy.

MQA is getting rave reviews from other forums.  

Many are ticked off it has take this long to get digital right.  

on other forums, many are raving about MQA and DRM...

MQA is a std. that meridian meets, and is something of a "spin-off" from meridian, or bob Stuart's new project, etc.

it is designed to go from end to end - from the source on the masters to the last DAC near your ears

Chris at Computer Audiophile plans an interview with Bob Stuart in the near future, and DAC makers and others with a technical background have been combing thru the MQA process to try and figure out what it really does

but I suspect we will have to actually listen to it... ;]

For the bazillionth + 1 time: MQA has no DRM. There is no management of rights. Only authentication of data.

And they can rave all they want to. I've been very pleased with a number of DAC's over the past 3-5 years. MQA is a barely noticeable change to my ears.

Best,

E

The MQA topic has been (and is being) discussed ad nauseam in other (adjacent) threads, but my personal takeaway is the extent someone is impressed (or not) with the difference MQA makes in SQ completely depends on the quality of the digital components they own. The higher the quality of their gear, the lesser they hear a difference. The absence of very high end MQA capable DACs is making the comparisons a bit unbalanced, in my opinion. To my ears, playing MQA content from Tidal through my medium quality but MQA capabe DAC - Bluesound Node2, sounds much better than non-MQA CD quality content.

the difficult issue is that most higher bit rate or bit depth releases have (or may have) used different masterings than an original CD release

so, you really never know if you are listening to the re-mastering or the putative better than CD stream or package

may not matter at the consumer level unless you are thinking of buying a spendy new piece of hardware

the thing to do may be to find where something has been downsampled to CD levels and run thru a good double blind test regime

or just forget about it and upgrade your speakers, or spend a few months dicking around with room treatments...

MQA - nonsense to get everybody to buy a new dac...  It will die before it starts.

MQA works with existing DAC - there is just no benefit. If enough source material becomes available supporting DACs will become available.