The thing I liked about MQA was they did their best to "authenticate" that they were using the best master tape available for their files. Hopefully the MQA catalog survives.
The MQA debate is finally over
There used to be intense debate over the superiority of MQA vs flac and MQA vs non-MQA dacs.
I have listened to both formats through both dacs (Esoteric vs Meridian Ultradac) and to my ears in my system, flac via a non-MQA dac rules.
RIP, MQA.
Showing 5 responses by kota1
What I enjoy most about the SQ of MQA are the vocals. No other format has been so lifelike in vocal reproduction in my system. Check this out: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/e0caf7d2-4adc-4873-a3f8-b3df9ca28ecb |
There are pluses and minuses to every format. If I had my way they would have streaming in mulitchannel DSD for everything. Good luck with that. I found the deblurring effect in MQA to work for me. It gave a palpable sense of life (as in musicians in the room) in my system on many recordings (not all).
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As for minuses I can give you an example. If you listen to violins in an orchestra in FLAC they sound rich, harmonious, they ebb and swell with the tempo, its wonderful. But they sound like a group of violins, not individual violins. When I listen to a good MQA master I hear more of the individual violins standing out from each other while playing together as a group. If you weren’t able to compare you might never notice, but once you hear the difference you notice it when it isn’t present. I find 24/96 PCM to offer "more" of everything but still doesn’t get that rich sound of each individual instrument the way I get with MQA. |
For those of you who like DSD (as I do) Sony has both streamers and DAC’s that include their proprietary DSD remastering engine. I think it works great, really adds that DSD smoothness to whatever you are listening to. According to Sony: DSD Remastering Engine PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) audio is resampled into an 11.2MHz DSD (Direct Stream Digital) ultra-high-frequency 1-bit audio stream. The single-bit stream delivered to the DAC has a character far closer to that of analogue, giving you even more ways to enjoy your music. Their new Walkman has both features (MQA and DSD Remastering): https://www.sony.com/en-cd/electronics/walkman/nw-wm1am2/specifications |
