Why is everyone so down on MQA?


Ok. MQA is a little bit complicated to understand without doing a little research. First of all: MQA is not technically a lossy format. The way it works is very unique. The original master tape (Holy grail of SQ) is folded or compressed into a smaller format. It is later unfolded through a process I don’t claim to understand. The fully processed final version is lossless! It is the song version from the original master tape. FYI, original master tapes are usually the best sounding, they are also the truest version of any song- they are painstakingly produced along with the artist in the studio during the recording process. Ask anyone, they are the real deal. For some reason most people hate the sound quality! One caveat, the folding/unfolding process is usually carried out at one time by a dac. But some dacs only compress and do not unfold….I think Meridian should explain dac/ streamer compatibility issue. When your hardware supports the single step the sound quality is pretty amazing. They should have explained in more detail what the format is all about.

walkenfan2013

Showing 2 responses by kota1

Quboz gave me listening fatigue, Tidal sounded better, both on flac and MQA and Atmos. I find the vocals with MQA sound more like an actual person in the room than with any other format.

For overall "you are there" dynamics I prefer upsampling to DSD with my Sony DAC or my Onkyo DAP.

I like that MQA burns the files from the master tape, if that was the only step they took I would be happy. I loaded two of the same albums into a playlist (one HIFI, one MQA) and hit shuffle, closed my eyes, I can pick the MQA track every time, works for me.