Forget mqa
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HQPlayerās best PCM filters do the math on the digital audio samples just like MScaler and for me the revelation is that long tap Sinc filters are the magic you want ā¦not MQA processing. Now - iāve only heard MQA through an AQ Dragonfly DAC but upon graduating to the Chord DX sound (after a few intermediate DACs) im convinced this is the way to go for the ultimate in sound quality. Even with ordinary CD rips its quite stunning. I have further pushed the bounds of Chord DAC sound through attention to the effects of RFI/EMI noise. I cant wait until the audio shows start up again to compare against the best (purported) ā¦because I believe ive got my Chord Hugo TT2 setup sounding absolutely end-game.
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In that case, since you havenāt heard MQA processing through anything except a small portable, why do you think your opinion should hold merit? Try a decent MQA capable pathway and DAC, e.g. dCS, Mytek, Meridian Ultradac among many others, before announcing an opinion. MQA has had a great deal of studio vetting for sound and not been found wanting.
I donāt doubt that you like your Chord or HQPlayer result but I find it extraordinary when people are ready to render opinions publicly on things they havenāt remotely explored or heard.
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This isnāt a MQA general discussion. This is specifically about MQA and Chord dacs. There are other threads debating MQA to death.
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Good, but what does the previous posterās post add to that discussion? Anything?
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I suppose it helps support someoneās decision to own a Chord dac.
But yeah about whether you should avoid MQA with a Chord dac and if canāt, should you unfold wasnāt addressed.
But the topic of whether MQA is better in general would get out of control and already have a few threads covering that. And those seem to have the same 2 or 3 people going back and forth.
I have listen to dCS stack(s) that support MQA but I couldnāt hear benefits in MQAs favor compared to highres material, in many cases the the contrary. I do think there could be clear benefits that are more studio and mixing related than format related on some releases. But I was not impressed (or technically Iām quite impressed since itās compression without most of the bad aspects of compression). Also Iām yet to become a DSD fan so right now the Chord ideal suits me. I moved from MSB dacs that are less rigid about what they like or doesnāt like. Also great dacs!
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I finally switch back to Tidal because was still finding holes in my library with Qobuz. I also found very little difference between hires and cd quality files when played thru the Mscaler.
So now Iām able to test MQA with my Mscaler/Dave combo. First, the non-MQA cd files do sound the best. Better soundstage and more transparent sound. But if non-MQA files are not available, Iām finding the folded version sounds better. The MQA first unfold does something weird with the soundstage. Itās sounds artificially 3D. Like that 3D effect they used on movies that werenāt shot in 3D. The folded version still sounds too smooth compared to the non-MQA but at least soundstage is very close. And with Mscaler/Dave combo itās still a great listen.
So the trade off with Tidal is now have access to a lot of albums I didnāt have before but stuck with 30 or more MQA only albums in my favorites. But Iād rather have access to more music.
Just tested to see if any truth to Qobuz cd files sounding better than Tidal. They sound the same.
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I ended up going back to Qobuz. There were a lot more MQA only albums than I originally thought. Also found several albums in AAC. And when I tested Qobuz hires to the CD file, I did notice enough difference to want the better sound quality of the hires file.
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Peter, how about the option in Tidal settings to select CD lossless only stream from Tidalā¦is this truly CD quality or something impacted by the MQA process in any way?
I was interested in this as well and read somewhere on here itās still MQA but downsampled. For most MQA on Tidal, there is no FLAC counterpart left. Most were replaced with MQA and the FLAC removed.
However, on some releases, you can still find one FLAC and one MQA. Theyāll probably remove those in with time.
Ok. Thank you. Iām in Canada and donāt have Qobuzā¦so no option but Tidal. I have the TT2+MScalerā¦thought maybe the HiFi option stripped all the MQA filtering away to feed the MScaler the best non-filteres material to do itās thing.
There is a way to get Qobuz in Canada but can be tedious. Some succeeded. Involves a VPN and Paypal I believe.
Alternatively, if you have someone in the states or another country with cheap Q subscriptions, you can ask them to set you up and maybe pay for the year. I donāt think itās going to work with a Canadian bank card so you may have to transfer the monies to them 
Yes, I know there is a work around. I tried it before and got annoyed with the hassle of it all. When they excluded Canada from their last expansion I decided to just give up and continue to bear with Tidalās shortcomings and heavy skew/pushing of HipHop and Pop to my inbox. My great hope was that some how Roon wouldāve added Apple Music and/or Deezer by nowā¦however no such luck.
Iām not certain the HiFi option in Tidal has any MQA colorationā¦but Iām no expert here.
Iāve got both Tidal and Qobuz and to be honest, canāt tell a difference in sound quality.
Tidalās app (the UI) is infinitely better. I prefer it to all others.
The excessive Hip Hop releases I just ignore and they do not bother me.
As for Qobuz still not being available in Canada - I find this mind boggling.
I highly doubt Apple and Spotify will ever be implemented in Roon and as for Deezer, there were some reports long time ago about the deal being close to completionā¦ but this was long time ago
ā Iām not certain the HiFi option in Tidal has any MQA colorationā¦but Iām no expert here.ā
Did not see this There is a thread on here about Tidal Australia where theyāre trialling a HiFi only tier and someone did some testing and I believe found it was still MQA to some extent.
@wklie is extremely knowledgeable and was part of that conversation I believe.
Pityā¦Deezer is my favorite. their algorithm is the smartest in my experienceā¦they just āget meā All their suggested mixes are excellent.
I trialled it for a bit and remember to have liked it. Did not renew as I have already two active music streaming subscriptions 
Yesā¦@wklie says it I believe it. Iāve been following his inputs since my first Lumin player purchase decision process.
lolā¦I dropped only because no roon. I now only have Tidal and Youtude music (which is also pretty smart I have to say) because it comes with the premium Youtube.