Phew, what a thead.
Some things to consider:
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It seems to me that MQA is very system dependent: if something goes wrong in the whole unfold chain, MQA doesn’t work. There should be an automatic fallback to 44,1 (if I read everything right) but all in all there seem to be a lot of differences between all the brands of rendering hard- and software.
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With all compressed formats (and remember: FLAC is a compressed format) SQ depends heavily on the codec that is used. Just listen to an mp3 file decoded with one of the earliest codecs and repeat with a recent codec. There is a marked difference in SQ.
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I don’t really get the whole DRM discussion. I don’t think the market will drop 44,1 releases any time soon. So if you don’t have MQA capable hard- or software, MQA shouldn’t bother you.
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Some MQA releases are very different from the orginal. Just listen to Roberta Flack’s Killing me Softly. The MQA version is a different master so you can’t compare (and I don’t like the MQA version, not because of the SQ but because of the bad arrangement).
Personally, I find it’s a mixed bag. Sometimes it sounds better, sometimes worse, sometimes I can’t hear a blind bit of difference.
A bit like remasters, actually.