MQA disappointing

Audio Gear Talk MQA
2562

Your post is nothing to do with whether MQA is disappointing or not. From a sound quality perspective it clearly is not. Not in my system, and not even in the systems of some of the most fervent anti-MQA activists who willingly admit this on here. It’s like some absolutely bizarre political position akin to “the government is coming for my XYZ”.

There are many different formats and technologies and modalities for listening to music these days. For instance, I’ve got a ton of vinyl records that I picked up in the 70s and 80s that are just gathering dust for the last 20 years because I’ve no desire to sit in a chair listening for that unique mosquito fart moment in the Royal Albert Hall in Mahler 7 whilst wearing socks, sandals and a cardigan and having to get up and change what I’m listening to every 21 minutes. Yes, those are my prejudices (and I’m fortunate to live in a place where I can sort of express my opinions freely - even as an immigrant) but I don’t push them down people’s throats because I have some bizarre thing that the establishment is coming for a (somewhat undetermined) portion of my 24 bits every time I play fast and loose with an MQA file.

:relaxed:

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2563

Studios will not use MQA if they do not wish to, is not viable, don’t like or agree with it.

On your other point, these sound like Masters to me. I doubt you could play me anything better sounding.

2564

No, the “most fervent anti-MQA activists” do NOT admit MQA can sound really good. They claim it’s audibly lossy and sounds terrible. It’s only the unbiased people on here who admit that the SQ differences are very small.

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2565

Spot on! And the “most fervent pro-MQA activists” don’t usually admit that, either.

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2566

Sure, MQA sounds losslesser than lossless…:crazy_face:

Chris, where does your quotation come from? Or was it you that “repeated this same experiment with the Auralic Vega”…?

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2567

Me neither. And I wonder how the same people who claim that MQA “is lossless in analog terms” can also claim it sounds even better than lossless? This audiophile extremism (in both camps) doesn’t help anybody…

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2568

That’s why the (very few) “unbiased people on here” tend to get a lot of flack from both camps.

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2569

It was pretty clear to me why MQA was disappointing to him.

2570

Best post ever on this topic. This topic is like politics and religion and should be avoided.

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2571

With this whole lossless you clearly miss the point. It’s about signal blur, pre ringing. Your tight definition of digital loslessness has little to do with it.
Sure high res files sound better than CD, but this is due to filtering and less blur. MQA is the next level and adding to this, no musical information is lost. So where does that leave your lossless argument.

2572

Let me try again. Where does this quotation come from? Or did you do this experiment?

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2573

I have no need to experiment and if you experimented, the results would be equally unscientific.
The quote was from the John Darko review, and as valid as anything on Wikipedia.

2574

Thanks a lot for this info. This wasn’t clear from your previous posts (no quotation marks and no mention of Darko, either).

I didn’t ask you to give scientific proof for anything. I was only asking about your subjective listening experiences with HiRes PCM.

Nobody said you “needed to experiment”. But how can a music lover claim that “MQA sounds better” than high resolution PCM (on his system and to his ears) if he admits he’s never really compared the two?

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2575

Before any definitive opinion, without subtlety on the quality of the different audio formats. An audiogram of the listener should be provided. It is often difficult to distinguish lossless files from very good lossy files, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to distinguish a Hires file from a Redbook file. I doubt it will be easier between an MQA file and a Hires file. Do these endless discussions still have an interest ?

[image]

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2576

They wouldn’t be “endless” if people weren’t interested in them!

???

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2577

Above all what MQA represents for you, you need to assess what music means to you.
This is individual and can be divided in different components or priorities.

Music for me is about emotion, but i need technology to have it accessible in my home.
I do not listen to my audio equipment, i listen to music and need equipment to make it happen.

Nowadays, music listening or music delivery is done by digital means if not playing records (which i do not).
This digital delivery has hardware and software components and what we talking about now is software, the way the music is “coded” before delivery.
MQA is jet another format (is it?!) music is coded in and promises audio nirvana.

Is MQA disappointing? yes and no!
Why? Because the music, the recording is sometimes disappointing and sometimes it is not.
Sometimes recordings are remastered in “MQA format”, music that was great sounding and did not need MQA to be great, it was not meant to be recorded with MQA, MQA did not exist at the time.
New recordings with MQA can sound great, they where recorded with MQA in mind and have the MQA seal of authenticity.
But… a recording is what the musicians, the engineer, the producer want it to sound like, with some exceptions. There are records that need to sound raw and distorted, so MQA does only say that what i hear is authentic “noise” generated and packaged in a controlled environment.

Do i need to know that what is coming into my home is authentic?
Not for me, music is about emotion and i want to have the best music reproduction possible, a good recording is a good recording and is by definition authentic if handled correct from source to reproduction.
In the chain from my music provider, Tidal, i do not need processor greedy unfolding of MQA, it could just display; “This is Authentic”. Just give me the product, not the components, i have bandwidth enough to get it at home, 100% assembled.
MQA gives a guarantee that the music is authentic at the time coded digital information is converted to analogue, what happens after that is dependent on my and your equipment.
So how authentic is your equipment? And now we are here, how well equipped are you, are you all ears?

When i listen to music sometimes the display says MQA but more often not, and it always sounds great (not really but that is not the issue), why? Because it is the music i like and want to listen to.

TLDR; In my eyes MQA is a try to get a proprietary music format marketed, disguised as a quality seal of authenticity.

BTW: I have an MQA compatible amplifier and streamer.

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2578

My bad, I never put the quote source. I listen to plenty of music, High res in my time and plenty of live music which, at quality, is as high res as you can get… It’s real.
MQA, for me, is the closest to the real thing for me. It satisfies in a way that’s hard to explain.

2579

Just because music was recorded before MQA does not mean MQA cannot ensure it is delivered as intended, perhaps in a way just not possible at the time.
MQA does not change the recording, that’s the job of a mix and master. MQA ensures the analog sound is free from digital artefacts that can and do taint the music.

Even if you had this music in analog form on vinyl or tape, these are not lossless or in anyway perfect delivery formats. I know they can and do still sound great.

A great example is Frank Sinatra early 60’s output. These were recorded to tape and transferred to digital recently with MQA in mind. The results at my ears are simply stunning via my Meridian DSP SE set up.

I had great fun with a younger friend of mine as I watched his jaw drop at the sound. All he could say, and on repeat was “Ain’t it Current, Ain’t it current” (That’s a good thing in youth speak around here)
It was like I had played him the latest from Rihanna or someone he would have known.
If MQA can deliver that, then it’s job of conveying realism and emotion is done as far as I am concerned.

2580

Let me repeat my question. Chris, have you ever made a direct comparison between HiRes PCM and MQA on your system (i.e. between two versions of the same album)?

2581

What makes you think the same would NOT have happened if you had played your friend a HiRes PCM album?

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