I’m talking about credibility.
Untrue. I read the comments that mansr put about this graph + another one “mikas” confirmed those. They were proven wrong later in that thread. And I admitted I didn’t read that thread till the end.
Now back to the 16/44 => 24/88 mystery.
Which you can see in the image above posted by Jim_F 16/44 becomes 24/88
Hello @Wim_Hulpia,
I remember this was brought up in a separate thread and I must have not followed up on it, my apologies.
During playback of 16/44.1 MQA content with the MQA Core Decoder enabled:
A. The audio is passed through the MQA authenticator to confirm the integrity of the stream and to display the provenance information to the listener.
B. The audio is upsampled to its 2x rate (88.2 kHz in this case) by the Core Decoder using a filter that is complementary to the deblurring that was applied by the MQA encoder, completing the process.
C. During upsampling the wordwidth is naturally increased so the signal is redithered to 24-bit to preserve the resolution for downstream devices.
-John
2 Likes
And why apply that filter, pray tell?
Hello @ricgf,
More information on the rationale and implementation of the MQA Encoder’s “deblurring” process can be found here:
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mqa-time-domain-accuracy-digital-audio-quality
and here:
-John
I have no idea how to do it, but I have read many times of people using VPN accounts to set up Qobuz accounts if they live in countries where Qobuz isn’t available. Maybe it might be worth while for you to explore that option.
Unfortunately, you also need a credit card for the country you wish to subscribe through.
It does look like Qobuz are in trials here in Oz.
stereo.net.au ran an article saying that the AU store is looking at a possible mid-April launch. Here’s hoping that applies to streaming and not just downloads.
tell 'em it’s a gift!
Well, I hope you get to subscribe to them soon. I love Qobuz.
Removing of the “temporal blur” is just because of the use of a minimum phase filter.
But it has a negative impact as well that is not to be underestimated :
Source :
I still don’t have an explanation why there is a 2 step up sampling
- from 44.1 to 88.2 and
- from 88.2 to 352.8 (or whatever maximum the dac is capable of)
While this can be done in one step with regular pcm.
I just press play on a 16/44.1 PCM and my dac up samples it
- from 16/44.1 to to 32/705.6
I don’t need a 24/88.2 step in between and the result sounds way better that way;
because I also don’t use a minimizing filter that actually blurs i.s.o. deblurs.
(In the article above the author shows there’s no proof of deblurring, on the contrary)
The apodizing filter from 2011 that you are referencing above is not used in MQA.
The MQA filters (splines) are described here:
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MQA uses minimizing filters, so the same negative aspects of an apodizing filter are also there.
I highlighted some… the more bassy sound f.i. that was not there during recording and the
blurring i.s.o. deblurring by the variable time shifts.
Hilarious 
@Xekomi are you related to @davidh ?
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-1-8-sound-quality-change/141309/681?u=dabassgoesboomboom
1 Like
Lots of technical chat, but what if we do some listening?
Here is a fantastic album, which version do to you prefer?
MQA Master, 48khz 24bit, MQA 96khz
https://tidal.com/browse/album/152670639
Redbook, 44.1khz 16bit,
https://tidal.com/browse/album/152670570
3 Likes
Hi grizaudio,
I took first track and added the 24/96 PCM from Qobuz in the comparison
(which is the real “master” the mqa was created from).
The 16/44.1 is also very likely created (down sampled) from this 24/96 PCM.
The identical track lengths seem to confirm this.
Results :
-
Between 16/44.1 and 24/96 I could barely hear a difference.
Crisp, clean, natural. The 24/96 slightly more natural. -
The MQA sounds unnatural, damped. It sounds wrong. The sound of the drums made me actually think of this:
(clearly audible at 1:02)
4 Likes
Here’s a nice article,
showing how mqa was promoted in 2016.
By comparing a 24/96MQA with a 16/44 … CD. This is how the marketing works.
They played an MQA that’s 2.5x bigger in size.
Nice article I recommend anyone to read.
I posted this in another thread, but the mqa fanboys couldn’t resist cluttering the thread and attacking me, while I’m not even the author of that article.
Stay polite please.
I picked this up on vinyl only a couple of months ago at a record store in country town Victoria, Australia. The guy had this and South of Heaven so I snapped both up - he told me he’d sold Seasons in the Abyss only the week before. All pristine original UK releases. Thrash is my guilty pleasure.
1 Like