MQA Finale: Both Anti- and Pro- Forces Have Their Successes and Failure

Not sure what you mean by this. Can you give us an example of an MQA file that is corrupted?

what he means is MQA FLAC = corrupted PCM FLAC, I guess.

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I have to admit that I knew what he meant, and I was just being a little bit cheeky with my reply.

There is no debate that MQA FLAC not = PCM FLAC.

However, the use of the word ‘corrupted’ in the equation is a matter of personal opinion.

I love credentials. Bob Stuart has credentials too. So what? He cannot make one verifiable, coherent point about the “superiority” of MQA and numerous “problems” it solves, without twisting arguments of his critics or plain lying…
But now we are down to solving the “problem” of bandwidth for streaming. That’s impressive, what is the license fee for that accomplishment again?

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MQA is great. Looking forward to Roon being able to provide the additional unfolds as they are computationally less demanding and don’t actually require a DAC chip that wholesales for a whopping $15. :hugs:

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24/96kHz is the sweet spot

MQA will probably never license any software to do the second unfold. They make too much money by requiring it to be done by hardware.

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The final MQA rendering requires an MQA aware DAC to work. That’s how it works, there are full explanations on the MQA website which are well worth a read…

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Interesting. Do MQA DACs have additional hardware to do this rendering?

Yes, that’s technical and is covered in detail in the Bob talks pages… The DAC is part of the audio chain and for full MQA, an MQA DAC is required. MQA will sound great on a generic DAC as that is part of the backward compatible design principle.

OK but why is hardware required ?

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So uncle bob can get some coin off consumers.

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That’s how it works. It’s all explained in full detail on the MQA website. Simply put, there is information buried in the file that tell the MQA DAC what to do in order to deliver the approved sound.

Pretty neat that they can fit the additional hardware in a tiny little $69 DAC like this.

Yes, and even more impressive that a $69 DAC is all you need to get the music as the artist intended! :rofl:

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Yes, in relation to the particular play back system… ain’t it great… For almost no money at all (in hi Fi terms) people get access the an authenticated music file to play back at the quality they choose or can afford… Clearly a better system will offer greater rewards and growing your system over time is a lot of fun… Well done MQA, great source material for all…

Weird how the spec sheet for the AK4499 used in the Topping D90 doesn’t mention MQA support.

Guess Topping is doing it in firmware… :thinking:

Trust the green “authentication” light :laughing:

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No one ever said that the quality of playback equipment doesn’t affect the overall sound you achieve. That doesn’t mean the digital chain hasn’t been done according to MQA specs, just that other things outside the processing chain matter. On the other hand there are some very good MQA-capable DACs at non-extreme price points. No idea how the HiBy stacks up.

For the MQA finale…the Sony Catalogue is starting to come through, including BMG, Living Stereo.

This is a very promising development.

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