For me, it is not the existence of MQA that is threatening. I am somewhat concerned that non-MQA hi resolution will disappear. That would be a negative development. Means you have to have an MQA DAC to hear any hi res.
Youāll still get 24 bit with MQA. I get that now from Tidal/Roon without any software unfold.
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Even though you see ā24 bit 44.1kHz or 48kHzā this does not necessarily translate to actual resolution. MQA uses the upper bit range of the ā24 bitā data to reproduce the high frequencies above 20kHz range. As a result, playing back unfold MQA gets you around 13 bit of resolution while fully unfold goes as high as 17 bit resolution. At 17 bit /88.2/96kHz is still considered high resolution audio, plus a fully compensated impulse response during the rendering/up sampling to internal DAC, it makes MQA really shines at its best!
Thanks I thought if Roon reported that it was 24 but it was actually 24 bit
It is physically 24 bit. But no files/streams ā outside of digitally generated test signals ā possess true 24 bit noise floor. That is not possible in real world recording. MQA or other digital processing also may maintain bit depth but increase quantization noise, hence decrease resolution.
In short, not all 24 bit files exhibit 24 bit resolution.
AJ
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Iāve shifted the non-MQA related discussion into a more appropriate thread. Apologies for the irrelevant parallel conversation; fascinating though my choice of DAC may be. I think we all know @RBM was to blame.
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This is a good point Andrew and one which makes me wonder whether any pleasure I take from playing folded up 24 bit 48kHz Tidal MQA masters is pure placebo. What we donāt know is whether any 16 bit 44kHz Tidal alternative is the same master or not. Tidal and Roon are adapted to distinguish between various versions of a recording. I canāt see why record companies donāt make it transparently clear. Someone will want to acquire every version of āKind of Blueā.
To follow up my own post, a good parallel to the above ā and one that many will recognize immediately from visual experience ā is 1080p video. All 1080p video possesses the same physical resolution. But that does not mean all 1080p video is of equal quality or the same effective resolution. The 1080p physical resolution is a container, and the contents may or may not exploit the full extent of the container.
AJ
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Almost all 2L masters are recorded in DXD format; 352.4/24 and is converted to various PCM sampling rates, including DSD and MQA.
No, Hi-Res PCM is a defacto standard in almost all recording studios and all archives are done in this way. MQA is done as a distribution format from the Hi-Res PCM source. There will be people going for studio master recordings and the market need for digital downloads are still healthy.
MQA for distibution format? Whats the point in todays i-net speeds, mobile included?
Nothing if you live in the first world. The overwhelming majority of humanity does not.
Also the time domain benefits of MQA.
Yes, they say its just few milliseconds for MQA against up to 300 milliseconds for PCM, butā¦
- who measured those 300m for PCM?
- why to bother with milliseconds when we smear then the signal with our speakers and room response by microseconds?!
why to bother with milliseconds when we smear then the signal with our speakers and room response by microseconds?!
Maybe because milliseconds (ms) are by a factor 1000 longer than microseconds (us)ā¦
Frequency domain distortion (Aliasing) is traded off in favour of time domain benefits. Read this article below:
http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/opinion/1104-mismatched-masters-and-false-frequencies-is-mqa-better-worse-or-just-different
Thatās an interesting article, though he was silly to say he couldnāt hear any meaningful differences with the 2L files when he was listening to the MQA files without an MQA DAC.
The questions regarding the impact of aliasing on equipment not built to handle it are valid and I donāt know the answers.
I do think that, if MQA isnāt the real deal, then MQA has clearly hoodwinked the worldās best recording and mastering engineers into thinking it is; and I donāt believe this.
The only other question Iād ask is how much knowledge āentitlementā the audiophile community can reasonably expect, given that the whole MQA project would probably never have seen the light of day if they hadnāt just gone ahead and done it. Iām on the fence on that one.
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Iād love to see an actual coverage map, not where 4g is licensed!
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