This link may be helpful.
https://www.stereo.de/news/newsdetail/bob-stuart-interview-in-voller-laenge/
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Yawn 
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Late night?
Not really. But this MQA discussion has far better results than Melatonin ever did.
Hello Tom, if you have seen my previous post on MQA vs Hi-Res PCM, then you should know without doing a A/B comparison, many of us will assume the added processing of MQA actually make the āsoundā uncanny to the ears. That is where, in my opinion some people are quick to jump into conclusion that what they are hearing becomes what they like.
There are many instances in the past that MQA demonstrations are done without comparing to same Hi-Res master. Why? Well, to put into better terms, people will start asking why it sounds so different from the original master? My point is, is this the kind of sound you like listening to or you want to listen to the original performance faithfully captured and play it back at your comfort of your home?
Thanks, much appreciated.
I find it amazing that the implementation is still being hashed out, especially considering that both Roon and MQA are a part of the Meridian family. It seems like P1 for Team MQA would be to get MQA into the hands of the audiophile community en masse as quickly as possible, especially now that there are more than a few MQA albums available on Tidal. Unless Iāve misread the Roon community entirely, I would expect Roon and its deep Tidal integration to be a primary target for MQA support. The fact that it isnāt, going on three years now, is more than a little surprising to me.
This is completely a guess on my part, but at this point, Iām assuming that any significant unresolved issues are legal/commercial in nature and not technical. As an outside observer over the period from when MQA first started to be shown publicly until now, it seems as though MQA Ltd has made some licensing missteps, or changed its mind about what should and should not be licensed and to whom, or both. I can only imagine that this has made things difficult for prospective partners.
Also, even though thereās a historical connection between Roon and Meridian, Iām not sure how much of a āfamilialā connection exists between Roon and MQA Ltd at present. (If I were Bob Stuart, Iād have kept MQA Ltd as completely separate from Meridian as is humanly or lawyerly possible.)
[quote=āmrvco, post:1759, topic:8204ā]
ā¦ especially considering that both Roon and MQA are a part of the Meridian family.
[/quote]Just for clarification ā¦ Roon is privately owned and independent.
I never said they werenāt, but I also canāt ignore the familial relationship.
Possibly but not in the same way the Meridian and MQA are.
I think youāre absolutely correct. MQAās opaque licensing and royalty model as well as the constantly evolving āsoftware unfoldingā story certainly lends credence to this assumption.
Agreed. And Iām certainly not casting any aspersions on the Roon team, my impression is that they are doing everything from both a business and technical perspective they can in the best interest of Roon and its users.
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Forget your straw man argument. You clearly are using an appeal to authority. But does the approval of some entities within the music industry necessarily amount to anything? For example, has the music industry ever made decisions based on business interests that go against artistic integrity and/or technical superiority?
AJ
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@MusicEar
Just to clarify, is your only reason that you think people like MQA is because they have not enough listening experience to know better and that the sound is uncanny to the ears?
Can you let me know if this is a fact or a claim, because I know you like facts but I often think your points are made with unverified claims.
If I read that sentence correctly you are saying that there is quite a significant difference between MQA and hi-res. The cynic in me thought that MQA chose MP3 against Hi-res as a comparison because it did sound noticeably different and that anything that sounded near on the same would not have been a great marketing demo.
I think this is the main point that you are not understanding. There are people that are using their ears and like the sound of MQA. It is obviously not for you, but why is it so important that everyone shares your opinion and tastes?
Cheers
Tom
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Iām MQA agnostic, but I believe this to have been true for some (or possibly all) of the early demos.
OTOH, at the last RMAF, using the higher end system in the MQA suite, a friend and I were allowed to A-B MQAād and non-MQAād versions of the same material. The MQA guys had the stuff queued up, so they were ready for this. Bob Stuart was present for some of the comparing and didnāt put up a fuss ā he was happy to chat with us and was curious about our perceptions. Of course, I canāt speak to the provenance of the non-MQAād stuff, but to my ears, in some comparisons the MQA version sounded better; in others, the two versions were close and it was difficult to say which was better; and in at least one instance the non-MQAād version sounded better to me. Just another opinion to throw on the pile. 
And hereās more grist for the mill:
Check out the celebrity comments.
I have the feeling MQA is a dead man walking already.
They confessed to produce a lossy copy from the master.
Well, they named the lossy copy the super master.(marketing)
To enjoy the lossy experience at the fullest you need a new DAC (marketing)
I agree to the theorie they have to be bought by spotify or apple to survive.
But that will brandmark them even more what they really are: the new mp3.
In my view there is no winning end game for them.
Bad, bad marketing.
The stats on the popularity of MQA might be quite illuminating because despite all of the talk about masters, the comparison is with CD quality streaming. Until the high Res alternatives come on line from other providers that is what MQA is up against so their usage stats would be illuminating.
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There are a few samples of hi-res and MQA from the same master available. (āSame masterā with reasonably high confidence.)
2L, and some ECM and other music at HighResAudio in Germany.
There is no reason to wait with comparison.
I have heard similar experiences, for Unencoded MQA, which is why I traded to a MQA Bluesound Node. When I have compared downloads of higher resolution tracks to the MQA tracks of smaller band width streamed, I cannot hear any noticeable difference. I think Tidal MQA just opens the market for those who want to hear/rent HiRez at a affordable price. I see no downside, and most likely full 24 bit 384khz streaming will be here in the next year or so.
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