MQA Tidal to launch MQA Hi-Res audio streaming in 2016

[philr]

To be honest I am not sure one way or the other However from this paragraph in the absolute sound article on MQA it seems like there are benefits from the encoder being more closely linked to the DAC. To me this implies the decoding would best be done in the DAC. However other parts of the article indicate that the decoder may only need basic info about the DAC such as resolution which would be pretty straight forward to put into a computer decoder.

The decoder can be implemented in many ways—partly integrated into a DAC chip, or as a bit of software in a phone, for examples. Every decoder will indicate to the listener when an MQA file is playing. Here’s where the “Authenticated” part of Master Quality Authenticated comes in; the MQA light or icon assures that what the listener is hearing on playback is exactly what the engineers heard in the studio. How does this happen? MQA ties the studio’s analog-to-digital converter and the listener’s digital-to-analog converter into what is effectively a single system. In addition, MQA’s rich metadata carries information about the particular analog-to-digital converter and encapsulation used to make the recording or transfer so that the decoder can play it back correctly. And if the decoder knows what DAC it’s driving, it can also optimize its sound. This is why MQA can claim to authenticate the studio experience for the listener.

The Absolute Sound.com

I think I just broke one of my New Year resolutions to not post anymore about this anymore and just enjoy the music