Meridian MQA Poll

I still consider myself an MQA supporter--or, at the very least, I am willing to give it a chance, even in the face of accusations that it is just Meridian's effort to make money. Still, with a reliance on engineers' ears as well as proprietary digital signal processing, MQA Is starting to remind me of the Burwen Bobcat processing from 10-15 years ago.

Red Rose's Burwen Bobcat

 

I wish I had seen this poll before it closed.

I heard a very hi-end demonstration of MQA about a month or so ago in NYC. Peter McGrath did the demo with his own recordings (24/96) that had been MQA processed. We had a chance to hear the original and then the MQA version. The setup was as follows: Wilson Audio Alexx speakers, top-of-the-line VTL preamp and amp. and Meridian DAC (of course). The music wasn’t what I usually listen to, however, the difference was very clear to everyone in the room (including Michael Fremer, who was seated next to me). I expected to hear equivalence (i.e. that MQA had done no harm), however, there was clearly a difference. The MQA sounded somewhat brighter and had more presence! It reminded me at the time of the “loudness button” and old amps that I had 30 years ago (I had not seen the May 2017 Stereophile at the time of the demonstration).

I managed to corner one of the MQA guys who accompanied Peter and after some prodding by me he explained that they do DSP of the signal as part of the MQA encoding to “make it sound better”. While he did not go into any great detail, he indicated that things are done to try to reduce pre and post ringing that are present in almost all digital audio signals. I can only speculate that this involves some kind of digital filtering of the original signal.

Based on this one demonstration I certainly would not advocate for spending time and money on MQA (and risking falling into the clutches of Meridian). Since my preferred digital is SACD I do not see any need for MQA and I certainly do not want anyone using DSP on my digital data streams to make them "sound better"

If I had been able to vote I would have voted for the following:

1. I won't use it as it doesn't offer me anything I don't already have
   
   
2. I think we have sufficient formats to manage high quality audio already
   
   
3. I think Meridian are focusing more on creating a revenue stream

 

thanks very much for this informative post.

 

Why would you need to encode the DSP-processed audio? If it's a DSP trick, couldn't you just deploy it selectively on playback?

Better yet, only deploy it on playback if pre and post-ringing is actually detected above a certain threshold...

 

Because that is free.

 

SP42, Maybe I was not clear in my post. All music that has MQA certification has to be encoded to be able to do the folding to reduce the required size of the music file. Adding the extra DSP to "make it sound better" is probably (may guess here) a minor tweak at the processing end. That means that the player just has to have the right software, firmware or hardware to do the unfolding. Once the music file is unfolded any standard DAC chip can play the DSP tweaked music. Meridian doesn't want you to be able to tweak the music, they have decided for you what sounds best.. It is like they are re-mastering the music.

Meridian loves MQA because it means Meridian collects money on both the music (for the folding and any extra tweaks they add) and the gear (the licenses to build MQA certified gear). And of course the sell their own Meridian gear which is MQA certified to consumers. This is not the first time Meridian has tried to come up with a scheme where everybody pays Meridian. Of course, if your Meridian, this is just good business.

 

well said.

 

Blah blah blah.....instead of the theoretical projecting of one's expectations, listen to most any MQA master from Tidal Hi Fi (now thousands of albums on Tidal including those not even listed in the MQA section) and if you don't hear an enhanced musical experience in a quiet listening environment, something is wrong somewhere. Their free included upgraded software makes a 96-24 partial decoded song (or album) available by simply downloading MQA Master selections....try the well known album, Rumours, most any Eagles, Doobie Brothers, anything with acoustic guitar, which will not only sound closer to live music, it will also "feel" closer to live music. Of course, the definition level of stereo system comes into play. Even the old Roberta Flack and similar albums have in particular a new high end openness, speaking as a lifelong percussionist and audiophile. This quote from the recent ABS pretty much brings things up to current reality....but of course some skeptics will always persist~

"The big story at the this year’s Munich show was the rapidly increasing number of manufacturers incorporating MQA decoding in their products. Perhaps even more significant for the format, however, was Sony Music’s statement that it intends to release titles from its vast catalog in MQA. In addition to Sony’s statement at Munich, Merlin, a global-rights agency for independent record labels, announced a long-term agreement to encode their master recordings in MQA. The Sony and Merlin news, coupled with the previous announcements by Warner and Universal Music Group to release their catalogs in MQA, means that an MQA future is a fait accompli."

 

Lol...another "new member" magically appears to shill...here to claim if we don't the magic of MQA, something is wrong with us...

Gotta love it.

 

I really only care about this if by some God-forsaken disaster MQA becomes the default "hi-res" or "better sound" format. It's bad enough that engineers are using more "vinyl exclusive" digital masters for LP's (less compressed than the commercial hi-res digital files).

 

I must confess that on Tidal I don't hear any difference or experience anything special when listening to MQA material. Is there an MQA police to which I can report and have my membership card revoked?

 

our "new member" did you a favor and tried to show you the errors of your ways.

complete with a cut and pasted press release.

thank the shill and make amends.

 

Really? "Blah, blah, blah"? New members should be reminded that this is a discussion board, not their personal announcement board.

If you'd read even a small fraction of this thread, you would realize that that dozens of us have been listening hard to find some benefit from MQA-processed files. A few seem to feel they're getting something more, but most aren't hearing a single thing that's better. Nothing "theoretical" or "projecting" about that.

You're right. There is something wrong . . . with MQA.

 

Yup. The obvious snake oil salesman is obvious.

If MQA is so wonderful, why bake it into the recording to begin with? Just slap it into the DSP units inside of A/V receivers and let users decide if they want this junky processing switched off or on. Why contaminate perfectly good high-res masters with DSP junk of dubious (at best) value?

It's like the 21st century version of QSound...

 

bullseye!!!

...because...Vaporware has a much higher built in profit margin...