MQA goes into reorganization.

[jefe1]

I bought one MQA CD to play on my OPPO and honestly I was not knocked out by the decoded sound. I believe what people say they hear from their discs however.

When the mqa cds become discontinued cut outs for $3 a disc I'll try more.
Otherwise perhaps someone can write new code for Oppos DAC so it can play 8 tracks.....

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Interesting to say Administration is comparable to Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Not a UK Atty and when I've had to deal with UK Administration proceedings I've always had a UK solicitor, but in my experience Administration is much more likely - and indeed geared more towards - a quick liquidation than US Chapter 11. I'm sure companies come out of Administration but I've never seen it.

You are correct... It's not comparable!

Prior to placing the business into administration (liquidation/being wound up) I guess they could have been trading under the Insolvency Act 1986 while looking for a buyer or more investment. Either-way, it will be interesting to learn how much money they burned through and lost.

For anyone interested, here's a link to their company account filings and director listings: MQA LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

 

[atrocity]

I'm not disputing that there are no audible sonic advantages, there probably is, but having grown up with lossless audio, I personally have a strong bias against lossy codecs (and lossy audio masquerading as lossless audio) and companies that aren't 100% transparent with what you're getting.

But...but...MQA is BETTER THAN LOSSLESS! Is MQA Lossless?

I recently had to give up and buy a new NAD "receiver" (which doesn't actually have a radio, but whatever) and was surprised to find that it has MQA decoding. So far, the only thing I've used it for is Radio Paradise, which, as much as I absolutely love RP, is kind of a sick joke. When I listen, the NAD reports 24bit/88.2kHz, but anyone who's been listening to RP for the last 20+ years knows that a ton of their library is high-quality MP3 and, more for the last several years, CD-quality FLAC. I assume they have some tracks that are above 16/44.1, but it seems exceptionally unlikely that many are.

 

[Bill B]

So I have absolutely no MQA recordings but after reading this thread I decided to get one. I chose Yes "Close To The Edge", mainly because I have several other versions (sacd, blu-ray, etc.) and figure that will give me the best sources for comparison. I don't have the ability to decode it properly but I do have two Oppo players. So should I be able to notice any benefit?

 

[armyjazzer]

So I have absolutely no MQA recordings but after reading this thread I decided to get one. I chose Yes "Close To The Edge", mainly because I have several other versions (sacd, blu-ray, etc.) and figure that will give me the best sources for comparison. I don't have the ability to decode it properly but I do have two Oppo players. So should I be able to notice any benefit?

I think you have to have some device that is MQA enabled in order to unfold the audio to the highest resolution. That is part of the negative aspect of MQA. You have to buy their junk in order to play your music. This is also why I dropped Tidal Music service. I wanted no part of MQA. Switched to other services that stream high res. Flac!

 

[4-earredwonder]

So I have absolutely no MQA recordings but after reading this thread I decided to get one. I chose Yes "Close To The Edge", mainly because I have several other versions (sacd, blu-ray, etc.) and figure that will give me the best sources for comparison. I don't have the ability to decode it properly but I do have two Oppo players. So should I be able to notice any benefit?

I purposely avoided that particular title as I have it on SACD and blu ray audio IN SURROUND. Only the OPPO 205 has a built in MQA decoder but I'm sure it will sound just fine UNENCODED!

 

[Stupy]

MQA seemed to me to be a solution to a problem that didn't exist!
...

Exactly. I return back to this point every time.

I see all the technical bits and pieces - things like lossy compression at frequencies we cannot hear anyway - but keep returning back to this point. Yet we can do streaming high res FLAC on Qobuz if we want high res. Why mess with the audio to put it in a relatively restricted format like MQA? It all just looks like marketing. It is not that I hate MQA; it is that I am completely indifferent. The opposite of love is not hate --- it is indifference... :-/

I have a soft spot for Tidal these days because of their support for multichannel audio; so can overlook the MQA. I do hope they swap from MQA to high res FLAC instead, though.

 

[cbmmm3]

I hope MQA survives. I buy the physical MQA discs and am able to play them fully unfolded---the signal is then sent to my Surround processor and synthesized into surround. It sounds incredible. I have as much fun listening to music this way as I do listening to my DVD Audio / SACD / BluRay surround library

 

[Mackspower]

So I have absolutely no MQA recordings but after reading this thread I decided to get one. I chose Yes "Close To The Edge", mainly because I have several other versions (sacd, blu-ray, etc.) and figure that will give me the best sources for comparison. I don't have the ability to decode it properly but I do have two Oppo players. So should I be able to notice any benefit?

Listening and experiencing MQA for yourself is very important. As others have said, if you have an Oppo 205 you are basically good to go. I have an Oppo 105D (which has no MQA capability) but connecting an external DAC with MQA compatibility is all you need to. You can also purchase MQA CDs, rip them to flac files and stream to an MQA DAC. It all works wonderfully well. Share back your experiences.

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

Some recording engineers swear by it, while others swear at it.

 

[AYanguas]

... You can also purchase MQA CDs, rip them to flac files and stream to an MQA DAC. It all works wonderfully well. Share back your experiences.

I've read that a ripped MQA CD, to be 'fully MQA' playable using Oppo 205 or a MQA DAC, you have also to inject the MQA tags into the file, using a program from MQA company called "MQA Tag Restorer".

I do not know if that is only for enabling the MQA indicator, or really to detect MQA and proceed with the full unfold.

I have tested the tool just for learning, but I haven't any DAC MQA unfolding device. And I think I will never have it.

 

[barfle]

Listening and experiencing MQA for yourself is very important. As others have said, if you have an Oppo 205 you are basically good to go. I have an Oppo 105D (which has no MQA capability) but connecting an external DAC with MQA compatibility is all you need to. You can also purchase MQA CDs, rip them to flac files and stream to an MQA DAC. It all works wonderfully well. Share back your experiences.

No experience here, but I believe one of MQA’s “features” is an indicator that the recording is original. So my interpretetion of that would be that copies, especially rips, would no longer have that “authentication.”

Again, MQA just never made it to the top of my wish list. A lot of my music sounds amazing without it, although the curiosity of what it can do for me is still there. CD-4 is still hapenning before. Atmos is still happening before.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

I've read that a ripped MQA CD, to be 'fully MQA' playable using Oppo 205 or a MQA DAC, you have also to inject the MQA tags into the file, using a program from MQA company called "MQA Tag Restorer".

Surely this information can be found and amended using a hex editor...

 

[armyjazzer]

I found this article on MQA interesting:

https://hackaday.com/2021/04/21/mythbusting-tidals-mqa-format-how-does-it-measure-up/

 

[AYanguas]

I found this article on MQA interesting:

https://hackaday.com/2021/04/21/mythbusting-tidals-mqa-format-how-does-it-measure-up/

I think this is the same information found two years ago in Audio Science Review, by the user 'GoldenOne' probably the same referred here as 'GoldenSound'

MQA Deep Dive - I published music on tidal to test MQA

 

[jaap74]

Just saw this on the Steve Hoffman forums:

"TIDAL_Jesse
•12 min. ago


So many questions about MQA and hi-resolution audio. I hope we don't spend all of our time on audio format details, but it's an AMA and you're asking.
TIDAL has cared about high quality and even experimental audio formats long before it was cool or common among music streamers. Why? Because artists take care when making their art and they want/hope to present their work in the best light (whatever they think that is exactly). We also live in a world that is mobile-dominated and mobile phones have constraints in memory, data plans, coverage maps - so there's always a consideration for the customer's need between more quality and more bandwidth/storage efficiency.

Breaking news for my reddit peeps: we will be introducing hi-res FLAC for our HiFi Plus subscribers soon. It's lossless and an open standard. It's a big file, but we'll give you controls to dial this up and down based on what's going on."

 

[jaybird100]

I bought one MQA CD to play on my OPPO and honestly I was not knocked out by the decoded sound. I believe what people say they hear from their discs however.

When the mqa cds become discontinued cut outs for $3 a disc I'll try more.
Otherwise perhaps someone can write new code for Oppos DAC so it can play 8 tracks.....

If one expects to hear a difference, he will, whether or not it's real.

 

[Bill B]

Don't think anyone has posted this on yet...

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/tidal-adopting-hi-res-flac-hifi-plus-subscribers

 

[Mackspower]

No experience here, but I believe one of MQA’s “features” is an indicator that the recording is original. So my interpretetion of that would be that copies, especially rips, would no longer have that “authentication.”

Again, MQA just never made it to the top of my wish list. A lot of my music sounds amazing without it, although the curiosity of what it can do for me is still there. CD-4 is still hapenning before. Atmos is still happening before.

I had read this on-line too regarding extra ripping steps. In real life, when I ripped my MQA CDs, it was as simple as a redbook CD. No special meta-data manipulation needed. Full unfolding was available, no problems.

 

[armyjazzer]

Just saw this on the Steve Hoffman forums:

"TIDAL_Jesse
•12 min. ago


So many questions about MQA and hi-resolution audio. I hope we don't spend all of our time on audio format details, but it's an AMA and you're asking.
TIDAL has cared about high quality and even experimental audio formats long before it was cool or common among music streamers. Why? Because artists take care when making their art and they want/hope to present their work in the best light (whatever they think that is exactly). We also live in a world that is mobile-dominated and mobile phones have constraints in memory, data plans, coverage maps - so there's always a consideration for the customer's need between more quality and more bandwidth/storage efficiency.

Breaking news for my reddit peeps: we will be introducing hi-res FLAC for our HiFi Plus subscribers soon. It's lossless and an open standard. It's a big file, but we'll give you controls to dial this up and down based on what's going on."

Great news!! Glad to see MQA go! Maybe I will consider Tidal as an option again once MQA is gone! On Qobuz right now, but I did enjoy some of the Tidal videos when I had Tidal.