I know this is a sensitive subject, so i ll cut to the chest. Regardless of the fact we could have avoided MQA or not, now it's here and streaming services use it. On Tidal for example i can put my dac in exclusive mode and get "hi-res" audio but what difference would it actually make if my DAC was capable of decoding MQA? Are they somehow downgrading the signal without MQA decoding capabilities, or it's just a lesser signal than what it would be with the MQA stream once decoded? What about the difference in decoding levels of MQA? I have heard about 2x,4x up to 16x decoding/unfolding but it's unclear, some level of it can be performed in software and hardware?
I really don't want to fire a debate about it, i just want some practical opinions on these particular matters.
I really don't want to fire a debate about it, i just want some practical opinions on these particular matters.