MQA more answers, maybe too many for some people.

[RayDunzl]

Ok, I read the paragraph.

When introduced CD was NOT easily copied (ok, with a cassette recorder), there was no Public Internet, there was no File Sharing, and so on. The curse started about 15 years later, and the public, with no sense of intellectual property rights, continues to abuse the concept, just because they can.

 

[DonH56]

I'm not sure what you mean by "HF signal amplitude". Are you talking about bandwidth, or something else?

A previous post implied the extra bandwidth was not needed. The article implies MQA is more about greater (finer) time resolution rather than simply greater bandwidth.

IMO! - Don

 

[krabapple]

MQA is an audio business. Like MLP, like Hi-Res Audio, like UHD Blu-ray, like Dolby Atmos, like HDR, like 3D, like DSD, like EQ, like HDCD, like ...
It is the audio business evolution to the benefit of the customers, us.

Ha ha! Good one!


Wait, you are joking, right?

 

[krabapple]

 

[Thomas savage]

Umm, looks like a crabapple on top of that stick...never had u down as the maternal type tho

 

[NorthSky]

...And he came down from the sky, sent by the angels of the Grand Master...MQA.
We live on a beautiful blue planet with beautiful blue people.

 

[Thomas savage]

...And he came down from the sky, sent by the angels of the Grand Master...MQA.
We live on a beautiful blue planet with beautiful blue people.

Who's blue? I would get that checked out

 

[NorthSky]

I just picked my favorite color, to identify the human race...the entire human race.

 

[RayDunzl]

MQA

I don't have a decoder, so, I'm listening to the Deblurred Full Size Pre-Origamified FLAC samples from David Elias and 2L.

https://davidelias.bandcamp.com/album/free-mqa-tracks-any-player-works

http://www.2l.no/hires/

 

[Blumlein 88]

MQA

I don't have a decoder, so, I'm listening to the Deblurred Full Size Pre-Origamified FLAC samples from David Elias and 2L.

https://davidelias.bandcamp.com/album/free-mqa-tracks-any-player-works

http://www.2l.no/hires/

This sounds pretty good on the streaming sample track there. I can only imagine if the origamified version was at my disposal it would be orgasmic. Apparently these are from DSD 64 original recordings.

 

[Sal1950]

it would be orgasmic.

 

[ceedee]

Phew...that was close! When I hit play I realized suddenly things were temporally being smeared from here to Sunday (or was it last Sunday? I couldn't tell...there was little to no time resolution). Just like all other digital audio I've ever heard.

Finally I figured out that I was listening to the MP3 version instead of the MQA-encoded FLAC. No wonder! You can't even encode origami into an MP3! You can somewhat with the vastly-superior AAC @ 320k, but even then, all of the folds aren't in the right places.

Thank you Mr. Stuart! Now I no longer get physically sick when listening to digital music. Up 'till now, I had to stick with LPs because of my sensitivity to timing errors. I can't wait to hear what it sounds like through one of your nifty Meridian converters!

 

[RayDunzl]

From this blog page:

https://archimago.blogspot.ca/2016/02/measurements-impressions-meridian.html

 

[amirm]

Read through the article. The noise performance of MQA doesn't look good. It is raising the noise floor in the audible band. Likely they are using the low order bits to encode data.

Didn't realize one could download the L2 files with and without MQA. I have to buy the new Meridian Explorer 2 and check it out!

 

[Blumlein 88]

Read through the article. The noise performance of MQA doesn't look good. It is raising the noise floor in the audible band. Likely they are using the low order bits to encode data.

Didn't realize one could download the L2 files with and without MQA. I have to buy the new Meridian Explorer 2 and check it out!

Do notice in that graph it is referenced to -20db. So all those levels of noise are 20 db lower than graphed. The MQA tracks in the upper audible band show up at -66 db. So really -86db which is low enough it likely is of no consequence though it certainly isn't improved performance in the audible band vs plain old good PCM.

 

[DonH56]

The original article is pretty clear that MQA raises the noise floor. They argue it doesn't matter (based on a long explanation in the article). Basically what Blumlein 88 said.

 

[RayDunzl]

I listened to the MQA tracks above - David Elias and the 2L recordings - undecoded, so I theoretically only get the deblur...

Nothing jumped out at me as better than other 16/44.1 sources that are well recorded.

You're not as deaf as me (I hope), so, YMMV.

 

[tomelex]

Here is some stuff of interest here and in general about how much is enough for our hearing systems.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Sorry, but Hans' videos are mis-informational videos as is audiophile typical. One more time, out of the millions so far, the pre-echo is occurring at frequencies in the transition band only. Frequencies we cannot hear. If one has any concern whatsoever, then 88 or 96 khz rates will make them a total non-issue. Plus, that little single impulse response is actually an illegal signal. That signal actually is invalid in conformance with the Nyquist theorem. Filters in the ADC stage would not allow such a signal to occur digitally in the first place. Remember Nyquist is about adc/dac. Not one or the other. You can create such artificial signals and test some aspects of the gear that way. The idea midrange musical transients are ringing thru your DAC is a fantasy. This garbage just won't die, not as long as it is easy to picture in the audiophile mind and sells gear. Proper publications that cared about the readers rather than being cheerleaders or shills for advertisers would have regular articles explaining all this. No reason Hans couldn't have gotten the real info and done a video explaining this. Instead he is promoting what a company wants him to promote. Even though the Dave likely sounds wonderful and does have some high quality filtering, the reason given for it being wonderful is not correct.

Also in the video is the old BS that for 1 microsecond timing accuracy you need 1 mhz sample rates. Really full of pitiful old crap is this video.

 

[Werner]

True enough.

Ringing due to steep linear-phase filters is a non-issue.

Oh, it is audible. Try to compare linear phase and minimum phase steep low pass filters at 4kHz. You can readily detect this. But if you move the cut-off frequency up, the difference goes away. And once above 15kHz or so for most of us who aren't 18 anymore it will all sound the same.

And even if it were a problem at 22kHz, there are strategies to align the filter's transition band width with the capabilities of the human cochlea up there in order to make the pre-ringing inaudible: simply get a 4kHz transition band.

Remember when Keith Howard did a listening test of minimum phase and maximum phase recordings in Stereophile? Zero results.

I did the same at PFM some years ago: I downsampled a good 96kHz recording with min phase (no pre-ringing) and max phase (all pre-ringing) to 44.1kHz, and then back to 96kHz (to level the field). Very steep filters. Horrible ringing. Some 10 blind listeners, with plenty of time, using their home systems (some of which in Goldmund territory) were not able to point at any differences or formulate a preference for any of the test tracks.