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Topic: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA. (Read 146858 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #300 –
Quote from: jeffrey@vog.com on
When Robert Hartley of Absolute Sound goes so far out on a limb in favor of MQA, I feel I need to judge the sound for myself.
A guy who can "hear" the improvements wrought by "high end" cabling...on a boombox??
Okey dokey. Well, I suppose audiophiles are always starving for the latest greatest nonsense like MQA and "higher" stereo "resolution".

Loudspeaker manufacturer

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #302 –
.... which is why I still buy CDs and rip them myself.
lossyWAV -q X -a 4 -s h -A --feedback 2 --limit 15848 --scale 0.5 | FLAC -5 -e -p -b 512 -P=4096 -S- (having set foobar to output 24-bit PCM; scaling by 0.5 gives the ANS headroom to work)

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #303 –
Quote from: JabbaThePrawn on
Well, whatever we think of MQA's pros and cons, Warner Music Group have just announced they'll be using it for their downloads. If one of the biggest forces in the market have adopted it, it has now become something we will have to live with.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/warner-mqa-sign-deal-to-offer-hi-res-music-downloads/
Goodness... I thought Meridian was a niche audiophile equipment supplier; had no clue that they could have so much clout.
The most important audio cables are the ones in the brain

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #304 –
I can't speak about the hardware, but I find their licensing business to be parasitic in nature.

Bob Stuart could have never existed and the world of audio wouldn't have suffered any. Some other highly educated and well intentioned fluffer* would have filled the void, no doubt.

(*) it's figurative.  Heaven forbid a team of lawyers would step in to defend businessmen who peddle marshmallow.

EDIT: I grossly underestimated how much of their business is selling hardware.

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #305 –
Quote from: xnor on
Quote from: 2Bdecided on
That's MQA doing one of the things it was designed to do: proving that you have a bit perfect copy of what was created in the studio arriving at your DAC (or proving that you don't, in this case!).
As does any other proprietary, patented, closed, or obscure format or even just watermark. Heck, a simple checksum that a studio publishes would be enough and wouldn't require tampering with the audio data at all.
Bit-perfect playback is also easy to set up.
Not wishing to argue for the sake of it, or suggest I would pay for it, or even that it matters - but you can't easily check the checksum at the DAC, and bitperfect playback is often broken, sometimes even unknowingly after you have set it up.

Whereas a system which adds something in the studio and puts a light on in the DAC does do this (assuming it works as advertised).

Cheers,
David.

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #306 –
I wonder

- if one could intentionally and audibly diminish the source material, but only when it is being played back in its compressed state.

- whether a competently-created 16/44.1 presentation couldn't be audibly equivalent, otherwise.
  (I don't really wonder about this part)

This shouldn't be a comfort* a consumer has to pay for** by way of an officially licensed indicator light.

(*) or implied "promise" of a superior mastering.

(**) twice: once for the licensing that is more than covered by the price paid by the consumer for the playback device; once for the markup of the encoded content.

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #307 –
Quote from: Thad E Ginathom on
Goodness... I thought Meridian was a niche audiophile equipment supplier; had no clue that they could have so much clout.

Meridian "supplies" the codec for Dolby TrueHD as well, with a market share of about 13 percent of Blu-Rays (thanks to this post for the source.) Paramount uses Meridian Lossless on some 45 percent of their releases. Making the guess that most Blu-Ray actually use MLP from time to time, how does that userbase compare to the FLAC/ALAC/WMAL?

(Myself, I have been using their speakers for thirteen years or so. One coax in, amplification after x-overs.)

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #308 –
Some eye opening insights on MQA strategy hi-fi+ Bob Stuart of MQA and Morten Lindberg of 2L
Some hard to misinterpret facts what it is really meant for.

One of my favourite sentences
"BS: We didn’t want to do public A-B tests, because they are completely uncontrolled. You know what it’s like – you put three audiophiles in a room and you get nine opinions..."

Think about that for a moment. This can mean many things. How about that one? "We better don't do public A-B tests because people suffering ringiphobia (fear of ringing) in reality don't hear a sh** so we better tell them what they hear and give it 3 magic letters."
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #309 –
Quote from: Wombat on
Some hard to misinterpret facts what it is really meant for.
It also gives additional evidence that this whole intellectual property and licensing thing is behind it.

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #310 –
Quote from: Porcus on
Quote from: Thad E Ginathom on
Goodness... I thought Meridian was a niche audiophile equipment supplier; had no clue that they could have so much clout.

Meridian "supplies" the codec for Dolby TrueHD as well, with a market share of about 13 percent of Blu-Rays (thanks to this post for the source.) Paramount uses Meridian Lossless on some 45 percent of their releases. Making the guess that most Blu-Ray actually use MLP from time to time, how does that userbase compare to the FLAC/ALAC/WMAL?

(Myself, I have been using their speakers for thirteen years or so. One coax in, amplification after x-overs.)


Good grief: Spotlight on my ignorance! Well, nothing new there, I suppose :-[
The most important audio cables are the ones in the brain

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #311 –
Quote from: Wombat on
"BS: We didn’t want to do public A-B tests, because they are completely uncontrolled. You know what it’s like – you put three audiophiles in a room and you get nine opinions..."
Well, he's got a point. The magic wire guys blew it by having a few folks with >2 functional brain cells observe their "bump the volume on tracks" scam in public "tests" and it got exposed. So now what? Use a metal dome tweeter with a huge resonance peak >20k and drive the heck out of it with origami, or...?? Even a 70+ yr old daydream believer might hear that.

cheers

AJ
Loudspeaker manufacturer

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #312 –
Quote from: pelmazo on
Quote from: Wombat on
Some hard to misinterpret facts what it is really meant for.
It also gives additional evidence that this whole intellectual property and licensing thing is behind it.
That was the point. Japan must have one of the most strict copyright laws. No wonder they like it. Indirectly he accusses most others out there breaking the copyright.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!
 

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #314 –
Man the lifeboats, the BS "Answers" are finally here (albeit in the safety cocoon of an audiophile magazine):
http://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-questions-and-answers#ugE36qSjYCoW3HKL.97

Quote
It is now widely, although not universally, accepted that "hi-rez" digital audio, with increased sampling rate or bit-depth, delivers improved sound quality....
In the universe where SACD and DVDA, etc. didn't crash and burn, the fringe actually believe this.  ::)
Loudspeaker manufacturer

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #315 –
But I want archival quality studio masters! And I want all of the original stems! So I can compose my own personal mixes in my fully licensed copy of Logic Pro X that I bought totally on a whim, and never share them with anyone else because I know they'll suck anyway, and it wouldn't be legal since all I'd be purchasing is personal listening rights.

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #316 –
Quote from: ajinfla on
Man the lifeboats, the BS "Answers" are finally here

"BS" is an abbreviation that needs disambiguating. Or... well, perhaps not.

Who's the guy in the picture with the wig and the bottle? Is that the actual eponymous? The man himself?

  
The most important audio cables are the ones in the brain

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #318 –
On this occasion, I read the comments rather than the article. I like the one about the Donald Trump of Audio.

(And, even after so many years of reading audio fora, I still do a double take when I come across somebody looking for "BS Speakers." I mean, why would anybody?  :)) )
The most important audio cables are the ones in the brain

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #319 –
It looks like some albums are being remixed for MQA, which is further going to confuse the issue, since people will be comparing an MQA remix vs the original CD/Digital Download and attribute the changes to the superiority of the MQA format.

Check out this Mozart recording for sale on 7Digital:

https://us.7digital.com/artist/marianne-thorsen-and-trondheimsolistene/release/mozart-violin-concertos-mqa-remix-2016-5317973?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2

I find it pretty funny that this "MQA remix" is available in MP3 format for under $9.00

The MQA version is for sale here and costs a whopping $24.00.

I'm curious if we'll ever be able to convert MQA to another format and do a true ABX test.

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #320 –
I suppose the mp3 version is encoded from the undecoded files.
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #322 –
Maybe someone can help me here. MQA is lossy but undecoded MQA is even more lossy. What is a MQA Remix exactly?
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #323 –
Presumably, a mix aimed at mitigating the effects of MQA’s lossy compression; i.e. to mask audibility of artefacts in the sound, and to minimise the visibility of artefacts in the spectrogram. Perhaps even to ‘enhance’ the appearance of the spectrogram, e.g. by boosting the ultra-sonics.

Re: Meridian Audio's new... sub-format called MQA.

Reply #324 –
Quote from: bandpass on
Presumably, a mix aimed at mitigating the effects of MQA’s lossy compression; i.e. to mask audibility of artefacts in the sound, and to minimise the visibility of artefacts in the spectrogram. Perhaps even to ‘enhance’ the appearance of the spectrogram, e.g. by boosting the ultra-sonics.

It might also just be a remix that sounds better overall, and they're just calling it an MQA remix because it was remixed to be released as MQA, but may sound better than the original mix if it was released as a standard 16/44.1 FLAC.  I'm not quite sure how you're going to get someone to drop $25 on an MQA release of an album.  But then again, people are buying HDTracks, SACD and DVD Audio, so someone is going to buy into this.