Will MQA make current DACs obsolete soon?

[gcgreg]

Methinks most here have never heard DSD done right.

You'd be right for sure as there is very little to be had as yet, despite the time it's been around. Uptake at a studio level will be essential.

[wis97non]

You'd be right for sure as there is very little to be had as yet, despite the time it's been around. Uptake at a studio level will be essential.

I gotz terabytes.

 

PS3 ripper and Vinyl transfer make up the bulk.

 

However, with HQ Player, even humble RBCD can be boosted to DSD256 on the fly to feed chipless DSD.....essentially making everything "DSD".

MQA from what I auditioned, cant beat that with a baseball bat.

[LHC]

for nerds heres the article  behind MQA Journal of the Audio Engineering Society.

 

Link didn't work, I think one has to pay for AES articles unless a member or institutional subscriber. 

[sleach]

MQA CANNOT challenge DSD64 much less DSD256...all other things being equal, such as music mastering.

No, I guess not - 24/192 is on the cards though, right? There's not much mastering done above that anyway.

I heard a demo of MQA and was decidedly underwhelmed. it think its more of a streaming play.

Bummer

Plus, you dont need MQA in the Dac, you can have it in a streamer like the Aries feeding any Dac.

That's good news though!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gcgreg]

Link didn't work, I think one has to pay for AES articles unless a member or institutional subscriber.

That's weird, it worked when Nada posted but not now.

[Tranquility Bass]

To get the raw data stream to feed into a DSP for further processing such as crossover filters etc do you have to pay royalties or use some proprietary hardware or chip ?

 

I hope this MQA is not another repeat of Dolby/HDMI and HDCP with a mega-annual licensing fee. If it is then we don't need it  

 

cheers

[gcgreg]

To get the raw data stream to feed into a DSP for further processing such as crossover filters etc do you have to pay royalties or use some proprietary hardware or chip ?

I hope this MQA is not another repeat of Dolby/HDMI and HDCP with a mega-annual licensing fee. If it is then we don't need it

cheers

They're saying it will be possible to decode via software and feed existing DACs, so I think you probably will be able to funnel it to a DSP. All those details do seem a little unclear at present.

[gcgreg]

Very clever, can't wait to hear it myself.

Bluesound have announced Node Gen 1 & 2 both to get MQA via firmware updates.

[Guest Sime]

So let's make this clear, and I'll know if I fully understand MQA:

So is MQA in simple terms, a format that will compress any audio file from Redbook to 192 or higher? Into a smaller file like an MP3 while still retaining the original file sound from the studio?

So I simply can get an MP3 file sized rebook album?

And the MQA decoder, my Node for example, simply decodes the MQA file and sends it to the DAC as a Redbook or HIRez file?

Edited January 6, 2016 by Sime

[gcgreg]

So let's make this clear, and I'll know if I fully understand MQA:

So is MQA in simple terms, a format that will compress any audio file from Redbook to 192 or higher? Into a smaller file like an MP3 while still retaining the original file sound from the studio?

So I simply can get an MP3 file sized rebook album?

And the MQA decoder, my Node for example, simply decodes the MQA file and sends it to the DAC as a Redbook or HIRez file?

Not quite. My understanding so far:

The idea is for hi-res such as 24/192 (or higher) to be folded down into a file about the size of redbook and packaged in FLAC or ALAC (or similar lossless PCM format).

The decoder software or hardware will unfold the file and pass it to the DAC. In the case of a DAC not supporting the full resolution, the file can still just be played at whatever res the DAC can handle. It could even be sent as-is without decoding, and still play at 16/48 for example.

The intention is for studios to distribute in the format in the first instance (rather than just converting existing hi-res PCM content), as the capture process has been optimised to create a better replica of the original master. It is meant as a studio-to-listener quality chain, with a form of integrity authentication included in the file metadata.

[Jventer]

Not quite. My understanding so far:

The idea is for hi-res such as 24/192 (or higher) to be folded down into a file about the size of redbook and packaged in FLAC or ALAC (or similar lossless PCM format).

The decoder software or hardware will unfold the file and pass it to the DAC. In the case of a DAC not supporting the full resolution, the file can still just be played at whatever res the DAC can handle. It could even be sent as-is without decoding, and still play at 16/48 for example.

The intention is for studios to distribute in the format in the first instance (rather than just converting existing hi-res PCM content), as the capture process has been optimised to create a better replica of the original master. It is meant as a studio-to-listener quality chain, with a form of integrity authentication included in the file metadata.

+1

[Guest Sime]

Got it. Cheers.

[gcgreg]

I gotz terabytes.

PS3 ripper and Vinyl transfer make up the bulk.

However, with HQ Player, even humble RBCD can be boosted to DSD256 on the fly to feed chipless DSD.....essentially making everything "DSD".

MQA from what I auditioned, cant beat that with a baseball bat.

The more I learn about the intentions and mechanics of MQA, the better I understand the advantages of DSD (over vanilla hi-res PCM).

[Tranquility Bass]

Looks like MQA maybe gaining some momentum. I wonder if they will offer a decoder for a SHARC dsp ?? Where is the licensing and royalties in this ? Is it at the source or the delivery of content ?

 

cheers

 

MQA Takes Off Big-Time in 2016

 

http://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-takes-big-time-2016

 

[mmv]

Looks like MQA maybe gaining some momentum. I wonder if they will offer a decoder for a SHARC dsp ?? Where is the licensing and royalties in this ? Is it at the source or the delivery of content ?

 

cheers

 

MQA Takes Off Big-Time in 2016

 

http://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-takes-big-time-2016

 

 

 

Looks promising - especially as Roon seems to be partnering with some of these guys and more too!

 

Maybe I should have bought that second hand Aires when I had the chance - if it gets Roon and MQA support it will be awesome (but geez was the software awful at the time...).

[sir sanders zingmore]

So it's lossy, yeah?

[davewantsmoore]

I gotz terabytes.

 

PS3 ripper and Vinyl transfer make up the bulk.

 

However, with HQ Player, even humble RBCD can be boosted to DSD256 on the fly to feed chipless DSD.....essentially making everything "DSD".

MQA from what I auditioned, cant beat that with a baseball bat.

 

... and so the output of MQA (PCM 24/x) can also be encoded as DSD   (using lots of different software, HQPlayer is not the only one).

 

I fail to see the point?

[davewantsmoore]

Link didn't work, I think one has to pay for AES articles unless a member or institutional subscriber. 

 

You need to adjust the date in the URL (and consider that you are ahead of the USA when doing so).

 

 

.... or:   http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=17501

[davewantsmoore]

To get the raw data stream to feed into a DSP for further processing such as crossover filters etc do you have to pay royalties or use some proprietary hardware or chip ?

 

Yes... but

 

They're saying it will be possible to decode via software and feed existing DACs, so I think you probably will be able to funnel it to a DSP. All those details do seem a little unclear at present.

 

It's (somewhat) like HDCD .....

 

MQA is a container which looks like PCM 16bit @ 44.1kss (or 48) ..... and you can playback this 16/44 audio on any device without a decode (ie. without a license).

 

 

Inside this 16/44 container is also some extra data, that when decoded (with a license), will enlarge the depth and rate, to eg.  24/192.

 

The additional data above 16/44 is represented with a lossy encoding....  however (as it explains in the paper), the encoder is quite clever / specific / efficient.

Edited January 8, 2016 by davewantsmoore

[davewantsmoore]

So I simply can get an MP3 file sized rebook album?

 

No, you will get a redbook sized 24/192 album.

 

• If you play the (redbook sized) audio without a decoder.... you get redbook audio
• If you play the audio with a decoder .... you get 24/192 (or whatever) rate audio.

 

 

The redbook portion is "lossless".   The portion beyond (which you get with a decoder) is lossy....   but because a lot of the space beyond redbook audio (16/44) is "wasted".   The encoder is very efficient.

[wis97non]

... and so the output of MQA (PCM 24/x) can also be encoded as DSD   (using lots of different software, HQPlayer is not the only one).

 

I fail to see the point?

On the fly...with the class leading algorithms....means that your quality DSD Dac is NOT obsololete afterall.