Julf wrote: > Thanks - it does make some good points. > > -"At the present time, I remain skeptical of the sonic advantages of MQA > and even more skeptical of its commercial viability. There is no > question that MQA degrades the quality of the audio for users who do not > have an MQA decoder. The compatible portion of the MQA signal is > equivalent to about 13 to 15 bits at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz or 48 > kHz. The loss of resolution is due to down sampling, dither noise, and > pseudo-random noise from the high-frequency compression channel which > occupies the lower 8 to 11 bits. When fully decoded, the resolution of > MQA is limited to 17 bits at 96 kHz. Miska has shown that an MQA file > actually occupies more space than a lossless 96 kHz 18-bit PCM file! Why > settle for 17 bits when you can have an 18-bit file in a smaller > package? MQA may be promising a sonic benefit and file-size benefit that > it cannot deliver!"- > > and > > -"Note that the original 24-bit signal is never recovered. MQA does not > losslessly preserve the original 24-bit signal. For this reason MQA is > not truly a lossless system. At best, the MQA system losslessly conveys > 17-bits at 96 kHz. Unfortunately this very complicated process is less > efficient than lossless FLAC compression of the 17-bit file. It is also > only slightly smaller than a FLAC version of the original 24-bit signal. > MQA does not make it easier to stream 96 kHz files. With a 96 kHz 18-bit > input, FLAC compressed MQA requires higher data rates than FLAC > compressed PCM while delivering lower quality than 18-bit losslessly > compressed PCM. MQA also requires special mastering and special playback > hardware. Conventional FLAC compression requires neither."-
Yep thats the thing that vories me . So basically not having MQA with your Tidal HIFI acount may render some tracks with less fidelity than the good old 16/44.1 they used to deliver with the hifi version :/ I was thinking about switching back to Tidal from Spotify again ? Wonder what's worse 320kBps ogg ( Spotify ) or an MQA file trough a non MQA system . Ogg is a good codec with psycholacoustics accounted for hmmm ? I "understand"( but not really ) the labels , they can yet again deliver in lossy proprietary licensed fashion not giving away the master . That arguments has so many holes in it but record labels likes it.... So if we need MQA it's for the wrong reasons , just to stay compatible with yet another audio format ( like we needed yet another format ) bah . That's not a step forward only commercial sytems needs to apply -------------------------------------------------------------------- Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS +MeridianG68J MeridianHD621 MeridianG98DH 2 x MeridianDSP5200 MeridianDSP5200HC 2 xMeridianDSP3100 +Rel Stadium 3 sub. Bedroom/Office: Boom Kitchen: Touch + powered Fostex PM0.4 Misc use: Radio (with battery) iPad1 with iPengHD & SqueezePad (spares Touch, SB3, reciever ,controller ) server HP proliant micro server N36L with ClearOS Linux http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106754 _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
