MQA - One Filter to Rule them All?

@cvalle as far as I know you are mostly correct, however, I have a personal connection ( cough cough cough, bs) with Berkeley Audio Design and they have stated they hope to release MQA compatability this year (not bs).

If Tidal support is real, AND the benefits are real, it will be like selling a good pie. You don’t have to sell it, the wafting smell will sell itself. Otherwise, it will be like Windows 10, which requires Microsoft to take over your computer, possibly illegally, and push an update you didn’t want.

You are right, of course, all of the current models of the Mytek DAC’s have MQA support, including the Brooklyn which I’m listening to right now. The older, Stereo 192 DSD does not, but it’s also insanely cheap via the website right now, $1,000 as a discontinued product.

Best,


Erik

You are right, of course, all of the current models of the Mytek DAC’s have MQA support,

interesting. So, Mytek did submit their designs to Meridian & get their seal of approval for MQA. Do you know if Mytek is paying royalty fees to Meridian for this? It'll probably show up in it's price...

i'm sure that you'll get a MQA-supported Berkeley DAC when it releases. It will interesting for you to update us w.r.t. its sound vs. the Mytek Brooklyn sound & let us know if these 2 DACs sound identical (as you had suggested in your above posts).... 

Hi @bombaywalla

Haha, I don’t have that kind of cash flow, and I’m not the biggest BAD fanboy. I like them a lot, but overall I think I prefer warmer sound.

According to what I read online, yes, Mytek did in fact submit the DAC’s for approval, or measurement or whatever. I’m not sure how it works, or what exactly they must measure. It sounds like a pain in the butt honestly. I doubt every applicant has the same or appropriate measurement devices, so this must mean that Mytek has to submit the DAC somehow, get Meridian to measure it, and provide refreshed code or coefficients, have those implemented, and re-measure. What a mess.

As I understand it, they measure the behavior of the entire DAC, not just the chip. It would be really convenient if it was just per chip so there’s just one set of adjustments for a BB 20459 (or whatever). This is one reason why I read Schiit is not on the bandwagon (among others). Perhaps in the future as they get more experience this is how things will go, so it will make it a lot easier for small-volume makers to get pre-approved decoding.

It may even be possible MQA decoding will be build into streamers, so you can configure your steamer and say "My DAC uses an AKxxxx chip" and voila. Then you could be all Schiit happy and have MQA. On the other hand, once the type of benefit is known (if any), maybe an open-source DAC adapter will be written which can provide at least the proper de-coding adjustment.  That is, if Meridian is measuring something like a pre-ringing filter, adjusting for that in the stream could be done by others without stealing their code, just the idea.

After the Alpha with MQA comes out maybe i’ll find a fellow San Francisco Bay audiophile to bring it and compare though. Right now I am just hoping for construction to finish so I can finish breaking in the Brooklyn. :)

Best,


Erik

I believe Meridian has a $399 MQA Dac and a $22,000 MQA player.  I doubt they sound the same.