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MQA - Music Discussion

This thread is to discuss MQA music currently available, listening impressions, and how they were encoded.

Please keep tech. talk (except provenance) out of this discussion! :) This thread is about finding good music sources, listening impressions, and mastering. There is a lot to be said about the algorithms, hype, and politics but please use other threads for that in the Digital section perhaps. :) 

I'll start.  I know right now of only two big labels offering MQA:

2L.no (maybe only test tracks)

and

https://www.highresaudio.com/studio_master.php?fids=153&cr=MQA

as well as at least one indie label. Thanks to Peter Veth over in the DAR thread here:

http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2016/08/mqa-a-non-hostile-takeover/#comment-135610

I'm particularly interested in talking about works we can find to do A/B comparisons with, as well as any tracks listeners feel are exemplars and say "This is good stuff!"  because so far I've had no luck at all.

As others know, the thing that has so far affected music the most is the mastering choices made by the engineers, as opposed to actual encoding technology, so I welcome details of that along with listening impressions.

Thank you.
erik_squires
erik_squires OP
16,051 posts
 
What I’m most afraid of is that I may just not like how 2L records classical music, at all. :)  It's far too close to the bridge of the violin for me.

So I wish i had another MQA source.

I may end up going with Buena Vista Social Club if I can get the German site to fully load on my browser.

Erik
ahendler
416 posts
 
2L is the biggest source. The problem is is that there original recordings are so good there is only a very small difference with MQA. Until Tidal starts streaming lots of material in mqa it is a dead medium as far as I am concerned and I have a Meridian explorer 2 with MQA. If you go to the 2L testbench you can download tracks for free and compare different resolutions of the same track with MQA
Alan
sevs
301 posts
 
AHENDLER, please say it again: what do you mean by "original so good... small difference with MQA"...??
Thanks!!!!!
erik_squires OP
16,051 posts
 
@ahendler

Hi!

To rephrase what you have heard, it seems that MQA did not add much for you. I did the same thing and I didn’t hear any MQA benefit either, but to be fair, the provenance of those tracks is unknown. How they got to be MQA I’m not sure about.

The Mozart Violin re-mix however should be quite clear.

If you have tracks you really like from the 2L test page please let me know. I’m afraid it all makes me wince. I’m probably alone, but to me the treble seems bright, too close to the violin bridge, and/or congested something my system almost never sounds like.

Best,


Erik
erik_squires OP
16,051 posts
 
So I've reached out to the local audiophile community that had a chance to listen to MQA in San Rafael, CA and other locations. Besides negative comments on the way the presentations were made the comments on the sound quality have ranged from "I couldn't tell a difference" to "It hurt my head to listen to it"

Still I plan on doing a listener-organized MQA listening event later this year. But it seems the people actually willing to say MQA is all that who aren't industry insiders is quite small.

At least from the samples I have around me, the idea that everyone can hear an improvement in sound quality is unsubstantiated fluff so far.  As I said before, the longer this goes on, the more like "cold fusion power" this seems. If you've ever followed a hoax, you will recognize the patterns.
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