DSD vs. PCM vs. MQA - Group listening experiment

Ok Everyone, got my "flack jacket" on....

I am really smitten by MQA, streamed from my Windows10 Tidal app.

I have enjoyed a PS Audio DirectStream DAC now for 2 1/2 years.  When Tidal started streaming MQA from Warner Music, I bought a Meridian Explorer2 DAC ($199 on Amazon) to see what all the fuss was.  I found some of the older titles sounded a little better, but some of the more recent ones knocked my socks and shoes off!

When I read that Universal Music signed up to do MQA, I purchased a Mytek Brooklyn (MQA) DAC, and now use it for MQA and the DirectStream DAC for everything else, as the DAC chipset in the Brooklyn is good, but no match for the DirectStream DAC with "regular" AIFF & FLAC files.

From what I've experienced, many of the titles I'm really familiar with seemed to have been "re-mixed", as well as re-mastered.  I listen to just about everything but country & rap (yes I tried, I did make it thru three songs on Jay-Z's "American Gangster" album!), and enjoy classical music and, unfortunately the MQA classics from Warner are not the best sound quality, one of Universal Music's labels is DG, so hopefully the future holds better sounding classical music on Tidal.

Many DAC manufacturers have held off jumping on the MQA bandwagon.  I presume that now with Warner, Universal & Tidal (about 2/3 of the music business) has signed up to do MQA, that either DAC manufacturers will adapt their hardware to do "end-to-end" MQA decoding, or that some DAC chipset company like ESS will add that to future chipset offerings.

No worries.

My only thing is, I think we’re hearing better re-mastering, not a better technology. << shrug >>

The one place I was able to directly compare MQA to non MQA tracks, 2L I heard no such dramatic differences.

However, recent MQA remasters at Tidal sound pretty good.
Best,


E

The question with MQA is it's staying power, not its technical excellence.  It has a very tall hill too climb to become relevant.  IMHO the only genre that really merits it is acoustic music, most of which is classical, and that genre is increasingly going to either hi bit rate PCM or 5.1 96Khz / 24 bit MCH (Blu-Ray). Many industry observers think it has already missed the window.  I also agree with Erik, in that whatever MQA brings to the party, it is still a secondary factor to the quality of the recording and the mastering itself.

BTW, I like SACD and DSD, but the absolute best digital I have heard is Reference Recordings DXD which is 352 kHz/24 bit PCM.  In addition, if your processor / DAC uses DSP's for room corrections or even digital reconstruction filtering, it will convert DSD to PCM before it converts it to analog.  This is a buyer beware issue "pure DSD" DAC's which use only analog low pass filters for reconstruction are rare birds.

No matter the format medium is the production is bad the sonics will be bad. The only way to improve is to go back and remix. A great recording sounds good on vinyl and CD if mastering was done with care. MQA will never change that and I take this even further improve your room and that will do more from a sonic stand point then any piece of gear, cables or new format. They keep chasing their tail. The really only way to judge digital is a Prue digital recording, tapes age and deteriorate, that was and will be the challenge of taking old recordings and making them sound good at times, want the best sonics then look for a 1st pressing LP then buying  a new reissue, or find a CD that been remastered, at times also remixed with care. MQA not a factor for great sonics same issue for vinyl and CD. It all starts with recording quality and always has.
Keep in mind the audio magazines now days are about working with manufactures and promoting sales more so then honest reviewing. They will say MQA is the second coming if they will Get you to buy the same recordings over and over, and new gear. Nothing is ever night and better if something is already of high quality. Can it sound different yes, does that mean better always? We all know that answer. Our hobby is the endless goal of believing a holy grail exists and the audio mags always promotes this myth. Like I say theory must have had poor ears if the product they raved about is now so inferior to the new model. Do things improve sure but most of the time your splitting hairs or you like a fresh sound, cables are the cheapest way to do this by the way then buying new gear.

I have both a PS Audio DirectStream DAC and a Mytek Brooklyn DAC as well, both fed with the identical brand/model Wireworld USB cable.

When I compare the exact same PCM file on both DACs, the Brooklyn sounds very good, but I'd say it sounds somewhat "dry" compared with the DirectStream DAC.

I've done this comparison on quite a few of my 44.1/16-192/24 AIFF files, using Roon on a nice Windows 10 Pro laptop.