MQA is Legit!

I am a longtime, longtime audio enthusiast who bought a Mytek Brooklyn Bridge and is now almost three days into the modern streaming, outboard DAC era(!).  The only MQA I've listened to is from Tidal and I gotta say that though I prefer having the MQA button pushed over not having it pushed, it really doesn't sound all that much better to me.  A little more dimensionality and space?  Perhaps.  A more satisfying EQ?  Yeah, I guess so.  As for Tidal and streaming, it sounds perfectly acceptable and I love the amazing selection of music I can instantly access, but it  ain't sonically sending me to heaven.

I have to say, though, that I truly love what I hear when I listen to my Sony SACD player through the Brooklyn.  I've got the SACD player hooked up so that I can either listen to SACDs/CDs in Red Book Digital via the Brooklyn or in SACD via the Sony, and I gotta say that the Brooklyn feed consistently sounds more convincing.  Right now I'm listening to a old Erato CD via the Sony Mytek combo that is giving my admittedly aged SOTA/Alphason/Lyra/Moon analog rig a serious run for its money. 

It seems clear, apparent, and obvious to me that MQA is nothing more than an unneeded technology that was designed, intended and promoted as a new revenue "stream" for its innovators and I am quite certain and confident that it will fail because of the lack of market need.

I'm not gonna drink the MQA Kool Aid.

I decided to swing for an MQA-enabled DAC because MQA was developed by Meridian -- the once-monikered Boothroyd-Stuart bunch whose powered speaker system (I can’t recall the model) sent me into fits of audio ecstasy when I auditioned it at a Paris Audio salon in L.A., who knows when. It was the first time I’d ever heard 3D sound-staging from a high-fi. It gave me the shakes. I couldn’t afford the beasts but it propelled me along the high-end path. I figured that anything from those dudes was worth a try.
Bottom line, though, MQA or no MQA, I’m happy with the Mytek...even if this stone age dude has his share of trouble with the way you operate it.

MQA is unique way to compress files with the least amount quality loss.  It is the best format to keeping the cost of broadband down.  A better solution is to not compress files at all and have the streaming companies pony up to the cost of greater broadband.  Hulu, Netflix and others do just that and that is why you can watch 4k streaming videos.