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MQA vs. ripped vs. vinyl vs. hi res

Just curious what other people think about the sound quality (SQ) of Tidal MQA vs. cd's that you have ripped (cd or DSD) or the same music you have on vinyl. It has been all over the map for me. IMO, there isn't a favorite medium or a medium that ALWAYS wins out over the others, DSD might be more favorable to me. When MQA is very good, I prefer it over vinyl. There are many many cases where vinyl is superior over anything, and there are times when my ripped sounds better (ripped by using MAX or XLD using higher bit rates). 
rbstehno
mortgagesbyme
4 posts
 
I'm late to the party with this post but have a question for tellefsen.  I am interested in ripping my vinyl and own a PS Audio NuWave Phono Converter using VinylStudio.  VinylStudio states you can't edit the DSD files other than split the tracks.  To edit the files to reduce surface noise from scratches you need to convert the file to PCM.  Do you have expereience with that format and how it sounds?  I have some albums that are in bad shape but cannot buy better copies.  For those albums the PCM conversion opion seems to be a good way to go.  Do you have any thoughts on this? 
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,912 posts
 
PCM is quite good :-) I have both WADIA and Ayre A2D and as others have said, no clear winner. I also greatly appreciate the tone of discussion so far and @tellefsen  great and detailed post.

i will say for those ripping vinyl to digital, volume down is key and for those seeking a similar gain in reducing feedback, put TT in another room - I phono preamp w balanced outs greatly facilitate this
tellefsen
73 posts
 
A quick update. I acquired an RME ADI-2 Pro A/D. It does much more than that, but it lets me rip at 24/352 which is the highest resolution my Lumin A1 will decode. I am using VinylStudio to rip. I like it. It has a pretty good work flow for ripping vinyl. It has a pop/click clean up tool and a normalizing tool.  Since I am recording in PCM I can use these tools. VinylStudio stores the changes from the tools in a separate file so you can back them out.
   I also added an SBooster LPS to the RME which was a pretty good improvement.  Yes the files are big ...4-5 GB per single album, but storage is cheap.  The DSD rips were softening dynamics a bit by comparison.  I love the click clean up tool. I had an original Poll Winners on Contemporary Records that was pretty scratched up even after a thorough cleaning.  The rip turned out great and I felt I did not lose any music content...
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