MQA actually tested


I got a Tidal subscription a few months ago with the hope of streaming hi res music rather than continuing to buy WAAYY overpriced files from HD tracks and the like....and while the Tidal catalogue is great, some of the Master files just seemed a bit, well, not so masterful. So I decided to listen to Master files in Tidal (full unfold) and compare them to 24/96 min FLAC that I already own, and there wasn’t a single file I owned that did not sound better in clarity and extension than the “Master” file I was comparing it to on Tidal.

I had heard a lot of thoughts from different manufacturers about MQA and just put them down as interesting but not proven since none of them offered anything but their opinion...no testing etc.

then I came across this vid (. https://youtu.be/pRjsu9-Vznc ) last night from a guy who managed to actually test MQA on Tidal using files he created and had loaded onto Tidal. VERY interesting results. First real tests I have seen of MQA and I can now see why my FLAC sounds better to me.
Might have to check out alternatives.

ukthunderace
Also this guy Archimago has posted test results on his blog quite some time ago, already.
Obviously his test method was to feed the analog output of the MQA DAC into a digital analysis tool. But the observations are quite similar.http://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/02/musingsmeasurements-on-blurring-and-why.html
I can’t hear crap  either in fact I feel it takes a little bass away and my levels are exact on my DAC analog input as it is on my Heos input through my Marantz . I haven’t been impressed.My marantz does do Justice after upgrading from an Onkyo and I added a audioquest cobalt and don’t do crap so I moved it to my cpu and it works great on my cpu . Hey it was my first dac I know your going to give me crap , what’s the best bang for your buck Dac I guess I’m in the market ?
So measurements matter? Maybe most audiophile marketing is snake oil or fluff as Judge Judy puts it.