Thiel Owners

2nd Note:

IsoAcoustics GAIA I for Thiel CS7.2 loudspeakers.

Happy Listening!

Hello All - regarding MQA. I’ve been paying attention to MQA and its claims since the beginning, and I have been somewhat bewildered by the fairly intense controversy surrounding it since the beginning. I know some mastering engineers who swear by it. I also know some who reject it and some very astute listeners, some with significant technical chops who consider it (various degrees of) less than helpful. This past weekend I had a personal experience which I want to report.

I recently procured a pair of SCS4s which I’m documenting for actual upgrades (for the real world.) I took them to an audiophile friend with a good system and amazingly analytical ears. Our source was various reference pop titles via Tidal. His turf, his call. I was underwhelmed and disappointed by the SCS4s in his setup. On working through the maze of possibilities Saturday night it occurred to me to explore MQA, since John had mentioned it as being offered by Tidal. I read Peter Moncrieff’s MQA section from his ’Digital Done Wrong’ series - coming away with a cogent set of strong arguments against MQA.

Let’s digress to Peter. For those of you unfamiliar with him, Peter has published the International Audio Review since the early 1980s. He is brilliant, self-assured and not deterred by the norms of polite discourse. I have always found him to be right. Peter is who assigned the title CS to our 03b at the 1983 CES. He got it and reported it very succinctly.

Back to MQA. Peter itemizes how the ultra short sampling schema of MQA misses the ’unlucky samples’ that fail to describe sharp transients. What I heard at John’s house was music without upper transients as well as a global haze or ambient cloud, noticeable mostly in the upper registers. I messaged John and he reported that his Tidal MQA filter was indeed engaged. We have not yet had a chance for direct comparisons with and without MQA. I should add that a pair of Klipsch RP600Ms did not exhibit ’the pleasant vagueness’ that the SCS4s did. I felt this note was in order to ask your experience and opinions about the subject. I’ve studied enough about the process and heard enough examples to at least question the process.

tomthiel

Good to see you this day. I enjoy Peter Moncrieff's writings as well. Last Fall, I had an opportunity to audition my 1st Luxman CD player (D-03x) and MQA CD from Patricia Barber. I was able to switch out several CDs including my own Reference disc. The Luxman proved to articulate that classic Japan goodness ( Accuphase, Pioneer Elite, Sony ES and Yamaha). I must say that I did not hear anything special on the MQA coded CD. Perhaps MQA is better demonstrated via Server/Streaming services?

Happy Listening!

2nd Note;

tomthiel - Can you talk about the Gear in John's system?

Happy Listening!

JA - John’s system is decidedly low-key, and interesting for that. He had sold his system before early retirement to Sandwich. His primary source is streamed music via Tidal, generally high resolution with MQA option. He has a turntable, but I haven’t seen him use it. No disc player at all. The server is (I’m blanking the brand) mid-priced, good performance. His previous server was PC NAS based which he had hot-rodded for verified bit-perfect delivery to the USB output. (John’s background includes MIT electrical engineering and computer science. He knows stuff. The new dedicated server outperforms his PC rig. Amplification is a Prima Luna integrated at about 35 watts, in which he has rolled tubes to firm up the bass, de-glare the mid-highs, etc. Speakers have included Thiel CS1.5, 1.6 and now 2.4s that he bought from audiojan (through this forum). Cables are Belden via BlueJeans, although we have run some of my experiments through his system. Presently we’re looking for a time to compare my StraightWire Rhapsody III ICs and Octave II SCs, as well as a borrowed pair of Iconoclast II speaker cables to his stock stuff. He has some sort of good AC filtration.

His room is well-enough proportioned, but has glass walls behind the speakers and the listeners. Ceiling is high enough, but reinforced with flat trusses. We have swept it and it’s pretty clean, but could definitely use more work. He is a very busy man, and we find time for audio fun less than once a month.

He was a founding operative of JazzBoston (which didn’t make it). He knows musical performance and production and has an amazing ear which I have come to trust more than my own. He is younger with hearing all the way up.

I would say John’s setup is good enough to show intrinsic behavior of whatever we’ve put in (such as Benchmark stack vs his PL). I know this MQA bit-truncation (or whatever we’ll call it) is real, but not yet analyzed enough to make much sense. What we both heard points to the kinds of misgivings I’ve been stirring around.