General MQA Discussion

Not being able to play a file from Amazon (or any other service) offline has nothing to do with MQA.

The only “DRM” in MQA relates to authenticating the file (i.e. turning on the “MQA” indicator) NOT in actually replaying it.

If you buy an MQA file (there are places that sell them), it will play in ANY standard PCM-capable FLAC player to any standard PCM-capable DAC without issue, regardless of whether it has an internet connection or not, and without any restrictions on being copied.

Other than some data “encoded” in the three LSBs of each sample, MQA files can be treated as simple PCM files.

If you have an MQA-enabled software player (Roon, Audirvana, TIDAL’s client, etc.) then you get the “first unfold” done in software, which results in a higher bit-rate output (double the native resolution). Again, there is no need for any kind of connection to the internet, no phoning home, nothing … all you need is an MQA file and an MQA player and this will work.

If you want the “second unfold”, which is simply upsampling the data from the first unfold by 2x and then applying one of MQA’s specific reconstruction filters, you need an MQA-enabled DAC or DAP.


Again …

MQA files are just FLAC files and will play in any FLAC player to any PCM DAC.

If you want the first level of “MQA” capability you also need a software player that understands the embedded “MQA data” to decode it (which is no different to needing a specific player for any other file type, such as DSD).

If you want the “full MQA experience” then you need a DAC that can process MQA.

And if you have an MQA-enabled DAC or DAP, then it’s easy to tell if you’re getting “the full experience” because a little light or indicator will come on to tell you that.

Other than not really adding anything useful to the consumer, MQAs biggest problem is that people don’t understand it … not in any “restrictions” on what you do with the content once you have it.

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Here’s MQA’s link explaining the 3 fold/unfolding process.

https://www.mqa.co.uk/how-it-works

Which would be great, but it’s absent any useful technical information and is just marketing fluff.

Actual analysis on MQA content has shown that after first “unfold” there is no new musical information present in the data. MQA doesn’t claim differently, either (“The first unfold recovers all the direct music-related information. Output is 88.2kHz or 96kHz.”)

That first unfold can be done in software … and with some DACs has to be done in software* - e.g. the Dragonfly line and the smaller iFi units.

The primary source of MQA content right now, which is TIDAL, does this “unfolding” in its native client, as do other 3rd party clients/players.

“Unfolds” two and three are simply two potential stages of upsampling, and specification of which reconstruction filter to use.

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So unfolds two and three are potential and not practical stages? That’s odd that MQA references three specific stages if the last two do nothing.

They don’t “do nothing”, they’re upsampling specifications, but they do not include any new musical data (MQA even say as much at the link you provided).

Upsampling makes implementation of the reconstruction filter easier (especially if it’s done in the analog domain … since it can be less steep), so there are benefits to it.

The specification of which MQA reconstruction filter to use is also handled in these last two “unfolds”. This is also where the “temporal deblurring” is supposed to occur, which is what was originally supposed to be part of the rationale for needing hardware MQA support so that this could be done properly for each individual DAC (the other part was the specific reconstruction filters).

There appears, however, to be some evidence that time-domain fidelity is worse with the MQA reconstruction filters than without them …

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It gets difficult to discern advances in technologies when companies use manufactured terms such as “folds”, “taps”, etc. it’d be nice if they were more straightforward with their marketing.

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I agree. And while I’m not a fan of MQA specifically because it is a proprietary format or DRM in general because it frequently causes issues while adding no value to the consumer, I REALLY DO LIKE THE MQA INDICATOR.

It tells me that my chain has been done correctly, and that one small set of variables have been conquered. It tells me that if the master is crap, it’s the engineer’s fault, and when I attach different playback devices then it’s me making the changes. And I do sometimes make changes inserting my Schiit Loki into the mix after MQA out.

And I do find that if a company has gone to the trouble to do MQA, they probably probably have paid some attention to the recording and mastering process.

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This seems to be the biggest benefit it conveys (which is, of course, entirely unrelated to any “MQA” processing or technology).

And for that, it can definitely be worth it.

There are some albums I have in my Roon library that are the MQA versions added from TIDAL for this reason. Not a lot, in the grand scheme of things. But the number goes up, rather than down.

Most interestingly, though, is that those albums sound better even with a non-MQA replay chain … which again points to the better masters. Though I do have a configuration in Roon for my primary chain that allows Roon to do the first unfold as well …

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I agree that they are using better masters for MQA files, and in reality it probably is making the most difference. And I do too enjoy the little blue light!

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Personally I like the Magenta (purple :purple_heart:) color of the NiBL but that is just me…but I don’t have Tidal any longer so this loss of the purple light makes me sad…as it was a lovely shade of purple…

486E362B-E8E7-49EE-B045-D49F2E587D94

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That’s a really nice shot!

Purple indicates all-things-good.

No clue why iFi went with purple instead of “MQA Blue” here, but they did, and so did AudioQuest, so there’s something afoot there.

Probably the “Purple Possé” …

As my beloved step-son would say “Always be alert … for hostile ninja … [-.-]” … or at least for sneaky bastards in various shades of PURPLE.

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And in the interests of my/a first fourth bottle of wine since returning to the USA (no doubt immigration are now saying “WTF did we do?” and the TSA are in definite “WTF” mode …) … some more appropriate lyrics from those of my former home-mates:

"In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines
So we sailed up to the sun
'Til we found a sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our purple submarine

We all live in a purple submarine
Purple submarine, purple submarine
We all live in a purple submarine
Purple submarine, purple submarine

And our friends are all aboard
Many more of them live next door
And the band begins to play

We all live in a purple submarine
Purple submarine, purple submarine
We all live in a purple submarine
Purple submarine, purple submarine

(Full speed ahead Mr. Parker, full speed ahead
Full speed ahead it is, Sergeant
Action station, action station
Aye, aye, sir, fire
Captain, captain)

As we live a life of ease
Everyone of us has all we need (has all we need)
Sky of blue (sky of blue) and sea of green (and sea of green)
In our purple submarine (in our purple, submarine, ha ha)

We all live in a purple submarine
Purple submarine, purple submarine
We all live in a purple submarine
Purple submarine, purple submarine
We all live in a purple submarine
Purple submarine, purple submarine
We all live in a purple submarine
Purple submarine, purple submarine

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Not hating, but I think ifi calls it magenta. But, yeah. It’s a pretty shade of purple.

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Clearly iFi are looking at things through rose-colored glasses … their indicators are as purple as purple things get!

“Magenta” is just a fussy way of saying “purple” when one has consumed far too many soy-based beverages, is ignorant of Pantone … and/or has a predilection towards RGB color values that have G indexes > 0.

Happily my DAVE, when fed rebook content via an M-Scaler shows it’s bit-rates in purple.

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Ifi are beta cucks! :laughing:

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Interesting. I haven’t gone down the MQA rabbit hole just yet but am interested in hearing the differences and if it adds to the musical enjoyment

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MQA isn’t all that great… you are better just using proper lossless streams or your own FLAC files…

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Yea, I’ve heard very mixed reviews and wonder if it is just a fad. Will it be around in a few years or will something different take its place?

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