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  #21  
Old 01-21-2021, 12:38 AM
James Tanner - Bryston James Tanner - Bryston is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Parabellum View Post
Quite honestly, I don't fully grasp all the concepts of MQA and its actual practical use for the end user (or its benefits if any). I haven't done much research on this topic as I have almost zero interest in it simply because I really like how my BDA-3/BDP-3 combo sounds even on regular CD rips. If you don't endorse it as a company I believe there are very good reasons to do so and I thrust your call judgement.
Hi Serge

There are more reasons than this but here are some:

MQA “TRUTHS”

1. MQA is not "lossless" high-resolution.

2. The "deblur" claim appears to be without merit and the company seems to be distancing itself from using that terminology these days.

3. The idea of needing to compress hi-res streams down to a 24/44.1 or 24/48 container is moot in the wake of Qobuz and Amazon HD capable of up to 24/192 FLAC.

4. There is no rationale for why MQA-CD would sound "better" than regular CD as claimed by MQA. In fact, MQA-CD is anything but hi-res (worse than standard CD resolution) since the system robs bits and hence resolution from 16/44.1.

5. When the MQA blue/green light/indicator goes on and the DAC says it's playing 176.4 / 192 / 352.8 / 384kHz, realize that this is not true 4X or 8X resolution. This is all upsampling from lossy reconstructed 88.2/96kHz.

6. If we shave off lower bits of audio data, the DAC blue light would still turn on! "Authentication" is at best partial and hence compromised. If they can't guarantee that something is "authentic", then clearly the name "Master Quality Authenticated" is a terrible misnomer.

7. The digital filters used are questionable yet mandated for "full" MQA decoding.
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  #22  
Old 01-21-2021, 03:12 AM
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Ollie Ollie is offline
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Thanks James, I wasn’t aware of this. I plan to switch to qobuz as soon as it becomes available in my country.
Im really looking forward to the new interface, I stream music and play records. I don’t listen to downloaded music, hence Rigelian is no use to me so I use Roon but I hate having to boot up my laptop to run the music server.
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  #23  
Old 01-21-2021, 11:38 AM
cleeds cleeds is offline
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Thanks for sharing your MQA thoughts, James. MQA has always seemed to me to be a solution in search of a problem.
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  #24  
Old 01-22-2021, 04:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cleeds View Post
Thanks for sharing your MQA thoughts, James. MQA has always seemed to me to be a solution in search of a problem.
It would seem that way if you live in an area that has cheap, unlimited high-speed Internet service. If you consider that MQA was invented several years ago and not everyone in the world had unlimited Internet it seems pragmatic.
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  #25  
Old 01-22-2021, 04:52 AM
AVfile AVfile is offline
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Originally Posted by Parabellum View Post
You are right about Qobuz in Canada, it sucks to not have it. How relevant MQA is in the final sound reproduction, I don't know. I do know that it would be nice to have it implemented in the BDA-3 as I could subscribe to Tidal Master. I am on my first month of trial and when streaming I am limited to CD quality.
I understand Bryston not wanting to redesign their DACs with hardware support for MQA second unfold (the extra blue light trick) and paying a licensing fee for every unit shipped.

I was more curious about the first unfold which happens in software such as Roon or the Tidal app on a USB connected laptop (which you can try with any DAC). If this could be added to the BDP software for no extra cost I think they might as well, since we are stuck using the Tidal service anyway.

I mean what happens if you don’t have that first level and accidentally click on a Master file? From what I read playback of an MQA stream as regular 16/44 is what does the most damage, resulting in loss of bits and sub-CD quality.


Quote:
On the other end, I am also evaluating AmazonMusic which also has hi-res streaming but no MQA (AFAIK, correct me in I am wrong).
The Amazon service is pure hi-res (no MQA) but the BDP doesn’t support it and I refuse to give more money to THAT company!
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  #26  
Old 01-23-2021, 10:14 AM
cleeds cleeds is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AVfile View Post
It would seem that way if you live in an area that has cheap, unlimited high-speed Internet service. If you consider that MQA was invented several years ago and not everyone in the world had unlimited Internet it seems pragmatic.
Sorry but I don't see anything pragmatic about MQA, regardless of the circumstances. FLAC - which is actually lossless - existed before MQA, which is a lossy compression scheme.

One of the things that always struck me odd about MQA is that is indeed lossy, yet it's marketed as getting you closer to the master tape. Those seem mutually exclusive to me, and seems to be part of why Neil Young recently removed his catalog from Tidal.

I know that some people are very enthusiastic about MQA. I can especially understand that for those in Canada and elsewhere who don't have access to Qobuz.
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  #27  
Old 01-23-2021, 11:55 AM
gbaby gbaby is offline
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The bottom line is that MQA is essentially Snake Oil.
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  #28  
Old 03-08-2021, 03:41 PM
mike175gr mike175gr is offline
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I am considering buying a BDA-3.14 but was concerned about the interface issue. I was going to reply on Roon (though I have never used it) Will it be top quality, or is there something better to use with the BDA?
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  #29  
Old 03-10-2021, 12:04 PM
gbaby gbaby is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mike175gr View Post
I am considering buying a BDA-3.14 but was concerned about the interface issue. I was going to reply on Roon (though I have never used it) Will it be top quality, or is there something better to use with the BDA?
I have no problems with the interface, and I don't think you will either. Apparently, too many of us want a colorful interface and are a little less concerned with sound quality. I personally find the interface to be a no nonsense, and easy on the eyes with its black, white and gray interface with color cover art in the middle. Moreover, if you own CDs already, the imported CD on a USB flash drive will give you a state of the art sound.

Last edited by gbaby; 03-10-2021 at 03:54 PM.
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  #30  
Old 03-10-2021, 01:51 PM
AVfile AVfile is offline
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Default New interface for 3.14?

Quote:
Originally Posted by mike175gr View Post
I am considering buying a BDA-3.14 but was concerned about the interface issue. I was going to reply on Roon (though I have never used it) Will it be top quality, or is there something better to use with the BDA?

As always, software should determine hardware, not the reverse. Decide on what streaming services you are going to subscribe to and what interface you want to run before buying anything.

In terms of sound quality, Bryston’s Manic Moose, Roon, and apps like Rigelian should all be identical given the same input files. They are just wrappers or clients of the Linux services embedded in the BDP (which are bit perfect).

Roon has the added benefit of being able to extract 24/96 from Tidal but costs more. It is the only software I know of that can do this with a Bryston player (because the player itself cannot). All the BDP are Roon certified, as are many other brands of network players.

My main gripe with Manic Moose is navigating network files and streaming libraries is painful. Rigelian helps with files, but not streaming. We can hope Bryston are going to implement Tidal Connect or similar application interface in their upcoming software.

Last edited by AVfile; 03-10-2021 at 02:03 PM.
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