Music is Changing - MQA

[Still-One]

This was posted this morning on a Meridian users site.

Hi Folks,

It is great to see the large amount of discussion, enthusiasm and, naturally, questions about the MQA technology here. Rest assured that the Meridian team is working flat out to drive this exciting technology to market and we will continue to provide additional news and information over the coming weeks via updates to our websites and also with the introduction of a blog from Bob, but, as I am sure you appreciate, we are not able to answer every single question at this time, particularly about the timing of publicly available content from the music industry or on potential future Meridian hardware developments.

We will continue to keep the conversation moving as we head into CES and you will see more companies come out in support of MQA during and immediately following the Las Vegas show. In the meantime, having read a lot of the comments and questions on here I thought the below would be helpful in providing some further clarification/answers;

- MQA is a revolutionary new high performance music technology that will make better sound quality available to everyone. MQA is the first ever music file that will authenticate that the high resolution audio information being output from your device is exactly the same audio information that the artist or engineer produced, it is what they wanted you to receive and is truly lossless compared to what was signed-off in the studio.

- MQA is a fully compatible file because its core audio information can be played on all current systems/products that are able to play a CD file. Moreover MQA enables this core audio data to deliver a sound that is better than a standard CD file played on the same device.

- However to take maximum advantage of the increased audio quality that the MQA source file offers, an MQA decoder will need to be added to your system. An MQA decoder can be hardware, like the Explorer 2, or can be software, either in the form of an App or embedded into a product.

- For Meridian owners, the architecture of a Meridian system allows decoding to be distributed throughout the system.

- As SpeakerLink and MHR have a data transfer speed of 4.6 Mbps and MQA never exceeds 2 Mbps, even at the highest studio quality, then all Meridian DSP loudspeakers since 1999 (when MHR was introduced) are compatible with MQA.

- In very simplified terms;
o Systems incorporating Special Edition Meridian DSP loudspeakers, with their Beryllium tweeters, will offer the best MQA experience
o Systems incorporating non-SE Meridian DSP loudspeakers with SpeakerLink/MHR will offer the second best MQA experience
o Both offer a better approach to delivering high performance high resolution than anything else because a Meridian digital system does not suffer from the filtering of the audio information that analogue components, cables and passive loudspeakers inflict throughout the signal path.

- By way of additional information on MQA in a full Meridian system, please note the following important points;
o MHR is a proprietary format that has sufficient data rate to transfer the MQA signal however in all cases MQA decoding must first occur on the stereo signal.
o MHR is not a conventional 96/24 signal path and we are specifically not disclosing how we are using MHR to send MQA to the loudspeakers.
o At the moment what you have is 96/24 over MHR. We will be delivering MQA over MHR.

- On a practical level there will be no requirement for anyone to repurchase all of their music collection again in MQA format because a subscription to a streaming service offering MQA will enable you to enjoy the MQA music catalogue in full quality.

I hope that this is helpful for now.

As always, thank you for your support.

Kind regards,
John
(Note: He is a Meridian HQ employee)

[Soundserge]

The Internet needs a sarcasm emoticon. So just to be clear, my post was sarcasm. With a few exceptions, blog comments is where brain cells go to die.

Soundserge

[Kal Rubinson]

Originally Posted by Soundserge

The Internet needs a sarcasm emoticon. So just to be clear, my post was sarcasm. With a few exceptions, blog comments is where brain cells go to die.

Soundserge

How about a special font for sarcasm?

[Soundserge]

[adhesiv]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Yeah. Since when do facts come into play on the internet.

Since everything on the Internet is true...

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by adhesiv

Since everything on the Internet is true...

.

[Crion]

Yes we want to hear it.

[o0OBillO0o]

Originally Posted by Still-One

.

My single most favorite internet forum photo!

[Still-One]

More and more individuals have been able to here the MQA demos. Many of the comments are along this line " I would find it hard to believe than anyone could be left anything other than completely amazed at how stunning it is." When I heard it, I got shivers down my spine (which was quite an unexpected reaction].

[Kingsrule]

Actually all the comments are very much expected as most come from Hitchhikers most of whom are M fanboys of the highest order. For most of them, Bob walks on top of the digital stream........