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The MQA demo I heard on Sunday

Posted by Peter Breuninger on June 10, 2017 at 05:58:35:

I heard a demo on Sunday by Peter McGrath. The loudspeakers were the outstanding Wilson Alexx and I believe the amplifier was a T&A integrated. I did not know what DAC was in the system. I was in between filming and needed a rest. I did not want to upset the demo by interrupting and asking system questions. The room had about 15 people in it. I took a seat in the second row slightly to the right of center. I did not know I was about to have an actual MQA'd file to same file *without MQA* demo comparison. Result: I had no expectation bias.

Peter played an older South American (mixed instrument) recording saying "this is the original file". It sound flat and two dimensional and frankly non involving. It was about a 45 seconds to one minute in length. Next he announced the he was going to play the same file but with the MQA process applied.

I was astounded. The soundstage exploded, all upper frequency brittleness dissipated, the players became far more realistic and 3D and I simply enjoyed the music more. I left the room in awe.

As I reflect on the experience I believe the demo could have been more effective if: 1)the first track played was announced as the 24/96 or whatever resolution original, 2)then a second track could have been played at 16/44.1, and 3)then a third track at 16/44.1 with the MQA process applied and fully decoded.

This would have been a very powerful demo. From all I have read about MQA, this is its full potential: to encode the original high resolution file, stream or hard media store it at a lower rez and then decode at playback so as to simulate as close as possible the highest original resolution recording.