MQA

Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is a proprietary audio format.
It has been developed by Meridian Audio and launched in 2014.

Later MQA become an independent company.

In april 2023 MQA went into administration. This is the Britsch equivalent of Chapter 11.

In september 2023 Lenbrook (NAD, PSB, Bluesound) announces the acquisition of MQA.

They paid a mere £100,000.

 

TIDAL announced to replace MQA with FLAC.

In july 2024 TIDAL dropped MQA completely.

 

In June 2024 Lenbrook announced a new streaming services by HDTracks using MQA and AIRIA (a scalable codec).

How it works

MQA does three things.

1. Watermarking
2. Lossy compression of Highres recording
3. Oversampling combined with minimum phase filters.

Authenticated

There is a digital watermark in the audio.

The manufacturer of your DAC has to buy a MQA licence allowing the DAC to detect the watermark.
On detection, the DAC will the MQA precribed filters and do oversampling.

Compression

It compresses Highres audio into a 24 bit / 44.1 or 48 kHz PCM format.
As the result is PCM, it can be treated like any PCM format.
It can be contained in any lossless format like WAV, FLAC, ALAC, etc.

The lossy compression is rather complex.

Audio Origami - Stereophile

The frequencies in excess of 44/48 are compressed and stored below bit 17.

As a conseqiuence you won’t have the original 24 bit dynamic range.

The result is a 24 /44.1 or 48 kHz PCM audio file.
This can be played on any DAC with any media player supporting the 24 bit format.

The clever thing is that all what is stored below bit 16 appears as random noise.

 

To expand it to the original sample rate, a decoder is needed.
This can be implemented in software (media player) and/or in hardware (streamers).

Software is limited to what is called the first unfolding ( 88 / 96 kHz).
Only hardware not having a digital out is allowed to do the second unfolding (> 96 kHz).

Obvious you need a MQA enabled DAC to get the full result.

Time-domain

The other claim is that MQA can compensate for time-domain errors of both the AD converter used to make the recording and the DA converter used for playback.
This means that a DAC must be equipped with some additional hardware processing the audio and applying a specific algorithm tailor made for this specific DAC.
It implies that for each revision of the DAC, this as to be done anew.

 

The biggest advantage of MQA is probably the substantial compression of Highres.
If you run a streaming audio service like TIDAL, Qobuz, etc.  it saves dramatically on bandwidth compared with streaming Hires in its original size.

The downside is of course as it is a proprietary protocol; somebody has to pay the license.

In the end this of course will be you.

Problems

As with all new technologies, weird problems do occur.
TDCatTech found a gap in the frequency spectrum.

MQA claims to be a lossy format saving bandwidth by throwing away data while maintaining perceptual transparency.
Exactly the same claim as made by MP3.
So MQA is highres MP3!

Master Quality Annihilated.

 

1. High-Resolution Audio - A perspective - Bob Stuart
2. Inside MQA - John Atkinson
3. MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) Observations and The Big Picture... - Archimago's Musings
4. MEASUREMENTS / IMPRESSIONS: Meridian Explorer2 Analogue Output - 24/192 PCM vs. Decoded MQA - Archimago's Musings
5. IS MQA DOA? - John Siau - May 05, 2016
6. MQA or "There and back again" - Jim Lesurf
7. MQA and “Bit-Stacking” - Jim Lesurf
8. MQA Time-domain Accuracy & Digital Audio Quality - Hugh Robjohns
9. On "blurring" and why MQA probably worsens transient smearing - Archimago's Musings
10. Truncating MQA files to 16 bits and the blue light still shines - FredericV
11. MQA: A Review of controversies, concerns, and cautions - Computer Audiophile
12. MQA explained: Everything you need to know about high-res audio - Andrew Harrison - 5/2/2017
13. A Comparison of Clarity in MQA Encoded Files vs. Their Unprocessed State as Performed by Three Groups - Expert Listeners - Generale, Mariane; King, Richard; Martin, Denis (2018)
14. MQA Deep Dive - I published tracks on Tidal to test MQA - GoldenOne (2021)
15. MQA has gone into administration - What Hi*Fi