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MDAC First Listen (part 00110101)

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1. It is absolutely NOT bit perfect from the 24/192 or 24/96 studio master to the user. No way. It is a lossy process. No one disputes that.

2. How exactly does the MQA process ensure the BEST available master? Using MQA guarantees you will NOT get the master, because it is a lossy process. And there is absolutely no guarantee in the process that it begins with the best available master in any case. It's whatever the record company happen to find or cares to use. Indeed MQA, in their pitch to record companies, explicitly state that an advantage of the process is that it does not distribute the "crown jewels" of the master to the public.

But I agree MQA works on many levels. Level 1: Obfuscation, Level 2: Hype, Level 3: Marketing bullsh*t, Level 4: Hand waving, Level 5: the secret brotherhood, Level 6: temporal deblurring.


Post of the day. Post of the year so far. You win the Internet or any of John's upcoming products. Your choice.
 
Of course. I buy cheap stuff directly from China all the time. Do I buy more expensive high-end stuff that way? Nope...
Surely most DACs sound the same (well no....) but there are a good number of people buying Gustards direct from China, there are other more specialist NOS dacs people buy from China too. If a new breakthrough were copied people would buy it at a low proce from China.
 
The idea is to prevent Re-sampled, MP3, Watermarked, Mastered for iTunes etc. being passed as "Masters" - simply to insure the customer has the excess to the studios "Master" recoding.
.

But the MQA process ensures that the customer absolutely does NOT have access to the studios "Master" recording. The sales pitch to studios is that MQA prevents the "Crown Jewels" of the studio master being made available to the public. The customer gets a manipulated down sampled version of the master, even if they have an MQA DAC. People who choose not to buy, or a cannot afford, an MQA DAC get a product which is even worse and is by some accounts inferior to red book CD.

MQA - your guarantee that you are not listening to the Studio Master.
 
I AIM of MQA is to encode what MQA believe is important for our auditory system - and for that it requires the highest quality masters as a starting point.

Case in point is that Master Tape and Vinyl have worst frequency domain performance than even 44.1KHz yet sound "real" to me - and that CANNOT be said for most CDs.

Its simple, if your going to encode information that you believe is most important then better start off with the highest quality master.

We would not be talking MQA if Native DSD was practical...
 
Many, many moons ago we supporters incl. JohnW agreed (what's an agreement worth these days considering this thread history) that Detox was supposed to be first product out.

Is this still the case and when is the Detox to be produced and released? Having PM'ed projects with a complexity magnitude 1000 fold of this I'm amazed of the amateurism & lack of drive encountered here!
Yes

Funny how these delays just keep adding up. :)
 
Will MQA make all DACs sound the same?

OK, I know this isn't true, but will using MQA filters reduce the differences between DACs?
 
I visit this thread less and less, but 42 months after my first payment may I ask when is the MDAC2 or FDAC or Detox (or basically anything) to be produced and released?
Thank you.
 
No, but your guaranteed that the MQA processing was applied to the highest quality MASTER!

Who says? There's absolutely nothing in the technology that guarantees that the MQA downsampled distribution begins with the highest quality master. Nothing whatsoever stop it beginning from a cassette that a roadie found under the backseat of a tour bus. The only thing that is guaranteed is that you are not listening to whatever existed before the MQA processing was applied.

I find it incredible you have dedicated several years of your life to the (seemingly ever receding) prospect of a perfect DAC only to now throw all that work away by backing a format that is inherently compromised. What's the point of "fidelity" if you let MQA bugger the original master?
 
Pavel,

The first 10 pcs or so of MDAC2 will be ready for first customers at Munich - Detox sometime before.

For Detox we are looking to ship directly from Hong Kong to customers with Customs clearance and tax's pre-processed.

I've not put as much effort into Detox production recently as I've been concentrating on MDAC2 for Munich - but by the end of this month I hope to have the first "production" representative unit.

Next time your in the local (Olomouc) your welcome to pop in and see what we are upto and progress etc.
 
Who says? There's absolutely nothing in the technology that guarantees that the MQA downsampled distribution begins with the highest quality master. Nothing whatsoever stop it beginning from a cassette that a roadie found under the backseat of a tour bus. The only thing that is guaranteed is that you are not listening to whatever existed before the MQA processing was applied.

I find it incredible you have dedicated several years of your life to the (seemingly ever receding) prospect of a perfect DAC only to now throw all that work away by backing a format that is inherently compromised. What's the point of "fidelity" if you let MQA bugger the original master?

Because I have certain privileged (confidential) information concerning the inner workings of MQA which I beleive makes MQA worth supporting on the hardware side.

Adding MQA does not take anything away from MDAC2 - we are not loosing any performance only adding support for a whilewhile "risk" - I say "risk" as what MQA becomes and what material released is beyond my control.

So your not a believer in MQA thats fine - but WHY are you kicking so hard? - what business is it of yours?

I'll do a deal with you - I'll disable MQA on your unit and personally refund you the insignificant cost difference.
 
Oh for God's sake! How many more times, AndyU?

It's an OPTION

David,

My point exactly... having MQA takes NOTHING away from the MDAC2, we are not crippling the design to support MQA as a playback option.

I've offered to REMOVE MQA support on Andys unit and refunding him the few dollars cost difference - and I'm serious about the offer, so he has NOTHING more to say on the subject as it will not concern his unit.
 
John,
Thank you for your quick response.
Unfortunately I don't know what will be held in Munich. I must admit that I haven't visited this thread for perhaps a year (because of less and less trust that anything would ever come to end here).
I am based here in the Czech rep. Could you please tell me what options (and when) will be available for somebody like me?
I know the lakewestaudio.com site, but there is no information about MDAC2 there. Last time I used to visit this thread was the time when the MDAC2 idea was abandoned and/or changed into the FDAC one.
I am owner of a basic original MDAC only bought from an Audiolab dealer in CZ back in 2012.
(Btw, I have no DIY skills.)
Thank you very much.
 
Pavel,

You can post me your MDAC when the MDAC2 is ready and I'll upgrade your unit for you - or you can visit and we upgrade while your here.

Diy upgarde is easy, but I can understand why you would be concerned.

The boards available for Munich (May 20th) will be from the first T0 batch of say 10 pcs. once these have been tested and confirmed and we have had first feedback from the owners then we can goto full production - which will then take a month or so.

MDAC2 is basically "FDAC" using the new hyperstreamII DAC's from ESS, but without DSP or FPGA but with CM3 based "streamer" instead. An external HQ PSU is included with the MDAC2 upgrade.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86116171/mdac2+ps.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86116171/MDAC VRPSU Detox.JPG

Again, your welcome to drop by at any time if your happen to be in the area, you can see and listen to the latest developments we have here.
 
My apologies to everyone with an open mind...I'm definitely not trying to keep this debate going....only thought it might be worth hearing from Bob Stuart directly...for those still interested....this is non-technical but may keep you busy for an hour...its from 2015.

 
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I AIM of MQA is to encode what MQA believe is important for our auditory system - and for that it requires the highest quality masters as a starting point.

And what is the new science that Bob Stuart has discovered about human hearing? Where can I read about it?
 
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