MQA = Snake Oil

That's my conclusion. Happy to be proven wrong.

My Setup.

KEF LS50 (Non-meta)
Schiit Aegir (Running non-mono)
Pre Box S2 Digital (using optical and ifi power supply)

Tried Tidal vs Amazon HD

MQA = 8 megs minute lossy (supposedly 384khz?)
Amazon HD = lossless (24/192) - 600 megs

All I could gauge from MQA is they sound louder and the biggest gimmick is one hardware unfolds MQA it's noticeably louder - (the oldest trick in the book). Also requires USB Type-B - which introduces added voltage distortion.

My logic is

Source = lossless (MQA is lossy)
Source Transport = fiber to DAC
DAC->Audioquest to Aegir-LS50(cheapo speaker wire)

The only thing I didn't hear anything about was the ifi power supply. But $50 whatever.

Argue this is the cheapest Stereophile "Class A" you can get away with a market price of $2500. What's better for the money?

Tell me where I"m wrong, ready to learn.

 

Paul,

Lot of folks on https://www.whatsbestforum.com/forums/ in the digital and computer sub forums would agree with you. Most no longer have discussed MQA in quite some time (years?). I had Tidal but did not have a DAC at the time to perform both levels of MQA unfolding... so I can't speak to the quality through my system. The one thing I liked a little better on Tidal than Spotify was the user interface and recommendations.

One of the listening tests / experiments you should perform is a heads up comparison from a well recorded CD or Redbook ripped to lossless Flac against Tidal MQA and then to Amazon HD. I would be curious to hear what you think.

In my system, the 16 bit / 44.1 ripped FLAC recordings, in general, still sounds, to my ears, better than Amazon.

My system

Mac / Roon server (or my Sota Saphire/ ET2 air bearing arm / Shelter 901 mark 3 cartridge) --> Wavestream Kinetics tube preamp --> Nelson Pass / Linkwitz all analog JFET tri amp crossover --> 3 amps (two Moore Franklin Associates D200c tube amps and solid state Audio Research D100; all Class A amps) --> Linkwitz LX mini speakers (Seas full range and mid range) and the cross over matched Seas woofer. I used to have Magnaplanars and Acoustats...I really like the "dipole" front to back and side to side staging....those are gone after I heard the LX minis at the Burning Amp conference in San Francisco.

I have this system in my music room where our music instruments are (piano, synth, alto sax, marimba, and violin; the entire family plays an instrument); I play piano. When I listen to piano pieces, through my system, I prefer the 16 bit / 44.1 flac recordings. To my ears, the higher resolving sound tires my ears when I listen to the same song relative to 44.1. I repeat listening because I am trying to better my timing or embed a better feel during difficult piano measures / passages...such as "The Man I Love" by Gershwin.

I got rid of Tidal and stayed with Spotify. I use Spotify to only explore new music. If I like something I hear, then I will first attempt to buy the vinyl album. If not, then the highest quality CD I can get. I will subsequently rip the CD and upload to my music server.

Schiit is getting excellent results with well respected musicians / audiophiles who have gotten together to do heads up comparisons. I will be buying the Yggy and that will wrap up my DAC search days marked as done; a lot of the guys who I respect their ears and are musicians (and who use almost all tube gear) like the Yggy.

Of course everyones system and ears are different...so your mileage will vary.


-stu

 

I have magico s3 mk2 driven by pass amp/ pre.
I drive with bluesound 2i then into d to A .
I previously had ls50s myself. So I bought my son kef powered ls50s.... not magicos of course but in many ways = to > superior esp in his room. I want them - they sound fantastic!!!


Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

Thanks Stu for such a great background. I did Spotify vs YouTube vs Amazon vs Tidal.

The biggest difference was between 256 (Spotify & Youtube) vs Amazon/Tidal.

I couldn't tell a difference between Amazon and Tidal. MQA would be louder every time I turned it on, but when equalizing for sound, I really can't hear a difference.

 

Love the LS50s!!! very nice speaker!