MQA (Master_Quality_Authenticated) Audio Codec

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Quality_Authenticated

https://www.mqa.co.uk/how-it-works

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Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is an audio codec using lossy compression[1] and a form of file fingerprinting, intended for high fidelity[citation needed] digital audio internet streaming and file download.[2] Launched in 2014 by Meridian Audio, it is now owned and licensed by MQA Ltd, which was founded by Bob Stuart, co-founder of Meridian Audio.


Contents
1   History
2   Codec description
3   Reception
4   Criticism
5   Hardware and software decoders
6   Streaming services
7   References
8   Further reading
History
Announcement of MQA was made on 4 December 2014 at a launch held at The Shard in London,[3] although the concepts underpinning the development had previously been the subject of a presentation to the Audio Engineering Society British Section (10 June 2014)[4] and a paper (published 8 October 2014) presented at the Audio Engineering Society 137th Convention in Los Angeles, CA in October 2014.[5]

MQA was demonstrated to visitors to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2015.[6] Several download/streaming services, playback system manufacturers and record labels have subsequently announced support for the technology, including Pioneer Corporation, Onkyo, Meridian Audio, 7digital, Norwegian label Lindberg Lyd (2L), Mytek and others,[7] with Warner Music Group announcing the signing of a "long-term licensing deal" with MQA at the Munich High End show in May 2016.[8]

In May 2016, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in cooperation with the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), and DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, announced that services providing music encoded in MQA are eligible to carry the industry's official logo mark for "Hi-Res MUSIC".[9]

In March 2018, MQA launched "Live", a virtual concert-going service designed to preserve the original sound quality of live performances.[10] While playback will be available on any device, only devices compatible with MQA's proprietary codec may access the stream's "full quality."[10]

Codec description
MQA encoding is lossy;[11] it hierarchically compresses the relatively little energy in the higher frequency bands into data streams that are embedded in the lower frequency bands using proprietary dithering techniques.

After a series of such manipulations, the resulting 44 kHz data, the layered data streams, and a final "touchup" stream (compressed difference between the lossy signal from unpacking all layers and the original) are provided to the playback device. Given the low amount of energy expected in higher frequencies, and using only 1 extra frequency band layer (upper 44 kHz band of 96/24 packed into dither of 48/16) and one touchup stream (compressed difference between original 96/24 and 48/16) are together distributed as a 48/24 stream, of which 48/16 bit-decimated part can be played by normal 48/16 playback equipment.

One more difference to standard formats is the sampling process. The audio stream is sampled and convolved with a triangle function, and interpolated later during playback. The techniques employed, including the sampling of signals with a finite rate of innovation, were developed by a number of researchers over the preceding decade, including Pier Luigi Dragotti and others.[12][13]

MQA-encoded content can be carried via any lossless file format such as FLAC or ALAC; hence, it can be played back on systems either with or without an MQA decoder. In the latter case, the resulting audio has easily identifiable high-frequency noise occupying 3 LSB bits, thus limiting playback on non-MQA devices effectively to 13bit. MQA claims that nevertheless the quality is higher than "normal" 48/16, because of the novel sampling and convolution processes.[14]

Other than the sampling and convolution methods, which were not explained by MQA in detail, the encoding process is similar to that used in XRCD and HDCD.

However, unlike other lossy compression formats like MP3 and WMA, the lossy encoding method of MQA is similar to aptX, LDAC and WavPack Hybrid Lossy, which uses time-domain ADPCM and bitrate reduction instead of perceptual encoding based on psychoacoustic models.

Reception
While the technology has received little comment in the general and mainstream press, it has been exalted by the audiophile and hi-fi press. Robert Harley, editor of The Absolute Sound has referred to it as "The most significant audio technology of my lifetime".[15] Editor John Atkinson writing in Stereophile magazine following the UK launch in December 2014 wrote "In almost 40 years of attending audio press events, only rarely have I come away feeling that I was present at the birth of a new world."[16]

Criticism
MQA has received criticism from various sources within the music industry.

Audio product manufacturer Schiit Audio announced that it will not be supporting MQA due to, amongst other reasons, the understanding that "...supporting MQA means handing over the entire recording industry to an external standards organization."[17]

In a blog post title "MQA is Bad for Music. Here's why"[18] Hi-fi Manufacturer Linn Products criticises MQA's licensing requirements, asserting that MQA is "...an attempt to control and extract revenue from every part of the supply chain, and not just over content that they hold the rights for."[18] After having discussed several disadvantages for both the artist and the consumer Linn concludes that as a consumer you will "...pay a higher price for the same music, and you'll pay more for your hi-fi system too. And even if you don't buy into MQA, everyone will get less innovation, creativity and poorer music as a result."[18]

In an interview for online publication Positive Feedback, engineer Andreas Koch is critical of MQA due to its lossy algorithms and compression, along with its licensing requirements; also saying that a format such as this "does not solve any problem that the world currently has."[19] Koch was involved in the creation of the Super Audio CD, the development of the Direct Stream Digital codec, and is co-founder of audio product manufacturer Playback Designs.

An article titled Digital Done Wrong[20] on the International Audio/Video Review web site, concluded that MQA is founded on a fundamentally unsound understanding of correct digital audio processing and found that playback of a sample MQA encoding demonstrated gross distortion and reconstruction failure. It did however comment that some listeners may find the technical defects of MQA encoding subjectively pleasing.

Some critical comments have been made in online forums such as the Audiophile Style forum[21] and in audio magazine website comments, and a few writers have expressed concern in some areas. Over 80 detailed questions, some of which voiced these concerns, were submitted to the editors of the Audiophile Style forum and subsequently addressed in detail by the creator of MQA, Bob Stuart, in an extended question-and-answer article.[22]

Hardware and software decoders
Hardware decoders manufactured by Pioneer, iFi Audio, Onkyo, Mytek, Meridian, Cocktailaudio and Bluesound. Selected Meridian products will support MQA thanks to a firmware update. On software side, the desktop application by Tidal supports MQA.[23]

Commercial MQA-capable playback devices require payment of a royalty to MQA Ltd per unit sold. Based on information from Auralic, a manufacturer of Audiophile Wireless Audio Streamers, Meridian Audio prohibits digital output of unpacked MQA in any digital format, only allowing the unpacked data to be fed to an on-board MQA-compatible DAC and output in analog form. Some claim this to be a kind of DRM process[14], which allows a proper MQA file to be authenticated and the full quality of the signal decoded only on commercially licensed equipment.

Streaming services
Starting in January 2017, Tidal provides MQA audio to subscribers of the Tidal "HiFi" package.[24]



admin

Counter point

https://www.linn.co.uk/blog/mqa-is-bad-for-music
MQA is bad for music   and here's why
A new audio format which allows internet streaming of music at studio quality, seemingly free from copy-protection nasties, and with a clear way for you to know you have bought the real-deal. Seems like the perfect solution, right? Not so fast.

Author avatar image
By Jim Collinson
10 February 2017
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I'm not going to attempt to delve into the technical side of MQA, or whether it has any merits from an audio performance point of view. There are plenty of people at Linn far more qualified than me to report on MQA's questionable claims. If you are here for the technical insight, you might not want to read any further, but please do just give me a few moments of your time...

I want to explain why MQA is bad for music
It's an opinion formed through my experience as an artist, manager, label owner, and from negotiating download service agreements with distributors, indies and major labels; as well as helping market Linn's products and technology too.

From the off, it's worth noting that MQA appears, at it's heart, to be a major label venture: a collaboration between Warner and hi-fi manufacturer Meridian. They are also seeking buy-in and investment from all the other majors, large indies and conglomerates.

The majors hold what they see as the crown jewels of music; they own some of the all-time great recordings and have extensive rights to a huge catalogue. They can, and do, use this as leverage over emerging music service providers and vendors, knowing the power of content ubiquity and how vital a comprehensive catalogue is to a new service or technology gaining traction and being successful.

Bob Stuart from MQA, with the MQA slogan
Is MQA a 'revolution in recorded music' or a massive expansion of corporate power?

The rights they hold provide diminishing returns—the long-tail is shorter than expected by their share holders—so it is requirement that they leverage these recordings as effectively as possible, and sell them to us again and again. There is, of course, value to the listener in buying a studio master quality version of an album but once they own it, that's it, the revenue stream ends.

But as the landscape of content consumption changes from a commodity and ownership model, to one of utility and renting access—streaming—they know the balance of control over revenue streams is in flux, and gaining control over it is vital. Observe the power that video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon wield over film studios (even becoming content producers themselves, cutting studios out entirely) and you'll understand how appealing gaining control over the entire supply chain would seem. And that's exactly what MQA is gearing up for.

A supply chain monopoly
MQA is an attempt to not simply sell the same content again at a higher margin, or to maintain audio quality in streaming ecosystems: it is an outright land grab. It's an attempt to control and extract revenue from every part of the supply chain, and not just over content that they hold the rights for. It really is quite extraordinary. Let's break it down:

Manufacturers of recording equipment will have to license the technology and adapt their products

$$$ MQA Gets Paid $$$
Developers of recording software systems will require certified software plug-ins

$$$ MQA Gets Paid $$$
Recording and Mastering engineers must purchase and use certified equipment and software

$$$ MQA Gets Paid $$$
Artists must use studios and engineers utilising certified equipment and new workflows; or even pay to have their back catalogue 'remastered' in MQA. The costs, of course, are borne by the artist, either directly or recouped from royalties

Digital distributors will have to license MQA and purchase/lease a 'Hyper-Security Module' to encrypt/encode/watermark files ready for delivery to download services

$$$ MQA Gets Paid $$$
Download and Streaming service providers will have to agree to commercial terms and become partners from which...

$$$ MQA Gets Paid $$$
Physical media manufacturers can use MQA to author on to CD and DVD, presumably there will be licensing agreement required for this too

$$$ MQA Gets Paid $$$
Hi-fi manufacturers and software developers will have to adapt their products and license the technology

$$$ MQA Gets Paid $$$
End customers, having paid a premium for MQA music via licensed content providers, will also have to buy MQA certified players at increased cost, with a license paid for each unit shipped

$$$ MQA Gets Paid $$$
No DRM? Not so fast.
It's interesting to see that it's a key selling point of MQA that there is no Digital Rights Management (DRM) involved. They know that consumers hate copy protection, and it would be a non-starter it include it. But to say there is no DRM isn't strictly true, it's simply a matter of perspective... there is a form of fingerprinting in the file that will check that at each stage of the production and distribution process MQA has been paid. Now, ostensibly, this is a quality assurance check for the customer: if the little MQA light comes on, then I know that this file is legit. When in reality this is actually a quite masterful way of painting every other recording as inferior—when exactly the opposite may be the case—unless they are produced, distributed, downloaded and played via their approved supply chain. I could be playing a 24-bit 192kHz file straight from the studio, delivered to me in person by the artist herself and yet I am left with the feeling that this file is illegitimate; I'm not greeted by the warming glow of the MQA branding.

It also doesn't require too much imagination to envisage a situation where, in the name of thwarting piracy, music players will only play MQA streams. Or perhaps they'll insert ads before non-MQA content. None of this is proposed by the company, and in fact we are assured that they have no plans to do this. Perhaps we should give them the benefit of the doubt? But once the supply chain is dominated, the technology certainly gives them a way to achieve it, and shareholders want returns.

The worst kind of middleman
The music industry is built on middlemen. The manager, label, publisher, distributor, aggregator, streaming provider, the hi-fi manufacturer; they all stand between the artist and you. That's not to say these organisations don't provide valuable services: producing, marketing, and reproducing music is hard and financially risky. I've got no problems with people making a living from it: I'm one of those people too of course.

But with the MQA approach, we have the worst kind of middleman: solving a problem that has already been, or could be, solved by free and open alternatives, and yet expecting—no, demanding—to be paid again and again for contributing nothing of value. This is rentier capitalism, serving only to suck money out of the system, and stifling creativity in the process. It's detrimental to society.

Stifling creativity
The people who will suffer from this are the at either ends of the chain: you and the artist.

For you, you'll pay a higher price for the same music, and you'll pay more for your hi-fi system too. And even if you don't buy into MQA, everyone will get less innovation, creativity and poorer music as a result.

For the artist the additional production costs will be recouped from royalties, and the increased supply chain costs will mean smaller royalties in the first place.

"
It's the majors aiming to get paid for old-rope, rather than being rewarded for risks on new music.

The end result of higher production and distribution costs is also reduced investment in new music, and increased focus back on old and proven catalogue or a concentration of resources on a smaller pool of artists. It's the majors aiming to get paid for old-rope, rather than being rewarded for risks on new music. It acts as a throttle on creative risk taking.

In addition, by monopolising the supply chain, it aims to cut out indie labels and self-producing/releasing artists—or at the very least it demands a tax on their creativity. A self-producing artist, or small project recording studio, now has to work through a larger MQA equipped mastering studio and bear the costs and constraints. Oh, and artists that serve music direct to fans via their own website or direct at gigs? Well, they're cut out too: the piper has to be paid.

There's still hope
It does sound bleak doesn't it? However I'm still hopeful. We've been here before. There was a time when we fretted that Apple Lossless format would doom us to vendor lock-in, but in due time it was opened up. And there was the perhaps more comparable SACD format, which had similarly onerous supply chain requirements, that struggled and died.

In the end I'm confident that the free, readily available, high quality, open-source alternatives will win out. Lock down, centralisation and profiteering has a tendency towards failure.

admin

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-fnl1dXknPJb/learn/mqa-high-res-audio-breakthrough.html
MQA: High-res audio breakthrough
What Master Quality Authenticated is and how to get it
Ralph Graves
by Crutchfield's Ralph Graves

3 comments

Meridian Explorer 2 DAC with MQA decoding
IN A NUTSHELL
MQA — short for Master Quality Authenticated — is a new way to experience high-resolution audio.

MQA encoding folds studio-quality audio into files that are small enough to stream (or store in large quantities on a portable device). But the encoding process doesn't just make hi-res music files smaller. It makes them sound much better, too.

You can buy a limited selection of MQA downloads now. They play through any equipment that can decode lossless file formats (WAV, FLAC, and ALAC). When played through equipment that can also decode MQA, the sound quality is breathtaking.

But sound quality alone won't give MQA mainstream appeal. That should happen when a much broader selection of MQA music is available from streaming services.

Major music industry players such as the Warner Music Group and the TIDAL streaming service have signed on, so music lovers may not have to wait much longer for an easier way to enjoy hi-res audio.

Shop for MQA-enabled players and components

FULL STORY
What is MQA?

MQA was developed by Meridian Audio Ltd., a UK company renowned for their high-performance audio gear. MQA was designed to deliver higher sound quality from digital music while keeping file sizes as small as possible.

By using MQA as part of the mastering process, the track is marked as the version approved by the artist or label. In other words, what you hear when the track is played through an MQA-enabled player is what the artist intended. MQA-enabled players have a status light that confirms the track is MQA, and that all the information contained therein is being decoded.

How does it work?

MQA captures musical detail that's typically left out of a digital audio file. It encapsulates that missing data into an inaudible portion of the file (without increasing the size of the file). A component with an MQA decoder retrieves the missing information and integrates it into the audio presentation.

So what does it sound like?

With MQA, you should notice an increased spatial depth of the sound field, and instruments and voices sounding more natural and realistic. At CES 2016, Absolute Sound editor Robert Harley listened to a sound demonstration which compared original high-resolution recordings with MQA-encoded versions.

"We first listened to [a] spectacular opera recording in [its] original 88.2kHz/24-bit format. Then, seconds into the MQA version, my jaw dropped — literally. MQA's dramatic superiority made the original high-resolution file sound like a pale imitation of the performance... Before the music even began the hall sounded larger, with the acoustic better defined. A glare was stripped away from instrumental textures, leaving behind a gorgeously liquid rendering of timbre. The positions of instruments on the stage, and of the musicians within the acoustic, were precisely defined."

- Robert Harley, the Absolute Sound
read the full article: MQA: On the Threshold

What gear do I need to play MQA?

If your digital music players can play WAV, FLAC, and other types of high-resolution files, then they can play the MQA-enhanced versions, too. Without an MQA decoder, you hear the file in the usual way.

"There is an analogy here with the LP record: one inventory that can be played on mass market players, yet responds with increased quality for those who invest in better players"

- John Atkinson, Stereophile
read the full article: I've Heard the Future of Streaming: Meridian's MQA

So what devices have MQA built-in?

There are currently both portable players and home audio systems that offer MQA playback. You can find a complete listing on the MQA website. Below are the products Crutchfield offers.

Software

MQA is incorporated into Roon music management software. (Read more about Roon here.)

Portables

Sony NW-A45 Walkman® high-resolution digital music player with Bluetooth® and FM tuner

Sony NW-ZX300 Walkman® high-resolution digital music player with Bluetooth®

Home audio

Through a software upgrade, all Bluesound multi-room audio components are now MQA-enabled.

Where can I find MQA streams?

TIDAL now offers TIDALMASTERS MQA streams to their HiFi service subscribers. Tidal says the MQA streams include "thousands of master quality albums," accessible only through the TIDAL desktop application.

In September 2017, Deezer announced that they would be increasing their MQA-encoded offerings on their Deezer HiFi subscription service.

You'll need a USB DAC (digital-to-analog converter), such AudioQuest's DragonFly Red or Black plugin USB DACs to hear MQA-encoded tracks in their full glory.

Where can I find MQA tracks?

Onkyo Music has a section devoted to MQA tracks.

The German-based site High Res Audio also has a dedicated MQA download section.

Small independent audiophile-oriented record labels were among the first to sign on to MQA, adding it to their mastering processes. European labels such as Eudora Records and Berlin Classics offer several releases, as do American high-fidelity labels such as ECM, Sono Luminus, and Delos Productions.

Three major labels have entered into long-term licensing agreements with MQA. Warner Music Group, which includes Atlantic Records, Nonesuch, Electra, and Reprise signed in 2016. Universal Music Group, which has Interscope, Geffen, Def Jam, Verve, Blue Note, and EMI in their roster, signed in early 2017. Sony Music, which includes RCA, Epic, and Arista, also signed in 2017.

Last updated 12/23/2019