After decades of attempts to make convenience and top quality happen in concert with each other, Meridian Audio has recently announced the latest in audio transmission, which promise to revolutionize the quality of digital audio files forever. The new technology is called MQA (Master Quality Authenticated).
The MQA process begins with the original master recording. The master recording is considered the truest audio file available. It’s what the artist and studio want you to hear. MQA samples the master recording, so it can be transferred into a convenient digital format with nothing removed. While typical digital conversion reduces audio quality, MQA keeps the file in master recording form. In addition, MQA can be put into any format and decoded on almost any device. Yes, pure music has finally come true. Perhaps the best part, MQA files do not have to be re-recorded for the new level of quality to take effect.
The process of this new approach is described in the abstract of a paper by Meridian-Audio founder Bob Stuart “A Hierarchical Approach to Archiving and Distribution”
“When recording, the ideal is to capture a performance so that the highest possible sound quality can be recovered from the archive. While an archive has no hard limit on the quantity of data assignable to that information, in distribution the data deliverable depends on application-specific factors such as storage, bandwidth or legacy compatibility. Recent interest in high-resolution digital audio has been accompanied by a trend to higher and higher sampling rates and bit depths, yet the sound quality improvements show diminishing returns and so fail to reconcile human auditory capability with the information capacity of the channel. By bringing together advances in sampling theory with recent findings in human auditory science, our approach aims to deliver extremely high sound quality through a hierarchical distribution chain where sample rate and bit depth can vary at each link but where the overall system is managed from end-to-end, including the converters. Our aim is an improved time/frequency balance in a high-performance chain whose errors, from the perspective of the human listener, are equivalent to no more than those introduced by sound traveling a short distance through air.”
Problems Solved with MQA
There was a time when the only way to achieve the very best sound quality was to have the reel-to-reel experience from the master recording. Unfortunately, before MQA, a technology did not exist that could capture the full reproduction of sound. While compact discs offered a fair mixture of quality and convenience, they were far from perfect. While LP records were close to the quality level of the master recording, they suffered far too much from potential damage. When even the slightest bump or scratch could ruin the record, and thus the sound, it was simply too difficult to preserve musical greatness. Obviously, getting great sound in one’s vehicle was out of the question. While downloads solved some of the problems of convenience and offered serviceable sound, it was never anywhere near the quality level as it could and should have been. Finally, MQA has changed this.
For those who love truly great music and wish to hear it as it should be heard, feel free to contact AHT Residential. We can answer any questions you may have regarding the new MQA audio technology.