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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 26 for Windows => Topic started by: rakon on December 13, 2019, 05:00:32 am

Title: No Display for MQA? in MC26
Post by: rakon on December 13, 2019, 05:00:32 am
i have 3800 Tracks of MQA, but there is still no Display for MQA Playing, in ROON you have a MQA Display why not here???
Title: Re: No Display for MQA? in MC26
Post by: Awesome Donkey on December 13, 2019, 05:02:09 am
MQA isn't supported, and JRiver has no plans to support MQA (do a search of the forums, it's been brought up multiple times).

That said, unofficially, if you have volume at 100% and using no DSP whatsoever, MQA might be passed through MC while playing to a MQA-capable DAC (since the DAC does the decoding of MQA). Of course that means it's not officially supported at all so it may or may not work. There's no indication in MC that MQA is being passed through if it's working and I doubt there will be either considering the above.
Title: Re: No Display for MQA? in MC26
Post by: HS12 on December 15, 2019, 04:06:14 am
This morning I downloaded this test track from Blue Coast Music Test Your System with Free Downloads

Artists:
Garett Brennan
Record Label:
Blue Coast Records
Genre:
ESEAmericanaFolk
Garett Brennan's "The Dog Song" from Blue Coast Collection in 9 different resolutions (including DSD, WAV, FLAC and MQA) for testing your system's playback.

I loaded all nine tracks onto my Id 25.0.114 and was surprised that all of the tracks including the MQA track played without any issue via usb to my Project Audio DS2 Ultra DAC.

Allegedly the DAC doesn't support MQA but the playback was equal quality to the WAV and DSF versions. I wasn't expecting that.
Title: Re: No Display for MQA? in MC26
Post by: bleeif on December 15, 2019, 04:39:03 am
This morning I downloaded this test track from Blue Coast Music Test Your System with Free Downloads

Artists:
Garett Brennan
Record Label:
Blue Coast Records
Genre:
ESEAmericanaFolk
Garett Brennan's "The Dog Song" from Blue Coast Collection in 9 different resolutions (including DSD, WAV, FLAC and MQA) for testing your system's playback.

I loaded all nine tracks onto my Id 25.0.114 and was surprised that all of the tracks including the MQA track played without any issue via usb to my Project Audio DS2 Ultra DAC.

Allegedly the DAC doesn't support MQA but the playback was equal quality to the WAV and DSF versions. I wasn't expecting that.

When NO MQA decoder is support MQA defaults to WAVE FILE 44.1 for compatibility reasons,  this default file format may play in MC,  however MQA is considered a LOSSY FORMAT MQA   additionally  MQA use FLAC file compression for their files, some of the recent forums have also  suggested that the FLACE file the Bits are not exactly identical to its original WAV file interesting!!!     
Title: Re: No Display for MQA? in MC26
Post by: HS12 on December 15, 2019, 05:35:32 am
When NO MQA decoder is support MQA defaults to WAVE FILE 44.1 for compatibility reasons,  this default file format may play in MC,  however MQA is considered a LOSSY FORMAT MQA   additionally  MQA use FLAC file compression for their files, some of the recent forums have also  suggested that the FLACE file the Bits are not exactly identical to its original WAV file interesting!!!     
Thanks for that insight. With storage so cheap these days i am happy keep to WAV, AIFF and occasional DSF files.
Title: Re: No Display for MQA? in MC26
Post by: dtc on December 15, 2019, 06:58:38 am
MQA   additionally  MQA use FLAC file compression for their files, some of the recent forums have also  suggested that the FLACE file the Bits are not exactly identical to its original WAV file interesting!!!   

I assume you mean FLAC compression.

You can compress, decompress, compress again as much as you want with FLAC. The resulting file is bit for bit identical to the original file. If people are seeing differences in bits with flac decoding, then they are doing something wrong.

There was a series of articles in Absolute Sound a few years ago where the authors claimed they could hear the difference when files were compressed and then decompressed.  Their "research" was pretty much dismissed.

If you think that FLAC compression is indeed lossy, please explain.
Title: Re: No Display for MQA? in MC26
Post by: dtc on December 15, 2019, 07:22:44 am
This morning I downloaded this test track from Blue Coast Music Test Your System with Free Downloads

Artists:
Garett Brennan
Record Label:
Blue Coast Records
Genre:
ESEAmericanaFolk
Garett Brennan's "The Dog Song" from Blue Coast Collection in 9 different resolutions (including DSD, WAV, FLAC and MQA) for testing your system's playback.

I loaded all nine tracks onto my Id 25.0.114 and was surprised that all of the tracks including the MQA track played without any issue via usb to my Project Audio DS2 Ultra DAC.

Allegedly the DAC doesn't support MQA but the playback was equal quality to the WAV and DSF versions. I wasn't expecting that.

MQA played back without MQA decoding gives you close to CD quality audio.  It is sometimes compared to 13 bit audio. No everyone can hear the difference between 13 bit and 16 bit 44.1KHz audio.  It depends on both your equipment and your ears.  Part of the premise of MQA (and HDCD before that) was that using a bit or two for coding the information that would be expanded by the technology would not be audible to most people.

The fact that you think the MQA sounds as good as wav is not surprising.  In fact, many people think undecoded MQA sounds better than standard CDs because of the work done in the studio in developing the masters. 

As to comparing to the DSF versions, you are using 2 very different algorithms for PCM and DSD playback. What you hear is highly dependent on the particular DAC.  And the mastering discussion is still relevant.

The whole MQA discussion has become very controversial. Probably best to continue the discussion elsewhere.  There is no common view on MQA and probably never will be, although many will reach a conclusion and declare the discussion closed.
Title: Re: No Display for MQA? in MC26
Post by: RD James on December 15, 2019, 07:34:59 am
i have 3800 Tracks of MQA, but there is still no Display for MQA Playing, in ROON you have a MQA Display why not here???
MQA is a scam. It's lossy compression of "high-resolution" audio.
"High resolution" audio as a playback format is also a scam, since CD-quality audio already exceeds the capabilities of human hearing. There's no audible benefit to higher sample rates.

You shouldn't buy into any of it. They're charging more money for differences that can't be heard.