MQA ExplainedCategories: Streaming

MQA or Master Quality Authenticated is a streaming audio format which promises to deliver the true sound of audio masters via Hi-Res digital streaming.

If you’ve been paying attention to the world of high-end audio and Hi-Fi, you can’t help to have come across the acronym MQA. Master Quality Audio or MQA for short is a new method of encrypting audio files which promises streaming digital audio with the integrity of the original studio master.

On today’s Audio Affair feature blog, we ask the question, “is MQA a true revolution in streaming audio, or is it just another marketing fad”?

Creating a master

In order to understand the purpose of MQA, we must first revisit what happens in the recording studio and understand the processes involved in delivering a recording to the listener. You may be surprised at the number of stages involved in creating a recording, and with it, the places where the end presentation can be critically affected.

Whether it’s Abbey Road with Pink Floyd, or a council flat bedroom and a whole lot of ambition, every recording since the 1960s undergoes a similar process of creation; even if the equipment varies wildly, there are usually three key processes which go into making up a commercial release.

The first stage is the recording and creation of the multi-track master; a multi-track master contains multiple individual audio tracks which comprise all the recorded elements of the music. These may, for example, include a track for the main vocal, a couple of tracks of guitars, a track with the bass guitar and several tracks which comprise the drum-kit.

These individual multi-tracks are then mixed together to create the final “mix”; the process of creating a mix is a highly skilled, highly specialised process in which levels between the tracks are balanced and equalised, and dynamics processing and effects are added. With the possible exception of classical recording, much of the sound of the finished recording is achieved at the mix stage.

It’s then necessary to “print” this mix to a stereo master; in years gone by the entire process would be performed in the analogue domain using high-end open reel tape recorders by the likes of Studer and Otari (some artists and producers still prefer to work in the analogue domain).

Most typically nowadays, the process is completed with a computer-based Digital Audio Workstation or DAW. The final stereo master, therefore, takes the form of a high-resolution digital audio file, typically at 24bit 96kHz or higher sample rates.

Mastering magic

It’s the final stage of the process, the “Mastering” stage, which often creates confusion, myth and legend amongst musicians and audiophiles alike. The mastering stage is a critically important stage, where the individual stereo tracks receive the all-important final “spit and polish” necessary for release quality recordings.

Here, a highly skilled mastering engineer adapts and manipulates the final stereo mixes so they perform to their optimum; this includes crucial decisions based on the intended delivery medium, and audience. Additional final compression and equalization are typically applied, with the whole process effectively an audio “quality control” for all that has gone before.

In many ways, the mastering stage is the most critical final stage in the process; a poor master will have a detrimental effect on the hours of painstaking work which has gone before. Witness the retrospective “remastering” which often occurs to albums in order to present old masters in the best possible light on modern equipment.

Compromised masters

When music was only delivered via physical formats, it was much easier for a mastering engineer to anticipate how the final master would sound and how it would be delivered. In the modern digital world, however, there often isn’t a physical master at all; indeed the carefully crafted master could be run through layers of unintended processing which dramatically affects the sound.

This is especially true of digital audio which is streamed over the internet; the carefully crafted Hi-Resolution master could end up downconverted to a very low-bitrate lossy file type which has a highly detrimental effect on the overall audio quality. What’s worse, is this process is now completely out of the hands of the mastering engineer, the producer and the musician.

What you end up listening to via internet streaming could end up being a very long way from the sound the artist intended you to hear.

MQA Master Quality Authenticated

In 2014, legendary Hi-Fi manufacturers Meridian presented their revolutionary MQA audio codec; MQA was designed for one purpose alone, and that was to enable high-quality, high-resolution audio streaming and download over the internet.

MQA was first demonstrated to visitors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2015 and has subsequently gained substantial industry support.

Let’s back up a moment though, and remind ourselves of the problem facing consumers of digital audio over the internet: the high-quality master file created in the mastering studio could end up sounding very different to the way it was intended to. MQA aims to end that compromise once and for all with some very clever technology.

At the core of the concept of MQA, is a concept given the catchy marketing tag of “audio origami”; essentially, MQA folds a very high-quality digital master down to a size which can be played by devices which don’t support Hi-Res streaming and can be carried by any lossless file format such as FLAC or ALAC.

It’s when an MQA file is played back on equipment which supports the MQA format, that the high-quality master can be “unfolded” allowing for the full, Hi-Res digital file to be delivered in a quality and manner faithful to that intended by the mastering engineer. This is the first time streaming digital audio has been able to be authenticated by the mastering engineer, hence Master Quality Authenticated.

At the mastering stage, a special “toolset” provided by MQA allows the mastering engineer to preview all possible playback scenarios of the MQA file and make those critical adjustments with those situations in mind. MQA guarantees that whatever system you’re listening to that MQA file upon, you’re hearing it as intended, and to its optimum quality.

How can I enjoy MQA music?

To enjoy the authentic experience of MQA audio files, it’s necessary first to have a subscription to an MQA streaming or download service. MQA encoded CD’s are also a possibility, although extremely niche. Secondly, you will need access to equipment which will support the full decoding of the MQA codec.

So far, the big names which have signed up to online streaming with MQA include Tidal, well known for their Hi-Res streaming service support. Deezer, who recently added Hi-Fi streaming for Premium+ users, with more streaming and download providers signing up by the moment.

A wave of hardware partners, including some of the industry’s biggest names such as Sony, Onkyo, Bluesound, TEAC, QUAD and of course the format’s originators, Meridian, have got behind the format. Everything from smartphones to outboard DAC’s, integrated amplifiers and multi-room systems are now offering support for the MQA codec, promising higher quality digital reproduction than ever before.

Isn’t it time you investigated the advantages of MQA in your own home? If you’re interested in making your first adventure into the world of Hi-Res audio streaming, drop us a line at Audio Affair. We’d be very happy to help you discover the compromise-free world of MQA audio.