What is MQA? And why do we need another digital format?
More and more people ask us about MQA: what is it, good or bad, is it necessary or not? Although for most Russian music lovers, these three letters probably say nothing. How is that and what is hidden behind them? We will try to tell you.
MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, DSD are just some of the most common digital audio formats today, why do we need another one: MQA?
At the moment, MQA is still quite a niche thing, still a far cry from the status of a generally accepted format, which was (and for many, we admit, is still morally out of date) MP3, but the people and companies behind MQA they have serious ambitions and prospects for the future. they think that MQA is changing the way most of us get digital music right now. For one thing, the technology works right now, it’s backward compatible with existing audio devices, and it can deliver quality that was previously unattainable. But not everything is so simple in the history of MQA. Today we will talk about the main points to understand this topic.
What is MQA?
MQA stands for Master Quality Authenticated – “Confirmed Master Quality”. This is the name of the technology and the codec behind which many patents, licensed technologies and its own philosophy lie. It is also the name of the company that develops and licenses these technologies. MQA was invented within the legendary American company Meridian Audio under the leadership of Bob Stewart, but it was later decided to separate the technology into a separate division, which has such ambitious plans.
Stewart and UK Meridian’s trajectory includes the first digital active loudspeaker, the first audiophile CD player and the first digital surround sound processor. Meridian also invented the MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) algorithm, which is used for lossless audio compression for DVD-Audio / HD-DVD / Blu-ray.
Meridian announced MQA technology in 2014, with the first public demonstration in Las Vegas at CES 2015. Various digital music providers, hi-fi developers and record companies announced support, including: Pioneer Corporation, Onkyo, Meridian Audio, 7digital, Lindberg Lyd (2L) Mytek and others. Warner Music Group announced that it signed a “long-term license agreement” with MQA at the High End in Munich in May 2016.
In May 2016, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in partnership with the Recording Academy’s Producers and Engineers Branch, the American Independent Music Association (A2IM), and DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, announced that the services of MQA music are eligible to use the official logo. “Hi-Res MUSIC” industry.
In January 2017, MQA’s recordings were made available to Tidal “HiFi” subscribers.
In March 2018, MQA launched “Live”, a virtual concert service designed to preserve the original sound quality of live performances.
Why do we need MQA?
Most of the digital music you listen to online or download was not produced by the artist. Of course, we are not referring to the songs and works themselves, but to MP3, AAC or FLAC files. Most of the time they are created by third parties, for example Apple Music or Yandex. Music from studio-quality master files provided by record labels.
It would be nice if all these digital versions were produced according to a certain set of standards, so that each of them is the most accurate representation of the original recording, but the reality is not that simple. It would be nice if artists could listen and approve these versions before they are released. But this doesn’t always happen either.
