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Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: Happy Christmas everybody !
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on: December 24, 2017, 07:39:24 pm
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This is the day that the 1.0 design of something new was finished and is going to be send out to China for the production of the (4 layer) PCB. STOP!I passed the design by our 5-year-old and he believes there's a major design fault (in the area shown below). He also said that he doubts you'll be able to understand... but that Paul should be able to. Merry Christmas! Mani.
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139
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: December 05, 2017, 09:57:12 am
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Richard, I had a similar issue. All I did was stick an old Audioquest Dragonfly that I had lying around into one of the USB ports of my server and select that as the sound device in XX. You may then have to do as Ramesh suggests too (I don't recall having to do this myself though).
Do you have an old 24/96-capable USB DAC hanging around? (It doesn't even have to be connected to an amp or anything.)
Mani.
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141
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Best Settings for MQA Sound Quality
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on: November 21, 2017, 08:22:31 am
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The quote is from an interview Bob gave in May this year at the Munich High End Show (I attended his MQA presentation the day before this interview): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r_VRxcwODII find the interviewer quite frustrating - he keeps on interrupting whenever Bob seems to be getting into interesting stuff. By the sound of his accent the interviewer's Dutch, so we'll forgive him A few things that Bob said that caught my ear: “What looks like high frequency on a FFT is actually temporal microstructure in the audio itself.”
“Our hearing is in fact incredibly acutely sensitive to microstructure in the mid-range and to typically quiet sounds.”
“The de-blurring process is like cleaning your window. If the window is dirty and we clean it, that is lossy… because we took the dirt away. But we made it better.”
“The passage of sound through the whole digital chain should be like sound travelling through air.”Mani.
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143
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Best Settings for MQA Sound Quality
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on: November 20, 2017, 01:38:38 pm
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... but the filtering is the key and the NOS1 does not filter anything. So it can all be tuned 100% in software. Hey Peter, in one of his interviews, Bob Stuart says: Some people say, ‘I can do a better filter than MQA’, but I say, well actually, you can’t because the encoder and the decoder together make the perfect match… and it’s not the same on every recording. The filter that’s chosen on a 2L recording will be different from one on a jazz recording.If so, does this mean that no matter which filter we choose in XX, it can never be optimally matched? Or that if it is, it is totally coincidental? Just trying to understand why I generally like the sound of MQA played back through XX and the NOS1. Mani.
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144
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Best Settings for MQA Sound Quality
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on: November 20, 2017, 09:17:40 am
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One thing is quite crucial I'm afraid, and this is the NOS1 again. So if you'd know a but how MQA's filtering works (or destroys, name it as you like) then it actually requires the NOS1 including its filtering. Well, "requires" is a big word, but it suddenly brings out all the positives of MQA while any other DAC would not. Well I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying exploring MQA-encoded music with the NOS1 at the moment. There tends to be a clarity to the sound that I really like. To my ears it's a bit like comparing AP to AI filtering - AP tends to lose the LF bloom but is simply more accurate-sounding and more life-like. Guys, it's obvious to me that Peter must have spent a lot of time and effort sorting MQA out for XX. I think we owe it to him to at least try it and give our feedback. And those with a NOS1 may be pleasantly surprised... Mani.
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145
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: Best Settings for MQA Sound Quality
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on: November 17, 2017, 06:31:15 pm
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Hmm...
I have to say that I really like the sound of the few MQA albums I've tried so far.
I have an MQA and non-MQA version of an album that I'm sure is from the same master. With MQA decoding switched off in XX, the two versions of the album sound very different. The non-MQA version sounds softer and fuller. The MQA version sounds a bit on the thin side in comparison, but 'cleaner' with it. My preference is the MQA version with the MQA decoder in XX switched on.
This was not what I was expecting at all!
Mani.
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146
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: November 17, 2017, 02:12:18 pm
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Your decoding just does not work and it *has* to work already on the PC where you Prepare things, or otherwise nothing works. I don't see you responding to my 2.09 remark, so I take it that you don't use that on the "Tidal" PC. Haha. I upgraded to 2.09 on the music server ('Tidal' PC) before trying anything. I deleted and re-prepared the MQA albums. Everything works fine. Thanks. Mani.
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148
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: MQA decoding issue
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on: November 17, 2017, 01:36:47 pm
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The issue is identical on my Phasure audio PC too...
I think I've found the issue:
It seems to be a base rate problem (44.1 vs 48). MQA 44.1 rates work fine (see below), however 48 rates don't. The issue seems to stem from my music server. I get the error shown below when preparing streams.
Mani.
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149
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / MQA decoding issue
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on: November 17, 2017, 12:48:17 pm
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Hey Peter, I'm having a problem decoding MQA. I've only tried a couple of albums from Tidal, and both give the same error (below) just before playback commences.
If I switch off 'decode HDCD + MQA', then everything works fine.
Any ideas?
Mani.
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