MQA Anyone?

[Diapason]

Just back from Cloney myself, and I found it quite a compelling demo. In absolute terms everything sounded impressive with all the usual "strange system, strange room" caveats. I was surprised that they were using analogue out from the Bluesound, no external DAC, etc. Anyway the few AB comparisons we heard were pretty convincing, and definitely enough to leave me with the feeling that I'd like to hear more.

All in all then, a very solid afternoon, made even more so when jkeny "insisted" I join him for a coffee. He paid an' all! Thanks John, and thanks to all the boys in Cloney Audio.

[Adrian]

Excellent stuff lads.

I afraid I could not make it either yesterday or today. However I was in Cloneys during the week and I caught a glimpse of the box for 1300 euro.

I think it looks good and is approaching what I would consider (feature wise) to be a potential prospective buy.

For A / B testing one would have to insert one CD into the vault, have it copied onto the HD array. Then remove the CD and use it in a normal CD player.

One could then switch between inputs on the amplifier for sound comparison purposes. Worth a go IMO.

[jkeny]

Went along this afternoon & met Diapson there
The MQA guy must have brushed up on his technique as he was able to A/B tracks

First off, I think the setup was sub-optimal - The Bluesound device (which was the MQA decoder) had an internal disk from which some of the songs were being played but others were being streamed from Tidal. I think some of the MQA files played were streamed but I don't know for sure. They were using the internal DAC of the Bluesound - ESS, maybe? They were using vol control on the Bluesound - digital vol control?

Anyway, I couldn't hear any obvious difference with the SUltans of Swing track but the Ella & Louis track (can't remember which one) stood out as very noticeably better in MQA (hope there weren't any sample rate differences between these tracks!)

[jkeny]

Just back from Cloney myself, and I found it quite a compelling demo. In absolute terms everything sounded impressive with all the usual "strange system, strange room" caveats. I was surprised that they were using analogue out from the Bluesound, no external DAC, etc. Anyway the few AB comparisons we heard were pretty convincing, and definitely enough to leave me with the feeling that I'd like to hear more.

All in all then, a very solid afternoon, made even more so when jkeny "insisted" I join him for a coffee. He paid an' all! Thanks John, and thanks to all the boys in Cloney Audio.

I know you don't often put your hand in your pocket when you visit Cloney's so I didn't want to shock you by having you pay for your own coffee :) :)

Yep, agreed - need to hear more to be fully convinced

[Sloop John B]

Yeah, what was the Ella and Louis track, it sounded great but I didn't get and A vs B of it.

Strange everyone present earlier thought the Sultans of Swing was unequivocal.






SJB

[jkeny]

The Ella & Louis track "They can't take that away from me"

[jkeny]

One thing of course is that the MQA tracks are actually high-res & I presume the non-MQA tracks were 16/44 so maybe a fairer comparison would have been high-res Vs MQA track?

[Diapason]

I know you don't often put your hand in your pocket when you visit Cloney's so I didn't want to shock you by having you pay for your own coffee :) :)

Genuine LOL there, JK!!! :)

[nige2000]

One thing of course is that the MQA tracks are actually high-res & I presume the non-MQA tracks were 16/44 so maybe a fairer comparison would have been high-res Vs MQA track?

wonder why they do comparisons like that, has to be either of two things
either they don't know any better or is it deliberate to sway prospective customers?
i assume the vast majority of people wouldn't be aware of the potential variables in such a comparison test

[jkeny]

One thing of course is that the MQA tracks are actually high-res & I presume the non-MQA tracks were 16/44 so maybe a fairer comparison would have been high-res Vs MQA track?

wonder why they do comparisons like that, has to be either of two things
either they don't know any better or is it deliberate to sway prospective customers?
i assume the vast majority of people wouldn't be aware of the potential variables in such a comparison test

Yea, I know
I wonder if Cloney still has the Bluesound boxes & access to the Tidal MQA audio files?
As it would make much more sense to do the A/Bing properly, using a known DAC & preamp vol control along with tracks which are of the same samplerate.