Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is a proprietary audio format.
It has been developed by Meridian Audio and launched in 2014.
Later MQA become an independent company.
In april 2023 MQA went into administration. This is the Britsch equivalent of Chapeter 11.
Tidal, who's hi-res is in this format announced to replace MQA with FLAC.
Looks like this will be the end of this audio format.
In september 2023 Lenbrook (NAD, PSB, Bluesound) announces the acquisition of MQA.
MQA does three things.
There is a digital watermark allowing the decoder to detect if this is the MQA file as it left the studio or not.
It compresses Highres audio into a 24 bit / 44.1 or 48 kHz PCM format.
As the result is PCM, it can be treated like any PCM format.
It can be contained in any lossless format like WAV, FLAC, ALAC, etc.
The lossy compression is rather complex.
The frequencies in excess of 44/48 are compressed and stored below bit 17.
As a conseqiuence you won’t have the original 24 bit dynamic range.
The result is a 24 /44.1 or 48 kHz PCM audio file.
This can be played on any DAC with any media player supporting the 24 bit format.
The clever thing is that all what is stored below bit 16 appears as random noise.
To expand it to the original sample rate, a decoder is needed.
This can be implemented in software (media player) and/or in hardware (streamers).
Software is limited to what is called the first unfolding ( 88 / 96 kHz).
Only hardware not having a digital out is allowed to do the second unfolding (> 96 kHz).
This of course to prevent piracy.
Obvious you need a MQA enabled DAC to get the full result.
The other claim is that MQA can compensate for time-domain errors of both the AD converter used to make the recording and the DA converter used for playback.
This means that a DAC must be equipped with some additional hardware processing the audio and applying a specific algorithm tailor made for this specific DAC.
It implies that for each revision of the DAC, this as to be done anew.
The biggest advantage of MQA is probably the substantial compression of Highres.
If you run a streaming audio service like Tidal, Qobuz, etc. it saves dramatically on bandwidth compared with streaming Hires in its original size.
The downside is of course as it is a proprietary protocol; somebody has to pay the license.
In the end this of course will be the consumer.
As with all new technologies, weird problems do occur.
TDCatTech found a gap in the frequency spectrum.
MQA claims to be a lossy format saving bandwidth by throwing away data while maintaining perceptual transparency.
Exactly the same claim as made by MP3.
So MQA is highres MP3!
Master Quality Annihilated.