[szore]

OK, so I now have Alice in Chains, Rainier Fog and Halestorm, Viscious in both AIFF and FLAC MQA. Verdict in the morning...

Have fun!

 

[szore]

I actually hadn’t appreciated MQA was lossy!!!

As Johnny would say; "I did not know that!"

 

[LondonGecko]

OK, I've had a little review of a couple of albums this morning.

Kit: AK SE100, Atlas Xeno IEM cable, Shure SE535 w/ Westone star tips
Albums: Halestorm, Viscious (24/96) & Alice in Chains, Rainier Fog (16/44)
Format: AIFF vs FLAC MQA

I chose AIFF over FLAC when I bought my AK 70 Mkii, as for whatever reason I found it just sounded better to my ears and I've stuck with it ever since.


So, this morning Mrs Gecko chose the track, and then played the same track back-to-back, but in a different format. I had no idea if it was the MQA or non-MQA track - and she mixed it up a bit. Overall, I covered about half of each album.


At the risk of using the work "compressed" you can tell that the MQA track just sounds a bit tighter. The AIFF seems more relaxed and musical. You can hear the timbre of cymbals better, and the inflection of notes on the bass guitars. Lzzy Hale's rather distintive scream (fans will know what I mean) just sounded clearer on the non-MQA track. However, the MQA (not-unsurprisingly) knocks an MP3 out of the park.

I genuinely had no idea that MQA was a lossy format - so I feel a little cheated and disappointed to be honest. When storage is so cheap, why create a new, lossy format?

 

[IrishAudio]

OK, I've had a little review of a couple of albums this morning.

Kit: AK SE100, Atlas Xeno IEM cable, Shure SE535 w/ Westone star tips
Albums: Halestorm, Viscious (24/96) & Alice in Chains, Rainier Fog (16/44)
Format: AIFF vs FLAC MQA

I chose AIFF over FLAC when I bought my AK 70 Mkii, as for whatever reason I found it just sounded better to my ears and I've stuck with it ever since.


So, this morning Mrs Gecko chose the track, and then played the same track back-to-back, but in a different format. I had no idea if it was the MQA or non-MQA track - and she mixed it up a bit. Overall, I covered about half of each album.


At the risk of using the work "compressed" you can tell that the MQA track just sounds a bit tighter. The AIFF seems more relaxed and musical. You can hear the timbre of cymbals better, and the inflection of notes on the bass guitars. Lzzy Hale's rather distintive scream (fans will know what I mean) just sounded clearer on the non-MQA track. However, the MQA (not-unsurprisingly) knocks an MP3 out of the park.

I genuinely had no idea that MQA was a lossy format - so I feel a little cheated and disappointed to be honest. When storage is so cheap, why create a new, lossy format?

I think a lot of people don’t realize it’s lossy because you can ship MQA lossy content inside other containers like FLAC. And because of MQA’s marketing. I’m more concerned with the fact it’s DRM and that the record industry seems to be trying to lock up the entire HiRes market when an open source alternative that is battle tested and viable like FLAC just works. Even I want MQA on devices just so I can stream Tidal Masters content. For what it’s worth, I have been reading some articles where a blogger compares the file formats with software and instruments and finds very little difference in SQ between MQA and Lossless formats but would agree it is clearly better than MP3. My question is then, why bother with another codec, especially one locked up with DRM, a hardware decoder requirement for full “unfolding” and licensing fees that all just get passed to us so the record industry can further enrich itself?

 

[LondonGecko]

I think a lot of people don’t realize it’s lossy because you can ship MQA lossy content inside other containers like FLAC. And because of MQA’s marketing. I’m more concerned with the fact it’s DRM and that the record industry seems to be trying to lock up the entire HiRes market when an open source alternative that is battle tested and viable like FLAC just works. Even I want MQA on devices just so I can stream Tidal Masters content. For what it’s worth, I have been reading some articles where a blogger compares the file formats with software and instruments and finds very little difference in SQ between MQA and Lossless formats but would agree it is clearly better than MP3. My question is then, why bother with another codec, especially one locked up with DRM, a hardware decoder requirement for full “unfolding” and licensing fees that all just get passed to us so the record industry can further enrich itself?

Yep... I had no idea. Why would there be lossy compression in a non-lossy format?

Anyway, slightly tangental to the SE100 thread - which incidentially, I am loving.

 

[Sound Eq]

I think a lot of people don’t realize it’s lossy because you can ship MQA lossy content inside other containers like FLAC. And because of MQA’s marketing. I’m more concerned with the fact it’s DRM and that the record industry seems to be trying to lock up the entire HiRes market when an open source alternative that is battle tested and viable like FLAC just works. Even I want MQA on devices just so I can stream Tidal Masters content. For what it’s worth, I have been reading some articles where a blogger compares the file formats with software and instruments and finds very little difference in SQ between MQA and Lossless formats but would agree it is clearly better than MP3. My question is then, why bother with another codec, especially one locked up with DRM, a hardware decoder requirement for full “unfolding” and licensing fees that all just get passed to us so the record industry can further enrich itself?

well to me i can hear the difference clearly using tidal.

go to a band called : the war on drugs
album: a deeper understanding - ( on tidal there is the mqa and non mqa )
song: strangest thing ( which is number 4 )

u clearly can hear mqa to be better sounding, so what ever mqa is, to my ears it sounds better than non mqa on tidal

 

[JasonNYC]

well to me i can hear the difference clearly using tidal.

go to a band called : the war on drugs
album: a deeper understanding - ( on tidal there is the mqa and non mqa )
song: strangest thing ( which is number 4 )

u clearly can hear mqa to be better sounding, so what ever mqa is, to my ears it sounds better than non mqa on tidal

The non MQA track on Tidal would be a 16/44.1 CD-quality track, where the MQA Tidal Masters track would be 24/96. You should notice a difference on a good quality recording going from 16bits to 24bits.

 

[Sound Eq]

hi @JasonNYC saw another update to 1.16 again using my own wifi same issue as before

y is this happening, i only face this with ak se100 dap

its torture to use my mobile hotspot everytime to update

can u check with AK

 

[JasonNYC]

We are currently running another holiday deal with 15% off the SP1000, SE100 and SR15 for US/Canadian customers in the US E-Store and through participating dealers until December 16th.

 

[Mike-WI]

@JasonNYC

I saw post above about 1.16 and noticed it on DAP.
Why isn't this URL updated for 1.16 ?
https://www.astellnkern.com/eng/content/support/notice/list.asp

 

[JasonNYC]

@JasonNYC

I saw post above about 1.16 and noticed it on DAP.
Why isn't this URL updated for 1.16 ?
https://www.astellnkern.com/eng/content/support/notice/list.asp

It’s a fix for the screen issues. When powered off and plugged in to charge, the SP1000 and SE100 screen would faintly light up. Our dev team did a fix and was supposed to release it Monday morning, but it looks like they pushed it out before they left for the weekend. We were surprised ourselves here in the US offices when we woke up and saw the update. They will probably update it when they are back in the office Monday morning.

 

[szore]

I love surprise firmware updates!

 

[Mike-WI]

It’s a fix for the screen issues. When powered off and plugged in to charge, the SP1000 and SE100 screen would faintly light up. Our dev team did a fix and was supposed to release it Monday morning, but it looks like they pushed it out before they left for the weekend. We were surprised ourselves here in the US offices when we woke up and saw the update. They will probably update it when they are back in the office Monday morning.

Glad to have an update, was just wondering about the URL. Thanks.

 

[gazzington]

Love this player. I think the sound on dx200 with amp 8 may be better but the UI on this batters all other players. It's my evening wind down player

 

[aklwarrior]

How is the SE100 compared to the SR15 in terms of SQ? Has anybody done a comparison yet? I have currently an SR15 but can't hear any plus compared to my LG V30 with my Beyerdynamic DT1770. So I am just about to do an upgrade to the SE100, however, I am not convinced yet the SE100 is really a +$1000 upgrade from the SR15/LG V30. Unfortunately, I can't try it any near to me...