Left Channel
1000+ Head-Fier
In a 44 kHz data stream there is no decoding. Some MQA files at that level may offer some benefit from having been re-digitized or in some way processed from whatever masters exist (there is wide debate about whether that can truly be called "remastering") but many others will not, and in general that is not what people are excited about. Please see this article: MQA Decoding Explained (Audiostream). As for his Pioneer XDP player, again, that is far too small a market for Tidal, and I'm not even certain UAPP would or could develop for it. IMHO so we'll have to wait until more devices support at least 24/96.
I believe you are wrong here. A "full blown MQA recording" is encoded and stored in PCM at 44kHz. It can be uncompressed/unfolded back up to a higher spec using software or hardware... but the container is compatible with any android OS.
The 44kHz file stream goes to the hardware decoder in the Player and theere is unfolded into its slightly-lossy 192kHz glory.
Please quote directly from Bob Stuart ro MQA website on the actual MQA file itself, not the original source or ultimate destination resolution.
<snip>
I believe you're missing my point, which is only that
(a) at 44 kHz the file is not decoded/uncompressed/unfolded — which you repeated here, and I did not say it is incompatible with Android or iOS — and,
(b) after listening carefully to Bob Stuart it is debatable whether each and every file at that unfolded stage is anything special, though some may be, and,
(c) most important — since this was the original topic — in my uninformed opinion there are unlikely to be many users of 16/44.1 devices interested in MQA, which means owners of more powerful devices like the Pioneer XDP plus the relatively small number of Android/iOS users who use external DAC are in total are probably too small a market to interest Tidal in updating their mobile apps for MQA.
OK?