buonassi
Headphoneus Supremus
For me the only reason to deal with MQA is Tidal: It's either 44/16 or MQA. And I've generally found the MQA albums to sound better, as long as it's good recordings. It's not by a huge margin, but just a tad more defined.
I believe this is because Tidal is doing something to their files during the encoding process that adds a layer of DSP into the mix - or just a piss poor FLAC encoding process period. I've done tests on Tidal streams, Qobuz Streams, and CD Rips to FLAC level 7 compression (same albums at 44/16). Tidal was inferior in every example. There's always a slight warmth/bloom to the tidal tracks with less defined treble layering, less pristine somehow.
I almost wonder if this was done on purpose so that MQA would sound immediately better to the average subscriber? Or perhaps they're not allowed to apply the Tidal 'house curve' via DSP, so it sounds less bloomy?
ps. apple has something similar going on as tracks on apple music all have this extra 'something' to make them sizzle a bit more (some sort of compression almost).