Audio Video News

Unamas, the Japanese hi-res music label run by award-winning recording engineer Mick Sawaguchi will release 10 albums encoded in the MQA format on Friday (July 15).

The catalog recordings—ranging from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, performed by the Unamas String Quintet, to Hiroshi Fukamizu’s Everything for Drums will be available at onkomusic.com for $29 each.

MQA, short for Master Quality Authenticated, is an end-to-end technology that captures and delivers studio-master-quality audio in a file small enough to stream or download. As Bob Stuart, inventor of MQA technology explained in an interview with Sound & Vision, “We’ve examined the fundamentals based on the science of how we hear and we’ve managed to put the actual sound of the real event into a sensible size file.”

In 2015, Sawaguchi first listened to his own Unamas masters encoded in MQA, as he felt this was the best way to properly evaluate MQA’s qualities. “I found that MQA has two major advantages: firstly the excellent results in the time domain which are the key factor in reproducing the timbres of musical instruments; and secondly, the beautiful balance between low transfer rate and high quality sound,” he said. “While we’re blessed with high-speed networks in Japan, this isn’t the case elsewhere in the world, so MQA means music lovers everywhere can enjoy high quality sound with lower bandwidth speeds.”

Bob Stuart, founder of MQA, said, “Mick’s recordings are technically superb and his technique captures the clarity and naturalness of live sound. It is a privilege to bring these superb Unamas recordings fully to life in MQA.”

Reiji Asakura, renowned critic and writer, said, “MQA breathes new life into music! Having personally attended Mick's recording sessions, I can confidently say that listening to the MQA version is like re-living the moment music was created in the studio. It really is amazing how MQA makes Mick's high quality recordings sound even more vivid.”

e-onkyo music’s director, Taku Kurosawa, added, “Mick-san is one of Japan’s leading recording engineers, and listening to these Unamas albums will surely convince you of the ultra-high quality of his recordings. It was inevitable that Mick-san would have a keen interest in MQA, given his eagerness to try any new technical approach to further refine his recordings.”

MQA-enabled players are currently available from Onkyo, Pioneer, NAD, Bluesound, Meridian Audio, and Mytek. More playback partners are expected to be announced in the coming months.

MQA music is currently available at HIGHRESAUDIO, onkyo music, e-onkyo music, 7digital and 2L.

Related:

MQA Update Now Available for Bluesound systems

For more detail on MQA technology and the man behind it, see our interview with Bob Stuart, co-founder of England’s Meridian Group:
“Audio Statesman: Meridian Founder Bob Stuart.”

MQA Inks Global Deal with Warner Music Group

Meridian Announces MQA Firmware Update

MQA Update Now Available for Pioneer and Onkyo Portable Music Players

MQA Announces Partnerships at Munich Show