Audio Video News

MQA Ltd. expects a “record number” of demonstrations of its Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) audio-encoding and MQA Live technologies to take place at the High End Munich trade fair that opens Thursday in Germany.

MQA Live, which launched in March, will be showcased in a live stream from the London-based jazz ensemble Misha Mullov-Abbado Group. The performance will be streamed in real-time from The Pool recording studio in London on Friday and available for listening in a dozen MQA partner rooms around the show.

New and recent announcements around the original MQA technology, which effectively “folds” a high-resolution master recording into a file small enough to be easily streamed or downloaded, include:

• Two well-established audio companies — Norway’s Hegel Music System and Denmark’s Lyngdorf Audio — will introduce their first MQA products. While no specifics were offered by Lyngdorf, Hegel said its new H590 amplifier will incorporate MQA processing.

• LG has included MQA decoding in the new G7 ThinQ smartphone, its second phone to feature the technology.

• ESS Technology will launch MQA-equipped versions of its popular SABRE digital-to-audio converters and headphone systems, which it says will make it easier to implement MQA across a variety of applications.

• HiBy and Novatron (with its CocktailAudio & Novafidelity brands) will officially join the MQA family in Munich.

• Recently announced MQA partners, Hontron (PureAudio), M2Tech, and Metrum Acoustics have released new MQA-ready products and components.

Existing MQA partners are also continuing to implement MQA technology across their product lines:

• Aurender has a software update that makes MQA decoding available in most of its products.

• Brinkmann Audio has a new Mark II version of its MQA-enabled Nyquist streaming DAC/headphone amplifier.

• iFi is extending MQA rendering capability across its portable DAC range, including the newly released xDSD.

• Lumin’s entire product line is now MQA-ready with the 10.2 firmware update.

• Simaudio recently launched the MQA-enabled 390 DAC and network streamer and plans to unveil other MQA-capable products.

• Pioneer & Onkyo, Esoteric, and Teac will continue to roll out new MQA-enabled network players and other products.

• Roon recently launched Version 1.5 MQA integration for its multiroom networked audio platform.

In other MQA news, Audirvana is putting the finishing touches on a new Windows 10 version of Audirvana Plus, the MQA-enabled Amarra Play app from Amarra is due to hit the App Store soon, and Onkyo Music continues to expand its range of MQA music with a spotlight on artists from Warner Classics and Erato, and a celebration of Debussy’s music in the centenary year of the great composer’s passing.

MQA is also bringing innovation to the CD format. Recent MQA CD releases include Steve Reich’s Pulse/Quartet and a remastered MQA version of Norway’s legendary Fairytales recording. Universal Music of Japan plans to release 100 MQA-encoded CDs in June.

For more information on MQA, visit mqa.uk.