Audio Video News

MQA, the U.K.-based company that has developed technology said to capture studio quality audio in a file small enough to stream, announced new partners and MQA-enabled products at the recent Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF).

Astell&Kern pledged its allegiance to MQA by incorporating the technology into its line of portable music players, beginning with its new A&ultima SP1000 ($2,399), slated to ship by the end of October.

Danish speaker maker Dali announced that its EISA Award-winning Callisto series of wireless active speakers now supports MQA with the addition of an optional BluOS plug-in module.

Calgary-based EMM Labs said its recently announced DV2 DSD digital-to-analog converter (DAC) will support MQA when it ships in early 2019, and MQA technology will be baked into Audiolab’s new 8300CDQ DAC, slated for release by the end of October. Krell also announced plans to offer an MQA upgrade for its high-end K-300i integrated stereo amplifier later this year.

Existing MQA supporters also announced plans at RMAF to expand their MQA offerings. NAD’s new D 3045 amp/DAC includes support for MQA and U.K.’s dCS has added MQA integration to its Bartók DAC/headphone amplifier.

Korea’s cocktailAudio introduced several new streaming devices and music servers, all of which support MQA or MQA-CD, and Bel Canto said its forthcoming e.One Stream network streamer will support MQA. Cary Audio’s new DMS-550 and DMS-600 network audio players also incorporate MQA processing.

MQA also conducted live streaming demonstrations at RMAF to showcase its MQA Live technology, which makes it possible to stream live concerts in real time using MQA audio encoding. In one demonstration, a live performance by Zara McFarlane was streamed to audiences in London, New York, and Denver. In another, a performance featuring the Misha Mullov-Abbado Group was streamed live from London to several MQA partner rooms at RMAF in Denver.

MQA is also expanding on the mobile front with the announcement that LG will extend MQA streaming capability across its range of smartphones. Nugs.net, the leader in live music distribution, has also enabled MQA on Android devices so fans can now stream live concerts in MQA quality on iOS and Android devices via the nugs.net app.