[adrummingdude]

Wow. That's a pretty big deal.

MQA sounds great, so it's nice to see manufacturers start to adopt, especially at this price point. A nice mid-market solution for those wanting something slotted between Bluesound/NAD and Mytek.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Wow. That's a pretty big deal.

Really... Why?

I fail to understand why we need an audio format from a company who want to give us audio watermarking/copyright protection!

 

[adrummingdude]

Really... Why?

I fail to understand why we need an audio format from a company who want to give us audio watermarking/copyright protection!

Yes, because copyright protection is EXACTLY what I think of while listening to music.

 

[Sevenfeet]

The beta firmware containing the MQA feature has been available for a few weeks. It was promoted to general release yesterday. There's plenty of chatter about it in the Blu Ray player forum.

 

[OzHDHT]

So the update bypasses the 203, no doubt due to the audio-centric capabilities of the 205. Guess the 203 will continue to sit in my equipment rack while I continue to favor my UB900 for all 4K and disc use. I'd probably in hindsight been better off buying the 205 and a least gotten its audio benefits. Not that I used my old 105 much at all that was in another system. In another sense though, I really don't sit in my dedicated HT listening to pure audio, its not a conducive environment for doing that as was my old mixed used entertainment area/HT.

 

[brian6751]

Wow. That's a pretty big deal.

MQA sounds great, so it's nice to see manufacturers start to adopt, especially at this price point. A nice mid-market solution for those wanting something slotted between Bluesound/NAD and Mytek.

The Oppo 205 is $1300. Youre better off just adding a Bluesound Node 2 to what ever you have aleady

 

[Soccerdude]

Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is an audio codec using lossy compression and a form of file fingerprinting, intended for high fidelity digital audio internet streaming and file download. Launched in 2014 by Meridian Audio, it is now owned and licensed by MQA Ltd.

 

[KenM10759]

For a "lossy" compression, it sure sounds great. Better in many cases than the CD I bought.

 

[adrummingdude]

The Oppo 205 is $1300. Youre better off just adding a Bluesound Node 2 to what ever you have aleady

Not really an apples/apples comparison. I currently own two Node 2's, and they cant play a disk, nor can they send a balanced signal. Even though the Node 2's DAC is very decent, I'm willing to bet the Sabre DAC in the OPPO is better.

How exactly would one be better off just adding a Node 2? Seems to me that the OPPO has a much deeper feature set.

 

[brian6751]

Not really an apples/apples comparison. I currently own two Node 2's, and they cant play a disk, nor can they send a balanced signal. Even though the Node 2's DAC is very decent, I'm willing to bet the Sabre DAC in the OPPO is better.

How exactly would one be better off just adding a Node 2? Seems to me that the OPPO has a much deeper feature set.

I'm speaking about adding MQA ability to your setup. The Node 2 makes a lot more sense than the $1300 Oppo unless the Oppo does other things that youre looking for, like you mentioned.

 

[aschen]

Is there native support for Tidal in the Oppos these days?

 

[glangford]

Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is an audio codec using lossy compression and a form of file fingerprinting, intended for high fidelity digital audio internet streaming and file download. Launched in 2014 by Meridian Audio, it is now owned and licensed by MQA Ltd.

So the title 'Master Quality.." in MQA is a bit of a misleading moniker.

 

[Nick V]

Is there native support for Tidal in the Oppos these days?

That's my question exactly. The only reason that MQA appeals to me, is because I'm already a Tidal HiFi subscriber, and there is a lot of free MQA content that comes with that. Without Tidal, I'm not sure that this means a whole lot.

Could you send MQA to the 205 through your laptop with "Passthrough MQA" checked in your Tidal App settings?

 

[john barlow]

Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is an audio codec using lossy compression and a form of file fingerprinting, intended for high fidelity digital audio internet streaming and file download. Launched in 2014 by Meridian Audio, it is now owned and licensed by MQA Ltd.

I have MQA through my tidal account and can use it on up to six devices. If I'm not spinning vinyl, I'm using my Tidal account and the sound is outstanding but, still can't hold it's own against my somewhat modest analog setup.

 

[adrummingdude]

That's my question exactly. The only reason that MQA appeals to me, is because I'm already a Tidal HiFi subscriber, and there is a lot of free MQA content that comes with that. Without Tidal, I'm not sure that this means a whole lot.

Could you send MQA to the 205 through your laptop with "Passthrough MQA" checked in your Tidal App settings?

Same question here.

Even if Tidal's MQA selections are lossy, they are still clearly the best sounding streams available from any of the services, unless I missed something significant being released. The neat thing too is that the Tidal MQA selections often also have 16 bit variants, making it easy to quickly A/B back and forth. The difference is not subtle. So much in fact that I doubt many of the MQA naysayers have actually heard MQA properly. Instead they're too busy reading opinions on why its not good.

Yeah, I get it, it's no 1,000,000khz Uber DSD, but files like that are enormous. We're talking about streaming to the masses here.

 

[Mr.SoftDome]

These articles are always not clear to me and perhaps I’m just a dummy but I take it this is the first unfold and not the complete unwrap that relies on a certified DAC.

I have a 205 but I also have another streaming device where I get the initial unfold so I’ll just stick to my music server. The first unwrap does sound good though to my ears.

Rick

 

[rickcfer]

In the Oppo 205 thread Bob Pariseau states "MQA support is currently only for Media Files. I.e., the stuff you play via the Music icon on Home Menu." So no Tidal MQA unfolding here.But.......he also states

"However, OPPO has now stated they are working on:

1) Support for MQA-CD

2) Support for MQA playback into the Asynchronous DAC Input, and

3) Support for MQA playback into the Optical / Coax Inputs

No time frame has yet been announced.

Is there more? We'll just have to wait and see!"
--Bob

The guy is awesome!!!!!!

 

[jdoostil]

Is there native support for Tidal in the Oppos these days?

Yep!

 

[oneartist]

I'm speaking about adding MQA ability to your setup. The Node 2 makes a lot more sense than the $1300 Oppo unless the Oppo does other things that youre looking for, like you mentioned.

Yes, there are lower priced options for MQA but the DAC's are not in this league. Before this dramatic announcement you had to spend big bucks to get MQA processing with the very best DAC's. I know, I not only have the 205 but I recently bought a PS Audio DirectStream w/bridgeII mainly for MQA stereo streaming. I made a suggestion to Oppo earlier this year that if they added MQA processing they would have a unique product that is unmatched anywhere. They did it! I guess I'm now in a position to do some AB listening test.