MQA GOES INTO ADMINISTRATION—BUT WHAT DOES ITS FUTURE LOOK LIKE?
Jim Austin
MQA critics were gleeful when the news broke that the company’s South Africa–based main investor was looking for an exit. MQA would be going into “Administration,” the UK version of what we in the US call Chapter 11. The analogy to US law may not be precise, but in the US, Chapter 11 occurs when a company is unable to process its debts. The debtor typically remains in control of its business operations, subject to the oversight and jurisdiction of the court. Typically, the parties in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy seek a reorganization plan that, if agreed upon by the parties and the court, allows the business to continue as a viable concern.
In case you haven’t kept up: MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) is a technology for disseminating digital audio, mainly music. It does two things: First, it reduces file size via a technology called “Audio Origami,” or, more recently, “Music Origami.” Second, it manages timing imprecision in music data—a phenomenon induced by multiple digital conversions that MQA calls “blurring”—by specially encoding the data prior to transmission (as in music streaming, for example, but also encoding music files for download or for burning to CD), using a splines-based kernel in place of the traditional sinc function, then reversing the process in the MQA-enabled receiving device. The gain in timing precision is said to improve the sound.
But does it? That’s a key question, answered variously by various audio writers. Stereophile has remained agnostic about MQA—I have written several articles about it that have pointed out plusses and minuses1—as writers staked out positions for or against.
In the wider world, MQA proved controversial. It attracted legions of online critics, on social media and in blogs. It was a mix of legitimate criticism (about the technology and the business model) and intense vitriol.
Over time, MQA has gained a foothold. Tidal, the streaming service, embraced MQA as its medium for delivery of hi-rez music. (Critics have questioned whether music delivered with MQA was truly hirez.) Many DACs are now MQA-enabled. Major and independent labels—seemingly an ever-increasing number—are issuing music in MQA, as audio files
