OPPO Announces Support for MQA

OPPO Announces Support for MQA

​

(OPPO/MQA)(November 27, 2017) Today, OPPO Digital announced a new firmware update that’s adding MQA decoding to the company’s vaunted UPD-205 universal disc player. Specifically designed for high-end audio performance, the UDP-205 (reviewed here) taps the power of two top-flight ESS Sabre Pro ES9038PRO DACs for incredible audio capabilities.

“Delivering reference audio performance has always been the core feature of the OPPO UDP-205 universal player. We are thrilled to work with MQA to incorporate MQA decoding into the player,” said Jason Liao, CTO of OPPO Digital. “Our audiophile customers will enjoy the lifelike and engaging listening experience with the studio master sound quality provided by MQA.”

In simple terms: MQA stands for “Master Quality Authenticated” and is a method of digitally packaging music in a file that’s small and easy to stream or download, without sacrificing sound quality. MQA files can be packaged inside any lossless codecs such as FLAC, WAV, and Apple Lossless, and are designed to avoid time-domain smearing during the digital to analog conversion process. A true MQA decoder is needed to correct time-domain issues.

According to OPPO, the new firmware update will allow owners to identify and decode MQA music files by navigating through the player’s “Music” app. And this is just the first step in OPPO’s support for MQA, as the company is currently working on MQA-CD support as well as adding MQA decoding for the USB DAC and coaxial/optical inputs.

“We are proud to be partners of OPPO and extremely happy that MQA’s technology has been incorporated into the UDP-205 universal disc player,” said MQA Founder & CTO, Bob Stuart. “This is just the start of our cooperation and we’re looking forward to enabling more features on more models across the OPPO range in the future.”

Existing owners of the UDP-205 can update their player via Wi-Fi (if available). The company has also made he update available for direct downloading through their website. For more information, about the UDP-205, visit OPPO on the web.

 

[Tonto]

You can always depend on OPPO for "state of the art!"

 

[Todd Anderson]

Support for their gear is total high class... totally worth the price of entry.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the update. I agree, Oppo is the best.

 

[Robert Zohn]

Todd thanks for this great article and coverage of this breaking news and Bravo to OPPO! My personal favorite BD player brand.

 

[Sonnie]

First I've heard of MQA... so is MQA only available in certain files? I guess I am confused about what it is and how to get it.

 

[Tonto]

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinion/what-is-mqa-meridian-s-digital-audio-format-explained-2932975

https://www.cepro.com/article/meridian_on_new_mqa_lossless_audio_format_artist_authenticated/#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Quality_Authenticated

 

[Sonnie]

You mean I gotta read all that? C'mon man! I need the dumbed down version... no time to read these days.

 

[Tonto]

Short articles, but basically it's software to decode files to CD quality. Muck smaller files so streaming is faster and the software extrapolates it back to CD quality. Tidal uses it as well as others. Already talk of increasing the resolution even more! It's a good thing.

You can download the firmware update form OPPO. Just need an internet connection.

 

[bkeeler10]

Odd that the 103 is not getting it . . . Or so it seems.

 

[Todd Anderson]

The 103 must not have the necessary processor...

 

[Isaac Sykes]

OPPO Announces Support for MQA

​

(OPPO/MQA)(November 27, 2017) Today, OPPO Digital announced a new firmware update that’s adding MQA decoding to the company’s vaunted UPD-205 universal disc player. Specifically designed for high-end audio performance, the UDP-205 (reviewed here) taps the power of two top-flight ESS Sabre Pro ES9038PRO DACs for incredible audio performance.

“Delivering reference audio performance has always been the core feature of the OPPO UDP-205 universal player. We are thrilled to work with MQA to incorporate MQA decoding into the player,” said Jason Liao, CTO of OPPO Digital. “Our audiophile customers will enjoy the lifelike and engaging listening experience with the studio master sound quality provided by MQA.”

In simple terms: MQA stands for “Master Quality Authenticated” and is a method of digitally packaging music in a file that’s small and easy to stream or download, without sacrificing sound quality. MQA files can be packaged inside any lossless codecs such as FLAC, WAV, and Apple Lossless, and are designed to avoid time-domain smearing during the digital to analog conversion process. A true MQA decoder is needed to correct time-domain issues.

According to OPPO, the new firmware update will allow owners to identify and decode MQA music files by navigating through the player’s “Music” app. And this is just the first step in OPPO’s support for MQA, as the company is currently working on MQA-CD support as well as adding MQA decoding for the USB DAC and coaxial/optical inputs.

“We are proud to be partners of OPPO and extremely happy that MQA’s technology has been incorporated into the UDP-205 universal disc player,” said MQA Founder & CTO, Bob Stuart. “This is just the start of our cooperation and we’re looking forward to enabling more features on more models across the OPPO range in the future.”

Existing owners of the UDP-205 can update their player via Wi-Fi (if available). The company has also made he update available for direct downloading through their website. For more information, about the UDP-205, visit OPPO on the web.

 

[Isaac Sykes]

I'm excited about this update, I just hope that they bring back the music streaming services like Tidal, and Pandora to get the most out of the Sabre Dacs and MQA upgrade.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Unfortunately, I think the existence of those apps is a pipe dream... and I agree about the likes of Tidal. Would be nice! OPPO’s decision to shed that kind of support lowers costs and eliminates the need to maintain firmware in that department. My memory is a tad fuzzy on this, but I believe the existence of streaming sticks and apps on processors/AVRs was enough to make it all see too redundant.

Hopefully that will change!

Would be nice to have TIDAL release a USB dongle/add-on, eh?

 

[Flak]

Well, I can't say that everybody is enthusiastic about MQA

http://archimago.blogspot.it/2016/01/measurements-mqa-master-quality.html
http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=35624
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/questions-answers-mqa-interview-andreas-koch/

 

[Flak]

MQA gives you hirez streaming. Prior to MQA you could only purchase hirez files and download them. Tidal calls the MQA files Masters and the Flac files HIFI. It is definitely an upgrade over Flac and I recommend it.

I'm not an expert but I don't know how MQA files can be an upgrade over Flac files...
if not eventually in "weight" for streaming purposes but at first sight it looks like they are'nt significantly better or "ligther" than a common 24/48 or 24/44.1 streaming.
On the other hand I think that royalties will be charged to manufacturers and licensees and this will affect the costs for end users.

 

[Todd Anderson]

It's more about how the file is packed... Hi-Res in the size of a regular file. It can be packed in FLAC.

 

[Isaac Sykes]

Unfortunately, I think the existence of those apps is a pipe dream... and I agree about the likes of Tidal. Would be nice! OPPO’s decision to shed that kind of support lowers costs and eliminates the need to maintain firmware in that department. My memory is a tad fuzzy on this, but I believe the existence of streaming sticks and apps on processors/AVRs was enough to make it all see too redundant.

Hopefully that will change!

Would be nice to have TIDAL release a USB dongle/add-on, eh?

That would be great, I'm upset that TIDAL isn't on ROKU devices. The other problem that I have with TIDAL is that so much of what makes it great is spread across too many platforms. If I want to watch videos, I have to either have my phone or computer because none of the devices that support TIDAL support video playback, yet if I use my phone, I can't do MQA. Sadly, MQA isn't supported on all the platforms that do support TIDAL I'm literally in the process of changing my entire whole home audio eco-system to BluOS from Play-Fi because I want to be able to play MQA files (from TIDAL) throughout my entire home and Play-Fi currently does not support the format :-(
I did, however, reach out to OPPO directly several months ago, and told them that I was disappointed in the removal of the streaming services, and was on the fences about purchasing the UDP-205, as a result. And while I could understand the move in terms of the video streaming, it made no sense to me that they would move the music services, and I was told that they had received similar feedback and that possibly the music services would return. I remain hopeful of this because I did not expect to see MQA come to OPPO sans the Music Streaming Apps, and we see that they have done just that. My final point is that I am of the mindset if my Galaxy 8 can process and support multiple video and music streaming services to include TIDAL, my $1300.00 4K Blu-ray player should be able to as well.