QRONO by MQA Labs Is Ready for Prime Time, Here's What You Need to Know

(November 19, 2024) One year after Lenbrook Media Group acquired MQA’s intellectual property and key personnel, the newly formed MQA Labs is unveiling two significant advancements within its QRONO product line. These technologies, QRONO dsd and QRONO d2a, will debut this month in Bluesound’s latest streamer, the Node Icon, and represent Lenbrook’s vision of refining the entire audio playback chain.

The QRONO platform was first introduced as part of Lenbrook’s strategy to harness MQA’s expertise in time-domain audio processing. As Greg Stidsen, Lenbrook’s Chief Technology Officer, highlighted during the acquisition, the platform addresses imperfections like time smearing—an issue that reduces the resolution of audio signals by misaligning their timing. With QRONO dsd and QRONO d2a, MQA Labs is doubling down on this mission, offering solutions designed to preserve time-domain accuracy and improve digital-to-analog conversion.

“The problems introduced by traditional digital audio filters are well understood, and QRONO is the platform that offers solutions for our hardware partners and licensees,” says Al Wood, Director of Engineering at MQA Labs. The QRONO dsd converter sets a new standard in DSD-to-PCM conversion, designed to retain the nuanced timing details of recordings while handling conversion with minimal signal manipulation. Meanwhile, QRONO d2a optimizes the performance of any DAC chip by applying advanced filters and noise shapers, ultimately enhancing impulse response and audio transparency.

This technical precision isn’t just about engineering—it translates into an audible improvement that MQA Labs claims rivals the performance of the best analog systems. “Human hearing is much more precise than previously understood, particularly when listening for fine detail,” adds Andy Dowell, MQA Labs’ Director of Business Development. He emphasizes that QRONO technologies elevate digital playback, delivering what he calls "next-level" performance in the Node Icon streamer.

Bluesound’s Node Icon, the first product to integrate QRONO, reflects the collaborative potential of Lenbrook Media Group’s brands. The streamer leverages QRONO dsd and d2a to deliver high-fidelity sound while maintaining the Node family’s hallmark user-friendly design and robust streaming capabilities. For music enthusiasts, the Node Icon represents the next step in accessible HiFi, offering cutting-edge performance without veering into hyper-specialized territory.

QRONO technologies also mark a broader ambition for Lenbrook Media Group. Following the acquisition of MQA, Lenbrook CEO Gordon Simmonds emphasized that the company’s vision extended beyond a single codec. This announcement reinforces that claim, showcasing Lenbrook’s commitment to advancing audio processing at every stage—recording, distribution, and playback. With the Node Icon’s release, QRONO’s capabilities are no longer just a concept but a tangible improvement for listeners.

MQA Labs will demonstrate QRONO at CES, NAMM, and ISE, offering attendees a chance to experience the technology firsthand. As part of Lenbrook’s growing portfolio, QRONO signals a clear intention to not only keep pace with but lead in HiFi innovation.

For additional background on Lenbrook’s acquisition of MQA and the origins of QRONO, you can explore our previous coverage below.


Related Reading:

• TIDAL Boots MQA and 360 Reality Audio to the Curb, Embraces FLAC and Atmos
• Lenbrook's MQA Labs to Roll Out AIRIA, FOQUS, and QRONO by the End of 2025
• Lenbrook Creates Lenbrook Media Group to Commercialize BluOS, MQA, and SCL6 Across the Hi-Res Landscape
• For Better or For Worse, MQA Survives Through Lenbrook Acquisition

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I'm sure this will get interesting... one way or another.

 

[GoldenSound]

All I can do is sigh....

 

[ddude003]

Really? Just stick a fork in it...

 

[Todd Anderson]

Will Lenbrook ever shake the sour taste left by MQA’s controversy?

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Will Lenbrook ever shake the sour taste left by MQA’s controversy?

That might be the MQA question of the decade there.

 

[GoldenSound]

Will Lenbrook ever shake the sour taste left by MQA’s controversy?

I doubt it unless they were to significantly change how the product works (at which point they'd be better off launching it as a new product rather than attaching it to a name with questionable history).
The issue is that it seems from everything that's been shown so far that the new 'Qrono' and other products are literally just specific bits of existing MQA given their own names.

"AIRIA" is just the SCL6 codec renamed
"FOQUS" is just the MQA encoder renamed
"QRONO" is just the existing MQA decoder/renderer renamed.

They're relaunching the product, but it's the same product. The only bit that is seemingly different is this quote from an earlier press release:

1. “AIRIA, FOQUS, and QRONO are independent of the original MQA codec, meaning that they neither require nor result in MQA encoded files”
2. “the MQA codec will continue as a product family within the MQA Labs portfolio”

This suggests that the new stuff will use different flagging/signalling to MQA, and so may not work on existing MQA devices, and MQA content may not work on newer 'QRONO' products. (Though I would be very surprised if they didn't make it backwards compatible). But this is a simple change to flagging, likely just for licensing agreement reasons, not a change in core operation or processing.

What they've not said is how these three 'new' products are in any way actually different to the three components of MQA, and they're just repeating the same claims about time smearing etc without any sensible objective proof of validity, so it seems like things are not really changing.

 

[GoldenSound]

As to DSD to PCM conversion, this isn't exactly new. And the info (and graphs) they've provided show nothing of value since there's no context to what they're comparing to.

Plenty of devices have done DSD to PCM conversion, most modern DACs can do it internally, companies like AKM sell specific chips that do it on the fly too and are used in various DDCs such as the Mutec MC3+ for instance.

 

[ddude003]

This scam stuff just won't die... GoldenSound the Vampire Hunter... Maybe Neil Young has a wooden stake...

Even my 5 year old Lumin streamer does DSD to PCM conversion... My Audirvana software player does DSD to PCM and vice versa on the fly... Roon too...