Question for iFi (AMR) or Someone familiar with uselessness

[Caveman Carl]

Dear iFi Audio people,

I just read this most fascinating article on your website. It pertained to the "GTO Filter" which, as you hopefully know, is an option on your MQA decoder's firmware. The article states that this GTO filter eliminates artifacts that the human ear cannot perceive. Unfortunately, the wording of the article is such that it isn't clear to me if by "cannot perceive" you meant cannot perceive the artefacts or cannot perceive the filter. Not that I think the matter is of utmost importance, but being curious by nature I just have to ask: what is a filter designed to fix something the human ear cannot perceive supposed to accomplish exactly? If I can't hear it why do I need to be rid of it? I won't be able to tell the difference if I use your filter and I won't be able to tell the difference if I don't

EDIT: Never mind, this filter made the stack sound bad and the DAC's LED go berserk so I removed it and reinstalled the MQA decoder driver sans GTO and everything is back to normal. Please don't do this again.

 

[JoeESP9]

There are plenty of folks who think MP3 files reproduce all the music. We know this isn't true. A lot of the reduced audio quality depends on what music and how you listen to it.

Like many others on AK I haven't bought into the MQA thing and have no intention of ever doing so. If I want higher resolution files or higher resolution streaming, I'll go with 48KHz, 88KHz, 96KHz and higher for it.

IMO, MQA solves a problem that doesn't exist now that high speed internet is available for most everyone. MP3 files are no longer needed now that storage space is cheap (1TB HDD <$60).

I stream and have a local library of 20K+ FLAC files. FLAC files decompress to be bit perfect to the original. This is something MQA doesn't do.

FWIW: I have "ripped" very few of my 1K+ LP collection. Those that I have ripped were all done at 48KHz to FLAC. All of my CD's have been ripped to FLAC.

 

[Caveman Carl]

There are plenty of folks who think MP3 files reproduce all the music. We know this isn't true.

Is it me or do even lowly AAC files often sound better than MP3's. My personal theory is that MP3 is just decompressed enough to reveal the weakest aspects of many recordings while not enough to reproduce the brilliance of execution down to the very texture timbre of the tiniest triangle being ever so softrly brushed with a metal toothpick coated in rabbit fur. Let's hear it for 192000/32 (or 24), I don't have that many files above that resolution and those that I do are reserved for my Moon By Sim 430 HAD powerplant because they demand so much power that the more modest iFi CAN (Sig or not Sig, it's the same amp anway) can provide without running so hot I could probably light my cigraillo off it. Vorbis files and other alien-sounding formats and a few finicky WAW's sound bad on the iFi so they are sent to "Boss Sim". But there are files that the iFi plays better than the Moon unit so $5K amp DAC's are not end-game, far from it. But what they can do, and they can do a lot, they do so brilliantly it almost throwns me to the floor sometimes and I never regretted the expense, it's a piece of art.

All this seemingly unrelated intro relates to MQA however, and how I suspect midrange units like the iFi ZEN series and others from competitors are feeding the hype. I think they're purposefully doing something to the non-MQA filter (the 740b) to make it sound less than optimal compared with MQA on. I believe I can say this because my 430 HAD has MQA and I trust a company like perfectionist Simaudio wouldn't engage in shenanigans meant to sell more of of their state-of-the art units since they give MQA away in the form of a free firmware upgrade. Simaudio claims that they designed the most neutral MQA filter that is not dedicated hardware. I believe them because their filter only works on songs where MQA was actually used in studio, while iFi and Schitt, and Cayin even, seem to apply this filter on every damn file once installed which, because of my perceived degrading (it could be my imagination) of performance under filter 740B, sort of forces me to opt out of flat for MQA aka firmware filter 740. Makes me feel iffy. MQA is being touted as 21st century's Dolby but I doubt most people will be better at using it than they were with using Dolby in odd mode (playing instead of recording, that ruined many parties way back when, talk about putting a muffler on a speaker.).

A lot of the reduced audio quality depends on what music and how you listen to it.

Can't argue with that. Setting up a parametric EQ can do miracles but it's a PITA of a tedious ordeal. Accidentally deleting presets is traumitizing. That said, it's worth it.



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Like many others on AK I haven't bought into the MQA thing and have no intention of ever doing so. If I want higher resolution files or higher resolution streaming, I'll go with 48KHz, 88KHz, 96KHz and higher for it

I felt that way too. It's just that now I feel forced of using it. But like I said it could just be me. Ideally the MQA filter 740 should be selective and activate automatically upon encountering the MQA header and then back to baseline. It'd be much better than filtering all the songs just to benefit a few.

IMO, MQA solves a problem that doesn't exist now that high speed internet is available for most everyone. MP3 files are no longer needed now that storage space is cheap (1TB HDD <$60).

One thing I can tell you is that even if I had 1,000 Tb's I would still have no room for MP3's

I stream and have a local library of 20K+ FLAC files. FLAC files decompress to be bit perfect to the original. This is something MQA doesn't do.

The great majority of Files I have are FLAC's 48's and 96's not upsampled. I got a few 41's but their SQ varies widely. Some sound great others with bitrate under 1k more like MP3's... which they very welll may be, read upsampled.