processed flac destroy mqa

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oldrocker
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:24 pm

processed flac destroy mqa

Post by oldrocker »

Hi
I bought and downloaded an album from a HiRes portal.
The files are encoded in FLAC format and MQA. The resolution is 16 44,1.
I now wanted to have the files upsampled with Xrecode3 to FLAC 24 96,
but had to find out that this destroyed the MQA coding.
Is this system-dependent or is there a possibility to edit
of the files to keep the MQA encoding anyway?

Best regards
oldrocker
admin
Site Admin
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Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 12:56 pm

Re: processed flac destroy mqa

Post by admin »

I'm not really familiar with the MQA, but from what I've read, the players somehow detect the MQA stream. What happens when you just convert the MQA flac to flac without resampling? Is that file still detected as MQA?
oldrocker
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:24 pm

Re: processed flac destroy mqa

Post by oldrocker »

Hi
Thank you very much for your quick response.
I give up the project. As soon as I edit the flac files somehow,
MQA is gone. This is probably what the manufacturer wanted.
For listening, high-resolution flacs are better than lossy flacs anyway
MQA files, but vice versa for downloading.
So you don't need to bother any further and thanks again.

Best regards
oldrocker
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 964
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 12:56 pm

Re: processed flac destroy mqa

Post by admin »

If possible, could you please send one such flac file to me at xrecode@gmail.com (you could use https://wetransfer.com). I'm curious myself on how that info is stored in the file.
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 964
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 12:56 pm

Re: processed flac destroy mqa

Post by admin »

Just to summary:
I converted the original .flac file to flac as is, i.e. to 44Khz, 16bit.
The output file was smaller, but when compared the actual audio, both were totally identical.
So I guess the original file has some info, which is only used by the MQA players and is lost when converting the file.
oldrocker
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:24 pm

Re: processed flac destroy mqa

Post by oldrocker »

Thanks a lot
I don't think we consumers should be able to do that either,
unless the programmers at Xrecode invent a switch that
MQA coding not affected during conversion.
I thank you for your efforts and wish you all the best

oldrocker
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