My experience in the audiophile world

I was a Red Book fan with a lot of ripped CDs and believed that 44.1 kHz is all we need because the distortion and other artifacts of the digital processes are above 20 kHz when the adult human hearing limit is even less than 18 kHz. After deep diving into MQA and listening tests, I've become a fan of this codec...

If I could explain briefly, that lossless that we were listening to, is not truly lossless because there are many circumstances and people between you and the file that make it hard for the file to remain lossless after all of those processes. MQA takes control over this process and delivers true lossless to your ears.

Many audiophiles are retrogrades who are stuck in the 70's-80's and don't want to accept the new information. For example, even Amir from ASR by comparing MQA vs CD vs Hi-Res does his review with an undecoded MQA file and finds out a noise added to the audible range (that is not audible, but anyway). He knows, I'm sure, that MQA never comes to the listener on 44.1 or 48 kHz. Of course, after the core decoder it'll be 88.2 or 96 kHz, and all of that "noise" (that is decoder information) will go far away from the hearing area. And it's just when using only a software unfolding (core decoder) without a full decoding or MQA-enabled renderer DACs. That's why Bob Stuart always says that even without an MQA-enabled DAC it'll be "better than CD" quality.

I can go on with such staff but don't have a goal to convince someone because I've already made my choice after a long time researching and my own experience: I've listened only to Hi-Res for a couple of months, then I started to listen to the same releases on MQA and realized that music sounds a little "faster" and "livelier" as I switched from 720p video to 1080p or from a phone with display refresh rate 40 Hz to 90 Hz or above.

After that, I thought I finally felt the deblurring effect by myself. Before that, I was skeptical about the statements of the codec developers and thought their words were marketing.

But now, after some more testing and listening experience, I decided to switch back to "original first" principles: no matter in what resolution it was released — Hi-Res, CD, or DSD — and what was the quality of the recording, I prefer that file recorded and listened to by creators.