So right here we’re, 4 and a few months on from when Grasp High quality Authenticated (MQA) Ltd introduced it was going into administration and is searching for a purchaser, and we’re but to listen to any additional information.
And to be honest, on the earth of firm acquisitions, that’s not altogether uncommon. However that hasn’t stopped myself and among the different staff members of What Hello-Fi? flapping our gums and questioning which firm will, and even ought to, purchase MQA Ltd. In that point, one title has persistently come up – Apple.
Earlier than the troll hordes descend and I get mobbed within the feedback part of this text for daring to recommend such a factor (we all know a vocal variety of readers don’t see the purpose of MQA), I do have a great purpose for this sentiment.
To make clear, I don’t suppose Apple should purchase the corporate due to MQA’s present streaming expertise, which as our technical editor Ketan Bharadia identified, would not add a lot in any respect to the iPhone maker’s present providing.
For folks questioning what MQA isthe (very) quick model is that it’s a expertise designed to facilitate hi-res wi-fi audio streaming on suitable {hardware}. The most typical place you’ll see it’s on music streaming service Tidal, which helps MQA-CD on its greater subscription tier. Apple already has the same answer within the form of the Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC).
As a substitute, I feel Apple should purchase MQA Ltd, or no less than a part of it, to get a gem that’s nonetheless in improvement – SCL6.
MQA Ltd’s SLC-6 might plug a gap
To catch you up, this can be a new expertise Ketan and our deputy editor, Andy Madden, acquired to listen to in a demo earlier this 12 months. Initially often known as MQair, it’s the sixth technology of scalable code that MQA has developed, therefore the title.
It was being pitched as a next-generation and fewer lossy rival to the likes of the aptX HD and LDAC Bluetooth codecs, that are at the moment the vogue options to stream high-quality wi-fi music between a supply and receiver.
Why do I feel Apple should purchase the tech regardless of it not being completed? Nicely, there are just a few causes.
First, as a result of it might plug a spot in Apple’s portfolio. Apple’s ALAC doesn’t work on AirPods. As a substitute, they depend on Apple’s AAC, which in our expertise is pretty lossy and never as top quality as aptX or LDAC. We’ve famous time and time once more, together with in our critiques of the AirPods Professional 2, HomePod 2 and AirPods Max (the place higher-quality wi-fi transmission could be most useful in Apple’s {hardware} lineup), how a lot of a bizarre gap this places in Apple’s in any other case glorious hi-fi providing.
As you’ll see in our methods to play hi-res lossles audio on an iPhone information, the outlet is a key purpose you want additional {hardware}, like Apple’s Lightning-to-USB adapter and an exterior DAC, to get one of the best hi-res expertise from a telephone and headphones. Such a wired set-up would nonetheless doubtless supply the best possible hi-res sound even when higher wi-fi transmission was on the menu, however a cable- and further hardware-free possibility to supply one of the best mixture of high quality and comfort could be most welcome.
And, primarily based on our time testing a improvement model of SCL6, MQA’s codec might supply simply that. It’s because it’s been designed to work with just about each file sort below the solar and scale, primarily based on the energy and high quality of the connection it is operating on.
At our demo we first-hand the codec react to the standard of the hyperlink between the sending gadget and the receiver, operating at a lossy 200kbps earlier than scaling to a lossless 20Mbps when the bandwidth elevated. The outcomes have been so spectacular our deputy ed went as far as to conclude in his SCL6 hands-on:
“Listening to the quantity of knowledge some codecs throw away as a result of compression was a little bit of an eye-opener, as was the demo of the codec’s scalability – the variety of steps it was in a position to undergo was very spectacular, as was its obvious potential to keep up the essence and authenticity of the unique on the lowest knowledge charges.
“It’s an attention-grabbing, thought-provoking expertise that would have a big effect on wi-fi audio – all we want now are suitable sources and receivers so we are able to take it for a spin!”
Apple might run with it
The second purpose I feel this is smart is that if any firm on the earth could make a brand new expertise mainstream, fixing Andy’s ultimate level about SCL6, it’s Apple.
Apple controls its complete ecosystem in a method no different firm does. From the solder utilized in its motherboards all the way down to the software program operating its iPhones, all the way in which as much as the way it tunes its HomePods’ sound, Apple is the puppet grasp behind each side of its services and products portfolio. So if it needed to deploy SCL6 holistically, it might.
On high of that, as one of many largest tech corporations on the earth, if it chooses to push or undertake a brand new expertise, it’s going for use by a big proportion of the inhabitants pretty quick. Simply have a look at iPhones. Counterpoint’s newest telephone gross sales knowledge suggests almost one in 5 folks personal an iPhone, so if Apple adopted it, hordes of individuals would have entry to SCL6 pretty quick.
The third and ultimate purpose I feel the transfer is smart is that proof suggests Apple’s {hardware} is already in a great place to benefit from SCL6 and assist the tech overcome its largest shortcoming. Particularly, {that a}) it is not completed, and b) SCL6 doesn’t at the moment assist lossless high-res audio with Bluetooth, regardless of hints that can finally.
Jez Ford from our sister publication down below, Sound & Imaginative and prescientpenned an important piece explaining that, because it stands, no model of Bluetooth is able to assist true lossless hi-res audio. That is why, even with its scalability powers, SCL6 doesn’t, even in take a look at, work over Bluetooth connections in hello res.
Nonetheless, Bluetooth apart, SLC6 theoretically would work on Extremely Vast Band (UWB) – a wi-fi answer at the moment supported on most trendy iPhones. In principle, UWB has the bandwidth and low power consumption ranges required to get wi-fi, lossless, hi-res audio working. This explains why the piece was titled, “Is UWB the subsequent Bluetooth?”
One of many fundamental causes it hasn’t appeared on headphones is because of a phenomenon known as physique blocking which may trigger sign interference and dropouts when UWB is applied because the connection customary for issues like telephones and headphones.
However, as famous by Jez, there are quite a few UWB antenna options within the works, together with some from AntennaWare (which employs Jonny McClintock, one of many Godfathers of aptX Bluetooth) that goals to get round this downside.
With this in thoughts, and contemplating Apple already makes use of the tech on trendy iPhones, I can’t assist however imagine that now could be the proper time for Apple to snap up SCL6 and cleared the path for true lossless, hi-res, wi-fi audio. Even when it doesn’t, SCL6 would nonetheless be an enormous boon for its residence listening providing over wi-fi, primarily based on our early listening session.
And that’s why I feel Apple is in a chief place to purchase MQA and use its next-generation codec to take its hi-fi sound to the subsequent degree.
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