Forthcoming Moore Boxed Set Features Portions Encoded in MQA Hi-Res Audio

BMG plans a Nov. 24 release of a four-CD boxed set of music from rock and blues guitarist Gary Moore, who died in 2011. Portions of the Moore set are encoded in Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) hi-res audio, but BMG is playing the MQA connection in much lower key than it did in July when it publicized the limited-edition boxed set of the first eight Black Sabbath albums (see 1707190031). There was no official MQA presence at the Moore launch event Wednesday at Gibson Studios in central London, nor was there mention of MQA during an hourlong Q&A on Moore’s life and music with his guitar technician Graham Lilley and biographer Harry Shapiro. The music for only one of the four Moore CDs, that of a previously unreleased live concert from 2000, is MQA-encoded, and this will be available in MQA only by streaming the content in the free lossless audio codec from Tidal or downloading it from Onkyo Music, BMG said. The boxed set of discs has no MQA content, it said. We’re told the main advantage of using MQA for the natively rough sound was to reduce the content’s streaming bandwidth. The live concert was recorded at 44.1 kHz/24 bits, and was remixed and remastered in MQA to bring the streaming data rate down to around 800 kbps -- instead of around 2.1 Mbps native, we’re told.