MQA Expanding to Car in CES 'Proof of Concept' Demo, Broadens Phone Reach

January 8, 2019 |Hi-Res Audio

MQA added hardware and streaming partners for its Master Quality Authenticated codec, it announced Monday, bringing the technology to the car for the first time and adding partners for the home and mobile environments. At CES, MQA will demonstrate a “proof of concept” with BlackBerry in a Karma Revero electric vehicle, a "natural progression" for the technology, said MQA CEO Mike Jbara. Tidal Masters is now available on all Android smartphones, having previously been available only to LG and Essential smartphone owners. The latest version of the USB Audio Player Pro app has an MQA decoder for Android smartphones available via an in-app purchase. NAD, meanwhile, will unveil at CES a new flagship BluOS-enabled amplifier for NAD Masters with MQA decoding. Ken Forsythe, MQA head-partner development, told us in October the company needs to have more accessible, mainstream product to be able to build out its roster of content partners (see 1810050046).