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).

Firmware updates from Astell&Kern, due Wednesday, will add MQA support for the high-end audio company’s A&ultima SP1000M, A&futura SE100 and A&norma SR15 audio players, it said Tuesday. Owners of the players with Tidal Masters subscriptions will be able to stream thousands of MQA titles after the update, it said.

Qobuz, still beta testing after hoping for an October U.S. debut (see 1810090025), announced pricing Wednesday for its Hi-Res music streaming service but no launch details. “Drop dead” launch date is at CES in January, David Solomon, chief hi-res music evangelist, emailed us earlier this month, saying the delay is “only engineering.” Tiers are $299 per year ($25 monthly) for Sublime+, the full Hi-Res unlimited streaming plan with quality up to 24-bit/192-kHz audio and 40-60 percent discounts on download purchases from the Qobuz store; $199 per year ($20 monthly) for the Hi-Fi offering streaming at 16-bit CD quality; and $99 annually ($10 monthly) for 320 kbps MP3-quality streaming. Qobuz opened its U.S. headquarters in New York and has secured exclusive editorial content and hard-to-find jazz and classical tracks for its catalog, it said. On whether there’s a chance the 11-year-old French streaming audio company with presence in 11 European countries won’t launch in the U.S., Solomon said those chances are “small," and that "it’s looking good.”

Select Pioneer home audio products will get a free firmware update this month enabling playback of Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) files, the company said last week. Products receiving the update in the initial round are NC-50 and NC-50 DAB network audio players with built-in CD player and stereo amplifier and N-70AE and N-50AE network audio players. Pioneer is working with MQA to get playback support on more Onkyo and Pioneer home audio products with availability slated for spring, it said.

Sony bowed technology statement products at the Rocky Mountain Audio Show in Denver Friday. The IER-Z1R headphones, $2,299, are the first in-ear designs in Sony’s Signature Series of premium audio gear. The IER-Z1R has three new Sony-designed drivers: a 5 mm dynamic driver with an aluminum-coated liquid crystal polymer diaphragm and external magnetic circuit for frequencies up to 100 kHz, a 12 mm diaphragm with a magnesium alloy dome and a balanced armature unit, also made from magnesium alloy, which provides lightweight rigidity. The three drivers -- the 5 mm dynamic driver, 12 mm dynamic driver and balanced armature driver unit -- are built into the inner housing, which works as an optimal sound path, said the company, and sound space control technology was applied to control air flow at the rear of the drivers. Sony also unveiled the DMP-Z1 digital music player, calling it “transportable” with a footprint of 11 inches deep by 2.7 inches high and 5.4 inches wide. The DMP-Z1 supports files up to direct-stream digital (DSD) native 11.2 MHz and PCM playback up to 384 kHz/32-bit, which Sony said retains the authentic detail of the original recording. A DSD remastering engine can convert PCM music sources into DSD 5.6 MHz tracks. A vinyl processor is said to recreate the “acoustic phenomenon” of vinyl playback with tone-arm resonance, “tiny surface noise” and “the rich sound from the vibration by acoustic feedback from the speakers to the turntable.” The Z1 has dual micro SD card slots, 256 GB internal storage, USB type-C connections and a Bluetooth receiver, Sony said.

MQA, the British company that licenses the Master Quality Authenticated hi-res audio platform to record labels and hardware manufacturers, answered our questions with few specifics about the financial disclosures in a U.K. government filing that showed its 2017 revenue increased nearly 400 percent to just under $200,000 (see 1809240013). “MQA is a start-up company and we have a clear roadmap to accelerate growth and achieve profitability,” emailed the company. On why it incurred a 2017 operating loss exceeding $9 million on sales of under $200,000, MQA said: “As is frequently the case with early-stage growth companies, the expenses figure noted in the financial statements includes significant non-cash expenses associated with equity issuance to shareholders.”

MQA, the British company that licenses the Master Quality Authenticated hi-res audio platform to record labels and hardware manufacturers, reduced its 2017 operating loss to 7.1 million pounds ($9.3 million) from 8.6 million pounds a year earlier, said a Sept. 13 filing posted at Companies House, the U.K. government’s beta registry website for private companies. MQA drew 149,000 pounds in 2017 licensing revenue, up from 30,000 pounds in 2016. MQA draws its revenue from per-unit royalties it charges for decoders and “renderers” in CE products and on chips, it said. It draws income from revenue-sharing agreements with music retailers, it said. MQA has nondisclosure agreements in place with more than 150 companies globally, and actual signed license agreements with 40, it said. More than 100 MQA-enabled products are available for sale to the public, it said.

Onkyo USA landed exclusive rights to market and distribute Teac home entertainment products in the U.S. and Latin America, said the company Tuesday. Teac-branded products join Onkyo, Pioneer, Pioneer Elite, Integra and Esoteric brands in Onkyo's portfolio. The first Teac products under the agreement are the NR-7CD network CD player/integrated amplifier, NT-505 USB digital-to-analog converter network player and CG-10M master clock generator. The network players support Hi-Res Audio formats and premium streaming services including Tidal, Onkyo said.

Lenbrook announced Thursday the U.S. debut of a wireless floor-standing and bookshelf speaker line dubbed Callisto from Danish speaker company Dali. The active speakers, with Class D amplifiers, connect to the 24-bit/96MHz Dali Sound Hub, equipped with Qualcomm’s aptX HD audio codec, and are upgradeable to Lenbrook’s BluOS platform via an optional module for multiroom audio and music management, said Lenbrook, Dali’s North American distributor since February. Models in the line include the Dali Callisto 6C active bookshelf speakers and 2C tower speakers, which the company priced in a system with the Sound Hub and BluOS module at $4,750 and $5,750. Callisto speakers can connect to up to 64 BluOS-enabled products, Lenbrook said. Jeff Earl, Lenbrook's Dali product manager, said users can play back and stream Hi-Res music files via BluOS from a mobile device or music server. The products, which launched at IFA in September, are made in Denmark, where Dali has operated for 35 years.

Rhino Entertainment will commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Doors' third album, Waiting for the Sun, with the Sept. 14 release of a new version of the album's original stereo mix on CD and vinyl, said the label Tuesday. The CD will be encoded in Master Quality Authentication, playable in its original sample rate when played back on any CD player connected to an MQA device, said Rhino. That’s “in keeping with the band's adoption of cutting-edge technology,” it said, noting that in 1968, The Doors were among the first to use Dolby A301 noise reduction processors.