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.

High-end audio company dCS announced a customized solution for incorporating MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) in its digital to analog converters (DACs), said the company Wednesday. Conventional MQA decoders include a renderer that’s customized for built-in DACs, but dCS reconstructs analog music from the digital stream using specific software and discrete hardware, it said. The solution is modeled on music reconstruction that uses oversampling, filtering and high-speed conversion, it said. Teams from dCS and MQA were in discussion, development and testing of the solution for nearly a year, said David Steven, managing director, dCS. MQA Chief Technology Officer Bob Stuart called the implementation “unique,” and one that provides “exact rendering to beyond 16x (768 kHz),” matching the desired temporal response “with very low modulation noise.” The solution will be available via a software update for owners of the dCS Rossini, Vivaldi One, Network Bridge and Upsampler, said dCS.

Onkyo Music announced exclusive agreements for hi-res music with three Japanese music labels, saying content will be available in the U.S. later. The agreements with F.I.X. Records, Mages and Falcom bring Onkyo Music’s MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) library to more than 16,000 tracks, it said. It also announced a nonexclusive distribution agreement with European label Lantis.

MQA announced Monday an agreement with Deezer to integrate its Master Quality Authenticated codec into the music streaming company’s platform and hardware ecosystem. The announcement follows several MQA announcements at IFA. MQA will be incorporated in a smartphone, LG’s new V30, for the first time globally, and Sony’s latest Walkman portable music players, the WM-ZX300 and WM-A40, can play back downloaded MQA music, it said. Korean hi-res streaming music service Groovers said it's working on MQA mobile and desktop implementation for a platform due to launch by year end, and business-to-business digital music solutions provider 7digital said it will use MQA in its upcoming hi-res streaming service.

Rotel bowed the 15 Series of audio components, touting the line’s integration of analog design with digital circuitry. The RA-1572 integrated amplifier ($1,699) has a high-capacity toroidal power supply and a 32-bit-768 kHz AKM digital-to-analog converter (DAC) capable of supporting direct stream digital (DSD) sources, it said. Features include photo input, front-panel USB input, Bluetooth aptX support, RCA and optical inputs and balanced XLR connectors, Rotel said. The RC-1572 preamplifier ($1,099) has two coax and two optical digital inputs supporting up to 24-bit/192 kHz audio, including DSD, and a rear PC-USB input for digital sources up to 32-bit-384 kHz resolution, it said. The $899 RCD-1572 CD player has a Wolfson WM8740 digital filter-stereo DAC that processes signals up to 24 bits at sampling rates from 8 kHz to 192 kHz, said the company.

Black Sabbath will bow The Ten Year War, a limited-edition boxed set with Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) versions of the first eight Black Sabbath albums, it said in a Thursday announcement. Release date is Sept. 29. As of Thursday, preorders weren’t available for the U.S. market.

Qualcomm bowed hi-res audio amplifier technology that’s said to bring higher fidelity sound to products using class D amplifiers. In a Tuesday announcement before a voice and music developer conference in Shenzhen, China, Qualcomm said its direct digital feedback amplifier (DDFA) technology, available on the CSRA6620 SoC, has an all-digital pulse width modulator and patented closed-loop architecture to compensate for nonlinearities of power supplies and output stages so it can deliver high fidelity audio and design flexibility along with the power efficiency benefit of class D amplifiers. Denon chose DDFA technology for its “high level of performance,” said Sound Manager Shinichi Yamauchi. The SoC, which supports 384 kHz and DSD 64/128 inputs, has a DDFA controller, eight-channel inputs, two-channel outputs, a microcontroller and configurable audio processor, Qualcomm said. Applications include wireless speakers, sound bars, networked audio and headphone amplifiers.

Onkyo announced availability of the DP-X1A ($799) and DP-S1 ($449) digital audio players. Audiophile-grade components of the DP-X1A include a conductive polymer capacitor that absorbs noise on high clock rates and a discrete thin-film resistor said to improve stability for balanced and unbalanced outputs. The Android-based player is compatible with Google Play and includes a dual ESS Sabre digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and amplifier supporting hi-res audio formats up to Direct Stream Digital (DSD) 11.2 MHz, 384 kHz/24-bit FLAC/WAV audio files. It's ready to stream with Wi-Fi Direct and hi-res Bluetooth via aptX/SBC, said Onkyo. Internal 64 GB storage is expandable to 512 GB via two microSD slots. The compact DP-S1, made from a single block of aluminum for better rigidity and signal quality, uses a proprietary operating system that Onkyo says can “dual clock” 44.1 kHz/48 kHz for native support of DSD 5.6 MHz/32-bit FLAC/WAV files. Additional features are dual ESS SABRE DACs and headphone amps, a 3.5mm unbalanced headphone jack and a 2.5 mm four-pole balanced jack. The player can upsample up to 192 kHz to improve compressed and streaming audio quality, said the company. The DP-S1’s 16GB of internal storage can be expanded to 512 GB via two microSD card slots.

Global digital rights agency Merlin announced support Monday for MQA, enabling independent music labels to encode master recordings in MQA technology. The multiyear partnership is expected to boost the uptake and growth of MQA streaming, they said. MQA is currently available from streaming music service Tidal and is supported on the hardware side by Pioneer, Technics, Onkyo, Bluesound, NAD, Meridian, Mytek, Kripton, Brinkmann, Aurender, Cary Audio and MSB. Merlin acts on behalf of thousands of independent record labels and distributors in 50 countries. In addition, audio module and software company StreamUnlimited announced a partnership with MQA, saying the hi-res audio format offers music services, hardware companies and record labels "the opportunity to close the gap between the consumer listening experience and the recording studio." ​

MQA announced at High End Munich 2017 Thursday new hardware and integration partners. Hardware adds are from AudioQuest, CanEver Audio, dCS, Esoteric, IAG, Krell, Lumin, Mark Levinson, Moon by Simaudio, Pro-Ject Audio Systems, Teac and Wadax, said the company. Audiolab and Quad said they plan to launch several MQA-enabled products in their 8300 and Artera lines. AudioQuest will release a free firmware update May 17 to make its DragonFly Black and DragonFly Red portable USB digital-to-analog converters MQA-compatible, it said. StreamUnlimited is implementing MQA into its modular software solution, StreamSDK, and Conversdigital are integrating MQA in their mconnect module, said the companies. Sonic Studio is working with MQA to bring support of the technology to its Amarra 4 Luxe media player, it said.