According to what I read online, yes, Mytek did in fact submit the DAC’s
for approval, or measurement or whatever. I’m not sure how it works, or
what exactly they must measure. It sounds like a pain in the butt
honestly. I doubt every applicant has the same or appropriate
measurement devices, so this must mean that Mytek has to submit the DAC
somehow, get Meridian to measure it, and provide refreshed code or
coefficients, have those implemented, and re-measure. What a mess.
I'm not sure how this measurement thing goes back-forth between the OEM & Meridian but it certainly has the connotation of "one filter to rule them all" & I am certain that no OEM wants to be under Meridian's thumb no matter how brilliant their idea. It certainly exudes the feeling of Meridian is in judgement's chair while all the other "lowly" OEMs submit their designs to Meridian for (the master's) approval. This can be demeaning - which is the vibe I got off Schitt's website (I'm not going to manuf my devices & have Meridian tell me what I can & cannot do!)
But there are many smaller OEMs that could benefit from this in that they could use MQA-compatibility as a marketing tool to get better sales. We've seen this before - a smaller OEM latches onto a larger OEM's bandwagon & rides the tide with them.
It may even be possible MQA decoding will be build into streamers, so
you can configure your steamer and say "My DAC uses an AKxxxx chip" and
voila. Then you could be all Schiit happy and have MQA. On the other
hand, once the type of benefit is known (if any), maybe an open-source
DAC adapter will be written which can provide at least the proper
de-coding adjustment. That is, if Meridian is measuring something like a
pre-ringing filter, adjusting for that in the stream could be done by
others without stealing their code, just the idea.
Now this would be the way to go, if Meridian was going to be smart about it. Make it available for free (pretty much like Android OS. I realize that Android OS is not totally free but they give you enough incentive to use such that Android phone far outnumber iOS phones) & encourage as many people to adopt it as possible. If the OEM wants to be MQA-compatible then they download & implement Meridian's software & pay them the royalty fees; otherwise not. This way Meridian is not checking everybody's DAC designs. Can you imagine how large this overhead is going to be for Meridian?? Can they even afford it?
After the Alpha with MQA comes out maybe i’ll find a fellow San Francisco Bay audiophile to bring it and compare though.
yeah, curious minds want to know the outcome..... ;-)
Right now I am just hoping for construction to finish so I can finish breaking in the Brooklyn. :)
indeed it's good to keep things simple & 1st things, first.....
