Bay Area high-end audio retailer Audio High (165 Moffett Boulevard, Mountain View, California) has been chosen as the first Meridian partner to introduce its revolutionary MQA audio coding system on Thursday April 16, from 6pm–9pm.
As John Atkinson wrote last December, MQA is a backward-compatible codec that reduces the size of a hi-rez audio file by three quarters. When played back on a standard DAC, it plays as a conventional 16-bit file sampled at 44.1kHz or 48kHz, but when decoded by a DAC offering MQA, it plays back with higher resolution and the original sample rate.
As well as representatives from Meridian, veteran Canadian pianist Robert Silverman will be at the Audio High event, as Audio High is premiering the first set of his new Beethoven piano sonatas cycle. As part of Audio High’s ongoing fundraising efforts for the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, Audio High have recorded these sonatas, and will be available at the event (for event attendees only) at no charge.
Mark Willsher (who produced the music for the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit trilogy, and many other films) recorded Silverman for Audio High and will be at the event to talk about his impressions of MQA. The evening will also feature MQA-mastered recordings given to Audio High by Herbie Hancock.
Please RSVP to (650) 964-4000 or email info@audiohigh.com.
