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RE: Fascinating that MQA re-invented the . . .

Posted by Ryan Berry (M) on August 20, 2018 at 19:38:37

In Reply to: Fascinating that MQA re-invented the . . . posted by Beetlemania on August 13, 2018 at 16:02:07:

Interesting article by John. While we at Ayre (myself especially) have been very diligent in staying silent regarding MQA since Charley's passing, who was quite...outspoken on the subject; out of respect to Charley, I cannot help but to comment now.

Charley's objections about MQA, despite his focus on the topic, was never primarily about the technology. We've known for quite some time that the filters are similar, which, coupled with the other things Ayre does with the DAC, is likely why Charley and I were never leaping at the opportunity to usher in a new era of music and felt that PCM simply sounded better. Where Charley and I disagreed was Charley's opinion that everyone hearing otherwise must be "shills". I believe to this day that people reported what they hear, but there were a number of factors in play that altered their perspective. Having a version of a minimum-phase filter, for example, could make many DACs suddenly sound what is in our opinion better.

Charley's objections were the nature in which he perceived that the technology was being handled. The reason Charley spent hours on end explaining what we do and how we do it, John, is because Charley (and by extension, Ayre) believed in making music accessible to as much of the world as possible. Charley strongly believed that music made the world a better place and many of the conflicts around us would have been reduced if people spent more time enjoying music. He would talk at length about why we used this transformer, how our filters work, why we chose solid state over tubes, why we use zero-feedback and fully-balanced designs with discrete components not because he was bragging about it, but because he wanted others -- both listeners and manufacturers -- to compare what we've heard to see the difference for themselves. His hope was that if music sounded better, people would want to listen to it more and the world would be a better place.

I don't know if I could see all of that, but I can absolutely agree that we need more music in our lives and that the way to do it is to draw more people to music by making it sound better than it had degraded to during the MP3 era. Ayre never was about getting huge and rich...Charley and I would always disagree about what the "maximum amount" Ayre should make without losing its soul and reason it exists. Instead, Ayre was about bring people music through any means possible.

Charley was always outspoken about technologies like DSD and MQA because he felt that they threaten this freedom of music. Embracing one could jeopardize being able to get music in PCM format, for example, and ultimately the world would be the less for it. So he railed and gnashed his teeth and screamed until people would listen to him, because in many ways, Charley was extraordinarily frustrating...but he was almost always right.

While you may feel that MQA's implementation of a similar technology to Ayre's Minimum-Phase filter is an unexpected tribute to Charley, John, I in all due respect must disagree. If MQA threatens the availability of music in any other format, then the technology remains a direct slap in the face of everything Charley spent the vast majority of his life working towards. It undermines the hours he spent in pain at a computer desk typing out post after post talking about why Ayre does X or how to improve someone's system through this or that simple step. I cannot predict what the end goal for MQA is and will not speculate on such; but I do know that was how Charley felt right up until his passing and that nothing in the implementation would ever feel like a compliment or tribute to him. My hope is that Charley's feelings in the matter prove to be wrong, but only time will tell there.

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Schiit Audio

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