MQA vs FLAC: What is the Best for You?

In this video, we explore the world of high-quality audio formats: MQA and FLAC. We’ll help you understand the key differences, how each format works, and which one might be the best choice for you.
Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more audio insights!

Related links:

More music by Yuri Korzunov:

Table Of Contents:
00:00 Introduction
00:34 What is MQA?
00:59 How MQA Works
02:40 What is FLAC?
03:03 How FLAC Works
03:29 Key Differences
03:55 Pros and Cons
04:15 Which is Best for You?
04:36 Conclusion

[stephenwong]

Choice of MQA or FLAC does not depend on your needs! But depends on availability! You can’t produce MQA files! Tidal is moving away from MQA! Whereas if you have any digital sound file, you can make a FLAC file, and FLAC is lossless!

[thomaswalder]

In my opinion MQA was a (at the end not so clever) idea to make money.

First claim was that Audio CDs could use MQA and still being compatible with normal CD player which not have MQA without any quality loss compared to normal Audio CDs.

If that would be true (which is not the case) it would make sense to produce every Audio CD using MQA.

For producers of Audio CDs that even would have the advantage that MQA supports DRM...

Next step in the "plan" - if most Audio CDs would be produced using MQA many customers would want a CD Player which supports MQA to get that "better" quality and of course would prefer buying MQA CDs instead of normal Audio CDs - increasing the pressure for the remaining producers of audio CDs to use also MQA

And at that point you would be able to make a lot of money by selling MQA licenses.

[ronkalvaitis]

Thanks. I didn't know what MQA was all about. Just what I needed.

[mariopoirier]

MQA does not exist any more, usesless video

[proffessasvids]

The best is flac as it's actually lossless for 16bit 44.1khz. Hd flac covers the higher resolution tracks and is also lossless.
Mqa is a lossy format. The company has been dishonest about its claims and went into administration a few months ago. The rights to the flawed mqa tech has been bought by lenbrook unfortunately so it will be continuing to darken our doors for sometime should lenbrook choose to make use of it.
Mqa has high frequency audible artifacts and noise throughout. It sounds sharp, overbright and artificially embossed to my ears.
This was proven out through testing done by golden sound a couple of years ago.
Tidal was the main user of the mqa format but they have stopped using it in favour of flac and hd flac thankfully. Their library will be entirely scrubbed of the mqa rot in the next few months. Mqa is the biggest mainstream snake oil gimmic, audio has seen since quantum treated cables. Xx

[thomashoffmann]

File size is no matter at all these days.

[stephenwong]

MQA is lossless on 17-bit!96kHz? Proof? Evidence? It’s a lie!

[stevevlahos]

This video suck. It didn’t touch on any of the deblurring benefits of MQA. And a AI voice to narrate.