My experience with the Meridian Ultra Dac and the Mytek Manhattan II is the same as Hmack’s. My original test was to sit at my work desk with my back facing the speakers, working on my pc, so I could not see the MQA/blue light. I let Tidal choose material similar to the first on I chose. From time to time, I would hear an outstanding piece. Almost every time (38 of 40 approx), it was an MQA version. On the occasions were it was not, it was most likely a 352 Hi Rez source.
MQA is technically lossy as it changes the reconstruction in the dac. However, from microphone to speaker terminals, it is less lossy than other forms–as they do not correct this time artifact, and do not correct the phase errors in the analog chain (microphones, preamps, mixers, etc) from the master chain. MQA does this. To my ears, and to my reading, this makes it the best end to end reproduction out there. Listening on Apogee Scintilla full range ribbons. To my mind, calling MQA lossy in a pedantic sense without qualifying it is not being correct, nor fair technically.