Hi @Martinzero
MQA is a licensable format and each product sold has a one off licence fee. Products that are already sold and will gain MQA by software update is up to the manufacturer to negotiate with MQA Ltd. how this will be handled.
Otherwise it is R&D and recertification time for adding the format that has to be justified. It runs quite deep and has side effects on Tidal, Roon, DSP/DAC, Multiroom, external S/PDIF inputs and all user interfaces, plus ensuring the original audio performance of the products are maintained. It’s a business case that is very expensive to add and maintain so needs a strong customer demand to justify it.
Last year we made the decision to do Qobuz on all platforms that can properly support it. Based on Qobuz’s new owners, roll out to USA and ever growing lossless hidef library it was a sound business case to invest in it.
We do however watch the progress of MQA in market adoption and financial state of MQA Ltd. to guide us if the technology has gained sufficient adoption to justify the R&D investment and increased product licensing costs. For those who are using our newer range of products that are Roon RAAT enabled, you can get a taste of MQA 1st unfold from that.
Best regards
Steve Harris
Software Director