Oppo Adopts MQA

MQA, or Master Quality Authenticated, has been adopted for use in the Oppo UDP-205 UHD Blu-ray player via firmware update. That would enable the player to perform MQA’s “audio origami,” which allows hi-res audio to travel in CD-quality downloads or streams, and is said to bring the listener as close as possible to the original master. This is the first time MQA has been incorporated into a Blu-ray player. Note that the UDP-205 ($1,299) is Oppo’s step-up player with high-end ES9038PRO digital-to-analog conversion, which might make the use of MQA worthwhile. Oppo’s entry-level model, the UDP203 ($549), does not include MQA.—MF