Bluesound has enabled MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) music support for wireless streaming on all Bluesound Players starting today, June 1, 2016. MQA has been heard on Bluesound by thousands in listening demonstrations in major cities around the world. Now, Bluesound and MQA are excited for consumers to experience the magic of original studio recordings in the home.
“Bluesound is thrilled to be the first wireless multi-room system to support MQA and bring hi-resolution music to consumers so they can stream and listen to any room in the home,” said Greg Stidsen, Bluesound director of technology and product planning. “This partnership is a huge success for Bluesound, and one more step in our mission to deliver the best-sounding music experience throughout people’s homes.”
Bluesound worked closely with MQA to implement technology inside every Bluesound Player to ensure the listener will hear MQA encoded music and streams exactly like the source.
In the BluOS app, the MQA indicator glows green or blue to indicate that the Player is decoding and playing an MQA stream or file, and denotes that the sound is identical to that of the source material. It glows blue to indicate it is playing an MQA Studio file, which has either been approved in the studio by the artist/producer or has been verified by the copyright owner.
The new BluOS firmware (v2.2) also includes CALM Radio integration on Bluesound, providing users with commercial-free access to over 160 internet radio broadcasts in high quality. CALM Radio streams a collection of soothing music genres including Relaxation, Acoustic, Atmospheres, in addition to great Classical, Pop, Rock, and Jazz choices. CALM Radio is a welcome addition to the growing list of music services available on Bluesound.
All users will be prompted to upgrade to the new BluOS firmware. At release, MQA music will be supported and available on the Android version of the BluOS app, with support for iOS devices to follow soon after.
In addition to this release, Bluesound is actively working with MQA to support select BluOS-enabled systems from sister company, NAD Electronics, in the future.
