Master Quality Authenticated

MQA’s Spencer Chrislu on reaching out to the Record Industry.

- Jim Austin

MOST PEOPLE WHO HAVE HEARD MUSIC RECORDINGS encoded with Master Quality Authenticated agree that it sounds really good1—but even they recognize that at least one major challenge remains: ensuring that listeners can actually, get in MQA format, the music they most love. I spoke with Spencer Chrislu, MQA’s director of content services, about the company’s efforts to meet this challenge.

JIM AUSTIN: Please tell us about your background.

SPENCER CHRISLU: Wow, where do I start? I’ve been a music fan all my life, and fell in love with high-end audio as a teenager. I’ve always been fascinated by music production, and wanted to be a recording engineer from early on. I went to school at the University of Illinois and graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering. After moving to California, I got the incredible opportunity to work with Frank Zappa for the last three years of his life, and later moved on to work on high-resolution DVD-Audio releases for Warner Music, where I met Bob Stuart [then with Meridian Audio]. After 14 years at Warner, and after hearing the first generation of MQA, I jumped at the idea of working together with Bob.

JA: What is your role at MQA?

SC: I am the director of content services, which means that I’m involved with helping and advising on the production and archiving of tapes from various vaults around the world,

to the nuts and bolts of making the MQA production process work inside the studios. Since we’re a small team, I’m also heavily involved in new partner engineering discussions and taking some of the administrative burdens off the engineers.

JA: What are the advantages of MQA for music producers and consumers?