MQA Contextualized

[rottikid]

https://www.stereophile.com/content/...7ZVJvH6tzgi.03

Interesting Read.

[Antonmb]

I just read this as well, but frankly I found it vague, meandering, subjective and not very coherent. His bottom line seems to be that MQA is good for the music industry because it copy-protects hi res masters. It seems a rather tired old argument that the decline of the music industry is due to illegal downloading and sharing.

[godwinaj]

I keep riding a MQA roller coaster. I listen to it and am blown away that I'm hearing detail and things I've never heard before. Then a read an article and feel wow it must really suck if everyone is so negative and totally melancholy about it. Then I listen to MQA tracks and am blown away. Rinse and Repeat.

This article seemed to have the meandering melancholy that I've seen others have too. Interesting read for sure. But, I also hate the beating of the dead horse argument that downloading killed the record industry.

I try to put things that I 'fool' myself on up to the wife test. She likes MQA and can pick out tracks if I A/B.

[W9TR]

Interesting article. I was initially puzzled by all the MQA blowback because what I heard sounded very good. But now I see some common themes emerging:
1. If you design DAC's or run a company that does, MQA tells you how to design your DAC and it will sound pretty much like any other MQA DAC.
2. MQA is lossy and lossy is bad, no matter what.
3. MQA is supported by all the major record labels who don't want you to have permanent access to studio quality music. They want you to keep paying for it.
4. MQA is an unnecessary technology because you can already stream and store HD audio without it just fine, thank you.
5. MQA is a proprietary format in a world that has gone totally open. 6. The details of how MQA works, especially the perceptual coding part, have not been openly shared.

[gadawg]

Heard a demo recently of MQA via DCS Rossini and thought the 24/96 file sounded better than the MQA version each time. Do agree though that MQA usually sounds better than the cd so I welcome it as a streaming format just not as a replacement for 24/96 on up which I'm afraid is where it will head if MQA pick up any steam.

Just my 2c

George