MQA Discussion

[jdandy]

SoundStage Hi-Fi - MQA One Year Later - Suddenly, More Questions

[Douglas]

Originally Posted by jdandy

SoundStage Hi-Fi - MQA One Year Later - Suddenly, More Questions

One has to admit, it was a genius business idea and potentially a huge money spinner for MQA.

The fact that MQA is not willing to supply the tools to decompress their files to their original states is the biggest issue for me, and it makes one instantly suspicious! I smell the rat!

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by Douglas

One has to admit, it was a genius business idea and potentially a huge money spinner for MQA.

The fact that MQA is not willing to supply the tools to decompress their files to their original states is the biggest issue for me, and it makes one instantly suspicious! I smell the rat!

Damn have I been doing it wrong all these years? I've been choosing quality music with my ears when I should have been using my nose.

[Douglas]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Damn have I been doing it wrong all these years? I've been choosing quality music with my ears when I should have been using my nose.

I am not implying there are sound quality issues wit MQA. It is clear from feedback that many cannot hear the difference and some have heard improvements. I have not read a single negative review yet on SQ.

A closed system is open to manipulation and deception, and therein lies the rub!

[Antonmb]

Qobuz has just announced 24/96 hi res streaming, so if you have the bandwidth and are in Europe (or subscribe using a VPN from anywhere) you can have your cake and eat it too - hi res without any manipulation. See this from their blog (bolding is mine, not theirs):

"On top of this, Qobuz has demonstrated its technical leadership by creating QOBUZ SUBLIME +, which will offer 24-Bit Hi-Res streaming for the first time in the world without any compromise and (of course) without any loss or alteration to the original version.

QOBUZ SUBLIME+ uses the incremental subscription method which was first introduced with QOBUZ SUBLIME in 2015. The subscriber can stream the whole catalogue in FLAC 16-Bit / 44,1kHz quality and listen to a catalogue of 60,000 albums in Qobuz 24-Bit Hi-Res either streamed or offline – the largest catalogue in the world. There are also great deals on purchasing the downloads for all the albums – and since the beginning of 2017, the albums are in DSD format, the ultimate format for audio fans."

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

Qobuz has just announced 24/96 hi res streaming, so if you have the bandwidth and are in Europe (or subscribe using a VPN from anywhere) you can have your cake and eat it too - hi res without any manipulation. See this from their blog (bolding is mine, not theirs):

"On top of this, Qobuz has demonstrated its technical leadership by creating QOBUZ SUBLIME +, which will offer 24-Bit Hi-Res streaming for the first time in the world without any compromise and (of course) without any loss or alteration to the original version.

QOBUZ SUBLIME+ uses the incremental subscription method which was first introduced with QOBUZ SUBLIME in 2015. The subscriber can stream the whole catalogue in FLAC 16-Bit / 44,1kHz quality and listen to a catalogue of 60,000 albums in Qobuz 24-Bit Hi-Res either streamed or offline – the largest catalogue in the world. There are also great deals on purchasing the downloads for all the albums – and since the beginning of 2017, the albums are in DSD format, the ultimate format for audio fans."

Shouldn't this be in a QOBUZ thread?

[gbaby]

Originally Posted by Douglas

One has to admit, it was a genius business idea and potentially a huge money spinner for MQA.

Agreed!

[Antonmb]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Shouldn't this be in a QOBUZ thread?

Jim, you're probably right, but I put it here because I thought it was relevant to the discussion that they are able to stream hi res without the use of any compression algorithms like MQA, which I thought was one of the raisons d'etre of MQA. I should have elaborated why I posted it.

[crwilli]

Originally Posted by gbaby

Agreed!

But time will tell.

History says if the technology isn't proven and capitalism runs amok people will not buy it. Competition will see to it. It may become a brilliant attempt...

For me, they have to prove to me it is better both in SQ AND via an open proof of the technical benefits to pay for it.

For now, I see zero reason to pay a premium for MQA. So I am watching.

[jdandy]

With the available bandwidth of most home Internet connections I think 24/96 streaming is not that far off for the USA. Tidal seems to be the driving force for MQA. Remove Tidal and what's left for MQA? If another online content provider begins delivering subscriber based 24Bit/96kHz streaming with a huge catalog of music I don't see MQA competing with their compression scheme, particularly since nearly every audiophile presently has a DAC that fully capitalizes on high-res without all the hocus pocus and hardware issues.