MQA is Vaporware

[watts]

12 hours ago, Revelation said:

Wow, so may pages...All I can say is I use my ears. I like the Tidall MQA Masters better than the sound I get from Spotify or Apple.

You can use Tidal and get 1411 kbps vs. Spotify's 320 kbps, of course it will sound better, but the point is why have MQA? It would make more sense in this thread if you stated you liked the MQA tracks better than the regular 16/44.1 Tidal tracks, as you might own some MQA encoding/decoding gear.

 

I have just "upgraded" from Tidal hi-fi plus to Tidal hi-fi as I don't want MQA, and I don't find it adds anything to my streaming quality, so why pay for it? In Canada hifi plus was $29.99 for family plan and hifi is $14.99, so I am saving $15 a month; thank you Tidal for giving me the option. 

 

I still see the MQA on various Tidal tracks, I am not sure why, but to my ears the best sounding recordings in Tidal just state 16/44.1 and the MQA acronym is nowhere to be seen (Steely Dan - Aja, Reference Recordings Brahms Sym. no. 4 for examples) 

 

The hifi sound quality has always been in the way the music was recorded, not the post processing applied, whether the marketing is good or not. The albums above sound better than many upsampled 24/192 recordings I have purchased: The numbers mean very little. 

 

10 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

The choice is, do you want a pretty interface but worse music, or do you want to support the guys bringing you the best quality music, and who are working on a better interface as a much smaller company.

Which one would you like to see succeed and be around in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?

 

As soon as Qobuz is offered in my Country I will switch from Tidal to Qobuz, to get rid of this MQA crap, I am still waiting.... 

[watts]

1 hour ago, Revelation said:

I found this article insightful on MQA.

 MQA vs MQA  Studio files on Tidal - av2day.com

 

57 minutes ago, Rt66indierock said:

 

Sorry that article is marketing fluff. Bob Stuart had his chance to fool people and failed. We debunked what you consider insightful years ago. This thread is beginning its sixth year to help people like you see MQA for what is. A bad idea created by man with a poor financial track reocrd and promoted by the audio press.

 

Yeah, that whole "ad" is weird.

 

First, who cares if one MQA track sounds better than another MQA track? The point is what is the advantage of MQA over lossless? It has become quite clear: none. 

 

Second, there are actually people out there using a $150 DAC with a $2000 digital cable?

 

Third, I am not knocking that Zen DAC, but what would the consumer cost of it be if they didn't have the MQA fees on it? 

[watts]

21 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

This depends on what the company can do for mQa. Some companies got mQa for free because of large customer bases / exposure for mQa or because of prestige. Others paid more per unit.  

 

So if a budget low-fi audio component can be engineered to clearly show an improvement when playing studio over regular mqa files, there will be no mqa fees charged?  

 

The audio company sells units, and mqa will look like it does something beneficial, win win. 

 

I think I am beginning to see the light. Or darkness, as it were. 

[watts]

10 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Where do you see people getting MQA encoded content, now that Tidal is getting rid of it?

according to this writer's opinion, they will attempt to mend the situation with Tidal, or try Spotify (?) 

 

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/lenbrook-acquires-mqa/

 

 

[watts]

8 hours ago, Indydan said:

BOYCOTT LENBROOK AND ALL OF ITS PRODUCTS! 

 

Already have- Happy to say never owned a Lenbrook product, don't plan to, and have never owned a product that paid for an MQA licence (my exaSound DAC is an older one) and once Qobuz got into our country I was ecstatic to drop Tidal and it's MQA (not to mention the rap bias) and had no further qualm with this issue. 

 

Interestingly, just filled out a survey via email yesterday for Qobuz asking me questions around preferences for"mainstream" music, hi-res music preferences, so I use a 3rd party (Roon) or not, and other "am I satisfied" questions. I don't know if this was after this MQA announcement or not, or did it have to do with Tidal dropping MQA? Didn't know until I read some of the latest posts in this thread.

[watts]

Curious question, for someone who might have some insight into the financial side, did Bob Stuart make any money off of this project? 

[watts]

2 hours ago, Currawong said:

.........However, TIDAL is a bit player in the music industry......

That is clever. 

Wait- was that supposed to be a play on words? 🤔

[watts]