MQA is Vaporware

[LarryMagoo]

With all this nonsense/fraud about MQA, how can anyone feel good about buying ANY PS Audio gear?

 

Qobuz is only $120/year...seems reasonable for what you get and can sample anything you can find before deciding to actually purchase a copy...

[LarryMagoo]

Thanks for the decidedly unbiased view....

[LarryMagoo]

This world is so full of corruption, that I use one word to judge a person or company.  Credibility!

 

PS Audio and Paul McGowan have zero with me….!

[LarryMagoo]

I have read where educated ears recognizing High Res from 16/44 is at best 50/50....So if even Golden Ears get it wrong half the time...why is there even DSD if 192kHz cannot be recognized  faithfully?

 

Do all these guys/gals work for McGowan???😂🤣😂

[LarryMagoo]

You would think that a group like AES would be credible.....Marketing should not have 1 second of discussion from an engineering firm.   The truth is getting harder to come by making money is the real issue.  DISGUSTING!

[LarryMagoo]

It seems if Mr. Atkinson would reverse course based on his further examination of MQA, he regains huge strides in his credibility!!

[LarryMagoo]

Just like we should stop reading Music oriented magazines, written by formerly respected, long-time-editors that used to have credibility.  When even today they still tout MQA!!! 

[LarryMagoo]

14 minutes ago, KeenObserver said:

 

Is there MQA without Tidal?

Is there Tidal without Roon?

Perhaps it is time to scrutinize Roon.

Why????? What do you expect to find?   

[LarryMagoo]

3 hours ago, katools said:

With a bit of luck Apple and Spotify going lossless puts tidal out of business and causes Roon to lose a very substantial proportion of their subscriber base, forcing them to rethink their customer engagement and offering. They definitely are mqa supporters ... not too long ago their coo was pushing a thread along trying to convince people of its merits, deleting dissenting posts on grounds they were 'off topic' (meaning weren't following his desired narrative).  Recently there were posts requesting that Roon stop selecting mqa content over high res pcm when they exist locally or on Qobuz.  No coincidence their software will choose to play the charlatan's work.

 

And Jud thinks I’m posting propaganda? ;-)

[LarryMagoo]

8 hours ago, katools said:

Care to elaborate or just being passive aggressive?

Your statements about Roon is almost 100% Bull$hit....what do you know....are you are subscriber?   I have a been Lifetime member for almost 5 years.  It simply is not how you portray Roon! PERIOD!!

 

Qobuz works great and I have NEVER been bothered by Tidal because I have never used them!

[LarryMagoo]

I would never touch a piece of PS Audio kit ever simply due to their MQA creation!

[LarryMagoo]

Oh lucretius....Kicking MQA while they're down????   😝. ....I think they deserve it...!!   😝😝😝

[LarryMagoo]

I was just keeping with the groups tone here.   With all the crap you laid out about Roon, you must regret your membership.

 

I've used every other player software and to my experience they cannot hold a candle to Roon.   The whole point was increasing my listening enjoyment therefore spending more time listening.   I am a regular participant on many Roon's forum topics and really enjoy the camaraderie I've experienced there.   Sorry if your experience has not been otherwise excellent.   

[LarryMagoo]

If you mean The Absolute Sound....I have been reading that mag since the early Harry Pearson days...?  If you don't then I'd guess I have not.

[LarryMagoo]

Why do you think Roon needs Tidal?    They have 300,000 customers that like Roon for what it is.....They can add Convolutions for Room Correction or HQP if they like that alteration to their Music files.   Plus I think Qobuz has as a good following there.  I enjoy using their services.    Roon to get off the pot?   

[LarryMagoo]

58 minutes ago, Fast and Bulbous said:

 

Well well well... 

 

If this is TLDR, no problem…

 

Have been watching this unfold and comparing it with the known patterns of how successful innovations tend to diffuse and eventually become infrastructure – in a category. For MQA, that category is streaming and replay systems and music distribution. In which there are many players. MQA has been following such a strategy since its early days and doing it quite well. Apart from the inadequate nature and content of the arguments put forward that should really have appealed to, and convinced, the early adopters / visionaries to jump whole heartedly on board. That failed - as witnessed here. We should be the very people that MQA should have convinced so that those who are not sure about the tech and the arguments - the mass market - can get validation to lower their risk of adoption. That failed completely – the arguments were seen through almost immediately and objectively shown to be false. And the technology unnecessary for what it said it did. It’s unique selling proposition simply wasn’t – and isn’t – there. Never was.

 

It seemed quite transparent that the real play by MQA was towards the record labels and hardware manufacturers – consumers were grist to the mill, to be sold on the promise of better sound and reduced storage overhead. Meanwhile the labels were offered increased revenue and control from and over the distribution of their material. With DRM lurking…

At some point the market either shifts or decides the category has matured and it stabilises. The race was to be the winner of the new infrastructure – to become the default tech with its associated licencing and leverage, before the category shifted and it gets carried by the tornado of adoption and then cannot be displaced. Meanwhile, and all the while, MQA builds its revenue stream potentials and the whole thing makes money while everyone sleeps. 

 

Except it hasn’t worked out. 

 

The category just shifted. Big time. Apple, Spotify, Amazon. These are the gorillas while the chimps of Tidal and the like try to gain a permanent foothold. Unless I am very much mistaken the category has just matured and will now deliver high res as standard. There will be no differentiation based on that.  I was with Pono when Apple made their move and acquired the company – Omnifone - that provided their streaming service. Was game over and an indication, a telltale, that Apple were interested in the whole category. The reason for the acquisition was – we believed and was stated – to get access to the numerous patents and staff from Omnifone. Apple (like many Silicon Valley organisations) play this game very well – I was gobsmacked (as they say where I come from) when they did a deal to put an iPod socket in the glove box of BMWs. A brilliant strategic move in several areas. Now we have Apple Carplay as standard in many vehicles. Is a matter of timing and it seems that time is now.

 

All of which signals that MQA’s strategy has not worked. The Gorillas don’t need it and it has no benefit to them. Amazon made that clear when they moved into the space.

 

Is it game over for MQA? I think it more than likely is. Which as far as I am concerned is very good news. The false arguments and rhetoric, exposed so thoroughly here, did not work. Had the tech and the arguments been real then we would have advocated it far and wide. But integrity demands a different response. 

 

Long conversations with Charley Hansen and the good folks at Ayre and with Neil Young were illuminating. Charley brough unparalleled technical insight, Neil brought similar level of insight into the music business and when added to insights into technology adoption cycles (notably the Chasm approach), and strategy built upon the combination of all of them, it threw a very penetrating spotlight into what MQA were doing. It was transparent.

 

As for Roon... 

 

Conversations with them early on confirmed that their core identity is a systems integrator. And they do that better than anyone else. As commented before, the need for such a company / technology is at its peak when things don’t work or play well together. DACs, streaming services, servers, smart speakers, computers, ‘phones, music at different resolutions, radio stations, meta data. As all of those aspects mature they get built into them the mechanisms to work together without the need for complex and expensive systems integration – if the demand is there. And it is. For Apple / Amazon / Spotify to recreate what Roon has is easier for them than for Roon to recreate what they have. My earnest hope is that Roon survives and thrives – I would personally be lost without it. Whether listening to Radio Paradise through a smart speaker bluetoothed to my ‘phone or 24/192 or above through a high end DAC across ethernet, it is just a single user interface and easy. Are they part of the MQA attempt to dominate? I don’t really think so. MQA is just something else to be integrated - a side bet - I suspect.

 

Enough! Game over for MQA? More than likely. Phew!

It's so refreshing to read a POSITIVE post here.  This subject has been nothing but bitching and complaining tones.  Your post renews my faith in posters!

 

Look out though....Chris will accuse you of working for Roon if you keep on posting compliments and how much you enjoy their software with all the many benefits !

[LarryMagoo]

Apple has THE best Customer service...they actually speak english as their first language.   That and the first iPhone was what got me to totally abandon Microsoft...without ever looking back.    This MQA thing has backfired so bad you'd think it would really affect PS Audio as well as their credibility is s totally shot forever!  

[LarryMagoo]

 

[LarryMagoo]

             

 

[LarryMagoo]

BS initials are perfect for the man and his quest....it's a shame after reading John Atkinson for 3 or 4 decades, that he cannot come clean instead backing all the crap!

[LarryMagoo]

19 minutes ago, lucretius said:

 

It seems @John_Atkinson is trying not to burn his bridges -- he wants to maintain an "in" with mQa ltd (and BS) should that ever prove useful in the future.

So I guess that JA does not mind that he has BURNT ALL HIS BRIDGES WITH HIS READERS?????

[LarryMagoo]

10 minutes ago, StephenJK said:

I don't know that I would make such a sweeping comment. 

 

JA and his body of work over a number of decades with publishing of real, verified and documented test data was a breath of fresh air in the HiFi world where other publications gave glowing reviews for manufacturers who advertised in their publications.  

 

However, I do believe that if JA has HighRes files of tracks that he has recorded with and without MQA encoding that they would be welcome here for all to review.  

 

 

Stephen,

 

Sweeping comment?   Well how come JA will not come forth with a CREDIBLE EXPLANATION???   He could save his butt with his readers or FOREVER NOT BE CREDIBLE!!!  He cannot have it both ways....credibility doesn't work like that!

 

 

[LarryMagoo]

Well I would classify myself as an older reader of both Stereophile and TAS.   But I cannot read them if I know the editors are full of crap and that every word they write is disingenuous.....period!    I quit the vinyl religion two decades ago....and yea I had a VPI record cleaner, a hideously expensive TT and cupboards full of MoFi Vinyl.    But digital has come a huge distance in 20 years!  Vinyl is a huge time sync that I don't feel is worth it anymore.  Roon lets me enjoy Music way, way more than I used to with Vinyl. 

[LarryMagoo]

33 minutes ago, John_Atkinson said:

 

I understood that Chris Connacker, as well as several other writers,  had also been sent the 2016 CES hi-rez files and the corresponding MQA versions that I mention above.

 

John Atkinson

Technical Editor, Stereophile

So JA....Please tell us....do you still believe in MQA and all the benefits you previously touted?????

[LarryMagoo]

Ol'JA is digging himself deeper and deeper into NO CREDIBILITY!