MQA is Vaporware

[Racerxnet]

25 minutes ago, fas42 said:

 

Do some people need an alternative wording ... ? How about this,

 

For some people, MQA improves the subjective quality of their rigs - they don't care that it's "taken something away!" ... it sounds better, because it's a means of getting around some other weakness in their setup. And the importance of what it's given overrides the losses.

 

Again, I have zero interest in MQA. It has no value for a competent playback chain, and is an annoying detour, distracting from the real job of getting best sound.

 

 

 

Sounds like 2 weaknesses are a step forward in your example. 

 

MAK

[Racerxnet]

38 minutes ago, fas42 said:

 

Weaknesses have different levels of subjective significance, and it varies per individual. First CD players came out, and person A said, "Thank God I can't hear pops and crackles!"; person B say, "It's terrible what that playback is doing to the treble - give me back my LP TT!".

 

The software world deals in this all the time - a bug may be so severe that it completely cripples the usefulness of the program for some people; another bug may be very subtle, but everybody comes across it now and again - which weakness is the "more important one"?

 

The real world is never "perfect" - everything we use is compromised in some areas, but we get used to the downsides, and they "become invisible" - "character" is the great word to use here ... .

 

The reality is that we all dance on beds of weaknesses - being aware of such can help to lower the level of vitriole; it ain't a Black and White world, even though many would love it to be so.

 

 

 

You want to fix your weaknesses? Fix your room with treatments. You don’t like the sound of the overall system, fix it with new speakers that meet your preferences for sound quality. Run REW and look at the room response.  Provide adequate amplification that meets the demand of room size, speakers impeadance, and of course, the choice of SS or valves.. Those very few things have the most impact on the overall sound of any system. Preferences of vinyl or CD are irrelevant to room response. I’m not saying that other items do not make a difference, but that those few things listed are always going to have the greatest impact of sonic changes to the “system”. Go ahead and add maple blocks, tuning sound with cables, etc. I’ll take my dedicated room with the ideas as above and can skip tweak nirvana. 

 

Stick to the proven basics and people will usually get much further

 

MAK

[Racerxnet]

26 minutes ago, John_Atkinson said:

 

Yes. I have the originals in my measurements archive. See

 

 

In recent years, yes. The older graphs, which are what iFi used without permission, were generated with a scientific graph-plotting program using data captured by an antique Heathkit digital oscilloscope.

 

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

 

 

Sounds like a bunch of flee’s arguing over who owns the dogs back. 

 

MAK

[Racerxnet]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Depends on what the meaning of is is 😁

Ok Bill.. (Clinton)

[Racerxnet]

People buy shit on a shingle all the time. Take LH for example.

 

MAK

[Racerxnet]

The cheerleaders for MQA will let the 2 ton elephant in the room step on them before realizing it's to late to make simple choices/changes.

 

MAK

[Racerxnet]

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

It really blows my mind that audiophiles are onboard with MQA.

 

Don't bother me with the facts.

 

 

 

 

I've already made my mind up!

[Racerxnet]

8 minutes ago, GoldenOne said:

I am currently working on a video, and I got some tracks published on tidal, in MQA. These tracks contained various test signals such as impulse response, square wave, white noise, multitone, and even the entire RMAA test sequence.

After collecting all evidence and documenting all the discovered issues (some of which have not yet been discussed elsewhere), I contacted MQA to give them a chance to comment prior to this video (and post here) going live.

They have not responded to me, BUT, they have had my tracks pulled from Tidal, and have spoken to the publisher I used to have them block me.

The tracks are still up on some sites such as Deezer, and I have the MQA encoded files saved as well as analog recordings of a full-decode. And I will share these in the final post and video.

But for now, I'm just posting this quickly in order to inform people that MQA's response to me reaching out was to attempt to censor me, and I want to ask that a few people confirm the track's presence before it is fully gone.
If you go in roon and search for "The Callout" by GoldenSound, you will still see that it shows as being on Tidal, in MQA in their DB. Though I'm sure this will not be for long.

The video and post, as well as the tracks themselves, should hopefully prove quite useful for anyone wanting to look further into what MQA is doing.

And you did record/save the tracks for further investigation?

[Racerxnet]

MQA logic: A lossless container containing a lossy codec making it lossless. 

[Racerxnet]

7 minutes ago, Archimago said:

 

John,

Since you're here on this thread, let's talk candidly. I appreciate all that you've done for the audiophile community over the decades. You can certainly be proud of many successes you have brought to Stereophile over the years. The measurements and continued focus on objective performance has made the magazine unique certainly in North America and among the magazines I've had access to during my "formative years" as an audiophile.

 

However, I suspect that the the time ahead for you as Technical Editor isn't going to be all that long. Honestly, how many more years are you keen to measure equipment? In fact, the age of most of your "top" writers are certainly up there and human auditory physiology has a universal trajectory. I hope you're well on the way to training the next person you'll be passing this baton on to for the Technical tasks. I'm sure there are many other things one would want to enjoy in retirement...

 

Your legacy however, IMO, is tainted in recent years by MQA. When you wrote the infamous article claiming to have witnessed the "birth of a new world" and comparing MQA with the dawn of consumer digital audio (CD), is this honestly what you expected to happen? Face it. MQA has done a horrendous disservice to the audiophile hobby. It has created a schism between those who feel that "we" care about "fidelity" at a level that can be technically demonstrated and proven (you're the Technical Editor, right?) versus those like Hans B above who offer weak words and admissions of "guessing".

 

I do not expect a reply to this. All I ask is that you think about not what MQA is since evidence is there for all to see, but at a "meta" level what MQA has done to the hobby and what it represents. Yes, I think MQA has opened up a "new world". But it's not the world you wrote about in December 2014. I think it has become a more honest world for audiophiles. MQA unintentionally may have brought audiophiles back into the technical side of the hobby; a side that I trust you are comfortable with.

 

There is an opportunity here to do the right thing IMO. Have a good look at MQA again as the Techical Editor all these years since 2014. Re-evaluate what you think of that "new world" and MQA's place in it. There's no shame in changing opinions. If you think this is necessary/appropriate, certainly many of us here would respect the integrity.

 

Can't,  wont, and never going to happen with John. My hunch, based on human psychology is that John couldn't handle the ridicule/distancing  from peers with a vested interest, his own vested interest,  and the backlash from the MQA fanboys. People who put themselves on a platform above truth don't like to admit when they are wrong. It takes tremendous courage to change direction, and I wouldn't hold my breath in this case. Good luck with that Arch. 

[Racerxnet]

29 minutes ago, John_Atkinson said:

 

No. MQA had no involvement in the production of the recordings I have made. After the original release, what they did was prepare MQA-encoded versions for me to compare with the commercially released recordings. They also sent me the MQA and non-MQA files of other recordings that they had sent for comparison to Chris Connacker and other writers.

 

John Atkinson

Technical Editor, Stereophile

Is this a common practice for others who submit recordings? In Goldenone's case they have been removed. Or is this special treatment for you? Someone has looked behind the curtain and seen the real mQa wizard.

 

[Racerxnet]

40 minutes ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

No, it does not hold water. JA could easily upload 60 second clips of the unadulterated master file and the Master Quacked file.

 

It would be no skin of his back.  It is not that he CAN'T, it is he WON'T.

And that is the reason I asked if he was a special case where the original and Quacked file were given to him. He has the answer, but no balls to be honest about whats going on. 

[Racerxnet]

3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I was thinking more like Zima.

O'Doules, 

 

Non alcoholic and nothing in in it but buzz words.

[Racerxnet]

1 minute ago, KeenObserver said:

 

The ones that drank the Kool-aid don't believe in anything now.

They are audio agnostic. 

[Racerxnet]

1 hour ago, DuckToller said:

I often share this thought of unsymmetric distribution of proper behaviour, but then I think about gents like Peter Veth feeling SO SAD that they can't share their heroic explorations towards AS in their private MQA facebook group because it would openly denude their psycho warfare strategies against objective and substantial reflections on MQA.
Be kind, rewind ...

The MQA gang feel as though they are the truth ministry. Much like the leaders prior to Elons take over of twitter. You can read the internal comms between the politicians , gov, and Yoel. Eventually the cover gets pulled back completely and the whole shebang collapses. They are now at the edge of failure. Glad to see them go. People are tired of the propaganda. 

[Racerxnet]

The best quality recording for each format has nothing to do with leaky filters. Those filters will show the same results on any DAC as they are part of the MQA package. Anyone can correct me if wrong. 

[Racerxnet]

FX is not here to have an open and healthy exchange of information. Kind of like; don't bother me with the facts, I already made my mind up. He is trolling. Put him on ignore or give him the boot.