MQA is Vaporware

[992Sam]

is it me, or does an MQA version of a piece just sound the same as the original piece but maybe with a "loudness" button pushed, or a V shaped EQ?

 

I was listening to a recording of Steely Dans "Hey Nineteen"  in both 44.1/16 and MQA ... and the MQA just sounded like the loudness button was activated. 

[992Sam]

16 minutes ago, KeenObserver said:

 

There is nothing that MQA does that cannot be done better, without paying the cost.  If you want to compress a music file you can use a lossless free compression method.  If you want it louder, you can make it louder.  If you want to manipulate the sound, you can manipulate it to exactly what sounds best to you. If you want an original Hi def you can still download a high def.

and yet 50% of my streaming music source is Tidal (the other 50% Qobuz) ... and they're married to MQA.. so it would appear we are going to be forced to use this format (at least for now)... lots of recordings aren't available as both MQA and 24bit uncompressed...  at least I've not found many that are available as both.

[992Sam]

10 minutes ago, randyhat said:

I realize that bringing up a topic related to how a particular MQA album actually sounds as opposed to how it looks on a graph is a touchy one here but nonetheless here goes....

 

I generally am nonpartisan when it comes to MQA but I am concerned with sound quality.  I just discovered an MQA version of Dire Straits best of..."Private Investigations" compliation album on Tidal.  I am listening to it now.  I am very familiar with all of the songs on this album and I have vinyl and CD versions of all of their albums as well as Mark Knofler's solo work.  I have to say that the versions on the album sound better than I have ever heard them.  Maybe it's totally unrelated to MQA but something about this version of the album just sounds better to me.  Not sure how my impressions now would hold up to intensive and tedious A/B comparisons to other versions but for me, now, this is the best I have ever heard these songs.

 

I have had similar experiences with some recordings,  most recently with REM's Automatic for the People...   While I feel MQA sounds good, I can't help but feel there is some kind of EQ boosting happening, like I said above, a V Shape, or loudness effect..   At a minimum, the MQA recordings to tend to play 2 or 3 db louder..   

[992Sam]

1 hour ago, KeenObserver said:

 

I have 24/192 that are terrible and I have 16/44.1 that are outstanding.

now that I am listening to music via a VERY high resolution system... I am seeing this to be the case more than anything else... 

 

not only is some of the production (engineering) work crap on some albums especially the "loudness" of some of the mid 90's and newer recordings, but worse yet... in the classical realm, some of the best recordings (conductors and symphonies that I prefer) are only available in 44.1 and some of the not so good interpretations are of course readily available in 192/24... which just sucks!