MQA is Vaporware

[James lee]

No. It said "lossless quality sound".

Like "natural taste" on food products.

 

[James lee]

On 1/17/2022 at 4:10 AM, Revelation said:

All this bitching about MQA....if you don't like, just don't use it. No one is forcing you to use it. It sounds better than Spotify and they have a better catalog than some of the other ones out there that sound slightly different. 

The background of MQA does not seem to be good but if I'm not playing records or CD's Tidal is currently the best option for me. If don't like the Dolby sound effect Apple puts on their music and we have the choice to choose what we want. Trying to get people to change their mind and debate is a waste of time.

Peace!

You can turn of Dolby Atmos in Apple Music

[James lee]

42 minutes ago, Cebolla said:

 

Except TIDAL doesn't - passing hi-res MQA tracks through the 16bit/44.1kHz TIDAL HiFi quality connection bit depth reducing resampling mangle just makes them corrupted MQA tracks.

This is why I left Tidal, I heard the downgrade before I even figured it out.. so angry.

[James lee]

They have re-invented sample theorem.

Good for them. Same goes for Scientology.

[James lee]

9 hours ago, GoldenOne said:

I'm very glad that Tidal will be adding native hires lossless.
Qobuz might be in a bit of trouble though if that ends up working well.

BUT, my main concern is that currently a lot of 44.1khz tracks on Tidal are only available in MQA. You cannot stream lossless regardless of subscription tier or settings 

https://goldensound.audio/2021/11/29/tidal-hifi-is-not-lossless/

 

Hopefully this update also means that the lossless versions of these tracks will actually be restored. Not much good having native hires lossless if most of your library still isn't available losslessly

Not going to hold my breath.

[James lee]

19 hours ago, firedog said:

I'm not sure it matters. For most people, Tidal Masters or hifi tier is the only source of MQA. It's still a tiny, tiny fraction of listeners.

My guess is that over time fewer manufacturers will support it, and if the owner of the tech isn't making much money, the number of new MQA encoded tracks will also decrease. Flac alternatives will be available alongside MQA ones at Tidal. 

 

Will the number of people paying for the hi-end Tidal tier and also playing MQA be worth it to Tidal?

 

Tidal will have to decide if continuing to support a separate format is wothwhile. It may end up deciding that it isn't. And even if it does continue, it will be to a niche format that most listeners know nothing about and don't care about. 

The only way I'd use Tidal again is if there was a setting "do not list mqa files in search or catalogue" and there would need to be proof all the messed up red book files were replaced back to un molested versions.

Then there is the "why trust your cheating ex" delema just because they come crawling back to you. I've moved on.

[James lee]

I guess the only way if I'm going to find out if the old 16bit 44.1kHz albums that were secretly mqa encoded are back to normal is to join back up and do a few null tests and listen.

[James lee]

A quick 2 paragraph history of mqa by sououndiiz

https://soundiiz.com/blog/the-history-of-tidal/?fbclid=IwAR1y5I9A0gc9dalnUHJWKLabUMJF_sgf2pEVVFuliRPqLjhYhnAcTbwEKcQ

 

"

Audio quality

In 2017, by forming a partnership with Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), TIDAL claims to offer unrivaled audio quality not found in any of its competitors. The listening experience is optimal and aims at the audiophile segment. The reality will contrast, with some musicians claiming, for example, that the advertised quality is not HD. 

In April 2022, MQA, TIDAL’s HD audio format, went bankrupt. TIDAL then almost immediately announced that the FLAC format would be available on its app, enabling millions of songs to be listened to in high definition.

"

 

[James lee]

There is no VST MQA plugin.

Prove me wrong.

[James lee]

" Since been removed "

Keep going.

[James lee]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

As far as I know, the plug-in stopped working long ago because it was never updated. 

Sarcasm?