MQA is Vaporware

[KeenObserver]

Strikes me as odd that we can accurately conduct billions of financial transactions daily but there are people that believe that we cannot maintain data integrity to play music.

I would think that any first year EE student would know how to isolate data from interference and be able to send it down the line.

[crenca]

"zapping" things with impressive sounding amounts of voltage is part of the audiophile confidence game.

 

Sandyk name dropping "professionals" such as Barry Diament (who is a "Nordst cable advocate"), John Swenson, Nikola Tesla is part of the audiophile confidence game.

 

Thankfully, MQA came along and unmasked the audiophile confidence game for many many consumers.  We will always have the conned, and the radical subjectivists will continue to try to put stuff the genie back inside the bottle, but the needle is overall is slowly moving in the right direction...

 

 

[Jud]

8 hours ago, sullis02 said:

 

As regards matters relating to digital audio, Barry Diament is at best a well-meaning victim of Dunning-Kruger, or at worst a hopeless high-end hack.   

 

8 hours ago, sandyk said:

 

I will let others decide for themselves.

 Many members will have quite a few from Barry in their own collections.

 

An incomplete list of Barry Diament credits from a 2008 thread

 

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/essential-barry-diament-masterings.131468/page-19

 

More specifically, the list (which is kind of jaw-dropping in terms of artists - Yes, Genesis, CSN, Pete Townshend, Led Zeppelin, U2 [edit: forgot Bob Marley!] are just a start - and includes many masterings considered the best sounding for the particular albums) may be found in this post:

 

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/essential-barry-diament-masterings.131468/page-19#post-3602393

 

This doesn't mean Barry is infinitely knowledgeable about matters audio-technical, of course.  It does seem to me to say that he has some idea what good sound is, and that cheap insults over the interwebs are unmerited.

[MikeyFresh]

Sony launches hi-res streaming service in Japan

Lossless 24/96 tracks in collaboration with Rhapsody's Napster platform, at about £14 per month.

 

Absolutely no mention of any MQA bullshit, and I sincerely hope it stays that way.

[crenca]

44 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

 

More specifically, the list (which is kind of jaw-dropping in terms of artists - Yes, Genesis, CSN, Pete Townshend, Led Zeppelin, U2 [edit: forgot Bob Marley!] are just a start - and includes many masterings considered the best sounding for the particular albums) may be found in this post:

 

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/essential-barry-diament-masterings.131468/page-19#post-3602393

 

This doesn't mean Barry is infinitely knowledgeable about matters audio-technical, of course.  It does seem to me to say that he has some idea what good sound is, and that cheap insults over the interwebs are unmerited.

 

Well, here we go again.

 

This thread is now about civility.  SandyK in his ongoing grudge against those who are not radical subjectivists brought up some old news about Barry and implied that those who have posted here in the last few pages are somehow responsible for as Jud says "insults" and Barry's alleged hurt feelings.

 

This of course has nothing to do with MQA but the Civility crowd are utter hypocrites in that they take every opportunity to complain about their pet subjectivist and civility ideas even when the thread and topic are not even remotely related - uncivilly derailing things to complain about civility.

 

I notice the the usual suspects upvoted Jud's civility post.  Oh well, I'm always up for a civility debate.  Should we continue here or do you want me to start a new thread?

[christopher3393]

settle down Beavis. 

 

[crenca]

Rather than contribute to the ongoing and uncivil derailing of this thread, I started what will no doubt be a very civil discussion here:

 

 

 

[Indydan]

On 12/7/2018 at 8:57 PM, Lee Scoggins said:

 

That's not accurate.  I mentioned the Cheskys because we were talking about my recording background and my experience at Chesky Records was relevant.  The topic also came up in discussions of download and streaming sites.

 

My mistake.

 

You did not brag about knowing the  millionnaire Cheskys.

 

You bragged about working with the millionnaire Cheskys.

 

My bad. 

[sullis02]

11 hours ago, sandyk said:

 

I will let others decide for themselves.

 Many members will have quite a few from Barry in their own collections.

 

An incomplete list of Barry Diament credits from a 2008 thread

 

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/essential-barry-diament-masterings.131468/page-19

 

 

So?   One can be a decent (re)mastering engineer and still hold all manner of ridiculous beliefs about digital audio.  Promoting stuff that in fact won't make any audible difference, obviously won't make your work sound worse.     

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, MikeyFresh said:

Sony launches hi-res streaming service in Japan

Lossless 24/96 tracks in collaboration with Rhapsody's Napster platform, at about £14 per month.

 

Absolutely no mention of any MQA bullshit, and I sincerely hope it stays that way.

This is very interesting. Especially interesting is the fact that this market is so big into physical media and MQA CDs are pretty much made for it.

[sullis02]

3 hours ago, Jud said:

 

 

More specifically, the list (which is kind of jaw-dropping in terms of artists - Yes, Genesis, CSN, Pete Townshend, Led Zeppelin, U2 [edit: forgot Bob Marley!] are just a start - and includes many masterings considered the best sounding for the particular albums) may be found in this post:

 

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/essential-barry-diament-masterings.131468/page-19#post-3602393

 

This doesn't mean Barry is infinitely knowledgeable about matters audio-technical, of course.  It does seem to me to say that he has some idea what good sound is, and that cheap insults over the interwebs are unmerited.

 

 

Talk about your 'cargo cults'......Hoffman's place fits the bill.   Diament did most of his work back in the 80s when he was one of Atlantic records' few in-house  remastering engineers for the new CD medium.   No doubt some consider those 1st gen CDs the 'best sounding'  (though for giggles one may always read a Hoffman thread and see how quickly such 'consensus' turns to mush)   but rest assured that it's far from a universal opinion.  

 

And again, having 'some idea what good sound is'  doesn't protect you from all the usual sighted biases nor does it automatically validate your cause/effect beliefs.   If wav 'sounds better' than flac to old Barry,  proof doesn't come from the ability to make a nice sounding record.     We aren't accepting such specious arguments from authority for MQA 'sound' -- Bob Stuart after all is a highly respected name in audio --  so why accept those sort of argument for Barry Diament's claims?

 

 

[Rt66indierock]

Also interesting is Astell&Kern's announcement that they have implemented a full  MQA decoder.   Which according to the press release unfolds to the full resolution of the original file.  In a lot of cases the file size is 16/44.1. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

26 minutes ago, Rt66indierock said:

Also interesting is Astell&Kern's announcement that they have implemented a full  MQA decoder.   Which according to the press release unfolds to the full resolution of the original file.  In a lot of cases the file size is 16/44.1. 

This surprised me because many HiFi manufacturers only implement the renderer due to resource constraints. I have the new A&K SE100 in for review and it has a fairly powerful hardware platform, but it . doesn't seem even close to some of the standard hardware in full size components. 

 

The SE100 is really nice so far.

[mansr]

37 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

This surprised me because many HiFi manufacturers only implement the renderer due to resource constraints. I have the new A&K SE100 in for review and it has a fairly powerful hardware platform, but it . doesn't seem even close to some of the standard hardware in full size components. 

 

The SE100 is really nice so far.

Do you know what hardware it has inside?

[crenca]

1 hour ago, Rt66indierock said:

Also interesting is Astell&Kern's announcement that they have implemented a full  MQA decoder.   Which according to the press release unfolds to the full resolution of the original file.  In a lot of cases the file size is 16/44.1. 

 

39 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

This surprised me because many HiFi manufacturers only implement the renderer due to resource constraints. I have the new A&K SE100 in for review and it has a fairly powerful hardware platform, but it . doesn't seem even close to some of the standard hardware in full size components. 

 

The SE100 is really nice so far.

 

1 minute ago, mansr said:

Do you know what hardware it has inside?

 

A&K definitely plays in the "high end" of the DAP market.  Understandable they went with MQA full decoding as the "high end" where MQA has been most successfully sold.  Will this be an "opinion leader" in the personal audio space?  I have my doubts...

[The Computer Audiophile]

6 minutes ago, mansr said:

Do you know what hardware it has inside?

No, but A&K says an 8 core CPU for what that's worth. It runs Android.

 

https://www.astellnkern.com/eng/content/shop/features.asp?mcg=CG110000&mpos=0&scg=CG231960&spos=1&tcg=&tpos=0&gcode=SC32050

[Ralf11]

7 hours ago, mansr said:

Electrical breakdown of air occurs at a few kV/mm. Pointy electrodes facilitate breakdown by increasing the field strength in their vicinity. Stun guns typically have an open-circuit voltage of 20-30 kV. Once contact is made, the voltage drops considerably due to internal resistance.

 

As for Synergistic Research, if they really were zapping things with high voltage, I'd be concerned about surface damage wherever the arc strikes.

 

I can see Taser Guns being the new cable treatment!

[Ralf11]

I do have to say one thing - I am surprised that any thread on the SH forum speaking well of a recording engineer who is not Steve hoffman was not deleted.

[Rt66indierock]

Back on topic Rafe Arnott just posted that MQA has taken the music industry by storm. I'm sure he isn't talking about  the storm against  the format.

 

But he is trying to say that thousands of songs and albums mean anything. I wish him luck with that.

[Jud]

1 hour ago, sullis02 said:

 

 

Talk about your 'cargo cults'......Hoffman's place fits the bill.   Diament did most of his work back in the 80s when he was one of Atlantic records' few in-house  remastering engineers for the new CD medium.   No doubt some consider those 1st gen CDs the 'best sounding'  (though for giggles one may always read a Hoffman thread and see how quickly such 'consensus' turns to mush)   but rest assured that it's far from a universal opinion.  

 

Oh, you thought I was citing the Hoffman forum? I don't read it. I think you'll find the generally good opinions about his masterings (which I share regarding the Led Zeppelin and Marley discs that I own and he mastered) at least somewhat borne out by measurements at DR Database.

 

1 hour ago, sullis02 said:

And again, having 'some idea what good sound is'  doesn't protect you from all the usual sighted biases nor does it automatically validate your cause/effect beliefs.   If wav 'sounds better' than flac to old Barry,  proof doesn't come from the ability to make a nice sounding record.     We aren't accepting such specious arguments from authority for MQA 'sound' -- Bob Stuart after all is a highly respected name in audio --  so why accept those sort of argument for Barry Diament's claims?

 

Right, I said the same in my original comment to which you made this reply.

[Jud]

26 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

I do have to say one thing - I am surprised that any thread on the SH forum speaking well of a recording engineer who is not Steve hoffman was not deleted.

 

I have a Buddy Holly collection he mastered that has great sound, and I like his mastering of Pet Sounds a lot, too.

 

Anyone know what he thinks of MQA?

[mansr]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

No, but A&K says an 8 core CPU for what that's worth. It runs Android.

 

https://www.astellnkern.com/eng/content/shop/features.asp?mcg=CG110000&mpos=0&scg=CG231960&spos=1&tcg=&tpos=0&gcode=SC32050

It's probably one of the many ARM based chips clocked at 1 GHz or more. Running a full MQA decoder on that is not a problem at all.

[asdf1000]

“But we see the awareness of high-res audio growing here in the U.S. and Europe as well. Those markets are starting to follow. We’re prepared to go worldwide.”

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/why-sony-is-launching-a-hi-res-streaming-service-in-japan-767021/amp/

 

 

[FredericV]

1 hour ago, Ralf11 said:

 

I can see Taser Guns being the new cable treatment!

For less then 4$ zap those cables   Off course it's not 400kv or even 500kv, but rather in the range of a cheap stun gun, so divide by a factor 20 to get the actual voltage. The smaller the spark gap, the lower the voltage and the higher the discharge rate.

https://www.dx.com/p/esamact-dc-3v-6v-to-400kv-400000v-boost-step-up-power-module-high-voltage-transformer-black-2031639
 

 

[sandyk]

5 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

“But we see the awareness of high-res audio growing here in the U.S. and Europe as well. Those markets are starting to follow. We’re prepared to go worldwide.”

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/why-sony-is-launching-a-hi-res-streaming-service-in-japan-767021/amp/

 

 

 

A service like this from  Sony has the ability to take the wind right out of MQA's sails !

 The Japanese are more known for their like of high res formats such as BluSpec , SHM etc. and NOT formats which degrade Audio.