MQA is Vaporware

[Kimo]

3 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

 

I'll buy it for $1!

And will say - keep the change!

 

In crypto.

[Jud]

1 hour ago, Iving said:

In case of any interest, a revealing contextual account of SCL6 for Audio Pros (scroll down to Editor's Desk):

 

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/The-Audio-Voice-414--The-Case-of-the-SCL6-Scalable-Codec--How-Much-Do-You-Want-Hi-Res-Audio-.html?soid=1104292817535&aid=6aJSuNESaAs

 

This fellow sounds quite fair and balanced.

 

Quote

But everything else that followed - including the "technical discussions" and "debunking" of MQA in forums - was generated mostly by the same people who still didn't move from MP3, think that AAC is "the same thing" or is "an Apple codec," and that vinyl is still the best music source. And anyway, wireless was never a part of their concerns.

 

Yep, he's got us to dead to rights there - mp3 fanatics here!

 

Quote

In most cases, the people who refuse to look at any "codec" alternative, are often the same ones who refuse to accept the need for data compression in the first place, because they still live in the world of cables - sometimes very expensive cables of very questionable merits. Others, simply have vested commercial interests themselves, confuse lossless with uncompressed, or prefer to promote the abstract merits of lossless compression without any concern for the reality of streaming distribution and transmission technologies (or commercial product viability for that matter).

 

Got us again - talk of FLAC, ALAC, or wireless networking strictly verboten here. 🙄

[sphinxsix]

Think this might be a proper music on this sad occasion..

 

 

[firedog]

The wireless streaming codec might be worthwhile for situations such as bluetooth and wireless speakers. Just don't promote it as lossless and better than the original...

It's also hard to trust anything coming from MQA.

 

My fear is that it wil be bought for next to nothing in receivership and kept alive. 

[firedog]

31 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

This fellow sounds quite fair and balanced.

 

 

Yep, he's got us to dead to rights there - mp3 fanatics here!

 

 

Got us again - talk of FLAC, ALAC, or wireless networking strictly verboten here. 🙄

Yeah, I don't get that article. He talks about how necessary such a compression codec is for streaming services. 

No one has ever given me a compelling reason why that's true in 2023. 

[Jud]

28 minutes ago, firedog said:

Yeah, I don't get that article. He talks about how necessary such a compression codec is for streaming services. 

No one has ever given me a compelling reason why that's true in 2023. 

Even if it is, FLAC actually makes smaller files for equivalent resolution, so that argument is either completely unexamined or completely dishonest on the part of those who make it.

[The Computer Audiophile]

On 5/22/2021 at 4:28 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

mQa’s only out is to sell the IP to Dolby, and have Dolby back door it into everything because Dolby can move the needle with most companies unlike mQa. I hope it never happens though. 

I still think this is the only logical way out for mQa. However, that logic is really weak because Dolby is hitting a home run with Atmos for music right now. Atmos goes from two channel stereo to 16 channel immersive. It’s all encompassing. 
 

I wish I knew more about Dolby’s purchase of MLP back in the day. 

[taipan254]

Interesting timing given this what hifi piece touting ultra wideband. Given uwb seems to be the next evolution, what value would scl6 have to any buyer if scl6 isn’t required for 24 96 transmission using uwb?

 

do they have any other ip they can monetize?

[Kimo]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I still think this is the only logical way out for mQa. However, that logic is really weak because Dolby is hitting a home run with Atmos for music right now. Atmos goes from two channel stereo to 16 channel immersive. It’s all encompassing. 
 

 

 

I have the King Crimson Atmos mix on Blu ray, but only a two channel system to play it on.  I will try downmixing it and give a listen.  I hope it actually works on the Sony.

[yamamoto2002]

Are MQA encoded music files able to be decoded properly when official MQA decoder is disappeared? I heard it is protected by DRM and there is no legal way to decode properly by the third party even after all related patents are expired

[The Computer Audiophile]

11 minutes ago, yamamoto2002 said:

Are MQA encoded music files able to be decoded properly when official MQA decoder is disappeared? I heard it is protected by DRM and there is no legal way to decode properly by the third party even after all related patents are expired

The decoder is proprietary and unavailable outside of licensed products. The upsampling can be done after the decoding. 

[Archimago]

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I still think this is the only logical way out for mQa. However, that logic is really weak because Dolby is hitting a home run with Atmos for music right now. Atmos goes from two channel stereo to 16 channel immersive. It’s all encompassing. 
 

I wish I knew more about Dolby’s purchase of MLP back in the day. 

 

Yup, and Dolby also has lossy EAC3+Atmos covered. They don't need anything MQA (/Meridian) might be trying to sell this time round.

[yamamoto2002]

39 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

The decoder is proprietary and unavailable outside of licensed products. The upsampling can be done after the decoding. 

Oh that's unfortunate. Some higher frequency part of the music will be lost forever at some point of time. it is damnatio memoriae of 21st century

[bogi]

6 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

 

I'll buy it for $1!

And will say - keep the change!

 

I agree. Their folding, driven by self destructing intellectual property, should continue up to black hole singularity.

[stefano_mbp]

2 hours ago, yamamoto2002 said:

Some higher frequency part of the music will be lost forever at some point of time

Don’t worry, MQA encoded files are only encoded copies of the original not encoded files and nothing will be lost … 

[stefano_mbp]

MQA is just a useless addition of technical "complications" that no one felt the need for: dacs that are just renderers, dacs full decoders, only via usb or also via coax, passthrough, players and streamers that do the first unfolding, players and streamers who do passthrough ...
The "complications" are interesting, and valuable, in watches like IWC but certainly not in HiFi.

[lamode]

11 hours ago, Skirmash said:

Would Tidal themselves consider purchasing it? They have sunk significant effort into making MQA a point of difference!

 

Tidal keeps losing money too and has less than 1% of the streaming market. They will probably be next to go.

[GregWormald]

Let Elon buy it, declare himself CEO, and then its demise is ensured.

[Confused]

One thing to keep in mind regarding a company that goes into administration is that the shareholders are right at the back of the queue in terms of receiving monies from any eventual sale of the remaining assets. Secured creditors are first in line, it then runs down through to paying unsecured creditors, and by the time you get to shareholders there is nothing left.

 

So the various record companies that put money into MQA, or received shares in exchange for providing music for MQA conversion, are now left with precisely zero return on the investment.

 

Some you win, some you lose .....

[bambadoo]

So when will TAS, Stereophile and other pro MQA sites  the fantastic news to the public?

Usually they are pretty quick when there are some mqa news. 

[DuckToller]

41 minutes ago, bambadoo said:

So when will TAS, Stereophile and other pro MQA sites  the fantastic news to the public?

Usually they are pretty quick when there are some mqa news. 

Hhm, delicate situation over there.

For an industry outsider their extreme supportive behavior may have indicated "special interests" with MQA, that now may dry up or render worthless.

[FredericV]

16 hours ago, bambadoo said:

LOL!!!

 

Why would he rate limit the comments?

"Members are limited to commenting once every 5 minutes on this post."





 

[Jud]

11 hours ago, yamamoto2002 said:

Are MQA encoded music files able to be decoded properly when official MQA decoder is disappeared?

They’re really not able to be decoded ‘properly,’ in the sense of being faithful to the original, even with the official decoder, because encoding uses lossy compression and truncation of bits (to substitute bits that tell the decoder what to do); then that’s followed by filtering as part of the decoder that leaves aliasing/images. (I don’t know what the filtering looks like on the ADC side, but if MQA adheres to the same philosophy there it should behave similarly.) So once a file is encoded with the MQA process, some information is irretrievably lost. This is why I think the great pity of MQA while it lasted was not so much the bad productions, but the good carefully produced recordings that could have been yet better.

[The Computer Audiophile]

20 hours ago, bambadoo said:

LOL!!!

 

 

The eternal optimist. Next time I have a bad day, I should call Peter V. He could spin any tragedy into a can't lose, opportunity not to be missed. I have to give him credit. 

[firedog]

22 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

The eternal optimist. Next time I have a bad day, I should call Peter V. He could spin any tragedy into a can't lose, opportunity not to be missed. I have to give him credit. 

Classic cognitive dissonance. He's spent years vociferously defending it, no matter what.

What will he say when it actually fails and goes away?