MQA is Vaporware

[Digital Assassin]

2 hours ago, james45974 said:

Um, because the editor has become a groveling shill?

DING DING DING! BIngo!

[Digital Assassin]

3 hours ago, mcgillroy said:

Can anybody explain me the economic or other rationale of Stereophiles MQA unconditional endorsement?! Today another DAC review is up that sings the song of MQAs qualities.

 

More importantly even goes so far as to hit competing vendors for not including MQA:

 

"If you were contemplating the purchase of a new DAC, why would you not want it to include MQA processing?"

 

and

 

"Schiit's reference DAC would be my reference DAC—if only it had MQA"

 

etc, etc.

 

Audio reviews are audio reviews but this level of ignoring the wider discussion and including specific vitriol is astonishing. Why?!

We need to discuss the levels of absurdity this "review" reaches.

 

This is the second such piece of drivel that promotes MQA with the DAC in question a side note.

 

Secondly, did I miss it, but the only source he used for this MQA PR is an "MQA encoded CD"??????

 

Please if I missed it can someone point out and what sources were used???

 

Does the MyTek DAC process any file into MQA on the fly?????

 

Did I also miss any reference to Tidal?

 

I have never seen such a ill equipped "reviewer" and I have never seen a more coordinate shill job.

 

"DSD and high-resolution downloads never sound completely right or real to me. MQA does"

 

LOL! Lose the wig Herb..

[rickca]

21 minutes ago, Digital Assassin said:

DSD and high-resolution downloads never sound completely right or real to me. MQA does

And then he says

Listening to CDs or PCM files through the Manhattan II, I discovered that it was best to disable MQA and its built-in minimum-phase PCM filter. With MQA enabled, PCM files and CDs sounded smooth and open, but maybe a little roundish and gray.
So unless you listen exclusively to TIDAL MQA files ... you get the picture.

[Miska]

Did you also notice Michael Fremer's Analog Corner where he says MQA is almost as good as vinyl and all other digital is horrible and unlistenable.

 

Obviously someone wants to force-feed MQA to audiophiles...

 

[Fokus]

But then the strategic section in the public MQA accounts calls them 'key opinion makers'.

 

[Charles Hansen]

Hello All,

 

I think some very astute comments are being made that deserve a response from Sterophile and/or JA. As noted before he does not seem to participate in this forum, but he is almost always quite responsive to queries posted at:

 

https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/etv.mpl?forum=critics

 

Each forum has different rules. The rules at The Audio Asylum are fairly simple - if one has any affiliation with the audio industry in any way, you agree to use your real name and disclose your affiliation.. Manufacturers are not allowed to reply to general questions (eg, "What CD player should I buy?") but can respond to specific questions about the equipment they manufacture (eg, "What is the power consumption of an Ayre CD player?"). Sign up is free and easy.

 

Cheers,

Charles Hansen

[mcgillroy]

Thx Charles - will do. Traveling atm so might take a day or two before getting around to it.

 

Also commenting on individual articles is possible on the Stereophile site itself. Archimago has been very present there and some Stereophile writers including JA sometimes respond.

 

They quality of their responses is another story. It's really a lesson in sidestepping issues and de-legitimizing the commenters.

[mansr]

2 hours ago, mcgillroy said:

Also commenting on individual articles is possible on the Stereophile site itself.

Unless your comments are deleted or you get banned.

[mcgillroy]

28 minutes ago, mansr said:

Unless your comments are deleted or you get banned.

 

Did that happen to you?

[mansr]

16 minutes ago, mcgillroy said:

Did that happen to you?

No, I haven't bothered trying.

[mcgillroy]

1 hour ago, mansr said:

No, I haven't bothered trying.

 

:)))

[Digital Assassin]

8 hours ago, Charles Hansen said:

Hello All,

 

I think some very astute comments are being made that deserve a response from Sterophile and/or JA. As noted before he does not seem to participate in this forum, but he is almost always quite responsive to queries posted at:

 

https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/etv.mpl?forum=critics

 

Each forum has different rules. The rules at The Audio Asylum are fairly simple - if one has any affiliation with the audio industry in any way, you agree to use your real name and disclose your affiliation.. Manufacturers are not allowed to reply to general questions (eg, "What CD player should I buy?") but can respond to specific questions about the equipment they manufacture (eg, "What is the power consumption of an Ayre CD player?"). Sign up is free and easy.

 

Cheers,

Charles Hansen

Can we ask questions like:

 

"Why are you publishing DISHONEST and disingenuous "reviews" masquerading as infomercials for MQA?"

 

"Are you being promised a piece of the pie if there is an acquisition?"

[crenca]

8 hours ago, Charles Hansen said:

Hello All,

 

I think some very astute comments are being made that deserve a response from Sterophile and/or JA. As noted before he does not seem to participate in this forum, but he is almost always quite responsive to queries posted at:

 

https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/etv.mpl?forum=critics

 

Each forum has different rules. The rules at The Audio Asylum are fairly simple - if one has any affiliation with the audio industry in any way, you agree to use your real name and disclose your affiliation.. Manufacturers are not allowed to reply to general questions (eg, "What CD player should I buy?") but can respond to specific questions about the equipment they manufacture (eg, "What is the power consumption of an Ayre CD player?"). Sign up is free and easy.

 

Cheers,

Charles Hansen

 

I have followed and participated in a few exchanges with JA on the Sterophile blog about MQA.  My conclusion is that they went "all in" with MQA very very early and don't have a way to save face and thus are going down with the ship.  I do mean all of them - perhaps only the new girl has any distance/criticism of MQA at all.  How they got to this point is interesting to think about:

 

1)  They don't have any real experience/skills in all things digital.  They have no knowledge/understanding of software, formats, standards, IP, and the like and do no understand how these things interact.  In other words, their skill set is analogue.

 

2)  The industry is small and about "access" and so "audiophile press" is too close to manufactures and too distant from consumers.

 

3) They are angry about the internet.  Forums such as this one are real competition for them and they don't like it.  They are also more than a little arrogant, in that they will point out at every opportunity the disadvantages of the internet but of course they are silent at best (in the case of MQA, outright hypocritical) about their own knowledge gap and biases.

 

4)  They largely serve the older, old school, "subjectivist" crowd and have not yet figured out how to address the concerns/needs of the younger, digitally aware and voodoo adverse "objectivist" audiophile who (more often than not) get their start in "personal audio".

 

No doubt much more could be said.  MQA, because of what it is, has brought out the worst in them and truly exposed their underbellies.  JA's complaints about bit depth of say Schiit's Yggy, yet praise of (much shallower) bit depth of MQA is so obviously hypocritical but what does he and the rest of the editors do?  They simply carry on, but who can blame them?  What else can the do given who and what the are?  

[tmtomh]

13 hours ago, Miska said:

Did you also notice Michael Fremer's Analog Corner where he says MQA is almost as good as vinyl and all other digital is horrible and unlistenable.

 

Obviously someone wants to force-feed MQA to audiophiles...

 

Not to derail the thread, but I cannot stand Fremer. His tactics are those of a talk radio figure, but he gets treated as if he's a legitimate audiophile with real knowledge.

[Sal1950]

8 minutes ago, crenca said:

I have followed and participated in a few exchanges with JA on the Sterophile blog about MQA.  My conclusion is that they went "all in" with MQA very very early and don't have a way to save face and thus are going down with the ship.  I do mean all of them - perhaps only the new girl has any distance/criticism of MQA at all.  How they got to this point is interesting to think about:

It all went down hill there when JGH started to accept advertising. (dealers only originally).

Today we have a little club of the high ends manufacturers, dealers, print media, web media, etc; .  Their position is that whatever is good for commerce in the High End industry is good for everyone, they'll all make $ at the end of the road.  Things like the reality of a products audible benefits take a back seat to anything that a good spin can be spun around. If it looks like a highly profitable path, a thousand veils are lifted and soundstages gain dimensionality.

Yea, right.

[crenca]

2 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

"a thousand veils are lifted"

 

 

If I was going to start a new ("objectivist" of course) audiophile blog or publication I think that would be the name

 

I has a kind of haiku ring to it.

[The Computer Audiophile]

15 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

It all went down hill there when JGH started to accept advertising.

 

You kids get off my lawn!

 

:~)

[mansr]

48 minutes ago, crenca said:

 

If I was going to start a new ("objectivist" of course) audiophile blog or publication I think that would be the name

 

I has a kind of haiku ring to it.

the cable is plugged

a thousand veils are lifted

after the burn-in

[lucretius]

1 hour ago, Sal1950 said:

If it looks like a highly profitable path, a thousand veils are lifted and soundstages gain dimensionality.

Yea, right.

 

"a thousand veils are lifted" = no bass

"soundstages gain dimensionality" = boosted treble

[Sal1950]

37 minutes ago, mansr said:

the cable is plugged

a thousand veils are lifted

after the burn-in

For a  $500 premium you can get them pre burned in.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

For a  $500 premium you can get them pre burned in.

 

 

But not cryogenically treated?

[Digital Assassin]

59 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

But not cryogenically treated?

no, but blessed by 7 virgins, and dusted with powder from crushed Martian rock.

[andifor]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

But not cryogenically treated?

 

40 minutes ago, Digital Assassin said:

no, but blessed by 7 virgins, and dusted with powder from crushed Martian rock.

 

Now I'm lost... is this straight from the new MQA description?

[Charles Hansen]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

But not cryogenically treated?

 

Chris,

 

Why the snarkiness? The only difference between the original Berkeley DAC (your long time reference) and your even more beloved "Reference Series" (at nearly 3x the price) was upgraded passive parts quality - things that shouldn't make a difference yet obviously do to a trained listener with a familiar system playing familiar music. Specifically, a chassis machined from solid billet instead of bent sheet metal and a change from "standard" FR-4 PCB material to Rogers 4000 series, a low-loss material designed for GHz range circuits.

 

I think this is more than enough about who can hear what differences, and is certainly not the place. Please return to discussions about MQA.

 

Thanks,

Charles Hansen

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, Charles Hansen said:

 

Chris,

 

Why the snarkiness? The only difference between the original Berkeley DAC (your long time reference) and your even more beloved "Reference Series" (at nearly 3x the price) was upgraded passive parts quality - things that shouldn't make a difference yet obviously do to a trained listener with a familiar system playing familiar music. Specifically, a chassis machined from solid billet instead of bent sheet metal and a change from "standard" FR-4 PCB material to Rogers 4000 series, a low-loss material designed for GHz range circuits.

 

I think this is more than enough about who can hear what differences, and is certainly not the place. Please return to discussions about MQA.

 

Thanks,

Charles Hansen

 

It was just a joke.