MQA is Vaporware

[Samuel T Cogley]

29 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

Look at their marketing page, they have a line of headphones that target niches
"Take Sound Seriously: is one of the taglines:

 

https://www.beatsbydre.com/headphones/pro

 

Perhaps I'm not so easily impressed by marketing slogans as you.

 

Apple wants you to believe they "take sound seriously"?  No surprise there.  In my experience, their approach to "sound" is mass market consumer, period.

[chris6878]

2 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

 

I count 3 errors in this sentence.

 

(I can be serious too, but maybe not today)

 

PS: Welcome in this ... ehh ... manhole ? pitfall ?

 

Rabbit hole

[Samuel T Cogley]

31 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

Those brands are making the top 10 reviews based on looks??

http://www.toptenreviews.com/electronics/headphones/best-stereo-headphones/

 

Really?  The "Top Ten Reviews" site?  Did you just pick the top Google search result?  Web sites like that are pure click bait (at best).  Best to avoid them completely.

[PeterSt]

8 minutes ago, chris6878 said:

Do yall really think MQA will last or will it become a audiophile only toy used by the few.

 

1.: We all but 1 or 2 really think MQA can't last.

 

2.: We all think that it won't be an audiophile toy at all - merely an annoyance (in case MQA lasts after all).

 

3.: Used by none.

 

OK, I am still trying to be funny, especially if you reckon that I should be among those one or two. Still I am not trying to be sarcastic. 

[witchdoctor]

2 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

Really?  The "Top Ten Reviews" site?  Did you just pick the top Google search result?  Web sites like that are pure click bait (at best).  Best to avoid them completely.

Picky pickey, did you notice sennheiser made the list? How wromg can they be.

If you want to make a million all you gotta do is make headphones with feathers in them?

This sin't a headphone thread. My point is millenials spend money on SQ or they would just keep ear buds (which are also more fashionable than a pair of cans on our head BTW)

[witchdoctor]

7 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

Perhaps I'm not so easily impressed by marketing slogans as you.

 

Apple wants you to believe they "take sound seriously"?  No surprise there.  In my experience, their approach to "sound" is mass market consumer, period.

Are obsessed or possesed? I believe millenials want better SQ so they pay more for headphones. You think they would rather buy headphones than new shoes, OK.

[PeterSt]

12 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

Picky pickey, did you notice sennheiser made the list? How wromg can they be.

 

11 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

You think they would rather buy headphones than new shoes, OK.

 

Maybe I was putting comprehension problems in your shoes, but you also seem to confuse people and twist things around.

 

I also have news for you : in this house 3 or 4 Sennheisers float about, which is for one reason only : it is known as a good brand. OK, reason two : we can afford them. This means that instead of that you think such a great reviewer website is dedicated to 1 million Mellinials, it could have his data from 10 million Generation X (that would be me btw).

 

Oh, I forgot : the Sennheisers are here so people can watch Youtubes without disturbing others, or wear them again watching Youtubes while I play music. So you see, this is hardly related to SQ in the first place. Ear damage maybe.

But I noticed they don't help against MQA.

[mav52]

2 hours ago, PeterSt said:

 

The modern music is so completely sh*t that it is very hard to imagine that any youngster can be interested in good quality music (which includes the recording process), that there's no space for them to investigate any MQA or Hires for that matter. The exception is our own son who is day in day out confronted with the music his dad plays, and so his repertoire is that of his father's youth; when he goes out for a trip and loads his phone with music it's Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and the like (and btw no Ray Brown's because no youth is catching that, while I sure do play such music 10% of the time).

I'm afraid that our son is no reference for reality.

 

More freakin' is that he has learned to listen the same way as I do (his mom learned it too), just because he is subject to it continuously. But if he has the opportunity to obtain a nice stereo, he says No to it. It has to fit in his pocket or something.

So no MQA for him, or at least not for the reason of SQ. In the end he won't care less. Loose running Audiophile.

My daughters are the same. Gave my oldest my old KEF 104/2's and a amp and pre, CD player, my old Dual TT and phono and what does she do is listen to her iphone. AHHh ! ,

 

And I'm not sure who these Millennial's are spending money on SQ, what 1 out of 10,000 maybe ,  the majority from the Millennial's my youngest daughter is in college with, don't care about SQ, its a smart phone loaded with itunes and ear buds or a pair of Bose headphones. From what I saw they would rather set around for hours on end and watch NEflix for hours on a 65" TV all while texting on their smartphone. .  I had 15 of these Millennial's in our home on spring break this year and these "kids" just wanted to hangout, beach, pool, party, sleep and watch movies,  SQ of any kind LOL. 

[jabbr]

52 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

Picky pickey, did you notice sennheiser made the list? How wromg can they be.

If you want to make a million all you gotta do is make headphones with feathers in them?

This sin't a headphone thread. My point is millenials spend money on SQ or they would just keep ear buds (which are also more fashionable than a pair of cans on our head BTW)

My kids: got my son (15) senns: won’t wear them, rather buds or beats, SQ is not really relevant over some minimum

 

My daughter (the musician) could care less — the only SQ she cares about is her instrument & bow and there is zero recorded music that comes close to the SQ of her orchestra (s)

 

Slight incremental SQ differences are irelevent to them, AAC vs ALAC on the iPhone, FLAC vs DSF on land. The terabytes of music on our home media server are streamed via Roon/HQPlayer. Works great. 

 

We have unlimited data so minuscule compression formats are meaningless. MQA vs FLAC is meaningless in my bandwidth unlimited world. That’s the future.

 

Lets see: filters? I’m very happy with @PeterSt, @Miska and @Charles Hansen etc’s so ?MQA? how much are you paying me to want that? I don’t need it.

[witchdoctor]

8 minutes ago, jabbr said:

My kids: got my son (15) senns: won’t wear them, rather buds or beats, SQ is not really relevant over some minimum

 

My daughter (the musician) could care less — the only SQ she cares about is her instrument & bow and there is zero recorded music that comes close to the SQ of her orchestra (s)

 

Slight incremental SQ differences are irelevent to them, AAC vs ALAC on the iPhone, FLAC vs DSF on land. The terabytes of music on our home media server are streamed via Roon/HQPlayer. Works great. 

 

We have unlimited data so minuscule compression formats are meaningless. MQA vs FLAC is meaningless in my bandwidth unlimited world. That’s the future.

I 100% agree, slight incremental differences are meaningless to most consumers.

However they are monumentally important to the ARTISTS! If an artist puts their music out they want it to be heard as intended, period.

 

Now if you want a hit over your head, in your face, improvement in SQ that people from 8 to 80 will appreciate come visit my thread on immersive audio (or just go down and experience it yourself at your local theater).

[witchdoctor]

37 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

 

 

Maybe I was putting comprehension problems in your shoes, but you also seem to confuse people and twist things around.

 

I also have news for you : in this house 3 or 4 Sennheisers float about, which is for one reason only : it is known as a good brand. OK, reason two : we can afford them. This means that instead of that you think such a great reviewer website is dedicated to 1 million Mellinials, it could have his data from 10 million Generation X (that would be me btw).

 

Oh, I forgot : the Sennheisers are here so people can watch Youtubes without disturbing others, or wear them again watching Youtubes while I play music. So you see, this is hardly related to SQ in the first place. Ear damage maybe.

But I noticed they don't help against MQA.

You want to put MORE problems in my shoes? LOL    

[Samuel T Cogley]

1 minute ago, witchdoctor said:

I 100% agree, slight incremental differences are meaningless to most consumers.

However they are monumentally important to the ARTISTS! If an artist puts their music out they want it to be heard as intended, period.

 

"as the artist intended" has itself become a marketing slogan, which brings us back to MQA.  Oh wait, that's "how the record labels intended".  MQA doesn't make this (for example) peak limited soup any better, not at all.

[jabbr]

1 minute ago, witchdoctor said:

However they are monumentally important to the ARTISTS! If an artist puts their music out they want it to be heard as intended, period.

 

Some of my very good friends who are artists used to get serious $$$ yearly in the days of Telarc etc and we’re more interested in the SQ of their recordings. Those residuals have dropped off to a few thousand a year and they aren’t so interested in recording. Artists by and large make their $$$ on live performances nowadays. That’s how folks can hear their music exactly as intended.

[jabbr]

6 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

Now if you want a hit over your head, in your face, improvement in SQ that people from 8 to 80 will appreciate come visit my thread on immersive audio (or just go down and experience it yourself at your local theater).

I think there is potential for immersive audio. The experience I am looking for would be something like “being there”. I get to be there up front and close and our systems aren’t there yet. (Complex issue) that said, I don’t see MQA as being relevant to this solution — immersive multichannel is an entirely different kettle of fish.

[witchdoctor]

10 minutes ago, jabbr said:

I think there is potential for immersive audio. The experience I am looking for would be something like “being there”. I get to be there up front and close and our systems aren’t there yet. (Complex issue) that said, I don’t see MQA as being relevant to this solution — immersive multichannel is an entirely different kettle of fish.

That's why I have another thread, please stop by to discuss, thanks  

 

 

[Samuel T Cogley]

3 hours ago, witchdoctor said:

I believe millenials want better SQ

 

I agree if you say 0.01% want better sound quality.  When I first met a millennial neighbor (we've since become good friends) he was playing an vintage (not a reissue!) Led Zeppelin LP on a Crosley!  I asked him how much he paid for the record and he said like $50!  You could have knocked me over with a feather.

 

He didn't give a hoot about sound quality.  He was all about the spinner.

[witchdoctor]

How the witchdoctor "rolls" with MQA-  mobile, agile, and high style:

 

https://twitter.com/MeridianAudio/status/923134305680928769

[witchdoctor]

One of the BEST musical sources in the world dCS Vivaldi One does MQA (of course)

 

Reflecting the unique nature of Vivaldi One, each piece is personally supplied to the customer by an expert dCS engineer, who will configure it to get the best possible sound.

 

https://www.dcsltd.co.uk/news/

[Samuel T Cogley]

17 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

How the witchdoctor "rolls" with MQA-  mobile, agile, and high style:

 

https://twitter.com/MeridianAudio/status/923134305680928769

 

2 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

One of the BEST musical sources in the world dCS Vivaldi One does MQA (of course):

https://www.dcsltd.co.uk/news/

 

At some point (maybe now?), this is straight-up MQA forum spam. 

 

[Indydan]

I don't know if it has been mentioned, but MQA is not Bob Stuart's first try to implement an audio format. The format on DVD-Audio discs called Meridian lossless packaging was also created by his company Meridian (MLP).

 

MLP failed for audio*. MQA will also. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Lossless_Packing

 

*MLP has been successful with its implementation on Blu Ray with Dolby True-HD. 

[Indydan]

5 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

 

At some point (maybe now?), this is straight-up MQA forum spam. 

 

 

Mr. Hansen has written about this in some detail. When I see the over the top efforts of some people, to constantly push MQA into the conversation, I am inclined to believe him.  

[Samuel T Cogley]

5 minutes ago, Indydan said:

I don't know if it has been mentioned, but MQA is not Bob Stuart's first try to implement an audio format. The format on DVD-Audio discs called Meridian lossless packaging was also created by his company Meridian (MLP).

 

MLP failed for audio. MQA will also. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Lossless_Packing

 

Never understood MLP when FLAC would have worked just fine.  Oh wait, the "F" in FLAC stands for "free".  No opportunity to monetize.

[Samuel T Cogley]

1 minute ago, Indydan said:

 

Mr. Hansen has written about this in some detail. When I see the over the top efforts of some people, to constantly push MQA into the conversation, I am inclined to believe him.  

 

And indeed WD could be one of the names on that list!

[Indydan]

11 minutes ago, witchdoctor said:

One of the BEST musical sources in the world dCS Vivaldi One does MQA (of course):

https://www.dcsltd.co.uk/news/

That is because DCS knows there are a lot of gullible people who will complain that a 30 000$ component does not even have MQA. That is also why some manufacturers have included DSD in their DACs, so they do not lose sales to people who do not know better.

 

It does not mean they love DSD or MQA. 

[Indydan]

3 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

Never understood MLP when FLAC would have worked just fine.  Oh wait, the "F" in FLAC stands for "free".  No opportunity to monetize.

 

Exactly. MQA exists for the same reason.