mansr Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 MQA wants to be the One Ring to rule them all. crenca 1 Link to comment
esldude Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Don Hills said: The tl;dr summary: "Ringing" happens when the filter has to cut off energy at or above its cutoff frequency. Good luck trying to find a musical instrument that produces any significant energy above 96 KHz, and even more luck finding a microphone capable of recording it. Yes excellent post. Only one thing to add to the above. Yet even more luck finding a human who can hear 96 khz ringing. Don Hills 1 And always keep in mind: Cognitive biases, like seeing optical illusions are a sign of a normally functioning brain. We all have them, it’s nothing to be ashamed about, but it is something that affects our objective evaluation of reality. Link to comment
Popular Post John_Atkinson Posted January 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2018 6 hours ago, Fokus said: It is not even a given that these were ever reviewed before acceptance. I don't know the standards for AES journals. Papers published in the Journal of the AES are peer-reviewed. Convention papers are not. John Atkinson Editor, Stereophile AES member since 1981 Shadders, Pure Vinyl Club, Mordikai and 1 other 1 2 1 Link to comment
Samuel T Cogley Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 4 hours ago, Don Hills said: If you prefer your education in video form, start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG9jemV1T7I You may find the section from 3:00 to 16:00 most relevant. Next, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIQ9IXSUzuM I strongly recommend watching the whole video. Pay particular attention from about the 17:20 mark. Scoggins has been trashing Monty Montgomery for years. I don't think those videos will sway his "beliefs" that have been spoon fed to him by manufacturers. I especially like the dropping of three names in one sentence: Quote In looking at the Xiph Neil Young page, there are lots of problems. Here are some observations: 1. They don't present any actual scientific evidence themselves. There are no controlled listening tests either proving or disproving the benefits of 24/192 hirez. 2. They do present papers via links and their own spin on papers which suggest no discrimination between 16/44 (!) and 24/96. 3. They ignore any links to the Ohashi study which showed listeners discriminating hirez from 16/44. 4. This is the biggest one for me. No rebuttal of Bob Stuart's Coding2 paper or Mike Story's paper or Dan Lavry's paper. Mike Story's work is not even mentioned. These don't support Xiph's view but are written by very well respected digital researchers. If Xiph had credibility, those well-known papers would have been discussed in detail. 5. The entire page is pretty much a litany of digital artifact discussion but not really a structured argument against 24/192. On Planet Scoggins, Monty Montgomery is a Flat Earther. MrMoM 1 Link to comment
crenca Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 I thought it was a little amusing that Lee suggested that mqa algorithm "requires" encryption. Is there any such thing in the wild, a computational algorithm that "requires" encryption for it to be solved? Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math! Link to comment
Samuel T Cogley Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 15 minutes ago, crenca said: I thought it was a little amusing that Lee suggested that mqa algorithm "requires" encryption. Is there any such thing in the wild, a computational algorithm that "requires" encryption for it to be solved? In my experience over at Hoffman over the years, Scoggins has close to zero technical knowledge himself. He just parrots what he's told by manufacturers, and holds them in the highest regard as the ultimate experts. When he's challenged on one of his technical claims, he simply retreats to "that's what X told me, and he's more of an expert than you". MikeyFresh 1 Link to comment
Popular Post new_media Posted January 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2018 14 hours ago, Lee Scoggins said: Still researching but my current understanding is that DRM isn’t being used on MQA files presently so I am not sure how any consumer freedoms are being harmed. If I purchased an MQA-encoded album and wanted to listen to it on anything other than an officially licensed MQA device, it would be worse than redbook quality. I don't care if that's DRM by your definition, it is by mine, and I would buy a CD over MQA encoded files every single time. mansr, Samuel T Cogley, Fokus and 7 others 7 2 1 Link to comment
Shadders Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 39 minutes ago, crenca said: I thought it was a little amusing that Lee suggested that mqa algorithm "requires" encryption. Is there any such thing in the wild, a computational algorithm that "requires" encryption for it to be solved? Hi, Bitcoin requires digital signing using public and private keys : https://www.coindesk.com/math-behind-bitcoin/ Regards, Shadders. Link to comment
Samuel T Cogley Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 8 minutes ago, Shadders said: Hi, Bitcoin requires digital signing using public and private keys : https://www.coindesk.com/math-behind-bitcoin/ Regards, Shadders. The whole point of Bitcoin is anonymity through encryption. I think @crenca's point is how does audio DSP require encryption? Link to comment
Shadders Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Just now, Samuel T Cogley said: The whole point of Bitcoin is anonymity through encryption. I think @crenca's point is how does audio DSP require encryption? Ahhhh, but he never specified that....... Link to comment
crenca Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 31 minutes ago, Shadders said: Ahhhh, but he never specified that....... Well, my point was that does there exist a computational algorithm, for which to be completed, "requires" encryption. Well of course, and that would be encryption algorithms! However, everything else (including MQA's encoding scheme) would not "require" encryption because the point is not encrypted itself. Encryption is present in MQA to serve the purpose of "management" of end users (and DAC manufactures, mixing engineers, etc.) digitally. Lee is suggesting, ostensibly because he was told by MQA's PR people but I actually doubt that - he is just making it up as he goes along, that somehow the folding process of MQA would not work without it being buried behind encryption. I am not sure even Bitcoin qualifies (could be wrong), because in a world populated with angels (as opposed to men), bitcoin could work without the need for encryption.... Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math! Link to comment
Shadders Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 3 minutes ago, crenca said: Well, my point was that does there exist a computational algorithm, for which to be completed, "requires" encryption. Well of course, and that would be encryption algorithms! However, everything else (including MQA's encoding scheme) would not "require" encryption because the point is not encrypted itself. Encryption is present in MQA to serve the purpose of "management" of end users (and DAC manufactures, mixing engineers, etc.) digitally. Lee is suggesting, ostensibly because he was told by MQA's PR people but I actually doubt that - he is just making it up as he goes along, that somehow the folding process of MQA would not work without it being buried behind encryption. I am not sure even Bitcoin qualifies (could be wrong), because in a world populated with angels (as opposed to men), bitcoin could work without the need for encryption.... Hi, Hmmm, scrambling a data stream requires a pseudo random generator - which is the basis for encryption. Not sure if the scrambled data stream is scrambled or encrypted. Of course MQA operation does not require encryption since it is possible to just scramble the data stream, so every knows the key (to prime the PRNG/PRBS), and anyone can decode. Regards, Shadders. Link to comment
Norton Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 1 hour ago, new_media said: If I purchased an MQA-encoded album and wanted to listen to it on anything other than an officially licensed MQA device, it would be worse than redbook quality. I don't care if that's DRM by your definition, it is by mine, and I would buy a CD over MQA encoded files every single time. I guess that hangs on what you mean by a "device". Providing you are using software that does the initial decode, then you can enjoy up to 96kHz sent to your existing DAC. For example, as Barrows has confirmed in the Ultra Rendu thread "To be clear, the files start as 24/96, and the "first unfold" delivers all of the resolution of the original files". While it's true that 24/96 doesn't set the world on fire these days, it's not the case that you'll be getting < CD quality. My own listening using XXHighEnd to feed MQA to my non-MQA DAC confirms this. Of course, if others are right about DRM, maybe this is a loophole that will be closed one day. Lee Scoggins 1 Link to comment
Popular Post crenca Posted January 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2018 3 minutes ago, Norton said: I guess that hangs on what you mean by a "device". Providing you are using software that does the initial decode, then you can enjoy up to 96kHz sent to your existing DAC. For example, as Barrows has confirmed in the Ultra Rendu thread "To be clear, the files start as 24/96, and the "first unfold" delivers all of the resolution of the original files". While it's true that 24/96 doesn't set the world on fire these days, it's not the case that you'll be getting < CD quality. My own listening using XXHighEnd to feed MQA my non-MQA DAC confirms this. Of course, if others are right about DRM, maybe this is a loophole that will be closed one day. Sigh. Norton, honestly your lost in the details & claims of MQA to give you 24/96. 1) Whether you are licensing a physical DAC or a piece of software, you are still being "managed", by digital means (i.e. which at the end of the day is a legal means - the digital just being the point of the Intellectual property, patent spear). MQA, before it is even decoded, is DRM by its nature. It is a "freemium" model (which many users are "ok" with) but it is DRM nonetheless. 2) MQA even decoded through approved means is at best 17 bits, probably less (some say as low as 13). So no matter how you slice it it it can't be 24 bit of anything. 3) The only thing your listening "confirms" is that you like the sound of sound of a lossy, 17 bit or less, min phase and leaky filter encoding. MikeyFresh and mcgillroy 2 Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math! Link to comment
Norton Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 1 hour ago, crenca said: Sigh. Norton, honestly your lost in the details & claims of MQA to give you 24/96. I was quoting from the Sonore sub-forum on this site, not the claims of MQA. I presume that if the Ultra Rendu delivers 24/96 on first unfold (subject presumably to 96kHz MQA source file) then other initial software decoders do the same. For example, XX High End clearly shows 24/96 input too. Am I wrong? Link to comment
Popular Post Tony Lauck Posted January 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2018 15 hours ago, Lee Scoggins said: Don, I understand that but isn’t it unfair to criticize MQA for encryption when that is a key part of the folding? Encryption is not a necessary part of the folding from an audio perspective. In the MQA "ecosystem" encryption serves three purposes: a technical purpose associated with the folding, a control purpose which adds difficulty to competing product implementations, and a legal purpose enabling criminal prosecution of control violations. When encoding information that is correlated to the music (and this includes the folded high frequency content) the encoded information must be scrambled or "whitened" into pseudo-noise to convert distortion artifacts into noise artifacts. This can be done using pseudo-random number generators which involve no cryptographic algorithm, it can be done using cryptographic one-way hash functions which accomplish the same effect with more confidence, or it can done with encryption algorithms which use a key to control access to the encoded information. All three of these methods will achieve the same technical result from an audio quality perspective, albeit with different hardware implementation costs. The control purpose can be effected by keeping algorithms proprietary, but this will be difficult for decoding algorithms which enjoy mass distribution and are subject to reverse engineering. However, by using encryption algorithms it becomes possible to gain much greater control over the process, including potentially identifying individual units that have been reverse engineered. There is a long history of this process associated primarily with protection of video content and goes back to early broadcast satellite video, aborted attempts for CD audio protection, DVD encryption, Blue Ray Encryption, etc... Unfortunately from the perspective of the content providers these methods were easily broken. The criminal prosecution purpose came into play when it became obvious that the control purpose could not be realized without criminalizing the reverse engineering process. In the USA this was accomplished by the Digital Millenial Copyright Act. As a result of this legislation threats of criminal arrest were thrown world wide, including to European university based cryptographers who were threatened with arrest if they published technical details of their cryptographic research. One case was the encryption protection used with the HDMI interface. The researchers in question were told that if they published there results they would never be able to enter the US without fear of arrest. mcgillroy, semente, Tsarnik and 2 others 3 2 Link to comment
Popular Post mansr Posted January 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2018 10 minutes ago, Norton said: I was quoting from the Sonore sub-forum on this site, not the claims of MQA. I presume that if the Ultra Rendu delivers 24/96 on first unfold, then other initial software decoders do the same. Am I wrong? The software decoders output 24/96, yes. How many of those 24 bits actually hold useful information is another matter. Norton, MikeyFresh and semente 1 1 1 Link to comment
Norton Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 18 minutes ago, mansr said: The software decoders output 24/96, yes. How many of those 24 bits actually hold useful information is another matter. I take your point, but is anyone really suggesting that the initial decode gives less than CD quality? I can understand (and maybe hear) that this may be the case with the undecoded stream. Link to comment
Popular Post mansr Posted January 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2018 8 minutes ago, Norton said: I take your point, but is anyone really suggesting that the initial decode gives less than CD quality? I can understand (and maybe hear) that this may be the case with the undecoded stream. Let's say, for sake of argument, that the decoded stream has 15 bits worth of actual audio data. In the 0-22 kHz range, this is most definitely less than CD quality since CD has 16 bits of data. Are the added inaudible high frequencies worth losing precision in the audible band? opus101, semente, esldude and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment
Popular Post Don Hills Posted January 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2018 In addition, the encoding filter used to split the audio into the 0-24 KHz and 24-48 KHz bands may be less than optimum for audio quality. It doesn't matter for core decode because a complementary filter is used to rejoin the bands, but it will affect the sound when played undecoded. @mansr, did you plot the coefficients of the rejoining filter? It should tell us about the encoding filter. opus101, semente, MikeyFresh and 1 other 3 1 "People hear what they see." - Doris Day The forum would be a much better place if everyone were less convinced of how right they were. Link to comment
mansr Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 15 minutes ago, Don Hills said: @mansr, did you plot the coefficients of the rejoining filter? It should tell us about the encoding filter. I haven't found them. Well, I've found a whole lot of filters, but I'm not sure how it all fits together. Link to comment
semente Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 19 hours ago, vmartell22 said: I don't do streaming other than in the car, where I am yelling at the kids, swearing at other drivers and barely controlling the road rage... so do not care about SQ, etc... just want to tame the beast... You should take a mindfulness course. Streamed in MQA. "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
semente Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 18 hours ago, Don Hills said: The DRM mechanism is present in all MQA files. Strong encryption is used to encode the "hi res" part of the data (the 24-48 KHz part stored in the lowest 8 or so bits of each sample.) Currently the upper bits ( 0-24 KHz, 15-17 bits) are unencrypted, but the format allows for encrypting most of the upper bits as well. As I've explained to you before, I believe it'll play out the same as HDCP has done for the HDMI standard. No enforcement of rights in the initial stages until the format becomes ubiquitous, then increasing enforcement. As for revenue stream, it's not so much about revenue. It's about control. The labels see their loss of revenue as being caused by a loss of control. They want the control back. "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
Shadders Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 2 hours ago, Tony Lauck said: When encoding information that is correlated to the music (and this includes the folded high frequency content) the encoded information must be scrambled or "whitened" into pseudo-noise to convert distortion artifacts into noise artifacts. This can be done using pseudo-random number generators which involve no cryptographic algorithm, it can be done using cryptographic one-way hash functions which accomplish the same effect with more confidence, or it can done with encryption algorithms which use a key to control access to the encoded information. All three of these methods will achieve the same technical result from an audio quality perspective, albeit with different hardware implementation costs. Hi Tony, This would not be possible - as you have stated, it is a one way hash function, and the data that goes in, is not reversible (in practice), and the hash output is generally a lot smaller than the input data stream. Regards, Shadders. Link to comment
Popular Post semente Posted January 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2018 17 hours ago, Lee Scoggins said: Don, I understand that but isn’t it unfair to criticize MQA for encryption when that is a key part of the folding? That is a bit like saying we don’t like DSD because it is sigma-delta modulation. And your comment about control doesn’t work because it doesn’t explain where revenue growth happens. I see it clearly now: the encryption is the elegant part of the folding. mcgillroy, MikeyFresh and crenca 3 "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
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