MQA is Vaporware

[MikeyFresh]

1 hour ago, miguelito said:

Should we purposefully avoid streaming MQA versions of albums to make our voices heard?

Yes, absolutely.

[Indydan]

Just now, MikeyFresh said:

 

There's that inflated sense of self importance again, apparently much worse than previously thought.

 

It's mind blowing, funny, and truly sad. 

[Indydan]

5 minutes ago, MikeyFresh said:

Yes, absolutely.

 

I agree that we should try and avoid streaming the MQA versions!

 

But, I find that Tidal makes it difficult to know which version you are listening to. One way I have found, for older albums, I check the date of release. If a 2007 album has a release date from 2017, It usually is a Tidal MQA master. 

[Indydan]

Just now, Indydan said:

 

Double post.

 

[Dr Tone]

1 hour ago, miguelito said:

am not 100% sure what our leverage point here is? Should we purposefully avoid streaming MQA versions of albums to make our voices heard?

 

Take it a step further, if or when Qobuz becomes available to you, make the switch.

[semente]

2 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

That is possible but it is an accurate description of my experience covering a long period of time.  In addition, I have not heard anything to the contrary from any other reviewer.  OTOH, I know of no basis for any speculation of censorship other than suspicion.

 

Not saying that it's happening but if a reviewer were to be "biased" (or in someone's pocket) then there would be no need for the editor to exert censorship.

[The Computer Audiophile]

12 minutes ago, Dr Tone said:

 

Take it a step further, if or when Qobuz becomes available to you, make the switch.

Deezer HiFi is lossless but so far not many manufacturers have integrated it.

[crenca]

37 minutes ago, Indydan said:

 

I agree that we should try and avoid streaming the MQA versions!

 

But, I find that Tidal makes it difficult to know which version you are listening to. One way I have found, for older albums, I check the date of release. If a 2007 album has a release date from 2017, It usually is a Tidal MQA master. 

 

Thanks for the date tip.  Usually (always?) in Roon when you see a double album, the first one is 16/44 and the second MQA...

[crenca]

7 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Deezer HiFi is lossless but so far not many manufacturers have integrated it.

 

I tried it for 2 months.  I have now become so used to Roon to HQPLayer/JRiver with DSP plugin I simply could not get used to the restrictions of their desktop app

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, crenca said:

 

I tried it for 2 months.  I have now become so used to Roon to HQPLayer/JRiver with DSP plugin I simply could not get used to the restrictions of their desktop app

I hear ya. I wish Roon would integrate with Deezer big time. 

[miguelito]

23 minutes ago, Dr Tone said:

 

Take it a step further, if or when Qobuz becomes available to you, make the switch.

I am a Roon person. Qobuz has decided it will go at it alone. So Qobuz isn’t an option for me. 

[Nikhil]

44 minutes ago, Indydan said:

I agree that we should try and avoid streaming the MQA versions!

 

Have been doing that from Day One!

 

[miguelito]

12 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Deezer HiFi is lossless but so far not many manufacturers have integrated it.

For proper Roon integration they would have to make their database available to Roon. Qobuz has refused and is going at it alone. It’s quite misguided in my opinion as with Roon you would still have to pay Qobuz a full subscription fee. In fact even more likely that one would pay for Sublime service (I certainly would). 

 

I don’t know Deezer’s position on this. 

[miguelito]

1 minute ago, Nikhil said:

 

Have been doing that from Day One!

 

I am extremely tempted by comparisons. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, miguelito said:

For proper Roon integration they would have to make their database available to Roon. Qobuz has refused and is going at it alone. It’s quite misguided in my opinion as with Roon you would still have to pay Qobuz a full subscription fee. In fact even more likely that one would pay for Sublime service (I certainly would). 

 

I don’t know Deezer’s position on this. 

I really wish Roon would offer its own streaming service. It's pretty easy to do this now days. 

[miguelito]

2 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I really wish Roon would offer its own streaming service. It's pretty easy to do this now days. 

 

 

 

[Dr Tone]

31 minutes ago, miguelito said:

I am a Roon person. Qobuz has decided it will go at it alone. So Qobuz isn’t an option for me. 

 

I’m a Roon user from version 1.0.  My Aries G2 takes care of Qobuz for me, I use it for discovery before purchase.

 

Personally I doubt Tidal will be around much longer, you can only hemerage for so long.

[miguelito]

1 hour ago, Dr Tone said:

 

I’m a Roon user from version 1.0.  My Aries G2 takes care of Qobuz for me, I use it for discovery before purchase.

 

Personally I doubt Tidal will be around much longer, you can only hemerage for so long.

TIDAL integration with Roon is something that would be extremely painful to do without. Not something I have any interest to hedge against at the moment. 

 

Should TIDAL disappear, I could use Qobuz via Audirvana—>dCS Rossini (over uPnP). Not looking forward to that!

 

BTW, I’ve been a lifetime Roon subscriber since July 2015. 

[mansr]

4 hours ago, miguelito said:

I don’t know the details of the history of this but in music DRM’d formats have disappeared. In surround sound, Dolby has maintained a lot of what MQA aspires to.

Does someone understand why this is? 

Dolby is an open standard and part of DVD, Bluray, and broadcast standards. It also does exactly what it says and nothing else.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, Dr Tone said:

Personally I doubt Tidal will be around much longer, you can only hemerage for so long.

That sentiment has been around since Tidal launched. Tidal is hemorrhaging much less money that Spotify that's for sure. 

[Kal Rubinson]

2 hours ago, semente said:

Not saying that it's happening but if a reviewer were to be "biased" (or in someone's pocket) then there would be no need for the editor to exert censorship.

Really?  I would think that would be a valid reason to exert censorship. 

 

In fact, reviewers are barred from reviewing products in whose development they might have been involved or consulted.  In addition, I have never reviewed any products manufactured by a few people who were friends prior to my relationship with Stereophile.

[skikirkwood]

On 3/6/2018 at 6:12 PM, skikirkwood said:

Has anyone looked at the Wikipedia article on Meridian, the MQA part specifically?

 

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

 

I think the article is in need of some editing to make it more accurate. I have a Wikipedia account, guess I could take the first crack at it.

 

Looking at the history of the Meridian Audio post on Wikipedia one can see that Richard Elen did the majority of edits recently.  That's interesting because Elen is a consultant to MQA!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Relen

 

I think it's time to have the MQA section on Wikipedia to be more "fair and balanced".

[skikirkwood]

1 hour ago, skikirkwood said:

 

Looking at the history of the Meridian Audio post on Wikipedia one can see that Richard Elen did the majority of edits recently.  That's interesting because Elen is a consultant to MQA!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Relen

 

I think it's time to have the MQA section on Wikipedia to be more "fair and balanced".

 

Well, I stand corrected.  People have already done my job for me.  The Wikipedia post on MQA is dramatically different than the last time I looked at it:

 

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

 

New content such as "MQA encoding is lossy", and a large "Criticism" section with links to this very forum.  Nice!  

[Indydan]

12 hours ago, crenca said:

 

Thanks for the date tip.  Usually (always?) in Roon when you see a double album, the first one is 16/44 and the second MQA...

 

I use the Naim app. I will check to see if the first one is always 16/44. 

[Brinkman Ship]

Recordijg engineer Tony Faulkner evicerates Stereophile over MQA coverage-

 

https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=critics&m=91897