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MQA is Vaporware


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4 hours ago, Fokus said:

 

Nope. With the files converted, there is nothing that could keep the labels from withdrawing all other versions and flooding the market with MQA, openly or not.

 

 

If they did not do it "openly" they would be found out in an internet forum second.  Even the mainstream consumer electronic media would not pass up the chance to report such an occurrence...

 

edit:  maybe I am not getting what you mean...

Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math!

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On 10/13/2018 at 9:21 AM, Fokus said:

 

Nope. With the files converted, there is nothing that could keep the labels from withdrawing all other versions and flooding the market with MQA, openly or not.

 

Absolutely, that's their end game in any case. Long term hope/plan for them and the signed on labels, is to replace all bit-perfect lossless files with lossy MQA versions when possible.

 

I was just being snide about the future of Tidal, Sorry

"The gullibility of audiophiles is what astonishes me the most, even after all these years. How is it possible, how did it ever happen, that they trust fairy-tale purveyors and mystic gurus more than reliable sources of scientific information?"

Peter Aczel - The Audio Critic

nomqa.webp.aa713f2bb9e304522011cdb2d2ca907d.webp  R.I.P. MQA 2014-2023: Hyped product thanks to uneducated, uncritical advocates & captured press.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
14 hours ago, mansr said:

I have updated my MQA scanner with some additional details. It now decrypts the authentication data carried in the stream.

 

If I’m understanding the legals, the source is available, but because all rights are reserved and there is no license, no one else is free to distribute or modify.  Is that essentially correct?

 

Edit: Being more precise about the source, it is openly published.

One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature.

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55 minutes ago, Jud said:

If I’m understanding the legals, the source is available, but because all rights are reserved and there is no license, no one else is free to distribute or modify.  Is that essentially correct?

 

Edit: Being more precise about the source, it is openly published.

What source are you referring to? I'm working with decompiled firmware. Publishing that would be a copyright violation. Identifying specific algorithms used and talking about those is not. The decryption keys are not subject to copyright, so I can publish those. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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I’m referring to the files at your MQA Scanner project page that you linked above.  The legal information for the project shown on that page says all rights are reserved and there is no license. I’m simply trying to see if my understanding of what you meant regarding the use of the project files on that page was correct, and I’m asking that purely out of curiosity, not trying to go anywhere with it.

One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature.

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1 hour ago, mansr said:

I made a nice description of MQA bitstream format: https://code.videolan.org/mansr/mqa/blob/master/mqa.rst

It should be easier to understand than reading the scanner source code.

 

The “else if” statement for Packet 6 has a typo. (Not meaning to nitpick, and of course it’s in a description so it doesn’t matter, but thought you would want it correct.)

One never knows, do one? - Fats Waller

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. - Einstein

Computer, Audirvana -> optical Ethernet to Fitlet3 -> Fibbr Alpha Optical USB -> iFi NEO iDSD DAC -> Apollon Audio 1ET400A Mini (Purifi based) -> Vandersteen 3A Signature.

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.....from Scot’s Part Time Audiophile Site:

“Ken Forsythe of MQA, got me hooked on looking at the TIDAL Masters New Arrivals playlist. I look at it on Friday’s for what’s new. Its a great way to discover new MQA content. But this habit of looking at SuperHiRez.com and “Masters New Arrivals” playlist lead me to an interesting insight that has changed my perspective on buying music.”

 

.....suggesting he won’t be inclined to buy high res much more.

 

....I am concerned that this site has an untested certainty, enforced by the continual and strong opinions expressed herein, that MQA has been beaten down but there is much work going on throughout the industry, so much so that we could easily wake up to a fully MQA world....just sayin’

 

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14 hours ago, wdw said:

.....from Scot’s Part Time Audiophile Site:

“Ken Forsythe of MQA, got me hooked on looking at the TIDAL Masters New Arrivals playlist. I look at it on Friday’s for what’s new. Its a great way to discover new MQA content. But this habit of looking at SuperHiRez.com and “Masters New Arrivals” playlist lead me to an interesting insight that has changed my perspective on buying music.”

 

.....suggesting he won’t be inclined to buy high res much more.

 

....I am concerned that this site has an untested certainty, enforced by the continual and strong opinions expressed herein, that MQA has been beaten down but there is much work going on throughout the industry, so much so that we could easily wake up to a fully MQA world....just sayin’

 

 

If consumers are reading trade publications like "Part Time Audiophile" as anything other than long advertisements, well then they deserve MQA.

 

I get the feeling that most of the "readers" of web rags such as this are more interested in the pretty pictures and raw information about new models and the like, and ignore the writers hipster sales jobs...

Hey MQA, if it is not all $voodoo$, show us the math!

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46 minutes ago, crenca said:

 

If consumers are reading trade publications like "Part Time Audiophile" as anything other than long advertisements, well then they deserve MQA.

 

I get the feeling that most of the "readers" of web rags such as this are more interested in the pretty pictures and raw information about new models and the like, and ignore the writers hipster sales jobs...

 

Agree that these sites have limited influence and are largely adware although I like Mohammed Samji's reports as he appears to truly love music and has a great system but my point was with the march of MQA influence which may be working away relentlessly without notice.  Is there anyway to truly quantify the measure of adoption?

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8 minutes ago, wdw said:

 

Agree that these sites have limited influence and are largely adware although I like Mohammed Samji's reports as he appears to truly love music and has a great system but my point was with the march of MQA influence which may be working away relentlessly without notice.  Is there anyway to truly quantify the measure of adoption?

 

Last year I got a hold of a Tidal royalty statement for Universal. The Hi-Fi tier numbers are not impressive in the United States less than 80,000 thousand. About the size of Yuma Arizona. I can assure you that the CEO of MQA Ltd would be throwing that influence in my face if he could.

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  • 3 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Shadders said:

Hi,

The December 2018 Hifi News & Record Review letters section has a query regarding the MQA CD – Doors. Paul Miller has responded stating that the less than 80dB dynamic range of the master means that the loss of 3bits for the MQA CD, that the MQA code is below the noise floor. It is stated that this MQA code would theoretically not be audible.

 

Firstly, the loss of 3bits is approximately 18dB reduction in dynamic range, which means the maximum dynamic range is 78dB. Therefore the “less than 80dB” is possibly greater than the dynamic range of the MQA CD.

 

The next point I would challenge is that not all CD’s use the full number of bits, so the potential dynamic range is not the same as S/N. Quiet passages will have a degraded S/N by upto 18dB depending on the transfer to CD.

 

The initial letter complains that an MQA CD is not red book standard. I agree with this.

 

The fact that Paul Miller states whether the MQA code is audible is up for discussion, then supports the case that if 13bits are sufficient, what is the point of 24bit recordings, let alone 16bit recordings.

 

I do wonder if MQA CD’s degradation is stated to be inaudible, and then the Hifi press will then go on to say how good 24bit recordings are and their extra bit depth makes such a difference. I am sure that they will use some convoluted text to support both aspects whilst not referring to the obvious contradiction.

 

Regards,

Shadders.

 

You can’t have it both ways but the press will try. Every defense of 12 to 14 bits questions the need for high resolution files  for anything other than the current tiny audience.

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1 hour ago, mansr said:

Where does the 13-bit figure come from? I have yet to see an MQA file with that particular bit allocation.

Hi,

It is the MQA CD being discussed :

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/163302855-is-mqa-doa

The above link details that 13bits are LPCM and 3bits are assigned to the HF.

 

The answers from the Hifi News employees states the same - MQA CD has 13bits LPCM and 3bits pseudo-noise.

Regards,

Shadders.

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