MQA is Vaporware

[mansr]

5 hours ago, esldude said:

And he isn't Keanu Reeves.

That's usually considered a good thing.

[asdf1000]

https://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/post/mqa-at-munich-high-end-2019

 

I forgot Arcam is now part of Harman... and Harman itself is part of Samsung...

 

Bob probably dreams every night of MQA being on all Samsung devices.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I removed posts about content from the 13/14 year old writer. I draw the line at talking about him or critiquing his work. 

 

It’s tough enough to have thick skin as an adult and I won’t go down the road of forcing a kid to go through it. 

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

13 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I removed posts about content from the 13/14 year old writer. I draw the line at talking about him or critiquing his work. 

 

It’s tough enough to have thick skin as an adult and I won’t go down the road of forcing a kid to go through it. 

I understand your position, but far too politically correct.

 

Regardless of age, he is putting his work out in public and being paid for it. Young actors, athletes, and musicians routinely have their performances harshly critiqued in the media. it's call life.

 

But I respect your decision.

[The Computer Audiophile]

37 minutes ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

I understand your position, but far too politically correct.

 

Regardless of age, he is putting his work out in public and being paid for it. Young actors, athletes, and musicians routinely have their performances harshly critiqued in the media. it's call life.

 

But I respect your decision.

My decision has zero to do with being politically correct and everything to do with not providing a platform for a kid to get ridiculed. I fully understand he is putting himself out there but I want no part of this side show. 

 

 

[crenca]

11 hours ago, firedog said:

I don't think there is literally a conspiracy. I think it's an example of group think and bias among a certain population with lots of similarities among the members, and lots of known reasons and also expectation bias type reasons to like MQA. 
 

 

con-spiracy:  "with" - "spirit"

 

The "literal", explicit agreement is not necessary and in fact most con-spiracies don't have such neat and tidy "literal" agreements.  The conspiracy of Old Guard audiophiledom existed long before MQA.  MQA is not the object of a conspiracy, it is an expression of one that existed before and and will continue to exist after it is dead...

[Ralf11]

5 hours ago, Em2016 said:

https://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/post/mqa-at-munich-high-end-2019

 

I forgot Arcam is now part of Harman... and Harman itself is part of Samsung...

 

Bob probably dreams every night of MQA being on all Samsung devices.

 

would it make my robot vac quieter?

 

or maybe MQA could unfold the dirt and make it into origami with the dog hair wrapped around it in a nice little package - we could sell them as dog hari

[daverich4]

18 hours ago, Rt66indierock said:

As for the magazines don't you find it entertaining they promote hi-res and their reviewers don't have amps quiet enough to resolve CD quality files?

 

Actually, what I find entertaining is your reluctance to answer a pretty straightforward question. I think the question is on topic to this thread because a common theme running through the last 579 pages is that members of the mainstream audio press are shills and lackeys for the manufacturers. As the OP,  I think it's important to know your take on the subject. With that in mind, I'll ask again...

 

“Is there ever an equipment review, interview, or technical article in Stereophile or TAS that you find informative or entertaining?”

[Rt66indierock]

17 minutes ago, daverich4 said:

 

Actually, what I find entertaining is your reluctance to answer a pretty straightforward question. I think the question is on topic to this thread because a common theme running through the last 579 pages is that members of the mainstream audio press are shills and lackeys for the manufacturers. As the OP,  I think it's important to know your take on the subject. With that in mind, I'll ask again...

 

“Is there ever an equipment review, interview, or technical article in Stereophile or TAS that you find informative or entertaining?”

 

Rarely, the last informative review was Paul Seydor's Benchmark amp and the discussion of signal to noise ratio. Paul's review  of a McIntosh product was helpful to the anti MQA cause because they said for record why. That is pretty much it.

 

Subjective reviews are no help to my evaluation process, which is measure first, then play nine reference albums, then three reference recordings I've made.

 

The closest Stereophile has come to helpful is John Atkinson, Amirm and I all got same measurements of a Pro-Ject DAC. Good to know my measuring skills are still good. And Kal Rubinson's evaluation of MQA of course. 

 

The mainstream audio press is part of the marketing process of high end audio. How many times have I said a magazine is a showcase for advertisers? Finally, my new manta "if it measures bad and sounds good your hearing isn't as good as you think."

That should cover most of the press I think.

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I’m about 45 minutes into the Munich High End show and a major manufacturer already tracked me down to thank me for the RMAF presentation. 

 

Was very nice to hear. 

[asdf1000]

54 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I’m about 45 minutes into the Munich High End show and a major manufacturer already tracked me down

 

Stay safe out there... for every one to thank you, there may be two to curse you lol

[mcgillroy]

20 hours ago, Em2016 said:

https://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/post/mqa-at-munich-high-end-2019

 

I forgot Arcam is now part of Harman... and Harman itself is part of Samsung...

 

Bob probably dreams every night of MQA being on all Samsung devices.

 

This link also mentions Lexicon. Is this Lexicon as in the studio-gear company? Or is this something different?

 

MQA still has zero uptake in the studio-market. Outside of Mytek - which is fairly niche - none of the established studio ADC/DAC-vendors offers MQA. And judging from sentiment at this years Musikmesse they won't even touch it with a stick.

 

 

[asdf1000]

4 minutes ago, mcgillroy said:

Outside of Mytek - which is fairly niche - none of the established studio ADC/DAC-vendors offers MQA

 

EMM Labs (long history of both ADCs and DACs) have a DAC (DV2) that now supports MQA in some capacity.

[mcgillroy]

1 minute ago, Em2016 said:

 

EMM Labs (long history of both ADCs and DACs) have a DAC (DV2) that now supports MQA in some capacity.

 

Interesting thx! Is Andreas Koch still with EMM? But even if not I didn't expect Meitner to go there.

[asdf1000]

2 minutes ago, mcgillroy said:

Is Andreas Koch still with EMM?

 

Nope, he's mainly with Playback Designs now. I think he still does some consultation with Nagra too.

 

2 minutes ago, mcgillroy said:

But even if not I didn't expect Meitner to go there.

 

Me too. Probably like PS Audio, they're not for MQA, but gave it to their customers that asked. Apparently there is more demand than seen on forums (like requests via direct email and phone calls...)

[asdf1000]

16 minutes ago, mcgillroy said:

Outside of Mytek - which is fairly niche - none of the established studio ADC/DAC-vendors offers MQA.

 

dCS have a long history in ADC's and DAC's too and their current DACs support MQA in some capacity...

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, mcgillroy said:

 

Interesting thx! Is Andreas Koch still with EMM? But even if not I didn't expect Meitner to go there.

If only the behind the scenes talk could be released 😳

[asdf1000]

45 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

If only the behind the scenes talk could be released 😳

 

Do tell. Just leave the names of individuals and companies out of it.

[The Computer Audiophile]

34 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

 

Do tell. Just leave the names of individuals and companies out of it.

I’ll just say this: I never thought I’d see the day EMM had MQA in a product. 

[mcgillroy]

2 hours ago, Em2016 said:

 

dCS have a long history in ADC's and DAC's too and their current DACs support MQA in some capacity...

 

dCS has zero footprint in recording studios, same for mastering-studios. There maybe a handful of the latter but those are exceptions proving the rule.

 

 

 

 

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

Here is what EMM's chief engineer, Mariusz Pawlick isaid about MQA:

 

"MP: This is, in principle, a consumer product, and consumer audio and network audio have taken over. From a consumer point of view, USB is fundamental in terms of getting high-resolution content, including DSD and MQA, into a DAC. USB is the principal computer audio input.

 

MQA tries to solve the problem of transporting high-resolution PCM audio at limited bandwidth/sampling rate by transporting it to the consumer at 1fs-equivalent bit rate. Later, MQA reconstructs the signal to higher resolution at the converter, saving the bandwidth over the network. From an audio-quality point of view, it is progress if we keep in mind that you want to restrict the data rate while transporting most of the high-resolution original. [The] MQA encoding system does that.

 

MQA does not claim to reconstruct high-resolution data perfectly. The intent is to deliver a high-resolution audio signal that is perceptually very close to the original high-resolution content. MQA involves signal processing that hides information in audio noise. Therefore, MQA is not data-lossless. Perceptually, however, it is almost lossless, and enables 2fs and 4fs material to be transmitted by a 1fs system. It offers a tremendous advantage if we compare it with CD audio, which is built on 1fs-equivalent bandwidth."

https://www.stereophile.com/content/meitner-emm-dv2-dsd-mqa-digital-audio#tboL1fhYtfDoYFZw.99

 

I have attended several dealer events where Ed Meitner himself was present. When I asked him about MQA, his response was, and this is verbatim, "MQA is Bullshit."   A friend of mine who attended a similar event in LA said his response was almost identical. 

[mansr]

10 minutes ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

MQA does not claim to reconstruct high-resolution data perfectly. The intent is to deliver a high-resolution audio signal that is perceptually very close to the original high-resolution content.

Plain old CD is also perceptually very close to high-res.

[Rt66indierock]

6 hours ago, Em2016 said:

 

EMM Labs (long history of both ADCs and DACs) have a DAC (DV2) that now supports MQA in some capacity.

 

Only on USB on a $30k DAC. Just a check the box feature for those want every format before they spent a large amount of money and a small crowded market.

[crenca]

7 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I’m about 45 minutes into the Munich High End show and a major manufacturer already tracked me down to thank me for the RMAF presentation. 

 

Was very nice to hear. 

 

 

Obviously manufacturers, software providers, and other aspects of this industry are unhappy with Bob Stuart and his trade publication writer co-conspirators upsetting the  applecart with MQA.  It's simply a bridge too far - a fraud too easily seen through.

 

However, they have done very very little to change the direction this applecart is going.  They are utterly dependent upon the audiophile trade publication/marketing machine.

 

Are any more of them (besides the usual suspects like Schiit, etc.) willing to step out and call a "unicorn encoding" what it is?

[Rt66indierock]

4 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I’ll just say this: I never thought I’d see the day EMM had MQA in a product. 

 

That day came last year I keep track of the companies with MQA products.