MQA is Vaporware

[labjr]

46 minutes ago, beetlemania said:

 

I think that Pono was, in part, scared off by the proprietary format Meridian wanted. Also, I heard that NY listened to a half-dozen or more high-end DACs and said "that one", pointing to an Ayre.

 

EDIT: I see an earlier post from JA suggesting that the MQA unfold was too hard on the battery!

 

JA, basically suggesting the Pono player would have had MQA if it weren't for the  battery life? BS!

[mansr]

7 minutes ago, crenca said:

Interesting how they put that question - down/upsample.

I assume Charley was paraphrasing, so don't read too much into the specific choice of words.

[crenca]

3 minutes ago, mansr said:

I assume Charley was paraphrasing, so don't read too much into the specific choice of words.

 

Noted.  I wonder (and like you said we will probably never know for sure) to what extent Meridians ability to tell the truth vs Ayre's impacted the decision to stop working with Meridian and go with Ayre.

[The Computer Audiophile]

46 minutes ago, labjr said:

 

JA, basically suggesting the Pono player would have had MQA if it weren't for the  battery life? BS!

Very BS according to the book. But in fairness to @John_Atkinson he may not have been given the complete picture. 

[labjr]

7 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Very BS according to the book. But in fairness to @John_Atkinson he may not have been given the complete picture. 

 

He know his opinion influences a lot of people. That's why he makes ambiguous statements. Most reviews in the magazine are full of that stuff.

[FredericV]

2 hours ago, mansr said:

"I don't know whom else Pono contacted, but when they contacted Ayre they asked "Isn't there some way to downsample the file for storage, and then upsample it during playback to achieve true-high res without the large storage requirements?" Of course they were told there was no possible way of doing it. Information theory sets a limit which simply cannot be broken. After some discussion with Ayre Pono broke off the relationship with Meridian and turned the audio design over to Ayre."

Is this then correct: ?

So the second (un)fold idea which is nothing more than down/upsampling, came from Pono. They quit working with Meridian. And then later Meridian made a codec out of that idea, thus combining their previous knowledge of MLP packing for their first (un)fold, combined with the down/upsampling idea from Pono ... 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, FredericV said:

Is this then correct: ?

So the second (un)fold idea which is nothing more than down/upsampling, came from Pono. They quit working with Meridian. And then later Meridian made a codec out of that idea, thus combining their previous knowledge of MLP packing for their first (un)fold, combined with the down/upsampling idea from Pono ... 

No

[FredericV]

1 minute ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

No

Please elaborate

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, FredericV said:

Please elaborate

It isn't correct.

[FredericV]

Just now, The Computer Audiophile said:

It isn't correct.

That part I got, but why ... ? Which part is not correct?

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, FredericV said:

That part I got, but why ... ? Which part is not correct?

Just look at your text and throw it all out. None of that happened. 

 

Edit: OK, they did stop working with Meridian. that's true.

[mansr]

5 minutes ago, FredericV said:

Is this then correct: ?

So the second (un)fold idea which is nothing more than down/upsampling, came from Pono. They quit working with Meridian. And then later Meridian made a codec out of that idea, thus combining their previous knowledge of MLP packing for their first (un)fold, combined with the down/upsampling idea from Pono ... 

No. My impression is that they were presented the resampling fakery by Meridian. Then their relationship soured for other reasons, and they went shopping for someone else to implement this idea, which is when Ayre told them it couldn't be done.

[Ralf11]

"pono... quit working with meridian" is true

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, Ralf11 said:

"pono... quit working with meridian" is true

see my edit above :~)

[Jud]

10 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

OMG, Neil saw, what people have been saying here from the beginning, with respect to Bob and MQA. 

 

Ill stop now and just keep reading. 

 

Too bad it's scheduled for release just after, instead of just before, RMAF.

[The Computer Audiophile]

17 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

Too bad it's scheduled for release just after, instead of just before, RMAF.

See you there 😉

[firedog]

17 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Very BS according to the book. But in fairness to @John_Atkinson he may not have been given the complete picture. 

Or the book isn't giving an accurate picture, either?

[botrytis]

31 minutes ago, firedog said:

Or the book isn't giving an accurate picture, either?

 

It is NY's take on the situation, obviously. There are at least 2 takes on every situation and depends where your loyalties lie.

[mansr]

22 minutes ago, botrytis said:

It is NY's take on the situation, obviously. There are at least 2 takes on every situation and depends where your loyalties lie.

Or in cases like this, royalties.

[botrytis]

1 hour ago, mansr said:

Or in cases like this, royalties.

True.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, firedog said:

Or the book isn't giving an accurate picture, either?

 

1 hour ago, botrytis said:

 

It is NY's take on the situation, obviously. There are at least 2 takes on every situation and depends where your loyalties lie.

It’s actually more than Neil’s take in the book, but you’re correct this can’t be ruled out. However, the takes are very specific and worthy of libel if not true. 

[John_Atkinson]

19 hours ago, labjr said:

JA, basically suggesting the Pono player would have had MQA if it weren't for the  battery life? BS!

 

You should note that I wrote "There were other issues but according to Charley Hansen, it was primarily battery life." I didn't think it appropriate to expand on the "other issues" as they involved personal matters that Charley had told me in confidence..

 

John Atkinson

Technical Editor, Stereophile

[John_Atkinson]

17 hours ago, FredericV said:

So the second (un)fold idea which is nothing more than down/upsampling, came from Pono.

 

That is not correct. Bob Stuart was doing demonstrations of a new, unidentified codec at CES in January 2014, which at that time I understood would be incorporated in the forthcoming Pono Player. Then, as Chris Connaker has also said, the relationship between Pono and Meridian was severed. When Neil Young announced the Pono project at the 2014 SXSW convention in March 2014, the format to be used for the player and the associated download site was FLAC.

As I wrote earlier, the relationship between Pono and Meridian broke down partly because of the battery problem I was told about by Charley Hansen but also for reasons I don't think it appropriate to go into.

 

John Atkinson

Technical Editor, Stereophile

[psjug]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

It’s actually more than Neil’s take in the book, but you’re correct this can’t be ruled out. However, the takes are very specific and worthy of libel if not true. 

Are you able to say whether it has something to do with Meridian being untruthful about being real >96Khz?

[Rt66indierock]

3 hours ago, John_Atkinson said:

 

You should note that I wrote "There were other issues but according to Charley Hansen, it was primarily battery life." I didn't think it appropriate to expand on the "other issues" as they involved personal matters that Charley had told me in confidence..

 

John Atkinson

Technical Editor, Stereophile

 

Are these issues speculated by John Darko to be: "On the plus side, we thank our lucky stars that no-one uttered the words “Just as the artist intended”. That thought then triggered the question: is MQA why Neil Young walked away from Meridian’s partnership with Pono?"

 

In my experience and research "just as the artist intended" is quite an issue.