MQA is Vaporware

[lucretius]

delete

[Jud]

3 hours ago, esldude said:

How I wish cable and phone companies could change tact even a little bit toward meeting the customer's needs more than lassoing and shearing the customer in an area penned off from competition.  

 

About 15 years ago the local college town had a plan to run fiber to connect students and some of the surrounding rural area because broadband was non-existent. Verizon sued them, then got the state legislature to pass a law banning it so they wouldn't have to worry about anyone else trying it.

[esldude]

Just now, Jud said:

 

About 15 years ago the local college town had a plan to run fiber to connect students and some of the surrounding rural area because broadband was non-existent. Verizon sued them, then got the state legislature to pass a law banning it so they wouldn't have to worry about anyone else trying it.

Yes normal behavior for them. 

 

ATT's business plan seems to be to confuse the customer as much as possible making everything as complex and splintered as possible.  Then charge for every splintered bit pretending you are getting a great deal.  Saying doing business with ATT as a customer is like touching the tar baby is an insult to tar babies everywhere.   Plain incompetence would never result in the system they have.  

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

About 15 years ago the local college town had a plan to run fiber to connect students and some of the surrounding rural area because broadband was non-existent. Verizon sued them, then got the state legislature to pass a law banning it so they wouldn't have to worry about anyone else trying it.

The best democracy money can buy. 

[garrardguy60]

7 hours ago, Archimago said:

 

Can't speak for @Doug Schneiderof course, but while I might be a bit optimistic, in the big picture of all who enjoy music and want good hardware, "high end" is such a small niche that I don't think it's too difficult to change in time now that we are all connected to the information stream.

 

At work, when I tell people that for fun I write about hi-fi audio, very few will recognize AudioQuest, Wilson, Magico, Focal, Dynaudio, Chord, Audeze, etc... Even fewer will know about stuff like Synergistic or MQA, or even care about expensive cables. All of us here are already part of the 0.01% club of audio enthusiasts and there aren't that many of us who need to be swayed to create significant changes in the zeitgeist of this hobby.

 

 

Agreed about the 0.01%. The thing is, I fear that this hobby is slowly dying. We on this forum are pretty much exclusively a bunch of not young men who aren't getting any younger [that's the nicest way I could think to phrase it]. 

 

The new folks coming into the 'hobby' aren't coming into 2-channel. They're over on the avs forum discussing the best ways to add ceiling speakers to their 7.4.2 home theater systems so they can experience Dolby Atmos.

 

I can't say I blame them. I got into audio as a teenager after I began reading Popular Electronics, High Fidelity and Audio magazine. All that stuff is long gone. I can guess that someone might get more takers, among friends and dates, to get them to come over and watch a movie on a nice home theater setup than they would inviting them to listen to vinyl.

 

The other observation I'd make is that audiophiles have a disproportionate number of obsessives-compulsives among us. How else to explain the frankly insane focus on stuff like 'grounding boxes' [a good birthday gift for Dracula], cables, power cord [often rendered in the Freudian misspelling 'chords'], etc. Indeed, I recently saw a post on some av forum where a guy was laughed off the thread because he put forth some deblurring nonsense that we have been socialized to discuss civilly herein. [Also, younger, non-rich guys with families can't justify buying preamps that cost more than the engagement ring they bought their wife, whereas a UHD TV w sound to match can be had for a few k and it's something the whole family can use for video, audio and gaming.]

 

In closing, I don't think I'm being hyperbolic by saying that, if we only had the legacy pubs/sites, this hobby would be dying even faster. We owe a debt of gratitude to folks like Chris, who has provided us with this vital, lively place to engage ['A place for dad,' perhaps; in a twist on those Joan Lunden commercials], and just as much to Archimago, who has in a very real sense single-handedly forced non-BS objectivism back into its central and important position in the audiophile world. He is our pseudonymous Julian Hirsch of the 2010s. 

 

  .

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

45 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

About 15 years ago the local college town had a plan to run fiber to connect students and some of the surrounding rural area because broadband was non-existent. Verizon sued them, then got the state legislature to pass a law banning it so they wouldn't have to worry about anyone else trying it.

 

42 minutes ago, esldude said:

Yes normal behavior for them. 

 

ATT's business plan seems to be to confuse the customer as much as possible making everything as complex and splintered as possible.  Then charge for every splintered bit pretending you are getting a great deal.  Saying doing business with ATT as a customer is like touching the tar baby is an insult to tar babies everywhere.   Plain incompetence would never result in the system they have.  

 

Good news: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/comcast-beware-new-city-run-broadband-offers-1gbps-for-60-a-month/?amp=1

[AudioDoctor]

https://www.lcnewschronicle.com/news/1995573-company-steps-attacks-fiber-plan

 

It happens here in Minnesota as well.  You legal types can read the complaint filed against Lake County MN at the link as well by MediaCom about why they don't think they should have any competition.

 

An update:  2017

http://www.startribune.com/lee-schafer-county-looks-for-exit-on-broadband-project/431591253/

[John Dyson]

2 hours ago, garrardguy60 said:

 

Agreed about the 0.01%. The thing is, I fear that this hobby is slowly dying. We on this forum are pretty much exclusively a bunch of not young men who aren't getting any younger [that's the nicest way I could think to phrase it]. 

 

The new folks coming into the 'hobby' aren't coming into 2-channel. They're over on the avs forum discussing the best ways to add ceiling speakers to their 7.4.2 home theater systems so they can experience Dolby Atmos.

 

I can't say I blame them. I got into audio as a teenager after I began reading Popular Electronics, High Fidelity and Audio magazine. All that stuff is long gone. I can guess that someone might get more takers, among friends and dates, to get them to come over and watch a movie on a nice home theater setup than they would inviting them to listen to vinyl.

 

The other observation I'd make is that audiophiles have a disproportionate number of obsessives-compulsives among us. How else to explain the frankly insane focus on stuff like 'grounding boxes' [a good birthday gift for Dracula], cables, power cord [often rendered in the Freudian misspelling 'chords'], etc. Indeed, I recently saw a post on some av forum where a guy was laughed off the thread because he put forth some deblurring nonsense that we have been socialized to discuss civilly herein. [Also, younger, non-rich guys with families can't justify buying preamps that cost more than the engagement ring they bought their wife, whereas a UHD TV w sound to match can be had for a few k and it's something the whole family can use for video, audio and gaming.]

 

In closing, I don't think I'm being hyperbolic by saying that, if we only had the legacy pubs/sites, this hobby would be dying even faster. We owe a debt of gratitude to folks like Chris, who has provided us with this vital, lively place to engage ['A place for dad,' perhaps; in a twist on those Joan Lunden commercials], and just as much to Archimago, who has in a very real sense single-handedly forced non-BS objectivism back into its central and important position in the audiophile world. He is our pseudonymous Julian Hirsch of the 2010s. 

 

  .

 

Mega-heartbreaking to me -- all of the music that we loved (or barely tolerated) like Simon&Garfunkel, Bread, Carpenters, ABBA, Paul McCartney *yes, even that*, on and on -- much of what we oldersters have been listening to since CDs have been released is that -- REMEMBER:  Harsh, digital sound?...  Do you remember those complaints?  As an engineer in the 1980s, I knew that the problem was mostly not 'digital' but something else.  (The harsh, digital sound was an old common complaint, but maybe like the frog in the slowly increasingly hot water, maybe don't notice it anymore?)

 

Our music from late '60s through very early 1990s, when released on digital has had a consistent defect -- missing noise reduction decoding -- PERIOD.  Not even a subject of discussion -- fact -- PERIOD.

 

Now, since there is a solution to the problem, we are all fading away, our hearing in the frequency range where most of the damage occurs (from lack of decoding) is weakening, and I do believe that there can be a benefit to the 'harsh, digital sound' because we cannot hear the damage, and need a little 'boost' up there.  Almost like an audiophile 'hearing aid'.

 

For 30yrs, much of what we have been purchasing -- that 'harsh digital sound' is finally able to be converted into something much closer to the original sound, but WHO CARES?  We cannot hear the benefit... We are half deaf purchasing esoteric equiment somehow trying to salve the problems with the otherwise voluntary 'bad sound'.

I have a 99 Red Balloons from Nena (for example) that is doubly bad -- well, if your player cannot detect the CD emphasis...  It has BOTH the CD emphasis AND DolbyA encoding.  It is a nasty, grainy mess -- but who cares nowadays?  Are we (or our ears) all dead?  Can we hear any more?

 

It is like the problem has finally been found out -- but no-one is left to realize it.   My project is now relegated to the historical library archives (REALLY!!!) because everyone is used to the trashy sound of HF compression.   At least the NR compression isn't as bad as the ZERO dynamic range of more recent releases, but the damage is still there.

 

Just don't think that one is getting better sound (when listening to the older music) by purchasing esoteric equipment, unless playing properly processed material on vinyl -- because I even have evidence of PREMIUM mastered digital materail from big name remastering firms not being properly decoded.   For example, I'll bet most of you listening to a recent digital copy of 'Nat King Cole' just might be hearing a lot more hiss than you should... (My copy has about 10dB more hiss than necessary, which I can easily fix -- also get a more natural sounding voice.)

 

I guess no one cares, and perhaps thinking that $10k speakers will help the signal problems -- but they wont'.   However, the HF compression and hiss will be more distinct.  (Luckily, many of the hiss problems aren't as bad as they could be -- the recording engineers in the late 1970s on, seemed to have managed the hiss better than it might otherwise have been.)

 

John

[Ralf11]

The really interesting issue about MQA is that it shows how a company can launch a parasite into the audiophile ecosystem - a peristaltic money pump that moves $$ from consumers (by way of an intermediary, the ADC users and DAC users) to them.  I should alert the math guys in community ecology so they can model this puppy.

[AudioDoctor]

4 hours ago, garrardguy60 said:

I can guess that someone might get more takers, among friends and dates, to get them to come over and watch a movie on a nice home theater setup than they would inviting them to listen to vinyl.

 

I asked my now wife, then GF, over to listen to an artist on vinyl that we had missed in concert due to work schedules...

[crenca]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I asked my now wife, then GF, over to listen to an artist on vinyl that we had missed in concert due to work schedules...

 

So you sent your wife back to work before inviting your GF over.... ☺️

[lucretius]

11 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I asked my now wife, then GF, over to listen to an artist on vinyl that we had missed in concert due to work schedules...

 

in what year? ☺️

[AudioDoctor]

 

10 hours ago, crenca said:

 

So you sent your wife back to work before inviting your GF over.... ☺️

 

11 minutes ago, lucretius said:

 

in what year? ☺️

 

Bunch of comedians we have here... 😉

[botrytis]

5 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

 

 

Bunch of comedians we have here... 😉

 

 

Comedian wanna-be's

[lucretius]

11 hours ago, botrytis said:

 

 

Comedian wanna-be's

 

I resemble that remark! 😊

[Rt66indierock]

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

The Shills Are Alive With The Sound of MQA.....on Hoffman.

[Kal Rubinson]

Ehhh.  Things were so quiet for a few days.  🤐

[Rt66indierock]

22 minutes ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

The Shills Are Alive With The Sound of MQA.....on Hoffman.

 

They at were taking a beating. Did something change?

[Rt66indierock]

5 minutes ago, Kal Rubinson said:

Ehhh.  Things were so quiet for a few days.  🤐

 

Well I've been explaining "recollection recorded" to a few people sorry. 

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

18 minutes ago, Rt66indierock said:

 

They at were taking a beating. Did something change?

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/mqa-puzzlement.875801/

 

new shill fest.

[Ralf11]

Portland had a "golden age" of HiFi???

[Paul R]

2 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

Ehhh.  Things were so quiet for a few days.  🤐

 

It was rather pleasant.

[MikeyFresh]

56 minutes ago, Paul R said:

 

It was rather pleasant.

 

Yes, your relative absence from this thread of late has been quite pleasant.

[Currawong]

I'll consider this a reply to my question to Jim Austin and John Atkinson. 

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mytek-brooklyn-bridge-streaming-dacnetwork-server

 

"I have a bridge I'd like to sell you." -- Ha!

 

No measurements... yet.  Not going to ruin things by saying anything more than to say the tone of the review was unexpected.