MQA is Vaporware

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

7 minutes ago, KeenObserver said:

" Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war".

 

A quote from Shakespeare.

 

Before battle the Roman Legions would release the war dogs to attack their enemy.

 

This recent activity of writers passive-aggressively attacking the "civility" of those who expose the truth about MQA has me concerned that a new round of BS is starting.

 

I will be glad when MQA is finally dead and no longer poses a threat to the music consumer.

Maybe you are on to something..perhaps MQA is planning to start debarring cell phone conversations, or maybe there will be MQA enabled hearing aids, so that those afflicted with hearing loss can hear with no timing errors, or maybe MQA underwear,

so that after a rough nite and one too many tacos, you can play psycho acoustically corrected Butt Trumpet.🤗

[KeenObserver]

People should keep in mind that open standards like FLAC will always be out there.

 

MQA could go the way of HDCD and simply cease to exist.  Does anyone produce HDCD decoders anymore?

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

17 minutes ago, KeenObserver said:

People should keep in mind that open standards like FLAC will always be out there.

 

MQA could go the way of HDCD and simply cease to exist.  Does anyone produce HDCD decoders anymore?

Not sure, but what is weird, unless I am mistaken, the Grateful Dead continue to release HDCDs for their excellent live archival sets.

[asdf1000]

6 hours ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

novel digital sampling techniques for natural signals developed for cutting-edge medical imaging and astronomy.

 

This part may be true - the maths involved may be found in medical imaging and astronomy. But Amazon Music HD is now serving the studio masters (up to 192kHz), so there's obviously no need for MQA.

 

So Bob should have used that novel maths to do something like what Dirac is doing... something with potentially really meaningful impact on SQ at the ears.

 

Dirac's now used with studio speakers, home speakers, headphones and automotive.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 hours ago, KeenObserver said:

People should keep in mind that open standards like FLAC will always be out there.

 

MQA could go the way of HDCD and simply cease to exist.  Does anyone produce HDCD decoders anymore?

Ayre’s new QB-9 Twenty decodes HDCD

 

 

10 hours ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

Not sure, but what is weird, unless I am mistaken, the Grateful Dead continue to release HDCDs for their excellent live archival sets.

 

It just means they use a Pacific Microsonics Model 1 or Model 2 ADC. 

[Teresa]

17 hours ago, KeenObserver said:

MQA could go the way of HDCD and simply cease to exist.  Does anyone produce HDCD decoders anymore?

 

As @The Computer Audiophile mentions above the Ayre QB-9 decodes HDCD.  Also many CD and universal players decode HDCD. My 6 year old Yamaha SACD / Blu-ray universal player decodes HDCD.

 

I don't believe there are any new HDCD encoders, so the Pacific Microsonics HDCD ADC's may be the only ones in use and they are no longer made.

 

17 hours ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

Not sure, but what is weird, unless I am mistaken, the Grateful Dead continue to release HDCDs for their excellent live archival sets.

 

Why is it weird? Reference Recordings still releases all their recordings in HDCD encoded CDs as well as in high resolution formats, not everyone has high resolution playback. Plus there are lots of CD and universal players with HDCD decoders. There are also a small number of new HDCD releases from small audiophile labels as well as scattered rock releases.

 

Sorry, all of this is off topic as it has nothing to do with MQA. Just answered some statements to clear the record that HDCD does still exist and new HDCDs are still being released even though it is a small amount.

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

9 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Ayre’s new QB-9 Twenty decodes HDCD

 

 

 

It just means they use a Pacific Microsonics Model 1 or Model 2 ADC. 

Actually, and this will be interesting to serious Dead Heads, most Dead live tapes were transferred to digital via the Plangent Process, and they use proprietary encoding. 

 

The GD release a good portion of their live archival releases in 24/192, and also HDCD. Maybe you know, or someone else might, is there a way to encode HDCD via software from 24 bit files? The only other way they can create HDCDs from the Plangent transfers, would be to convert them to analog then back to digital with the Model 1/2 in my estimation. 

 

Tons of detail, here, not for the casual fan:

David Lemieux on the Grateful Dead’s Precision, “Playing,” and ‘Pacific Northwest’

https://jambands.com/features/2018/10/28/david-lemieux-on-the-grateful-deads-precision-playing-and-pacific-northwest/

 

 

[FredericV]

On 5/6/2020 at 10:07 PM, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

"To recap, Master Quality Authenticated is an encoding and decoding technology that delivers true high-resolution audio in a file size that can be easily streamed. It is based in part on entirely new research into human hearing as well as on novel digital sampling techniques for natural signals developed for cutting-edge medical imaging and astronomy. MQA’s stated mission is to deliver studio-master sound quality to listeners in a convenient format that anyone can enjoy. Beyond its superior sound quality (even compared with high-bit-rate PCM).."

Regarding their "novel digital sampling", according to Wikipedia

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

Quote

One more difference to standard formats is the sampling process. The audio stream is sampled and convolved with a triangle function, and interpolated later during playback. The techniques employed, including the sampling of signals with a finite rate of innovation, were developed by a number of researchers over the preceding decade, including Pier Luigi Dragotti and others.

and according to the article often used by MQA opinion makers when they need some fallback SOS article:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mqa-time-domain-accuracy-digital-audio-quality
 

Quote

overlapping and time-weighted triangular sampling kernels

the "novel digital sampling techniques" boil down to overlapping triangular sampling.

So how many ADC's are currently on the market which support this non standard triangular sampling process?

[Ishmael Slapowitz]

1 hour ago, FredericV said:

Regarding their "novel digital sampling", according to Wikipedia

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

and according to the article often used by MQA opinion makers when they need some fallback SOS article:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mqa-time-domain-accuracy-digital-audio-quality
 

the "novel digital sampling techniques" boil down to overlapping triangular sampling.

So how many ADC's are currently on the market which support this non standard triangular sampling process?

Without fail, your posts shine a bright light into how full of s$$t Harley and Stuart really are. Stay well.🤠

[FredericV]

6 hours ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

Without fail, your posts shine a bright light into how full of s$$t Harley and Stuart really are. Stay well.🤠

If the end-to-end process is so important and their triangular kernel is ground breaking, you would assume we have at least several MQA enabled ADC's. If the sound quality benefit was proven or obvious by using such kernel, many content producers would benefit from it, and want to adopt it. There would be demand, and hardware vendors would follow.

Compare to video formats, when we had VHS and even S-VHS, DVD was a major upgrade killing analog formats. Then the resolution boost from DVD to HD lead to formats such as HD-DVD and Blu-ray with even higher bitrates compared to HDTV and again the boost was visible from 1080i to 1080p - gone were the temporal interlacing and common de-interlacing issues. But with video, the difference was immediately noticable. With audio this may not be the case, and uncompressed 16/44.1 is probably good enough for at least 99.99% of the population.

So why do we only have only one MQA enabled analog to digital converter (aka ADC) on the market?

https://mytekdigital.com/brooklyn-adc/
 

If the claim that MQA contains groundbreaking audio technology is true, why did only one company make an ADC to feature the built in MQA Kernel (TM)? Why did no other vendor follow? Furthermore, most MQA encodes were not made using an MQA enabled ADC as part of the production.
 

[Currawong]

On 5/6/2020 at 3:38 AM, jma2 said:

More and more people (at least in my environment) seem to have a de-blurred vision concerning MQA.

 

Ha! 

 

On 5/5/2020 at 12:46 PM, ARQuint said:

 

 

Gimme a break, guys.

 

At the top of the magazine's home page, between "Equipment Reports" and "Show Reports" is a content category called "News" that consists largely of press releases from audio manufacturers and others with skin in the game, including a lot of record labels.

 

 

That's not news, that's just laziness!

[ARQuint]

23 hours ago, Currawong said:

 

 

23 hours ago, Currawong said:

 

Ha! 

 

 

That's not news, that's just laziness!

 

Lazy? Enthusiasts like you and me want to hear about new products and technologies at the earliest possible point in their development or commercial introduction—that's why it's "News." Reporting from trade shows and passing along announcements from manufacturers  are two ways audio magazines accomplish this, always underscoring that these are narratives controlled by those presenting them. ("The following is a press release issued by…") They are short and sweet and obviously don't substitute for a full consideration, that is, a review.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 hours ago, ARQuint said:

 

 

Lazy? Enthusiasts like you and me want to hear about new products and technologies at the earliest possible point in their development or commercial introduction—that's why it's "News." Reporting from trade shows and passing along announcements from manufacturers  are two ways audio magazines accomplish this, always underscoring that these are narratives controlled by those presenting them. ("The following is a press release issued by…") They are short and sweet and obviously don't substitute for a full consideration, that is, a review.

 

I think what everyone is getting at is that publishing an MQA press release like this is akin to JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association publishing an article from anti-vaxxers. 
 

Once in a while we in the press need to use our best judgement and weed out some things. It would be interesting to see what’s on the cutting room floor at TAS. There’s no way you publish all the crazy releases. I get them as well, and wouldn’t even accept advertising dollars in the middle of an economic disaster caused by a global pandemic, from some of those guys. 

[Currawong]

On 5/9/2020 at 6:53 PM, ARQuint said:

Lazy? Enthusiasts like you and me want to hear about new products and technologies at the earliest possible point in their development or commercial introduction—that's why it's "News." Reporting from trade shows and passing along announcements from manufacturers  are two ways audio magazines accomplish this, always underscoring that these are narratives controlled by those presenting them. ("The following is a press release issued by…") They are short and sweet and obviously don't substitute for a full consideration, that is, a review.

 

I didn't say that people don't want to hear about new products, I said that just publishing press releases was lazy. 

[Currawong]

On 5/8/2020 at 8:02 AM, FredericV said:

Regarding their "novel digital sampling", according to Wikipedia

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

 

Someone should add mansr's and your work under criticisms.

[lucretius]

On 5/7/2020 at 7:02 PM, FredericV said:

Regarding their "novel digital sampling", according to Wikipedia

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

 

I didn't realize Wikipedia did infomercials.  🤣

[lucretius]

On 5/6/2020 at 10:26 PM, KeenObserver said:

People should keep in mind that open standards like FLAC will always be out there.

 

MQA could go the way of HDCD and simply cease to exist.  Does anyone produce HDCD decoders anymore?

 

HDCD sits in the same dung-heap as DVDA and, soon, DSD.  MQA will surely follow.

[UkPhil]

More push in the media from the CEO of MQA covering their development and marketing of MQA Video 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa/

 

Part 2 

 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa-2/
 

 

[lucretius]

13 minutes ago, UkPhil said:

More push in the media from the CEO of MQA covering their development and marketing of MQA Video 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa/

 

Part 2 

 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa-2/
 

 

 

Sounds more like something written in early 2017 rather than May 2020.

 

 

[sandyk]

On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2020 at 9:20 AM, Currawong said:

 

I didn't say that people don't want to hear about new products, I said that just publishing press releases was lazy. 

 Why ?

 It is often many months before the products become available for review and measurements by more than a few selected sources.

 This happens with most major product releases and developments, even including the release of the CD medium itself !!!

 The same happened with the BluSpec format ,SHM etc. which were way more popular with Japanese enthusiasts.

[MikeyFresh]

2 hours ago, UkPhil said:

More push in the media from the CEO of MQA covering their development and marketing of MQA Video 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa/

 

Part 2 

 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa-2/
 

 

No doubt a paid advertorial, take a look at who Technology Insider Group is:

 

Marketing Services

Custom Publishing

[kumakuma]

2 hours ago, UkPhil said:

More push in the media from the CEO of MQA covering their development and marketing of MQA Video 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa/

 

Part 2 

 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa-2/
 

 

 

I got more value out of this article from the same site:

 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/food-for-thought/instant-pot-ribs/

[lucretius]

3 hours ago, UkPhil said:

More push in the media from the CEO of MQA covering their development and marketing of MQA Video 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa/

 

Part 2 

 

http://technologyinsidergroup.com/business/mike-jbara-mqa-2/
 

 

 

I hope we don't see a post like this every time more MQA marketing material is discovered. Frankly, way too much space has been wasted on MQA already.

 

 

 

[Currawong]

4 hours ago, sandyk said:

 Why ?

 It is often many months before the products become available for review and measurements by more than a few selected sources.

 This happens with most major product releases and developments, even including the release of the CD medium itself !!!

 The same happened with the BluSpec format ,SHM etc. which were way more popular with Japanese enthusiasts.

 

What I'm saying is, a more sensible approach would be to post about new products, but with insightful commentary. If I was to subscribe to a magazine, I'd be paying for that commentary, not to read press releases and marketing material, which are all freely available. 

[daverich4]

I ran across this link on another site. I don’t remember the article from when Chris originally posted it but I found reading the first couple of pages of comments interesting. What a difference a year or two makes.