jparvio Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 19 minutes ago, Stereo said: Very well put but don’t rule out their potentially massively overinflated egos that have been deflated and their tiny brains not knowing how to accept it and grow up. Unlike yourself. Rather sad of them really. Perhaps they need counseling. If You are painting, be sure not to stain the whole canvas. Jussi Arvio Contributing Editor Hifimaailma Magazine Link to comment
GregWormald Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 If I had a piece of software that would compress hi-res music files and make them sound better than hi-res when played (REALLY) then I'm sure I could make money just selling it. Wouldn't you buy it? Why would I need to foist it on everyone with no choice allowed? Link to comment
jparvio Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 10 minutes ago, GregWormald said: If I had a piece of software that would compress hi-res music files and make them sound better than hi-res when played (REALLY) then I'm sure I could make money just selling it. Wouldn't you buy it? Why would I need to foist it on everyone with no choice allowed? Not sure who this was targeted to..? Me? When it comes to MQA I don't use it. I even moved from Tidal to Qobuz the minute they officially offered service in Finland since I don't accept Tidal´s MQA policy (replacing originals with MQA-versions). I believe people should be left with freedom of choice but they need to be educated so that they can select wisely. I'm not for foisting anything to anyone. Except for the truth when it comes to MQA. Saddens me to see where this all has lead; stationary War between the sides, much like the WW1. What a shame, really. botrytis 1 Jussi Arvio Contributing Editor Hifimaailma Magazine Link to comment
UkPhil Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 I see Tidal are still trying to sell you 24/192 for £2, shhh don’t tell anybody it’s not though MikeyFresh 1 Link to comment
Popular Post John Dyson Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 15 minutes ago, GregWormald said: If I had a piece of software that would compress hi-res music files and make them sound better than hi-res when played (REALLY) then I'm sure I could make money just selling it. Wouldn't you buy it? Why would I need to foist it on everyone with no choice allowed? 'Sounding better' is in the mind. Gotta be careful with that, because 'Sounding better' can change on an emotional whim. One has to divorce an emotional event from the technical reality. There are still some places where a difference in sound can more likely 'sound better' for one person, but 'sound worse' for another, and that is in the world of transducers and using 'volume controls' and equalizers. There are places where simple accuracy is the only correct design. That includes recording technologies, amplifiers, transmission devices and other such things that are intended to precisely mirror the signal. The days of amplifiers, transmission, recorders (e.g. digital tape, digital storage, etc) having almost any error are gone. There are still cases where we must use legacy technology, but no sense in using old tech anew except for specific types of long term archiving. MQA distorts recordings without any real, technical benefit. EMOTIONALLY, MQA might 'sound better', but almost ANYTHING can 'sound better' from an emotional standpoint, including a 'Victrola'. The only reason why transducers might still be a matter of preference is that they are more intimate with the individual and their environment. Also, the use of transducers are still a bit of an art form. Even then, more accuracy and quality is generally better than less quality and accuracy. For recording technology devices, transmission and amplifiers specifically, there is little, almost zero reason to adulterate the signal, because we have technology that can reproduce a signal at an accuracy well beyond what anyone can discern. Why make changes when we have mega bandwidth and mega storage available? Also, why allow yourself to become dependent on a scheme which obfuscates detail in your desired 16bit+ purchase, and holds it hostage to the licensing of an inane, unhelpful technical contraption? (MQA). Lesser quality when purchased as if it is 16bit+, but not really 16bit+, is simply lesser quality. If the access to the full quality requires permission of a license holder, then why accept the MQA toll gate? * 'Authenticated' is also a matter of 'opinion', affected by the 'sounds good' matter as I described above. Emotionally, I might also feel that something 'sounds better' if I am offered an ego boost of some kind. This is an emotional matter, not necessary an ethics matter. However, 'ethics' & 'integrity' can be important, for example, not resisting peer pressure. The only real 'Authenticated' is what was originally mixed and placed onto tape. In that regard, very few recordings reach that level of 'authentication' even today, but adding additional adulteration is tantamount to a kind of dishonesty or misrepresentation of product quality. MikeyFresh, LarryMagoo, UkPhil and 3 others 4 2 Link to comment
Popular Post Fokus Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 1 hour ago, jparvio said: It would help enormously if the Audiophile Press was pushing for the truth as one, don't You think? The problem is that the audiophile press is not ... press. "Journalism is the discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying and presenting information regarding current events, trends, issues and people. " There are of course exceptions, but they are very rare, and seldomly long-lived. botrytis, Thuaveta, Abtr and 5 others 8 Link to comment
Popular Post jparvio Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 42 minutes ago, Fokus said: The problem is that the audiophile press is not ... press. "Journalism is the discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying and presenting information regarding current events, trends, issues and people. " There are of course exceptions, but they are very rare, and seldomly long-lived. Well that's the thing... It could and definitely should be. To me it is. I did study it amongst other things. Yet journalists can have their personal opinions and likings (subjective) if and when there's no hidden agendas. I must say that at least in Finland no audio journalist possess a multi 100 000 € systems like they do overseas. Lack of commitment or something else? But enough of that. Yet not one journalist is above the truth in any way, no matter the size of the ego. And eventually it is Editor-in-Chief who's responsible for the Magazines core ethics - or should be. If the board of owners has all the say-so then independent and objective journalism has left the building. MQA should not be an exception when it comes to objective journalism. MikeyFresh and Teresa 2 Jussi Arvio Contributing Editor Hifimaailma Magazine Link to comment
Thuaveta Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 15 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said: Unlike mQa, they aren’t making claims about being one thing, only to be something else entirely. Well a number of their writers claim to be journalists... MikeyFresh 1 Link to comment
March Audio Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 3 hours ago, jparvio said: I Agree but this is not about me or my opinion alone. It would help enormously if the Audiophile Press was pushing for the truth as one, don't You think? From time to time it looks like MQA is not even fighting it's own battle and that hurts. Oh of course, but is it that simple? There are potential conflicts of interest. Not pointing to any publication and speaking generally, a hifi magazine may carry adverts from a dac manufacturer who is pro MQA. There may be personal/professional relationships and so on. Some of the hifi press / magazines are just advertising platforms BTW our Finnish Spitz dogs Kimi ans Oona say hello, well woof 😉 jparvio 1 Link to comment
jparvio Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 29 minutes ago, March Audio said: Oh of course, but is it that simple? There are potential conflicts of interest. Not pointing to any publication and speaking generally, a hifi magazine may carry adverts from a dac manufacturer who is pro MQA. There may be personal/professional relationships and so on. Some of the hifi press / magazines are just advertising platforms padded out with some colourful, and always complimentary, stories about bits of kit. Nothing in life is easy or direct and this case is no exception to the rule. But money or personal relationship/agenda should not be in the Way. This is exactly what should separate advertorial -based platforms from journalism. In Dogs I trust. There is never a hidden agenda or rainy Day with them 😍I buried our Finnish Spitz dog naemd Mörö a Year ago...😢 Jussi Arvio Contributing Editor Hifimaailma Magazine Link to comment
Popular Post March Audio Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 14 minutes ago, jparvio said: Nothing in life is easy or direct and this case is no exception to the rule. But money or personal relationship/agenda should not be in the Way. This is exactly what should separate advertorial -based platforms from journalism. In Dogs I trust. There is never a hidden agenda or rainy Day to that matter 😍 This is why MQA wont allow technical testing. It is truly objective and the tests and results can be repeated/verified by others. You are so right about dogs 😀 I am very sorry to hear about yours, we lost our first Finnish Spitz Mika a few years ago. botrytis, LarryMagoo and jparvio 2 1 Link to comment
Popular Post Hifi Bob Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 11 hours ago, KeenObserver said: I've seen that before. I often wondered if that was the original inspiration for MQA. Meridian has been trying to tap into the CD/audio supply-chain for decades. In the 90s they had "autodither"; it never took off, perhaps because HDCD stole the limelight at the time. MikeyFresh and botrytis 2 Link to comment
lucretius Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 2 hours ago, Fokus said: The problem is that the audiophile press is not ... press. Right. They are hobby/trade magazines/e-zines/blogs and they employ/engage content writers. mQa is dead! Link to comment
FredericV Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 9 hours ago, GoldenOne said: Also if we want to talk legal stuff, perhaps MQA should be taking a look at law surrounding GPL licensing.... It'd certainly be a bit of a roadbump if it turned out their product wasn't entirely legal The problem with the GPL is that the data processed by GPL tools, is not protected by the GPL. It only protects the software, not the data. Adding MQA to existing open source players is clearly wrong: https://www.musicpd.org/commercial.html MikeyFresh 1 Designer of the 432 EVO music server and Linux specialist Discoverer of the independent open source sox based mqa playback method with optional one cycle postringing. Link to comment
Popular Post botrytis Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 1 hour ago, lucretius said: Right. They are hobby/trade magazines/e-zines/blogs and they employ/engage content writers. I actually think they are a trade magazine that sells products for the manufacturers, they are not a hobby magazine. The audio consumer is the product they sell. As far as MQA listening tests, they use expectation bias, to sell MQA. It is a classic trick that flim flam men use to sell products. Tell them what to expect and the brain fills in the rest. It helps when the person doing that selling, is a known 'expert' in the field. JoeWhip, Teresa, maxijazz and 1 other 2 2 Current: Daphile on an AMD A10-9500 with 16 GB RAM DAC - TEAC UD-501 DAC Pre-amp - Rotel RC-1590 Amplification - Benchmark AHB2 amplifier Speakers - Revel M126Be with 2 REL 7/ti subwoofers Cables - Tara Labs RSC Reference and Blue Jean Cable Balanced Interconnects Link to comment
Popular Post The Computer Audiophile Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 7 hours ago, March Audio said: MQA could end all of this in an instant if they allowed 3rd party testing. Absolutely. If mQa was real, the company could end all of this tomorrow. March Audio, maxijazz, botrytis and 5 others 8 Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
Popular Post Fokus Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 1 minute ago, The Computer Audiophile said: Absolutely. If mQa was real, the company could end all of this tomorrow. The only thing worse than being talked about being not being talked about, the company is certainly not going to end this. MikeyFresh, opus101 and botrytis 3 Link to comment
botrytis Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 6 minutes ago, Fokus said: The only thing worse than being talked about being not being talked about, the company is certainly not going to end this. What's the old saying, 'There is no such thing as bad publicity.' - P.T. Barnum Current: Daphile on an AMD A10-9500 with 16 GB RAM DAC - TEAC UD-501 DAC Pre-amp - Rotel RC-1590 Amplification - Benchmark AHB2 amplifier Speakers - Revel M126Be with 2 REL 7/ti subwoofers Cables - Tara Labs RSC Reference and Blue Jean Cable Balanced Interconnects Link to comment
mcgillroy Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 Geez, it's been a while and I thought MQA was a thing of the last decade. But apparently MQA is like a Zombie, animating those it bites. The JA's from Stereophile among them. Crazy that they are willing to burn their reputation at this rate by sticking with the bloating corpse MQA is these days - espc. after what Golden Sound pulled off (mad props GS!!). Which begets the question why? Contracts? Probably not. Posturing? Probably yes. They signal the industry that they can reliably campaign even in the face of strong opposition. Important for an industry that needs shills and needs shills that shill not matter what. Marching on even after headshots. Respect. MikeyFresh 1 Link to comment
Popular Post Egill23 Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 It is pretty clear that MQA offers nothing what so ever of value to the music consumers. To me it seems its rasion d'etre is as a glorified copy protection and to line the MQA owners pockets. March Audio and maxijazz 2 Link to comment
Popular Post The Computer Audiophile Posted June 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted June 7, 2021 3 hours ago, March Audio said: Oh of course, but is it that simple? There are potential conflicts of interest. Not pointing to any publication and speaking generally, a hifi magazine may carry adverts from a dac manufacturer who is pro MQA. There may be personal/professional relationships and so on. Some of the hifi press / magazines are just advertising platforms I've said it many times, and I'll say it agin. If people really valued independent publications, there would be more independent publications. I'd drop all advertising on my site in a heartbeat if more people paid to subscribe. My life would be so much easier, but for many reasons, one of them may well be that my offerings aren't compelling enough to get people to pay, people prefer the ad supported models. Conflicts exist in every facet of life, but we need to do our best to avoid them and to identify when lines have been crossed. In my case, I do my best to build trust with this community. One of the ways I do this is by allowing unfettered criticism of my work on any page of this site. If I even attempted to pull one over on people, I'd hear about it instantly and it would be all over these pages in bold capital letters. Bringing it back to mQa, I started out in the camp of people who gave mQa the benefit of the doubt. I wrote about it, offered Bob huge front page space in a Q&A, accepted dinner invitations from mQa in Munich etc... I love technology, I love music, I love covering things that could bring more enjoyment to members of this community. I had high hopes for mQa. However, the members of this community, with much more knowledge than me, stayed on it and continued to show me why mQa wasn't all I had hoped it was. After seeing enough evidence and way too much obfuscation by mQa, I changed my position on mQa. Trust works both ways. I trust this community immensely and I hope I've earned its trust over the nearly 15 years since founding this site. I can display advertisements on these pages, but this community understands that my opinions are independent and people can speak up if they think otherwise. lucretius, MarkusBarkus, MikeyFresh and 13 others 13 3 Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
Confused Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 30 minutes ago, botrytis said: What's the old saying, 'There is no such thing as bad publicity.' - P.T. Barnum There are exceptions .... https://www.businessblogshub.com/2012/09/the-man-who-destroyed-his-multi-million-dollar-company-in-10-seconds/ Teresa 1 Windows 11 PC, Roon, HQPlayer, Focus Fidelity convolutions, iFi Zen Stream, Paul Hynes SR4, Mutec REF10, Mutec MC3+USB, Devialet 1000Pro, KEF Blade. Plus Pro-Ject Signature 12 TT for playing my 'legacy' vinyl collection. Desktop system; RME ADI-2 DAC fs, Meze Empyrean headphones. Link to comment
Iving Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 59 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said: If people really valued independent publications, there would be more independent publications. I'd drop all advertising on my site in a heartbeat if more people paid to subscribe. My life would be so much easier, but for many reasons, one of them may well be that my offerings aren't compelling enough to get people to pay, people prefer the ad supported models. Conflicts exist in every facet of life, but we need to do our best to avoid them and to identify when lines have been crossed. In my case, I do my best to build trust with this community. One of the ways I do this is by allowing unfettered criticism of my work on any page of this site. If I even attempted to pull one over on people, I'd hear about it instantly and it would be all over these pages in bold capital letters. Bringing it back to mQa ... mQa aside for a moment still, maybe you could Sticky something compelling like this on top of the Activity Stream or somewhere else like that. In my eyes anyway it is no more offensive than ads. In fact, I find it more purposeful. Saying this, I have to scratch my head about subscribing - and I will. My honest feeling is that I'd like to see the cultural elevation effect of your message (which I certainly anticipate!) and then subscribe. You can't have your cake and eat it I know. I still think it's worth Sticky - no matter what I decide to do. You have a great case here in outline. The mQa thread on ASR is closed. I wish everyone there would come here and debate in the spirit of your remarks. If I saw that happening I would subscribe without hesitation. If I weren't on such a tight financial rein I'd just do it anyway. Link to comment
Iving Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 19 minutes ago, Iving said: mQa aside for a moment still, maybe you could Sticky something compelling like this on top of the Activity Stream or somewhere else like that. In my eyes anyway it is no more offensive than ads. In fact, I find it more purposeful. Saying this, I have to scratch my head about subscribing - and I will. My honest feeling is that I'd like to see its effects (which I believe in anticipation!) and then subscribe. You can't have your cake and eat it I know. I still think it's worth Sticky - no matter what I decide to do. You have a great case here in outline. The mQa thread on ASR is closed. I wish everyone there would come here and debate in the spirit of your remarks. If I saw that happening I would subscribe without hesitation. If I weren't on such a tight financial rein I'd just do it anyway. OK I put my money where my mouth is and subscribed to AS Premium. Your message is great. Thank you The Computer Audiophile 1 Link to comment
The Computer Audiophile Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 8 minutes ago, Iving said: OK I put my money where my mouth is and subscribed to AS Premium. Your message is great. Thank you Don't forget to try the Premium themes. You can switch by clicking on Theme at the bottom of the page. Iving 1 Founder of Audiophile Style | My Audio Systems Link to comment
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