MQA is Vaporware

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, MikeyFresh said:

A recent "Spotify vs. TIDAL" article appearing in Android Authority stated this:

 

"Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) promises high-resolution (96kHz/24bit) audio delivered via FLAC or WAV file. Any media labeled as MQA under Tidal means that the artist directly authenticated it."

 

True or false?

Let's cut over to Miles Davis and ask him about the sound ... oh wait. 

[yahooboy]

22 minutes ago, MikeyFresh said:

A recent "Spotify vs. TIDAL" article appearing in Android Authority stated this:

 

"Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) promises high-resolution (96kHz/24bit) audio delivered via FLAC or WAV file. Any media labeled as MQA under Tidal means that the artist directly authenticated it."

 

True or false?

FALSE

 

Have been involved in taking down local artists album that had been "MQA'ed" they hated what the process did to their original work.

Since they hadn't allowed the MQA version it had to be taken down

[mfsoa]

It must be difficult getting agreement from all members of a symphony orchestra that the MQA version is truly how they wanted their music published.

Or is this Beethoven's responsibility?

 

Seriously, how many artists have come out and publicly stated "There are two versions of my art. One is superior (let's say DXD master), and one is inferior. It is my wish that the public only receive the inferior version"

 

 

[Allan F]

9 hours ago, mfsoa said:

It must be difficult getting agreement from all members of a symphony orchestra that the MQA version is truly how they wanted their music published.

Or is this Beethoven's responsibility?

Given that Beethoven was deaf, I doubt that he would be of any assistance were he alive today.

[GregWormald]

11 hours ago, MikeyFresh said:

A recent "Spotify vs. TIDAL" article appearing in Android Authority stated this:

 

"Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) promises high-resolution (96kHz/24bit) audio delivered via FLAC or WAV file. Any media labeled as MQA under Tidal means that the artist directly authenticated it."

 

True or false?

False, of course, and tremendously, obviously so.

 

Who's going to tell AA and will they listen and retract or are they already dead because "they drank the cool-aid'?

[John Dyson]

14 hours ago, yahooboy said:

FALSE

 

Have been involved in taking down local artists album that had been "MQA'ed" they hated what the process did to their original work.

Since they hadn't allowed the MQA version it had to be taken down

I wonder if the MQA version had the industry-ubiquitous post processing added?   MQA obviously sucks, but the processing normally done to consumer recordings sucks worse -- it is just that listeners have gotten accomodated to it.   It seems to me that adding a recording to normal distribution, and encoding with MQA might automatically add the industry-wide standard processing also?   To a musician with good hearing, this double damage would be immediately apparent.

 

(One, secondary, reason why Marios TRT stuff is so good is that it hasn't been processed.   Marios' stereo image handling is certainly most innovative and important, but also his recordings are clean of the industry standard cr*pping on the recordings.   It was WONDERFUL to hear a true, unprocessed recording for a change.)

 

[firedog]

6 hours ago, Allan F said:

Given that Beethoven was deaf, I doubt that he would be of any assistance were he alive today.

About as much use as some of the low level flunkies MQA uses to "authenticate" it's masters.

[Cebolla]

Perhaps hearing's not their problem and they're actually colour blind - to blue & green.

[GregWormald]

On 11/6/2021 at 2:08 AM, The Computer Audiophile said:

Let's cut over to Miles Davis and ask him about the sound ... oh wait. 

I have to assume that MQA has a reliable, built-in Ouija board. I can't understand why they wouldn't market it separately. Surely it would be a money-spinner.

[Confused]

This reminds me of a time many years ago when I was in a recording studio with together with a band.

 

We were listening to the first mix of a track recorded that morning, the recording engineer asked the band what they thought.

 

The conversation went a bit like this:

 

Bass guitarist: I think the bass is too quiet in the mix, it lacks a bit of punch and drive.

Lead singer: Actually, I think the vocals are far too recessed, they need to be increased in the mix.

Drummer: I think the drums are like the bass, far too quiet in the mix.

Lead guitarist: No, I think the lead guitar is being swamped, it loses the soul of the track.

 

The recoding engineer looked at me, as the only other person in the room who was not actually a member of the band and asked "What do you think? Does it sound anything like they do when playing live?"

 

So there you have it, exactly as the artist intended.

[GregWormald]

18 hours ago, Confused said:

<snip>

So there you have it, exactly as the artist intended.

Thanks for that.

 

So who does MQA consider to be the artist? The composer, the arranger, the lead player, the band, the conductor, the recording engineer, the mixer, the person at the record company who figured out how to make money out the performance, the MQA designer, the MQA coder, or the MQA tech who pushed the recording through the process?

 

Man, now I'm really confused!

[Hifi Bob]

On 11/7/2021 at 10:14 AM, Confused said:

“exactly as the artist intended”.

I think that this has only ever been a marketing pitch.

 

In the context of recorded music, I wondered if Neil Young / Pono might be the originator but it’s been around for a while before then:
 

That's how we at Rotel feel about hi-fi. The real joy of owning an audio system is to experience the pleasure of a great performance by reproducing it exactly as the artist intended.  Stereophile, May 1998.

[kumakuma]

38 minutes ago, Hifi Bob said:

I think that this has only ever been a marketing pitch.

 

In the context of recorded music, I wondered if Neil Young / Pono might be the originator but it’s been around for a while before then:
 

That's how we at Rotel feel about hi-fi. The real joy of owning an audio system is to experience the pleasure of a great performance by reproducing it exactly as the artist intended.  Stereophile, May 1998.

 

The idea (if not the expression) is even older than this.

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Has Tidal finally come to its senses and decoupled MQA from lossless streaming?

 

I just recede an email saying I was upgraded to HiFi Plus. So, I checked to see what HiFi without the Plus was. IT certainly appears that lossless without MQA is now only $10.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Now, we need to test the HiFi tier (not HiFi Plus) to see if the lossless 44.1 is in fact lossless, not some mQa CD without the mQa label. 

[UkPhil]

45 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Has Tidal finally come to its senses and decoupled MQA from lossless streaming?

 

I just recede an email saying I was upgraded to HiFi Plus. So, I checked to see what HiFi without the Plus was. IT certainly appears that lossless without MQA is now only $10.

 

But these will be 16/44.1 MQA files with the flag turned off so MQA in disguise,  they dumped all the Warners and Sony original ones in the bin so no one could compare 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, UkPhil said:

But these will be 16/44.1 MQA files with the flag turned off so MQA in disguise,  they dumped all the Warners and Sony original ones in the bin so no one could compare 

Will need to use the bit perfect test to see.

[Confused]

I see there is a free tier now, which is an interesting move.

 

Is it possible to infect 160kbs files with MQA?

(I guess it is if MQA is the source file to create the 160kbs file)

[bambadoo]

Quote

New: Direct Artist Payouts This program will give artists access to another payment stream by allocating 10% of monthly subscriptions at the HiFi Plus tier to each listener’s most streamed artist.

Now we could face that artists actually support this program and make MQA an selling point.. 

 

But access to lossy MQA now costs the double. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

36 minutes ago, bambadoo said:

Now we could face that artists actually support this program and make MQA an selling point.. 

 

But access to lossy MQA now costs the double. 

That program starts sometime in 2022 and if it's successful the other services will do it too. 

[new_media]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Will need to use the bit perfect test to see.

Is Roon's identification of MQA based solely on a flag? It does identify tracks as MQA even though they don't have the "Master" label on Tidal.

 

I see that my account was automatically upgraded to HiFi Plus. If they do indeed have lossless CD-quality streams in the HiFi tier, will I have to downgrade to access them?

[The Computer Audiophile]

54 minutes ago, new_media said:

Is Roon's identification of MQA based solely on a flag? It does identify tracks as MQA even though they don't have the "Master" label on Tidal.

 

I believe so.

 

54 minutes ago, new_media said:

I see that my account was automatically upgraded to HiFi Plus. If they do indeed have lossless CD-quality streams in the HiFi tier, will I have to downgrade to access them?

 

I believe so. 

[Account Closed]

2 hours ago, bambadoo said:

Now we could face that artists actually support this program and make MQA an selling point.. 

 

But access to lossy MQA now costs the double. 

I wonder how long MQA will last now that there is a $120/Year cost associated with it. This wii be interesting. We wait, we watch.

[DuckToller]

An interesting point about MQA adaption.
iFi, who have developed that phenomenous GTO Filter together with MQA labs for fighting against "post ringing" traumatism to our preciuos ears, have unexpectedly resigned to use the MQA force of propaganda with their iFi ZEN Stream product. They provide Tidal masters as Tidal exclusive streaming mode, however, in their tec lowdown brochure they avoid the MQA tag, and without it they can provide "the purest performance possible".
Interesting alteration of the marketing pitch in a mere 12 month. I am wondering whether the customers have voted against their collaboration with the BS regime?

From all I can get from their product description, the ZEN stream seems to be well equipped for the price you pay.

[Stereo]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

That program starts sometime in 2022 and if it's successful the other services will do it too. 

Deezer has been trying to do this for a couple of years now already:  https://en.deezercommunity.com/product-updates/27