MQA The Truth lies Somewhere in the Middle

[wgscott]

13 minutes ago, crenca said:

 

Like any organizer, dept. head, CEO, politician she has to take responsibility for the actions of others under her watch. 

 

But they are not under her watch.  They are not employees of hers. They are conference participants.  

 

If it was a question of bedbugs infesting the conference room, you would be correct.

 

On a more practical matter, how in the world would she be expected to police every presentation?

[wgscott]

53 minutes ago, crenca said:

"As show organizer the treatment of Chris is not acceptable.  While RMAF does not take a particular position on MQA, we do offer a setting and forum where all sides are presented, and where everyone is treated with respect.  Disruptive behavior for any reason by anyone is not what we are about here at RMAF.  I wish to apologize to Chris.  In the future, we will ask all participants, presenters, and audience members to conduct themselves in a respectful manner..." etc. etc. 

 

Does she even know what happened?  I assume she couldn't be present at all venues simultaneously.

Also, even though I agree the hecklers were rude and shot themselves in the foot (an ideal outcome, if you think about it), did it really cross a line where an apology from anyone else is required?  It isn't so clear from one youtube video where the sound quality is quite poor.

 

[wgscott]

3 minutes ago, John_Atkinson said:

 

Of course not. Chris has his own outlet for his opinions right here. His contributing to Stereophile is as in appropriate as my writing for The Absolute Sound or SoundStage. If you want to read my opinions on MQA, you have to read Stereophile, as distasteful as some here find that.

 

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

 

More to the point, would Stereophile be willing to publish an article critical of MQA, that relied on objective facts and data, rather than opinions and innuendo?

 

 

[wgscott]

2 minutes ago, John_Atkinson said:

 

Why not? I have published letters very critical of MQA, and have expressed my own criticisms and reservations. However, the author would not be able to hide behind an anonymous handle or a pseudonym. And they would have to fully disclose their professional affiliations.

 

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

 

 

I am glad to hear that.

 

(The answer about Chris had me worried that this might not be the case.)

[wgscott]

7 minutes ago, crenca said:

Otherwise, consumers have to ask such questions as:  Are the sacred cows of this hobby/industry (such as MQA) given special place at RMAF?  Do the normal expectations of presenters, participants, and RMAF show goers become "optional" when MQA (or any other industry darling) executives are in the room?

 

That much should be transparently obvious to anyone whose head is not in the sand.  It is a trade show, not a scientific conference.  The whole purpose of a trade show is to display new products and issue marketing propaganda.

[wgscott]

13 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

If anyone is interested in the average internet connection speeds in the US by state. Ken Forsythe suggested Atlanta's average speed was 11 Mbps I believe. I have a hard time believing that if the entire state's average is 17.9 Mbps.

 

Alternative facts.

[wgscott]

2 minutes ago, crenca said:

 

Well, yes. I and others have been pointing out the Audiophiledom culture problem for a while but to paraphrase Paul Simon,  "Cultures come and cultures go, so what are you going to do about it that is what I would like to know"

 

A proposal:

 

Chris creates a section to the forums, or even better a front page presence, titled "the Industry behaving badly" or "Audiophile writers behaving badly".  It will be composed of a quoted sentence or two from Atkinson, Harley, Austin, JVS, Scoggins - all the usual suspects followed by a short (2 paragraphs at most) explication of why it is wrong,  just how wrong it is, and why it is fundamentally anti-consumer.  MQA of course has provided much fodder, but it would be trivial to write dozens of pieces going back years...

 

Good idea, but it should be called "The Wall of Shame".

[wgscott]

Considering the failure of DSD or even lossless PCM codecs to be adopted by main-stream consumers, the only chance MQA would have is if were forced upon consumers.  Most people, having to choose between a lower-quality accessible format and a higher-quality but limited-access format, will choose the low quality one, simply because they don't hear a difference (or improvement), or at least not enough of one to justify the added expense and inconvenience (attributes that audiophiles consider positives, but everyone else sees as a turn-off). In the case of MQA, the claims of improved sound quality are demonstrably false, so the case becomes even less compelling.