Bob Stuart launches blog to explain MQA

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"We also changed the game by offering only the pure original and highest quality of a recording with secure confirmation at playback – so the listener has the huge benefit of knowing they have the approved original. MQA: Master Quality Authentication."

 

If only this were true, I'd forgive all the other stuff.

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Ishmael Slapowitz said:

But none of it is true. A total fabrication, ain't it?😅

I really don't know, but I won't debate it.

 

My principal gripe with MQA is different than most of the folks who have been posting in the "vaporware" thread and elsewhere about MQA.  I'm really not hot and bothered by the fact that MQA is "lossy," may be disguised DRM and/or is promoted with some hysterical marketing language and unintelligible explanations.  The fact is that I got full MQA compatibility for free with a firmware update from the manufacturer of my digital stack (dCS), and IMO a lot of the MQA Studio-encoded files on Tidal sound as good or better on my system than the same hi rez titles streamed on Qobuz or purchased from a download site.  I may not be thrilled with the way MQA made or marketed the "sausage," but I think it tastes ok.

 

BUT, in my view, the principal issue facing digital audiophiles is the difficulty of finding digital files that are as well-mastered as the best analog files of the same music.  (I'm NOT saying that analog playback is better than digital.  I am saying that analog source materials available to audiophiles are generally better mastered than the digital source materials available to audiophiles.  Of course there are exceptions, but in particular it seems like dynamic compression is far more avoidable by purchasing analog sources.)

 

I've been buying vinyl since the late 1960's.  For a lot of the classic rock and other music that is important to me, it is impossible (or close to impossible) to get digital files that match the mastering quality of the original pressings and best remasters that are available on vinyl.  MQA claims to be dealing with this, but they are not.  In my experience, MQA is almost always applying its special sauce to a recent remaster -- and that is often a heavily compressed POS -- rather than an original analog or digital mastering.  MQA is perpetuating the problem, not contributing to a solution.

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6 hours ago, firedog said:

 

But you are lucky that dCS is one of only 2 manufacturers that has implemented MQA so that only MQA files - and not other PCM files - are given the MQA filtering treatment. 

Valid point.  I am grateful that dCS does a great job of providing updates and improvements for its customers.