I published music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Deep Dive

[FredericV]

34 minutes ago, jparvio said:

Please tell me Qobuz has not fallen to MQA(!?!?!) I just played Gretchen Parlato´s Flor-album. It has been marked as 24-44,1k Flac, but Roon (without any upsampling etc.) informs it to be 88,2k. This is also verified by three dacs. 

 

If this is truly the case, I feel confused and betrayed all in once. 

 

Please see attachment:

Those files are 24/88.2 - this is from my squeezelite debug log, the from value matters:

[10:03:32.877881] resample_newstream:186 resampling from 88200 -> 352800

Bitrate is 2789kbps, which is higher than those pseudo hi-res files:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TIdaL/comments/fvi0rp/how_much_kbps_is_tidal_masters/

[NOMBEDES]

21 hours ago, Cebolla said:

 

Don't you mean via a BluOS device rather than Amazon Music,, or have I missed some new Radio Paradise news re their MQA streams? 

Community - Radio Paradise

 

Also, unlike TIDAL, Radio Paradise are guaranteeing to continue providing the true 'master' lossless FLAC streams, that their lossy MQA streams are actually sourced from.

 

 

I my error.  I subscribe to Amazon Music (AM).  I thought my Radio Paradise feed was a result of the AM subscription.  Thank you.

Radio Paradise is from BlueOS.

[botrytis]

Dr. Mark Waldrep picks up on Goldsound's video

[Currawong]

12 hours ago, botrytis said:

Dr. Mark Waldrep picks up on Goldsound's video

 

Including quite a bit of the link dump from my bookmarks I gave to GO for the video. What amounts to years of bookmaking posts from this forum paid off in the end!

[AudioDoctor]

On 4/20/2021 at 2:36 AM, jparvio said:

Please tell me Qobuz has not fallen to MQA(!?!?!) I just played Gretchen Parlato´s Flor-album. It has been marked as 24-44,1k Flac, but Roon (without any upsampling etc.) informs it to be 88,2k. This is also verified by three dacs. 

 

If this is truly the case, I feel confused and betrayed all in once. 

 

Please see attachment:

 

If it was MQA, your path window would look something like this:

 

[pompon]

FOr regular tidal songs/albums (not master), are they cd quality ?

 

[Stereo]

1 hour ago, pompon said:

FOr regular tidal songs/albums (not master), are they cd quality ?

 

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/new-tidal-tiers-and-mqa/157785/73?u=drtone
 

Probably not going to be given their shady business practice. Recommend going elsewhere if you can.

[Cebolla]

3 hours ago, pompon said:

FOr regular tidal songs/albums (not master), are they cd quality ?

 

 

They should be, but you need to be make sure that you have actually selected tracks for streaming not labelled master in the first place. Changing the TIDAL quality setting from Masters to HiFi does not do that for you:

 

[Currawong]

GoldenOne has now been banned from ASR because, according to him, the moderators wanted to stop the criticism of Amir's comments on MQA, and he refused to help with that.

 

I think maybe we should refer to ASR as "Audio Scientism Religion" as it better describes the behaviour of people there.

[AudioDoctor]

If you can't beat them, ban them...

[bambadoo]

He seems like an MQA schill

 

[Dr Tone]

26 minutes ago, bambadoo said:

He seems like an MQA schill

 

The delusion is strong in this one.

[KeenObserver]

19 hours ago, Currawong said:

GoldenOne has now been banned from ASR because, according to him, the moderators wanted to stop the criticism of Amir's comments on MQA, and he refused to help with that.

 

I think maybe we should refer to ASR as "Audio Scientism Religion" as it better describes the behaviour of people there.

 

I belong to a number of sites and read a number of sites. I find useful information on many sites. Sometimes you have to pick through the loads of manure to find the seed.

I used to go to ASR to read the tests. However, Amir's fanatical defense and ridiculous posts in regards to MQA make me wonder what other biases Amir has. I no longer have any faith in what Amir posts on his site. Therefore ASR is all but useless to me.

[garrardguy60]

49 minutes ago, KeenObserver said:

 

I belong to a number of sites and read a number of sites. I find useful information on many sites. Sometimes you have to pick through the loads of manure to find the seed.

I used to go to ASR to read the tests. However, Amir's fanatical defense and ridiculous posts in regards to MQA make me wonder what other biases Amir has. I no longer have any faith in what Amir posts on his site. Therefore ASR is all but useless to me.

 

I belong to a number of sites and read a number of sites. I find useful information on many sites. Sometimes you have to pick through the loads of manure to find the seed.

I used to come to Audiophile Style, when it was Computer Audiophile, to read the posts. However, Chris's understandable and defensible desire to grow his site resulted in a business decision wherein he politely suggested that many of the objectivists who came to the site for its excellent MQA coverage should post in a newly created special section and if that was not to their liking they might want to take their anti-cable and general anti-woo orientation elsewhere. Therefore Audiophile Style is less useful to me than it was when it welcomed me with open arms.

 

It is true that, notwithstanding the request to leave the site -- for oldsters, this sounds like what Felix's wife told him during the title sequence on the old "The Odd Couple" TV series, adding that he must never return, an edict I have obviously violated! -- Chris seems to be a friendly person who is invariably polite (i.e, he has a high boiling point before he can't take it anymore! ). 

 

OTOH, over at another site, a guy named Amir can on occasion be dismissive, abrupt, and arrogant. Is it shocking to anyone that an ex-Microsoft vice president behaves like this? Personally, I suspect Amir is MUCH better behaved at ASR than he was at MS.

 

SO NOW I WILL lose the ironic distance and get to my point: The online audiophile world is not as black and white as I and probably many others thought it was. A site can have bad points and good points. Indeed, all the popular audio sites have both pluses and minuses at the same time

 

Sure, I felt hurt that Chris kicked us out, but now a year later my position is that I can't take away that Chris has the first, most comprehensive and still best MQA thread, and an honest passion for audio that comes from the user (as opposed to vendor) side, which is rare for a site that takes ads. I guess I mean to say that Chris seems to have successfully threaded the very tiny needle in terms being supported by ads while still serving readers.

 

It is CLEAR that he does this better than legacy vehicles like Stereophile and TAS. He's also light years ahead of Darko and Guttenberg, who basically provide what's called advertorial content.

 

By the same token, Amir has successfully tapped into a market opening for measurements. BTW, I personally believe that it was Archimago who ramped up interest in deep dive measurements (this era's answer to the Julian Hirsch measurement of yore) with the pioneering content he has written since 2012.

 

Anyway, I don't have anything prescriptive to add; it just seems like we've entered an era where no single site can serve all the different audiophile factions, so maybe it's Rodney King time and we all need to learn to get along a little better...

 

 

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, garrardguy60 said:

 

I belong to a number of sites and read a number of sites. I find useful information on many sites. Sometimes you have to pick through the loads of manure to find the seed.

I used to come to Audiophile Style, when it was Computer Audiophile, to read the posts. However, Chris's understandable and defensible desire to grow his site resulted in a business decision wherein he politely suggested that many of the objectivists who came to the site for its excellent MQA coverage should post in a newly created special section and if that was not to their liking they might want to take their anti-cable and general anti-woo orientation elsewhere. Therefore Audiophile Style is less useful to me than it was when it welcomed me with open arms.

 

It is true that, notwithstanding the request to leave the site -- for oldsters, this sounds like what Felix's wife told him during the title sequence on the old "The Odd Couple" TV series, adding that he must never return, an edict I have obviously violated! -- Chris seems to be a friendly person who is invariably polite (i.e, he has a high boiling point before he can't take it anymore! ). 

 

OTOH, over at another site, a guy named Amir can on occasion be dismissive, abrupt, and arrogant. Is it shocking to anyone that an ex-Microsoft vice president behaves like this? Personally, I suspect Amir is MUCH better behaved at ASR than he was at MS.

 

SO NOW I WILL lose the ironic distance and get to my point: The online audiophile world is not as black and white as I and probably many others thought it was. A site can have bad points and good points. Indeed, all the popular audio sites have both pluses and minuses at the same time

 

Sure, I felt hurt that Chris kicked us out, but now a year later my position is that I can't take away that Chris has the first, most comprehensive and still best MQA thread, and an honest passion for audio that comes from the user (as opposed to vendor) side, which is rare for a site that takes ads. I guess I mean to say that Chris seems to have successfully threaded the very tiny needle in terms being supported by ads while still serving readers.

 

It is CLEAR that he does this better than legacy vehicles like Stereophile and TAS. He's also light years ahead of Darko and Guttenberg, who basically provide what's called advertorial content.

 

By the same token, Amir has successfully tapped into a market opening for measurements. BTW, I personally believe that it was Archimago who ramped up interest in deep dive measurements (this era's answer to the Julian Hirsch measurement of yore) with the pioneering content he has written since 2012.

 

Anyway, I don't have anything prescriptive to add; it just seems like we've entered an era where no single site can serve all the different audiophile factions, so maybe it's Rodney King time and we all need to learn to get along a little better...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sites are just like the people who found / run them. We all have our issues, pros, cons, etc... 

[Currawong]

21 hours ago, bambadoo said:

He seems like an MQA schill

 

 

I don't think so. He spent a lot of time in the video saying nothing at all, and making a single bandwagon fallacy/appeal to authority argument that most reviewers (hinting at "trained listeners" because he is one) prefer MQA.  

 

 

One key thing he pointed out that was important though, is that MQA sounds better though an MQA DAC. Some of the MQA tracks I've tried sounded downright weird through my Yggdrasil, as if the soundstage was all wonky. Hmm... make MQA the standard, then produce output that makes the music sound off through all MQA DACs... surely not. ;)

 

[firedog]

23 hours ago, garrardguy60 said:

 

I belong to a number of sites and read a number of sites. I find useful information on many sites. Sometimes you have to pick through the loads of manure to find the seed.

I used to come to Audiophile Style, when it was Computer Audiophile, to read the posts. However, Chris's understandable and defensible desire to grow his site resulted in a business decision wherein he politely suggested that many of the objectivists who came to the site for its excellent MQA coverage should post in a newly created special section and if that was not to their liking they might want to take their anti-cable and general anti-woo orientation elsewhere. Therefore Audiophile Style is less useful to me than it was when it welcomed me with open arms.

 

It is true that, notwithstanding the request to leave the site -- for oldsters, this sounds like what Felix's wife told him during the title sequence on the old "The Odd Couple" TV series, adding that he must never return, an edict I have obviously violated! -- Chris seems to be a friendly person who is invariably polite (i.e, he has a high boiling point before he can't take it anymore! ). 

 

OTOH, over at another site, a guy named Amir can on occasion be dismissive, abrupt, and arrogant. Is it shocking to anyone that an ex-Microsoft vice president behaves like this? Personally, I suspect Amir is MUCH better behaved at ASR than he was at MS.

 

SO NOW I WILL lose the ironic distance and get to my point: The online audiophile world is not as black and white as I and probably many others thought it was. A site can have bad points and good points. Indeed, all the popular audio sites have both pluses and minuses at the same time

 

Sure, I felt hurt that Chris kicked us out, but now a year later my position is that I can't take away that Chris has the first, most comprehensive and still best MQA thread, and an honest passion for audio that comes from the user (as opposed to vendor) side, which is rare for a site that takes ads. I guess I mean to say that Chris seems to have successfully threaded the very tiny needle in terms being supported by ads while still serving readers.

 

It is CLEAR that he does this better than legacy vehicles like Stereophile and TAS. He's also light years ahead of Darko and Guttenberg, who basically provide what's called advertorial content.

 

By the same token, Amir has successfully tapped into a market opening for measurements. BTW, I personally believe that it was Archimago who ramped up interest in deep dive measurements (this era's answer to the Julian Hirsch measurement of yore) with the pioneering content he has written since 2012.

 

Anyway, I don't have anything prescriptive to add; it just seems like we've entered an era where no single site can serve all the different audiophile factions, so maybe it's Rodney King time and we all need to learn to get along a little better...

 

 

 

 

 

From my POV, Chris didn't kick anyone out.

He - and many of the rest of us - got tired of seemingly every thread getting turned into an objectivist vs. subjectivist fight: Mention the word "cables" and we were off to the races....again. And after the 500th time it got old. And it accomplished nothing. No one was enlightened.

So Chris setup the objectivist section to prevent the continuation of the never ending "groundhog day" scenarios.

IMO, the site is better for the change. I think some of the people that left could have stayed and still contributed, but they chose not to.

[RichardSF]

On 5/6/2021 at 4:59 PM, Currawong said:

GoldenOne has now been banned from ASR

 

To clarify, GoldenOne's thread was locked, but GoldenOne did not actually get banned from the ASR forum.

 

The moderator wrote that new threads about MQA may be opened, and he himself opened a new thread about Tidal's mid tier and MQA. But then he locked his own thread just a few days later! It sends a message that open discussion about MQA isn't welcome on ASR. You can sense that members are being careful and self-censoring themselves.

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, RichardSF said:

 

To clarify, GoldenOne's thread was locked, but GoldenOne did not actually get banned from the ASR forum.

 

The moderator wrote that new threads about MQA may be opened, and he himself opened a new thread about Tidal's mid tier and MQA. But then he locked his own thread just a few days later! It sends a message that open discussion about MQA isn't welcome on ASR. You can sense that members are being careful and self-censoring themselves.

He was banned. 

[RichardSF]

3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

He was banned. 

Okay, then my bad. I've seen other members banned (like March Audio) and their profiles disappear, but GoldenOne's profile still shows him as Active Member.

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, RichardSF said:

Okay, then my bad. I've seen other members banned (like March Audio) and their profiles disappear, but GoldenOne's profile still shows him as Active Member.

I saw a screenshot. Perhaps he was reinstated. 

[GoldenOne]

I was indeed banned.
I guess the reason my profile doesn't actually say banned is because it's not a permanent one?

 

I was banned about page 4 in this thread: https://www.audio “science” review/forum/index.php?threads/do-objective-youtube-reviewers-exist.23019/

The post that I was banned for (which they've also deleted) can be read here: https://pastebin.com/m7AJny0p

Honestly I thought that post was more than civil. Perhaps I was banned for mentioning the phone call....

[KeenObserver]

Amir is an industry insider, as he made plainly clear. Only he knows the inner workings of this industry. His pronunciations are not to be questioned.

Of course, he has not been an insider since 2007, when he "left".

[Killahertz]

I think you were banned for making the longest post ever!

 

Honestly, I think everything you said was accurate and very civil.

[March Audio]

16 hours ago, RichardSF said:

Okay, then my bad. I've seen other members banned (like March Audio) and their profiles disappear, but GoldenOne's profile still shows him as Active Member.

 

15 hours ago, KeenObserver said:

Amir is an industry insider, as he made plainly clear. Only he knows the inner workings of this industry. His pronunciations are not to be questioned.

Of course, he has not been an insider since 2007, when he "left".

 

This is possibly inappropriate but my name was mentioned.  

 

I was banned from ASR specifically for disagreeing with some of Amirs testing practices, interpretation of data and subjective conclusions.