Universal Music commits to Hi-Res Audio

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Bowie Fett, Feb 17, 2017.

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  1. Bowie Fett

    Bowie Fett Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
  2. John 90125

    John 90125 Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    My first thoughts were why another format to add to 24Bit Flac, BluRay, SACD, DVD-Audio? Were these not ment to provide the ultimate listining experience?

    Looks like after pushing Pure Audio Blu-ray, Universal is giving us yet another format. To try to sell the music we have already bought over the years in yet another format, does this mean the demise of lossless 24Bit Flac for buying digital HiRes to be replaced by a lossey format?

    From what I have read MQA is a closed source format that is packaged in an open source container, so how much will the licensing fees (in music production) for MQA increase the cost of music, as well as the cost the listener will need to pay in having to buy MQA licensed hardware? Also seems a bit cheeky packiging it in an open source container.

    These articles might be of intrest:
    Why the proprietary MQA music encoding system is better than DRM, but still not good
    MQA is bad for music. Here's why
    Why we won't be supporting MQA
    MQA: a non-hostile takeover?
     
  3. colinu

    colinu I'm not lazy, I'm energy saving!

    We don't need another format.

    We don't need another format especially if the result is the same brick-walled mutilated muck the industry seems intent on pushing at us.
     
  4. deadcoldfish

    deadcoldfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Santa Rosa, CA
    The format doesn't determine the mastering approach, as Uni has pursued poor mastering choices across all of its formats, including Blu-Ray Audio, so it would be no surprise for their MQA product to be the same.

    What, you say Meridian won't allow it ? Yeah, all those license fees from Uni will talk ...
     
  5. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    They're at the "grasping at straws" phase so I'll give them some leeway; for now. :)
     
    Malina likes this.
  6. TokenGesture

    TokenGesture Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Well I find it easier to stream MQA hi Rez over wifi than Qobuz - much less glitching, for one thing.
     
  7. Bowie Fett

    Bowie Fett Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    At the moment, Blu-Ray is the perfect format for physical product. Mastering is the issue. I'll gladly pay extra for my favorite music if they're properly mastered.
     
    colinu, Partyslammer and dobyblue like this.
  8. PanaPlasma

    PanaPlasma Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium, Europe
    I'm afraid hardly anybody has bought those blu-rays.

    And if you are using digital out on blu-ray player, audio got limited to 48khz. Ridiculous.

    Downloads are much easier.
     
    Dave 81828384 likes this.
  9. dobyblue

    dobyblue Forum Resident

    This, why doesn't the industry get this? No-one wants to buy or stream 24/192 DR5 releases. We have CDs for that crap.
     
    c-eling and Bowie Fett like this.
  10. dobyblue

    dobyblue Forum Resident

    I don't think very many of the 5.1 mixes I've picked up on Blu-ray are available for download.
     
    fredblue likes this.
  11. silverhead

    silverhead Give them an inch and they will take a mile

    Location:
    Edinburgh Scotland
    This reads like lyrics from Pink Floyd's "Another brick in the wall".:)
    And I agree we don't need another format.
     
  12. Bowie Fett

    Bowie Fett Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I've had (and been near) conversations with artists about sound quality. Most blame the CD format itself. Others say the record companies believe modern ears want their music to cancel outside noise. Modern ears...I hear those two words a lot.
     
  13. segue

    segue Psychoacoustic Member

    Location:
    Hawai'i
    Does this MQA format have any DRM component that we as consumers need to be aware of?

    Universal insists on watermarking, which many believe adds artifacts despite MQA claims.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2017
    vivresavie likes this.
  14. Simon_LDT

    Simon_LDT Forum Resident

    Location:
    England, UK
    This is not needed at all. Flac is perfect for storing hi-res music. The only reason this MQA nonsense is being pushed is because it's more than likely full of DRM/Copy Protection and as already pointed out above, there will probably be some kind of licensing fee for the use of this format.
     
  15. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    No DRM, but it's a proprietary format. So it will only play in its "full" capacity on licensed hardware.

    No thanks.
     
    c-eling likes this.
  16. TokenGesture

    TokenGesture Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Its being pushed as a streaming format. Read up.
     
  17. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Some like that little light that tells you it's wonderful... :D
    According to that Linn article, the watermark could also be used for embedding in DL's and even CDDA.
    This whole thing smells of control/$ Will be interesting to see how this pans out in the next few years
     
    Gaslight likes this.
  18. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    If that was to me...yep, I did read up. We already have a lossless / high-res capable format that supports streaming. It's called FLAC.

    Difference between that and MQA is that FLAC is open source. Means that I can already play it on existing hardware and it's not going to auto-downsample to CDDA if that hardware vendor didn't pay a licensing fee.

    This would be analogous to buying a vinyl record that has special grooves that only play back in its highest fidelity on a turntable that was licensed. Anything else and you'd get to play the other groove that plays back in lower fidelity. I can imagine how well that would go over.
     
    dobyblue, Spitfire and c-eling like this.
  19. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    I would like to see a headline that says "Universal Music commits to Quality Control".

    How many boxsets have they botched in recent years?
     
    tin ears and c-eling like this.
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