To make a long story very short: These MQA+ UHQCD+SHM CD’s are all sourced from DSD files already used for pressing shm-sacd’s. So if you are not stupid; play these DSD files in its PUREST way. And you do that by using a SACD player! Everyone understand this?? Not??
I understand that much of the industry criticism of MQA stems from political disagreement over Meridian Audio's licensing.
"Well I never..........I refuse to bu........wait, you say this version of The Stone Roses has an extra disc of Mani singing his favorite Milli Vanilli?.........what to do....what to do..........." Also, the mention of "happy style" with regard to CD rack space has me intrigued. Maybe that's the style I always never knew I needed.
MQA is just noise. It’s about control and money grabbing, from coders in studio equipment to de-coders in home equipment and so on... They say it’s all about better sound quality and «master audio quality». It’s not. It’s easy today for EMI to deliver true master quality of the Beatles recordings without MQA. But they will not. Because once you have bought the very best it can sound, will you then buy it again? So expect to see the Beatles released with MQA sound. And then the stock holders will be happy. The story repeats itself over and over...
I understand it is lossy and not true hi-rez. What I'm unable to find any solid information on is the time-axis principle of MQA, which I was under the impression is central to understanding why the human brain perceives the signal as being 'higher resolution', even while the actual signal itself is lossy. There is actual scientific basis for this principle, and given how revolutionary such technology could be, it is not out of the realm of plausibility as to why there would be dispute over Meridian Audio's licensing.
I totally get that. I am not a fan of lossy audio... AT ALL. I can easily tell the difference between 320kbps Mp3 and standard red book CD audio. What is more I have a major aversion to Mp3, which always sounds 'hollow' to me. What I am interested in learning more about, as [ alluded to ] in my previous posts in this thread, is: to what degree is MQA lossy, AND does the time-axis principle really off-set the loss of signal such as it exists in such a way as to create the actual perception of higher resolution?
I've been trying to find that rare puppy for years.... many think that Aya (teenager) was the pea-nuckle of their career!..
Indeed, if you're after master-tape sound, vinyl isn't it. Highly colored. Down the list of my preferred formats. And Between Two Worlds. What a great overlooked album. "Last Perfect Thing" would've been huge in a perfect world.
Their goal is to only supply MQA mastered material regardless of the delivery system (or media). That will be strike two for blu-ray. Strike one is their ability to "forget" to put all the decryption keys in your firmware updates. They've done this accidentally (maybe) and suddenly your player wouldn't play certain discs. I won't own either scenario. No MQA and no blu-ray for me. EVER.
You hit the nail on the head. The first thing I though when I read this was "how are these new uber CDs that started their digital life as DSD files, then converted to PCM for authoring supposed to sound better than the native DSD discs that are already on the market"?
Why do we need formats anymore. Just sell the damn files. How easy is that? As someone who's bought into every stupid format these marketers have put out there, some I can barely remember (CD-V, etc), just sell the files. Or maybe a USB stick. Who needs formats and special players. If they want to still sell discs, just sell SACDs or BluRay's.
The Japanese love there physical media give them credit for keeping it alive. Those Platinum SHM of the Rolling Stones early 70s catalog sure rocked.
WE might not but the industry, in this case in Japan, does in order to make the sort of money they did back when physical music was at it's height. Actually the industry doesn't so much need as want this money. There's a reason these formats have been generally ignored outside of Japan - they don't really offer any advantages over CDs as an audio storage medium beyond possibly durability. The Japanese entertainment industry in particular is stunning in the way it prices physical media and hampers import/export and overseas licensing. It takes an item that has a hardcore following - a group or maybe an anime series - and prices it so high it's almost abusive. At times it almost seems as if the Japanese entertainment industry doesn't want it's media and pop culture to be popular outside of their own country and actively discourage it.