What are peoples' options of MQA??

MQA was created by Meridian personnel but MQA Ltd was established as an independent company and now has no connection with Meridian. Also, considering the financial reports, it is not filling anyone's pockets.

 

I have a TIDAL Hi-Fi subscription and use the software decoder for their "Master" offerings. That's 24/96 max, I believe.

Sounds OK to me. I'm not planning on replacing my DAC to get MQA hardware support any time soon. Plus streaming is DRM anyway so don't much care as long as it stays within that scope.

 

Whatever you think of MQA itself, it's entertaining. That is, to see the veins pop out of the stakeholders and other followers, when they encounter everybody else in the world that won't drink the kool-aid.
"Whaddya MEAN, this isn't the best thing since sliced bread! Why, THIS IS A TOTAL RENAISSANCE OF BREAD ITSELF!"

 

...yet.

I imagine the revenue stream would look quite different if there is widespread adoption of the standard.

 

That is a big if.

 

"If they come for my music, they'll have to pry it from my cold, dead...FLACs!"

Dang, the ol' "Sig File collection" just grows and grows...

 

MQA is like buying a sliced loaf of bread where each slice was also cut in half. But if you buy a special tool, you can put the pieces back together. Or you could buy the loaf next to it that has the slices intact.

 

Not sure if anyone else has posted this. I am not qualified to judge MQA so I post this for interest only.
MQA is Bad For Music. Here's Why.

 

Its so snake oily that it hisses back at us. Serious though---the white papers are so buried under bs technical terms that nobody would claim to understand it. Ask bob stuart to explain it and you get doubletalk right around the issue. It looks like a snake and slithers like a snake...its a snake.

Definitely not, and one of this forum's mqa shills is one of the hecklers--sad isnt it?

 

Unless your DAC is MQA certified, you are not hearing what a MQA file is supposed to be. That is your problem. On non MQA files, not a problem. Think again. FLAC is an open source standard. MQA is not open source, it is locked down. Benefits MQA, Ltd, not you or I otherwise.

 

And closed source snake oil, is snake oil. When MQA, Ltd won't come clean about what MQA does and doesn't do, why do we trust them. AAC is a common lossy algorithm which is supported widely, somewhat supported on most devices when needed. MP3 is everywhere.

 

They'll also have to find my backup drive somewhere and pry THOSE FLAC's too. I'm always prepared.

 

Have no interest personally. For me, if I already had an MQA compatible DAC I would be open to at least seeing what all the fuss is about. But there is no way I'm going to replace my current DAC (which doesn't support MQA) so I can listen to MQA.

 

I have no interest but my friend just bought the Pro-ject DAC with it. Guess i will have a listen.

 

I don't trust them I trust results. MQA over Tidal is a better source than other lossy files, this is borne out by evidence I can hear

 

MQA does not assure you get the master, doesn't assure quality, Truth. I am a results man. Capitol/Universal can take a Norberged dog turk and run it through MQA, and it is still a Norberged dog turk. FLAC is an open standard, plays on most everything. MQA has their hands in every aspect of MQA, MQA is there to benefit and line the pockets of MQA, Ltd. It is there to make them rich, and it is a form of obnoxious DRM. Facts are facts.

 

I am very not interested in the Most Questionable Audioformat...
My Bluesound player supports it through its internal DAC, but I have it hooked up to a Schiit. So far I have not felt the urge to compare. I'm not even sure if I actually have anything coded in MQA...

 

You can get the first unfold via software decoding by Tidal, and streaming from Tidal via software unfold to an upsampling DAC can produce some very good sound in my experience. But I certainly would rather see lossless compression that requires no proprietary hardware or software to decode, and I think, so would most everyone. Putting aside what MQA is or isn't, or if it's good or bad -- I haven't paid any attention to MQA and I suspect neither have most consumers -- I think the days of being able to convince customers to invest in proprietary tech of this sort for media consumption are gone.

 

My Oppo 205 played MQA disc’s with so much audible transport noise that it was not possible to get past this to any level of acceptabiliy. It sounded like it was spinning 10x the normal speed. It seems like most singing the praises of the format are streaming. I hope Oppo issues a firmware update to fix the issue. The problem is not exclusive to my player. If they do sort it I’ll venture beyond the Jazz Sampler. If not, I’ll happiliy live with what I’ve got...

 

No interest. And in fact, I just came across a convincing argument that the deblurring technology they oh so promote, actually does the opposite:

Archimago's Musings: MUSINGS/MEASUREMENTS: On "blurring" and why MQA probably worsens transient smearing.

 

+1

 

Never heard of it