GoldenSound MQA testing video

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Merrick, Apr 15, 2021.

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  1. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    Except we listen to the same recordings through the exact same source/system etc and found MQA superior.
     
    audiomixer likes this.
  2. How did you know whether both files were sourced from the same file/mastering?
     
  3. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    I think MQA applies a clarity that people don’t like. Not an EQ clarity, but “air” around everything on the soundscape.
     
  4. Impossible to tell without hearing the exact file prior to MQA encoding.
     
    SteveKr likes this.
  5. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    You could always try Qobuz instead if it is available in your region as it is the only other service currently that correctly bypasses wasapi. Cheaper than Tidal to begin with but no Military discount yet. No MQA either!!!
     
    David Sonnier likes this.
  6. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    You may be wrong in this one example but there are definitely others where you would be right.
     
    David Sonnier likes this.
  7. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    The audio shop that conducted the test did considerable research to make sure we were comparing apples to apples, any less would have been a waist of time.
     
  8. I didn’t think MQA was forthcoming with their file source, maybe I’m wrong about that though.
     
  9. ZenArcher

    ZenArcher Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham, NC
    If MQA files sound “true to the master” and “better than lossless” then don’t they then become the “Crown Jewels” the label wants to keep us from getting?
     
  10. ZenArcher

    ZenArcher Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham, NC
    Which could all be accomplished by applying filters and processing to an unmolested FLAC file by the consumer, at the flick of a switch. No need to upend the end-to-end audio recording and distribution chain.
     
    vwestlife and WDeranged like this.
  11. MrRom92

    MrRom92 Forum Supermodel

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    I’d like to ask MQA proponents about their thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic, vaccines, and maybe even whether or not the Earth is round. It seems that a personally subjective, anti-science, “just believe your own truth” mentality is the key to believing that this technology is worthwhile or beneficial.
     
    Ste_S, goodiesguy, Hogues and 2 others like this.
  12. punkmusick

    punkmusick Amateur drummer

    Location:
    Brazil
    Nearly the whole Motörhead catalog in Brazilian Tidal is Master only, no standard hifi option available.
     
  13. WvL

    WvL Improve the lives of other people

    Location:
    Birmingham al
    If I only have standard, not hifi, can I play the master albums in 320 kb resolution or will I lose access to the master catalog?
     
  14. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    But MQA makes every example of that "lousy mastering" more lousy.
     
  15. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    Funny. I am never offended by the way it sounds. Never.
     
  16. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Enjoy!

    IMO, the overriding concern on the MQA threads is the perception that they are (now were?) trying to hijack the entire reproduction chain. Or maybe, that's just subjectively the concept that I find most concerning.
     
    Ric-Tic likes this.
  17. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    MQA stands really for More Questionable Audio.
     
  18. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    I’ve spent years streaming it and I’m always drawn into what I am hearing. I don’t care if it’s held together with paper clips and string. I’m just streaming it & almost always beats the CD quality presentation.
     
  19. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    Its no secret that it is purposefully difficult to compare any track with and without MQA - meaning any comparison is apples and oranges - what's your point?

    I mean, that's the entire point of the Golden Sound videos. He figured out a way to test that comparison and, by some magic, his tracks get removed.

    How can you be sure the tracks you compared were identical in every way except for MQA on the ones you preferred? And if it's so obvious and easy to do, why can no one else seem to make such a comparison?
     
  20. Spaceboy

    Spaceboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Edinburgh, UK
    How can they be "better than lossless"? That's impossible.
     
    ZenArcher likes this.
  21. Jimi Floyd

    Jimi Floyd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pisa, Italy
    :):):) It IS possible. The best vintage boomboxes had equalisers and switches for "super bass", "spacial sound", "rock boost" and whatever...

    [​IMG]

    ...and nobody was running them flat, anyone had his secret recipe for the best sound. We're not talking about Neanderthals, we're talking about people who loves music just as we audiophiles do.

    If that processing was "better than flat" for all, the secret recipe of MQA can be "better than lossless" for some. :):):)
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2021
    wgriel and punkmusick like this.
  22. Spaceboy

    Spaceboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Edinburgh, UK
    Perhaps you're being sarcastic
     
  23. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    Nothings impossible when were talking about what sounds better.
     
  24. Mayidunk

    Mayidunk Just passin' through...

    Location:
    New England
    If MQA were to ever take hold as the default music encoding and delivery codec, if taken to the extreme, it could forever render all music subject to excessive control up and down the recording/distribution/playback chain, normalizing a draconian control structure that would likely allow MQA produced files to be selectively controlled at the individual consumer level. Streaming services, and manufacturers might actually then be enabled to "upgrade" your MQA DAC to disable your ability to listen to music files you've already bought and paid for simply because ownership of the original music had since changed, and the new owners decided to renegotiate new publishing agreements!

    Citing a really extreme possibility, if some people were to purchase the rights to someone else's music, and then be able to stop anyone else from ever listening to that music ever again, they would do it! Why? Simple pride of ownership; they own it, and you don't!

    Just imagine, "Yay me, boohoo to you! I'm the only one who can listen to Michael Jackson. Why? Because I own him now, you loser!! Neener neener neener!!!"

    Don't kid yourself, more and more people are becoming like this. They don't give a damn about you, all they care about is what's in it for themselves! They wouldn't p!$$ on you if they found you lying in the gutter, on fire!

    So what!?
     
  25. WDeranged

    WDeranged Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Seems to me that's the big deal. No one gives a **** about 'provenance' but the labels.
     
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