MQA is Vaporware

[Fair Hedon]

36 minutes ago, christopher3393 said:

 

Colorful word choices. Not as colorful as last week's anal rape metaphor (which I personally found offputting), but still another post that seems just a touch histrionic. coupled with a few of your more hyperbolic and vitriolic posts (examples can easily be supplied) , I wonder if you are undermining your credibility a little?

 

While it is an unfair characterization of CA as a whole, it doesn't take too many heavy-handed posts in a thread to leave some with the impression of a "snake pit". IMO.

Nothing wrong with a snake pit. Serves a very important purpose..it is where the MQA rodents get tossed so they can be be eviscerated. I especially like when the snakes lick their chops in satisfaction and spit out the bones they can't digest.

[kumakuma]

39 minutes ago, christopher3393 said:

 

Colorful word choices. Not as colorful as last week's anal rape metaphor (which I personally found offputting), but still another post that seems just a touch histrionic. coupled with a few of your more hyperbolic and vitriolic posts (examples can easily be supplied) , I wonder if you are undermining your credibility a little?

 

While it is an unfair characterization of CA as a whole, it doesn't take too many heavy-handed posts in a thread to leave some with the impression of a "snake pit". IMO.

 

 

[Shadders]

Just now, kumakuma said:

 

 

Hi,

Here in the UK we have a program called University Challenge.

 

Each team states their name and where they are from and their area of study.

 

There was a team of four women from a medical university.

 

One of the contestants said she was "studying for a doctorate in sphincter preservation".

 

There were a few titters from the audience, and i gather a surge in the search on Google.

 

Regards,

Shadders.

[4est]

31 minutes ago, mansr said:

Heartbreaking.

It was the only example I could think of at the moment. Despite ones musical preferences, he is a major artist and it was a wake up call for me in that MQA might just replace RB. It will be a shame as Tidal integrates well into my set up with HQPlayer.

[mansr]

1 minute ago, 4est said:

It was the only example I could think of at the moment. Despite ones musical preferences, he is a major artist and it was a wake up call for me in that MQA might just replace RB. It will be a shame as Tidal integrates well into my set up with HQPlayer.

Do I really have to explain the joke?

[4est]

1 minute ago, mansr said:

Do I really have to explain the joke?

Of course not. I probably just read too far into it. All of this MQA conspiracy stuff has me on edge! LOL I have to wonder if this isn't happening to other mainstream artists there. I listen to mostly less popular stuff.

[Norton]

43 minutes ago, Fair Hedon said:

Nothing wrong with a snake pit. Serves a very important purpose..it is where the MQA rodents get tossed so they can be be eviscerated. I especially like when the snakes lick their chops in satisfaction and spit out the bones they can't digest.

 

Alternatively, it's a place where snakes can wriggle around and chase their tails without bothering anyone else.  I think you also misunderstand serpentine digestion, they tend to swallow things whole...

[mansr]

26 minutes ago, 4est said:

Of course not. I probably just read too far into it.

Sometimes a joke is just a joke. Even if it's not a very good one.

[Fair Hedon]

23 minutes ago, Norton said:

 

Alternatively, it's a place where snakes can wriggle around and chase their tails without bothering anyone else.  I think you also misunderstand serpentine digestion, they tend to swallow things whole...

Yes, snakes digest their prey whole. But I could not resist, for dramatic effect...throwing in the spitting out the bones scenario...i

 

[mansr]

1 minute ago, Fair Hedon said:

Yes, snakes digest their prey whole. But I could not resist, for dramatic effect...throwing in the spitting out the bones scenario...i

These are authenticated master snakes, after all.

[Lee Scoggins]

2 hours ago, JoeWhip said:

I have to wonder how successful HDTracks really is. High rez is such a small segment of music sales.

 

The Cheskys are millionaires.

[kumakuma]

2 minutes ago, Lee Scoggins said:

 

The Cheskys are millionaires.

 

Meridian (Audio) Millionaires?

[Lee Scoggins]

2 hours ago, knickerhawk said:

 

I understand, but those are your pain points and concerns with the format based on your personal preferences and personal investment in equipment, knowledge, content, etc. For me, MQA has been nothing but a "free" Tidal upgrade and a welcome improvement to my personal music playback enjoyment. I think the jury is still very much out with respect to how much, if any, of a "tax" will be imposed by MQA as well as who's going to end up paying that tax.

 

Part of the tax may get paid by mastering costs going down too.

[Lee Scoggins]

10 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

 

Meridian (Audio) Millionaires?

 

No.  They made their money on CDs and downloads.

[knickerhawk]

1 hour ago, 4est said:

More choices? The other day upon his death I was trying to listen to Tom Petty and the Redbook files wouldn't play. I was stuck with MQA versions. I just tried again, and his first album is still that way on Tidal. I fear this is the beginning...

Well, the CD versions are working now (at least for me). I'm not sure it's quite time to panic yet. Most of the Petty/Heartbreakers albums are available in both versions. A few are CD only and a few are MQA only (including the first). I don't see any particular pattern there and I haven't personally noticed CD versions disappearing as soon as MQA versions are released but I must confess that I haven't paid attention either. 

 

Out of curiosity, have you done any blinded A/B testing of MQA vs CD playback run through a non-MQA dac? I couldn't detect anything sighted and the couple of tracks I tried blinded yielded nothing either. If you've successfully identified an audible difference, I'd love to hear more. What album? What was it that you were hearing that allowed you to differentiate? Thanks.

[Lee Scoggins]

15 minutes ago, knickerhawk said:

Well, the CD versions are working now (at least for me). I'm not sure it's quite time to panic yet. Most of the Petty/Heartbreakers albums are available in both versions. A few are CD only and a few are MQA only (including the first). I don't see any particular pattern there and I haven't personally noticed CD versions disappearing as soon as MQA versions are released but I must confess that I haven't paid attention either. 

 

Out of curiosity, have you done any blinded A/B testing of MQA vs CD playback run through a non-MQA dac? I couldn't detect anything sighted and the couple of tracks I tried blinded yielded nothing either. If you've successfully identified an audible difference, I'd love to hear more. What album? What was it that you were hearing that allowed you to differentiate? Thanks.

 

Not only that, much of the Petty catalog is available in hirez so so much for concerns about master tape quality getting out.

[mansr]

57 minutes ago, Lee Scoggins said:

The Cheskys are millionaires.

So what? I bet quite a few people posting here are too.

[JoeWhip]

1 hour ago, Lee Scoggins said:

 

The Cheskys are millionaires.

From HDTracks or their record label? I know a few millionaires. Not impressed.

[rickca]

1 hour ago, Lee Scoggins said:

The Cheskys are millionaires.

I swear the world better prepare for when I'm a billionaire.

[Mordikai]

4 hours ago, knickerhawk said:

 

I understand, but those are your pain points and concerns with the format based on your personal preferences and personal investment in equipment, knowledge, content, etc. For me, MQA has been nothing but a "free" Tidal upgrade and a welcome improvement to my personal music playback enjoyment. I think the jury is still very much out with respect to how much, if any, of a "tax" will be imposed by MQA as well as who's going to end up paying that tax.

your take is pretty selfish. If something was good for me but shitty for everyone else, I would think that was not acceptable.

[esldude]

2 hours ago, Lee Scoggins said:

 

Part of the tax may get paid by mastering costs going down too.

And how does MQA reduce mastering costs?

[Mordikai]

5 hours ago, Lee Scoggins said:

 

The Cheskys are millionaires.

Who f-ing cares? 

[vmartell22]

9 hours ago, knickerhawk said:

 

It's not just the big-bad-corporate labels that "hate" it. It's also the brave little independent labels and, of course, the musicians, but somehow it just doesn't feel so satisfying when you have to lump the good guys in with the greedy corporate hogs...

 

Well - I am all for the small labels - the thing is this  - the small labels know the environment, laws etc and just deal with it - they understand there are rights the consumer just has - I have tons and tons of CPO, Hyperion, DaCapo, etc CDs and SACDs. The small labels don't actively work to strip you of your consumer rights like the major  labels do - and they use tools like the MQA abomination to do so.

 

9 hours ago, knickerhawk said:

 

Well, I'm no millennial (far from it, alas), but I'm happily going along with the new model. For me, the freedom and flexibility of virtually unlimited access to whatever music tickles my fancy at the moment is incredibly liberating and motivating. I love it and consider the $20 per month price tag for CD level playback (and beyond that with MQA as my happy ears tell me) to be an incredible bargain. Maybe...just maybe...those clever millennials are on to something.

 

Sure - of course  to me it feels like paying for the same music over and over. That said the problem is not streaming itself - is that fact that the majors, again are actively working towards a Brave New World, a 1984 era, an era of Fahrenheit MQA , with nothing but streaming - that I will fear and will educate as many people as I can to avoid it.

 

9 hours ago, knickerhawk said:

The fundamental problem here is that it's not simply the payment model that's changed from ownership to rental. If that's all that it were about, I'd be screaming bloody murder too. But it's not - it's what you're receiving in exchange for the payment that has radically changed. In the purchase model, what you pay for allows you to listen to the same piece of music over and over and over...forever. It's very narrow/specific in terms of content but virtually unlimited in terms of access. The streaming/rental model is flipped: very broad in terms of content and very temporary in terms of access. Of course, this distinction is obvious to everyone, but it is often conveniently ignored by my fellow old-farts here with statements about having to pay for music "again" (often attended by an insinuation of corporate greed from extracting payment for the same thing over and over...)

 

That makes sense - and you are right - we old farts are more focused  on what we want - so yeah, for some people narrow would work  or for some (millennials, I assume) wide will work. That is fine.  But again, those greedy majors want  nothing but streaming - that have stated so for the reasons we all fear.

 

9 hours ago, knickerhawk said:

 

Your statement implies that the "the consumer" is monolithic. We're not, and what's beneficial to or highly valued by one class of consumer may very well conflict with what other consumers value. Specifically, I would note that the class of "consumers" that hang out in threads like this one on CA are likely to have significantly different priorities and preferences than those that don't. When content providers respond by favoring one consumer group over another out of economic self-interest, it's pretty inevitable that the class of consumers that lost out is going to perceive that loss in terms that villainize the greedy corporate bastards and throw up their arms in utter disgust that their naive fellow consumers have been manipulated and misled. Welcome to the wonderful world of capitalism!

 

No - the wonderful world of capitalism which I support very much is free competition - these greedy majors are a cartel, colluding to strip away our consumer rights - and those are like freedom of speech - it doesn't matter whether you use it, want it, exercise it or ignore it. We must have it.  Same with those rights that we won from Apple etc. thru the marvels of the free market system. Doesn't matter if you don't want them, use them, appreciate them. It is better for the consumer and even society to have them. Period.

 

v

[mcgillroy]

1 hour ago, Fokus said:

 

MQA reduces music availability.

 

Once MQA is everywhere (their self-confessed plans for domination) those lacking a decoder will experience reduced baseband quality (compared to CD). And since the entire MQA concept, and thus the possible decoders, is incompatible with a number of modern audio system architectures there will be people without a decoder. Reduced music availability.

 

 

 

Add sampling, remixing, DJ'ing and other uses of recorded music in creative contexts. MQA would have significant impacts on these practices. It introduces additional cost, usability and quality issues and legal concerns.

[Miska]

12 hours ago, knickerhawk said:

I think the jury is still very much out with respect to how much, if any, of a "tax" will be imposed by MQA as well as who's going to end up paying that tax.

 

So far it's been 2€/album what I've seen.

 

But it is very clear who is going to pay it - consumers, the end customers... Who else?