MQA is Vaporware

[rando]

46 minutes ago, mansr said:

Good luck finding even 1 million users who care.

 

The trick isn't finding people who care.  It's negotiating a seat at the table to feed upon people who don't care. 

 

We at least have some idea what MQA singing for its supper sounds like.  Most here have been burned enough times by other wonders that required new equipment to simply endure the performance in polite silence.  Then we have this bunch in here who started warehousing overripe vegetables.  330 pages in, now that you have built up BS' defenses to an acceptable level.  It would be a nice payoff seeing his face artfully splashed with great timing and accuracy.  Reveal onto us an arc and trajectory that cannot be dodged.

 

Can we put a timer on this?  As he takes the stage in front of millions would appear to be too good a chance to pass up for those claiming to hold the upper hand.  Or at least trigger the need to dash off a story of great bravado to renew the fight in our hearts?

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, mansr said:

Good luck finding even 1 million users who care.

It’s all about consumer psychology. 

 

[Brinkman Ship]

8 hours ago, Indydan said:

 

Or maybe more mobile phone companies like LG?

Contracts with phone companies are worthless without content providers on board.

[mcgillroy]

3 hours ago, mansr said:

Good luck finding even 1 million users who care.

What if MQA-CDs are just a dry-run for “lossless” streaming...

[crenca]

We have been trying to read the tea leaves for a while now.  I think MQA will take anything and everything they can get.  I suspect that the Audiophile market play was just for exposure, and that The Computer Audiophile and others are correct that the hope is a large streaming play based on MQA enabled mass electronics/services (i.e. phones, AVR's, etc.).

[HalSF]

17 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

MQA's sights are set on much larger targets now. Think 10s of millions of users with each licensee.

 

 

I still think that ship has sailed, foundered, hit an uncharted reef, and is dead in the water.

 

But maybe you know something we don't know? I hope not!

 

Every couple of months I take these rumblings of imminent MQA hegemony via a major MQA licensing play to heart, and go searching for indications that something is about to break. Just now I spent some time Google searching, looking at MQA's own News and Events page, checking out the Community posts at Spotify, etc.  

 

Crickets.

 

Where is the MQA streaming that 7digital was building for Hdtracks, for example? I can't find it. Will it ever launch?

 

Or the exciting alliance with Oppo? Oops.

 

Meanwhile, it's difficult to imagine any responsible music or streaming corporation doing its due diligence on MQA and not recoiling from the level of toxic skepticism and hostility MQA attracts. 

 

At a certain point this thread is going to have to actually believe that MQA really is vaporware and always will be, declare victory, and call it a day.

 

If you look at the facts, and set aside anxious hypotheticals, what am I missing?

 

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, HalSF said:

But maybe you know something we don't know? I hope not!

I believe I do. 

[HalSF]

Just now, The Computer Audiophile said:

I believe I do. 

Yikes.

[Brinkman Ship]

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I believe I do. 

Clearly if you do know something, you are not permitted to say what it is, but frankly unless it is a major adoption by Spotify or Apple Music, it is of no consequence. Even then, the public has soundly rejected not only HiRez, but even lossless Redbook streaming. Add to that the fact that every single Bob Stuart endeavor has essentially been a disaster...so MQA H aters On A Mission From God won't lose any sleep.

 

But when then the gag order is over, free to share..

[Dr Tone]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I believe I do. 

 

Please don’t be Apple or Spotify and we’ll be alright.

[Brinkman Ship]

27 minutes ago, Dr Tone said:

 

Please don’t be Apple or Spotify and we’ll be alright.

It will be of no consequence....it will be a tiered system and consumers are not willing to pay more for "higher quality", and certainly not Apple or Spotify customers.

[The Computer Audiophile]

11 hours ago, Brinkman Ship said:

Clearly if you do know something, you are not permitted to say what it is, but frankly unless it is a major adoption by Spotify or Apple Music, it is of no consequence. Even then, the public has soundly rejected not only HiRez, but even lossless Redbook streaming. Add to that the fact that every single Bob Stuart endeavor has essentially been a disaster...so MQA H aters On A Mission From God won't lose any sleep.

 

But when then the gag order is over, free to share..

It may come down to consumer psychology that makes or breaks MQA. 

 

If people see a light come on and that means it’s supposed to be better, they’ll have to have it and companies will push it. Don’t even think about lossless, high resolution, lossy or other terms that require consumer education. 

 

In a world without competition this offering would be tiered / more expensive. However, some VERY LARGE and VERY WEALTHY companies will give away or include stuff like this at no visible cost to the consumer, in order to one-up the other guys. 

[psjug]

23 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

some VERY LARGE and VERY WEALTHY companies will give away or include stuff like this at no visible cost to the consumer, in order to one-up the other guys. 

Amazon?

[asdf1000]

26 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

If people see a light come on and that means it’s supposed to be better, they’ll have to have it and companies will push it. Don’t even think about lossless, high resolution, lossy or other terms that require consumer education. 

 

Like Dolby.

[mansr]

1 minute ago, Em2016 said:

Like Dolby.

Dolby does what it says it does.

[asdf1000]

14 hours ago, HalSF said:

Yikes.

 

Double yikes.

[FredericV]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

If people see a light come on and that means it’s supposed to be better, they’ll have to have it and companies will push it. Don’t even think about lossless, high resolution, lossy or other terms that require consumer education. 

But is it better? The fake blue light and the fact that it can be manipulated, proves the A in MQA is fake.

Furthermore the customer is being mislead believing 24/44.1 files truncated to 16/44.1 files are actually bringing back 24/352.8:
 

 

In theory they could do the same for MQA CD.

Dulling transients, hiding low level detail, and softening the sound of recordings - all while adding artificial “space and air” to recordings using the the Damaske effect.  And selling upsampled 17/96 as the new master quality.

If MQA succeeds it will be very bad for open source, open audio formats and your freedom to do what you like with the files you bought. It will be the end of real studiomasters, replaced by access to listen to an approximation, with fake resolution indication on the DAC or streamer.

[The Computer Audiophile]

It has zero to do with better or worse or some number called sample sample rate. The success or failure of MQA is in the hands of those who couldn’t educate their customer based if they wanted to and consumers who aren’t interested in being educated on something that fills their lives as background music. 

 

Sad but true. 

[rando]

It even sounds like a new member of the mp3 family.

[FredericV]

26 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

The success or failure of MQA is in the hands of those who couldn’t educate their customer based if they wanted to and consumers who aren’t interested in being educated on something that fills their lives as background music.

 

Reminds me of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation

 

Works well on the non-educated. H'mm both MQA and Bose share these out of phase tricks, evidence is the Bose 901 and so many reflecting designs which works by adding out of phase content.

The main difference is that Bose has very large marketing budgets, several pages in most lifestyle and AV magazines are not uncommon for our local Benelux market.

[Brinkman Ship]

38 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

It has zero to do with better or worse or some number called sample sample rate. The success or failure of MQA is in the hands of those who couldn’t educate their customer based if they wanted to and consumers who aren’t interested in being educated on something that fills their lives as background music. 

 

Sad but true. 

i am guessing maybe some deal with Pandora.....or similar based on your subtle clues 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, FredericV said:

 

Reminds me of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation

 

Works well on the non-educated. H'mm both MQA and Bose share these out of phase tricks, evidence is the Bose 901 and so many reflecting designs which works by adding out of phase content.

The main difference is that Bose has very large marketing budgets, several pages in most lifestyle and AV magazines are not uncommon for our local Benelux market.

If you consider all the potential MQA licensees' marketing budgets combined, it dwarfs the Bose corporation. MQA doesn't have to push anything itself. All the licensees do it for them.

[psjug]

53 minutes ago, Brinkman Ship said:

i am guessing maybe some deal with Pandora.....or similar based on your subtle clues 

Even though Pandora said (quite a while ago) they wanted to offer hi-res, they have been real cheapskates with quality, with max 192kbps on Pandora Premium.  So jumping to MQA would be quite a shift in that regard.

 

Meanwhile what ever happened to MQA on Deezer?

[Brinkman Ship]

14 minutes ago, psjug said:

Even though Pandora said (quite a while ago) they wanted to offer hi-res, they have been real cheapskates with quality, with max 192kbps on Pandora Premium.  So jumping to MQA would be quite a shift in that regard.

 

Meanwhile what ever happened to MQA on Deezer?

agree...but when Chris mentioned "background music"..that came to mind...now i am thinking possibly mass market hardware manufacturers of some kind...

[crenca]

4 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

It may come down to consumer psychology that makes or breaks MQA. 

 

If people see a light come on and that means it’s supposed to be better, they’ll have to have it and companies will push it. Don’t even think about lossless, high resolution, lossy or other terms that require consumer education. 

 

In a world without competition this offering would be tiered / more expensive. However, some VERY LARGE and VERY WEALTHY companies will give away or include stuff like this at no visible cost to the consumer, in order to one-up the other guys. 

 

I agree with this, but want to add to it:  

 

What fickle consumer psychology (let's call it "blue light plays") give, the same fickleness takes away. 

 

Also, If a significant market player makes an MQA branded blue light play, a competitor will....make a blue light play.  This competitor will call it "HD music" even though it will be the same 128kbs AAC it has always been.  Pretty web and add copy will be created that blathers on about how High Definition (never technically defined) gets you closer the the music, blah blah blah blah blah.

 

In the end, none of it will last (excepting perhaps a small niche market of the conned true believers).  The same fickle psychology is its own demise.  In the end consumers almost by default and unconsciously, settle on value - something that provides them something they actually want and care about, even if mostly negatively as the example of "social media" (i.e. facebook, twitter, snapchat, etc.) shows us.