MQA, worth it?

[Audioisnobiggie]

It's all normal, of course. Right after "Smells Like Teen Spirit", (from the album "Nevermind"), they came out with Axe cologne.
Hey, I won! 1 hr ago https://www.whathifi.com/news/mqa-is-going-into-administration
MQA is going bankrupt! Yess! That means it's not possible for it to work, that mean's he'll have to take it off.
Now, if I still want to stick with him after that, I can just compare recommended playlists and default player sounds to choose. It sounds to me like the default player is the bigger difference than higher res, but within each, you could still tell you're getting more of it.
I dunno though, after this...
At least I didn't buy new gear with the chip.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

That means they have to have been sitting there thinking, damn, it's not going to work with people saying that stuff.
Yeah, but who had the best 'damn, they won't go for it stuff'? Let the internet records show...
First, I'd like to thank the guy with the video and the measurement device, after that, I just sat here thinking about it.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

Some other guy said he's sure snakeoil exists, but it's far from reality.
You guys should try smoking some of this. I promise I wont do anything to it. Aw c'mon, give a guy a bandwidth break if you love him. I shouldn't have had to be saying any of this.
Before the offers start coming in, I'd rather become a video game hero, personally. Frame rates Bruce Lee could only dream of.
Too bad this thread won't get compressed, since nobody will have to search for MQA anymore.
People who liked the Neil Young article saying 44.1 was already perfect will downsample their tracks because people don't get that.
The creator of MQA tried to fake compressing things even more. We should find out his name, and use it instead of snakeoil, that stuff sounds nasty.
My Queer Ambitions
That's a better one than snakeoil, actually.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

Any recommendation on the best site to start an MQA class-action thread?

 

[Al ears]

Why can't you use software that will compress your files above 44.1 into MQA, so that you can save space on your hard drives? You're wasting space if they're not all 44.1 MQA FLAC sized files. And why is his 44.1 streaming still 44.1, can't they Master Quality Authenticate 44.1 files into 22khz streams?
I downgraded to the 44.1 only plan, but at least I didn't buy the chip, suckers.

Hard drive space is now cheaper than it was a few years ago. The only time MQA made any sense is if you were streaming not downloading

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

Hard drive space is now cheaper than it was a few years ago. The only time MQA made any sense is if you were streaming not downloading

You must misunderstand. MQA does not play back an original stream. They have been faking it, all along. If mqa was really better compression, it would be a file format we all could use. There is no way to prove Tidal has ANY tracks on it higher than 44.1khz.
Further, if a technology ever does come along where servers can stream less, it's purpose would be for servers not to have to charge more to stream you more to be competitive, not charge you double also.

 

[npxavar]

You must misunderstand. MQA does not play back an original stream. They have been faking it, all along. If mqa was really better compression, it would be a file format we all could use. There is no way to prove Tidal has ANY tracks on it higher than 44.1khz.
Further, if a technology ever does come along where servers can stream less, it's purpose would be for servers not to have to charge more to stream you more to be competitive, not charge you double also.

Actually, the 44.1kHz "Master" streams on "Hi-Fi" mode is the MQA stream without the metadata, as the video mentions at 12:41. Which means a few bits of resolution lost to artificial noise (the extra, beyond 22kHz frequencies are stored compressed at those bits). I wonder if Tidal has changed that now.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

If a 44.1khz track plays using MQA, there is no way you can prove you're getting an original copy of the file at that rate, either, then. If MQA worked, they could be streaming 44.1 at 22. And they said the 192's still came at 44.1 rate, so why couldn't they send 44.1 at 11?
MQA means for you can't prove the file is an original copy or not. That Beethoven track you like it says is 192 could actually be Dua Lipa at 11khz.

 

[Friesiansam]

Audioisnobiggie, have you nothing better to do?

 

[davidf]

Audioisnobiggie, have you nothing better to do?

Maybe he works for Sony?

 

[npxavar]

If a 44.1khz track plays using MQA, there is no way you can prove you're getting an original copy of the file at that rate, either, then. If MQA worked, they could be streaming 44.1 at 22. And they said the 192's still came at 44.1 rate, so why couldn't they send 44.1 at 11?
MQA means for you can't prove the file is an original copy or not. That Beethoven track you like it says is 192 could actually be Dua Lipa at 11khz.

No, this is not how it works. We are talking about fallback mode here, which is there so that MQA CD are compatible with ordinary CD players. That same stream on an MQA player would be uncompressed to an 88.2kHz stream. The information after the 22kHz is very little, and is compressed to a few bits. The information up to 22kHz is not compressed, only pre-processed.

TL;DR: 16bit 44.1kHz becomes 13/14bit 44.1Khz of uncompressed sound with some extra noise.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

No, this is not how it works. We are talking about fallback mode here, which is there so that MQA CD are compatible with ordinary CD players. That same stream on an MQA player would be uncompressed to an 88.2kHz stream. The information after the 22kHz is very little, and is compressed to a few bits. The information up to 22kHz is not compressed, only pre-processed.

TL;DR: 16bit 44.1kHz becomes 13/14bit 44.1Khz of uncompressed sound with some extra noise.

Oh, now we're talking about a fallback mode and MQA cd's I've never heard of here? Where was that? If you still think MQA works at all, why don't they just make an .mqa file format with a codec to convert all your tracks to?
If your bottom line is that "16bit 44.1kHz becomes 13/14bit 44.1Khz of uncompressed sound with some extra noise. ", why aren't you bashing MQA? And it won't be uncompressed sound, they're saying it's compression on top of compression with even multiple unfoldings.
And that's just arguing sound quality. Tidal is charging double and then uses mqa to not have to use the extra bandwidth they would be complaining about giving you because of it. Bandwidth is their only extra cost, if they used it. But, with mqa, it's not even possible to prove they actually have any tracks higher than 44.1.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

Next, a streaming service will come out with software that sneaks in making every other source sound worse than it actually is. Hey, Windows already does that, they just haven't figured out why yet. They don't think they have to be audio people, they're being the make it all work people. Still a good job. But someone should say...

 

[npxavar]

Why I am not bashing MQA? Because I believe more on the gear than the data stream . The obsession with content fidelity is so pointless if the gear is not ... for lack of a better word, audiophile. I mostly stream Spotify from smartphone/tablet Android. Beyond CD quality audio is something I soundly ignore.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

It won't matter what gear you are using, you will never have fun switching from your own files to the same files streamed to you, even in Audirvana. Spotify streams 320kbps mp3. Don't worry, the lower you go, you'll always be getting the perfect part.

 

[npxavar]

At least I don't run the risk of getting scammed.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

You could turn it off, so that that's exactly how it's supposed to sound. Some people would still complain there's noise.
If it was a 96, they say it's upfolding a downfolded track, with the data, (which normally all just plain plays uncompressed, nice and straight forward), of the extra samples, hidden in a 44.1 stream.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

The owner of troll-audio is scientifically debunking that getting digital actually gets chicks.
Sorry, should have waited until a guy tried to correct me with them here, too.

 

[manicm]

Why I am not bashing MQA? Because I believe more on the gear than the data stream . The obsession with content fidelity is so pointless if the gear is not ... for lack of a better word, audiophile. I mostly stream Spotify from smartphone/tablet Android. Beyond CD quality audio is something I soundly ignore.

There are many proponents of MQA who have equally compelling arguments as well. But obviously these are ignored. You cannot fix myopia.

 

[record_spot]

There are many proponents of MQA who have equally compelling arguments as well. But obviously these are ignored. You cannot fix myopia.

What are those compelling arguments?

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

Why I am not bashing MQA? Because I believe more on the gear than the data stream . The obsession with content fidelity is so pointless if the gear is not ... for lack of a better word, audiophile. I mostly stream Spotify from smartphone/tablet Android. Beyond CD quality audio is something I soundly ignore.

Further, this is a hifi site, which means people are shopping for or already have their hifi gear. So, regardless of which point you decide you could try higher octane fuel, the thread is about paying for higher octane, and not getting it.

 

[Friesiansam]

the thread is about paying for higher octane, and not getting it.

I thought you had turned it into another anti MQA/Jay-Z thread.

 

[Audioisnobiggie]

I thought you had turned it into another anti MQA/Jay-Z thread.

That's what what you quoted is saying. No change there.
I only mention Jay-z because it's his company, and I suspect that we should not be surprised about getting more of that treatment, because, since he says he's a drug dealer, and that's what they're know for getting into.

 

[Friesiansam]

Jay-Z said he was a drug dealer, you need to be careful with the potentially libellous statements.

 

[Al ears]

That's what what you quoted is saying. No change there.
I only mention Jay-z because it's his company, and I suspect that we should not be surprised about getting more of that treatment, because, since he says he's a drug dealer, and that's what they're know for getting into.

Please keep this thread on topic.
The topic is MQA, is it worth it?