MQA is scam. Its basic purpose was to enable record industry execs to claw back control ever since they mishandled the whole piracy issue and lost massively because of tech developments. It sure sounds different but that does not equal superior. It’s so brazen a con they even tried to convince us that it was a lossy technique that was better than lossless. The mind boggles.
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Absurd.
If you don’t want MQA sign up for Qobuz, Deezer, Bandcamp, Primephonic, Spotify, Apple, ad nauseum. Qobuz has >90-odd percent overlap with Tidal.
There is ONE streaming company that implements it by choice, and even in that case, if you don’t want MQA, sign up for Tidal’s HiFi tier. Only in a few cases where specific artists choose MQA as an artistic choice and have no interest in what you think, will you be “forced” to play MQA.
What you are really doing is enjoying bellyaching.
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Blithering nonsense, beginning to end.
While I make no secret of my dislike of MQA this is an excellent point:
It also puts fears (that I share) of MQA dominance into perspective. IF you’re an MQA fan you’re not exactly spoiled for choice. I also find myself agreeing with this somewhat:
The MQA disappointing thread is long-established and probably the right home for much of the debate here.
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At last, something to agree on. I always thought that the ‘disappointing’ thread was where you could all vent to your hearts’ content, with few interventions from the pro brigade.
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As this is the Roon forum I must point out that only Tidal and Qobuz have integration. The others are not an option. Some of them are lossy too. Tidal HiFi is only 16/44, not 24bit/xxx.
I agree that PCM from Qobuz is an alternative, but I’ve seen comments that even Qobuz has the odd MQA album… I do not know if this is correct though.
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Everything of the 2L label is mqa on qobuz.
2L only delivers mqa because the 2L label and MQA have an agreement on that.
It is one of the convulsions to try to save mqa: “look we only offer mqa so it must be better”.
I asked qobuz about this a month ago, and they said it’s the only label doing so.
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That was done years ago, so, I"m not sure it falls under a “save mqa” banner, more like, “promote mqa” banner.
You can still get some 2L releases in DSD.
Qobuz nor Tidal stream DSD
? I know.
I was just letting others know that if they wanted to get music from 2L’s catalog that is not mqa, there is still the option of purchasing DSD.
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That is true. I bought Radka Toneff’s Fairytales (the ‘rescued’ remaster) as a 16bit MQA and didn’t like it. I then purchased the SACD and ripped it (not available as DSD download). Prefer DSD64 (even if it is being converted to PCM in Roon)
I did as well. Although, I think I got both the CD and SACD together.
I think the 450+ posts from @chrislayeruk proselytizing MQA in that thread counts as more than a “few” interventions.
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I have every right to join the debate and don’t see the need for people to call me out for my participation. For the record, in case anyone is unsure. I really enjoy what MQA can do for the music.
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Of course you have the right to post in any thread you want but the purpose of my post was to rebut the statement by another forum member that the MQA Disappointing thread had limited posts from Pro MQA forum members in it. I countered their statement by pointing out how active you’ve been in that thread. As is your right.
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Yeah, Chris is great, but I sometimes wish he would leave you all to shout into your echo chamber.
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Here is a good comparison that shows that MQA is very lossy.
It creates a fog band in the higher frequencies, that was not there during recording.
Why is it there ?
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All I can say is listen to the cymbals on Deep Purple Made in Japan, Track Child in Time.
You can visualise the sticks bouncing on the surface. If this is foggy high end, then bring it on… 
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Yes with all that MQA marketing quack some people start to see things. That’s normal.
Btw. Back to reality. That track sounds way more detailed and natural in the original PCM version.
I don’t understand why people are still listening to the [Moderated] MQA version. Oh well…
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[Moderated] One thing I know about MQA through extensive listening on a decent system is that high end clarity really stands out. Cymbals Tambourines etc show so much detail as does everything else.
I am reminded of the time I had a sound engineer around to listen to my system (he knew nothing of MQA and we didn’t discuss it) But when the music started, “Now that’s a Kick Drum” were the first words out of his mouth… He was gobsmacked.