Would be nice if we learnt from the past though.
MQA (or whatever else business imposes on consumers) is never done for the benefit of people.
It is all about making money and controlling what we do.
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I don’t have to defend MQA, you should ask these questions of them. There will be good reason for what they put out there, that’s for sure.
My main point with regard to MQA is the sound quality I experience and it’s the best I have ever heard in my whole time of enjoying recorded music.
You can be sure these files will be what they say they are and from an authentic source.
Perhaps, if you are lucky enough to have multiple MQA versions, you could rank them in order of quality of it is of concern.
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How does this fit with 2 or 3 different MQA version some albums have? If the first one is the most authentic version, is the second more most authentic and the third …
They could all be from the same master, again a question for MQA LTD or Tidal
Like I said in my previous post. The reason is $. Same as it always was. Nothing ever changes.
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This doesn’t make any sense. I was kind of hoping that at least MQA helped deal with multiple versions like they claim they did. But really on both Qobuz and Tidal, it’s all coming from the 192k master and being downsampled to different versions. This makes sense for Qobuz because if your dac can only do 96k, you’d use that version instead of having the software downsample. But doesn’t make sense for MQA to do this. Supposed to just have best master.
The number of your posts doing it tells another story 
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Well, I am just a punter engaging in the debate and a great supporter of MQA as it sounds amazing on my system. I’m not sure how anyone would think I have inside knowledge of the company. You raise a good question about versions and the people to ask would be MQA and or Tidal.
Personally I believe and MQA file will be authentic to the master and come from said authentic source. The options available is something I don’t know about, but would find interesting.
Yes, each one of these copies are authentic but they’re really just different sampling rates of the same master. But is there really a problem of believing that versions supplied by the labels to Qobuz aren’t authentic?
And none of this discussion should have anything to do with your enjoyment. It’s more of seeing if MQA can be trusted based on our findings. I was disappointed to find out a 192k MQA file doesn’t really get restored back to the 192k. It’s just 96k upsampled with a preselected filter. Now whether that means it sounds bad is another story. But it did turn me off to MQA’s claims. So now seeing all the different versions of MQA further erodes my trust.
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Good grief. Tidal is virtually the only source of MQA. No other streaming service offers MQA. Tidal is a rounding error in terms of subscribers compared to the market. They are apparently seeking a buyer. The market has spoken.
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But the problem is with roon we only have Tidal or Qobuz. I personally like Tidal’s catalog better than Qobuz but don’t like the lack of choices in the format. So at least we still have choices and not a big deal in grand scheme of things.
Take a fresh look at Qobuz’s catalog if it has been a while since you last checked. I imported 1300 Tidal albums into Qobuz with a 98% match last month.
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Qobuz is much better than when it first came to market in the US but it’s still missing albums compared to Tidal. I’ve been with Qobuz for quite some time and checked back with Tidal a month ago and still found albums that are not on Qobuz. It’s only a problem when you have a desire for a certain album and can’t find it.
I have over 1000 albums linked in Tidal of which over 500 are MQA. I have the same 1000+ linked in Qobuz. I find myself listening to Tidal more often than not, just because I like it.
Ah, I have almost 10,000 albums favorited, so that’s probably why I’m coming across more albums missing. But funny thing when I tried Tidal a month ago. found several AAC albums in Tidal. Qobuz doesn’t go lower than cd quality.
This means precisely nothing. I can make the same specious claim for any file I play through Roon.
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I have 9 AAC albums in Tidal, all of which are very old and not available in Qobuz in any format.
The way new initiatives in the music industry work is you need to get a solid foothold and then keep leveraging the foothold until more players adopt, and eventually it can hit a tipping point in and all the rest go in. MQA already has a solid foothold with device manufacturers, have 2 of the major labels, and one of top 5 streaming services using it. This is a compelling foothold. Their argument to device manufacturers is “you have to have Tidal and therefore have to support MQA if you want HD”. Their compelling argument to other labels will is “you have the opportunity to participate in MQA revenue like warner and universal are - don’t get left behind.” It will be tougher to crack spotify, apple and amazon’s music services, but once you get all the major labels supporting it you can use them to pressure the holdout streaming services at time of license renewal. This takes time and you are indeed right that the current level of MQA use is small. But I wouldn’t underestimate where this can go down the road.
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Nothing wrong with marketing as long as it’s truthful. What company does not employ marketing?
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Over the last months I thought this whole debate had nothing to do with me, because I have an MQA capable streamer. I just don’t like the sound of the analog output of said streamer so it feeds an outboard DAC. Then, about a month ago I thought my ears were going to pot because many things I streamed from Tidal sounded flat and lifeless.
I had the opportunity to buy a second hand DAC I had been lusting for for a good price so this replaced the other DAC. Brilliant sound from my own tracks, just as with the old one (only better to my ears, like I said: wanted this DAC for quite a while), from Tidal I still got flat and lifeless sound with piercing highs as a bonus.
I took out the streamer and replaced it with a raspi. No change.
Now I’m a "bits are bits"guy, so given that my own locally stored music still sounds fine and the Tidal streams don’t, there are two possibilties:
A) Roon fudged up something with the first MQA unfold;
B) Tidal fudged up something by repackaging 16/44 music in an MQA wrapper or whatever it is they did.
I think it unlikely that Roon fudged up here. I’ve my issues with Roon but not when it comes to the streaming part of it.
So to the test I went: took out a trial sub on Qobuz. I am one happy camper again. Qobuz streams sound as good as or better than my local files. This could be an MQA issue, could be a matter of different masters, could be a combination of both or it could just all sit between my ears.
Anyway, out goes Tidal and MQA, in comes Qobuz.
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