If not a bit smeary… 
I might have an MQA DAC next week so will be able to add something more useful then perhaps. No, I’m not buying it because of MQA…
Same as ever: still a no-no.
Tidal notwithstanding: I still tend to buy albums I like to listen to more than once.
But not here.
Look at the heading of this thread.
Only €1 premium for the MQA, seems fair enough.
Never realised the band members would also be involved in the MQA process.
With this group, gentle but insistent rhythms can trigger seismic musical events. Although Vallon (recently nominated for the Swiss Music Prize) is the author of nine of the pieces here, the band members share equal responsibilities for the musics unfolding
.SJB.
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Regarding American Beauty,
It’s certainly different than the other HIFI version on Tidal. I wish we knew the provenance of the MQA version versus the other Redbook version on Tidal. There’s a whole low frequency extension that has my sub a-thumping. Not a bad thing but much more than the “improvement” I expected from an MQA re-mastering.
Wasn’t a big Grateful Dead fan until a few years ago. Then they caught up with me. Or I caught up with them after becoming a fan of current alternative-rock. This album has become a favorite.
Isn’t that a supposed benefit of MQA? Or is it just that they tell you they are happy with the provenance, but it’s not disclosed to the end user?
Good point. “Different” can be better or it can be worse. Or it can be “Different.”
My library is starting to show several versions of the same album. I would like to be able to tell them apart with better descriptions than “Tidal” version, CD rip version, Remastered CD rip version, MQA version.
I hope this information regarding the provenance of the sources for the MQA rips becomes common knowledge.
Exactly and whatever you think of the technology MQA is providing and unprecedented opportunity to go back to those masters and do a better job. So instead of knocking it why don’t you get behind it and spend your effort encouraging the labels to take on MQA and do a better job of the mastering if that’s what you believe it’s all about.
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I am not confident that there will be an outpouring of altruism and goodwill from the record companies.
There wasn’t after Hi-res became widely available - another “unprecedented opportunity” for them to revisit (re)mastering and post production that was sacrificed to play the ‘higher numbers are better’ game and slap a premium on the recording for the (dubious) privelege.
Exactly, we all know that which is why we need to do something positive as you suggested.
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Good luck with that. Record labels master much high res music with an ear toward mainstream tastes – louder and EQ’d to the extremes. Audiophile concerns are niche.
AJ
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Sure it’s an uphill battle but better to do something positive rather than just moan and complain and give up.
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You should write a letter. We all could sign it. I bet that would do worlds of good.
AJ
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Full disclosure–I’m a glass is half full guy. Since you seem to have a clear understanding of the labels thinking why is Warner going to all the trouble and, presumably, expense of adopting MQA for some or maybe all of their library?
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Why? Because if you are a record label, it is what you do. Repackage and resell many of the same products from your back catalog over and over again. LP, CD, SACD, MP3, FLAC, MQA, etc.
Guess I’ll have to buy “The White Album” again.
AJ
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I see. So if MQA falls in line with LP, CD, SACD, MP3 and FLAC I’d say it has arrived and we’re all a little better off. Hope that’s the case and if so I don’t begrudge the labels a cent if that’s the way it works out.
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This is the thing, you don’t have to buy any Album again. Especialy if you think the sound is not better or master source is dubious.
You would only buy it again if you felt it was and is better.
The other point is streaming. We all can affordably stream in in any quality we like.
You want MP3 and that good enough, it’s free (with adds, remember free means your the product) If you want better you can pay at many levels.
MQA is Hogwash? Don’t buy into it.
Us older folk have built a library over time (There was no other way untill recent times) but most young people are never going to afford this in one go. Streaming gives affordable IMHO access to music across the past decades without needing to spend a fortune. It allows them the freedom to explore in a way never before enjoyed.
So quality streaming has a valid place in the market alongside everything else.
Enjoy the music…Chris
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No, you dont. The record company hopes you will. It’s called marketing.
Perhaps because it sells? And what would sell more: do it right the first time in MQA, so there’s no reason for us to buy the same record more than once (again)? Or do it sub-par the first time (and perhaps the second, and the third), so you have to buy the “remastered MQA” later, and then the “newly remastered from the original master tapes MQA”, and after that the “deluxe”, the “super deluxe” etcetera etcetera. Like basically all labels did with the CD. And will continue to do so as long as money needs to be earned, and as long as we are stupid enough (or too small in number) not to make a fist and keep buying their stuff 
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Time to get some copyrights on RMQA, NRMQA, NROMTMQA, DMQA, and SDMQA
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