OK, that is a different point. I was reading this thread without the intent to post until I got to this one, Chris.
If 2L made the decision based on it being too expensive to release or maintain parallel file formats, and thus chose MQA as a lowest common denominator, it could very well be a business decision OVER a potential artistic objection. Not like that hasn’t ever happened before.
And this is really my concern. I think decoded MQA sounds somewhere between fine and pretty good and occasionally as good as I have heard for a given title. But if labels decide that MQA is going to be the only format they will release in, I’m going to hate that. Because it means trashing a whole bunch of otherwise perfectly good gear to hear new releases from favorite artists.
(You’ll say but you can still listen to it without MQA decoding…and I will respond that is an adulterated version that has several less bit depth than standard redbook).