An interesting option to solve your issues with MQA: use Qobuz.
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I stopped reading after thatā¦That would be heaven.
But now we need an option to hide MQA on Qobuz as well. 
As Dick_Vliek points out Qobuz employees have explicitly stated publicly on audiophilestyle.com (I can provide a link if anyone wishes) that they are unwilling to disallow even tiny (and letās be honest, insignificant) labels like 2L from using their service for MQA. Their explicit plan is to do some work on their end so that MQA (in whatever form - in this particular case MQA CD) is tagged as such.
Up until last week, your suggestion was exactly my plan. Now, I donāt have any real options if I am going to use Roon. When using the Tidal app, I can of course change setting to āHI FIā to exclude MQA āMastersā, at least for now.
Interesting is it not, how despite MQA not actually delivering any of its consumer promises (i.e. better sound quality, end to end authentication, bandwidth savings, etc. etc.) content providers are unwilling to lift a finger, even a company such as Qobuz that specifically positions itself in the market as a real hi res provider?
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Chris, 2L mastered all its catalogs in DXD format and this is offered in various PCM rates, DXD, DSD, MQA and even Blu-Ray disc.
In my opinion thereās no preference whatsoever on 2L and producers decision to offer exclusively in MQA. I think you are truly obsessed and fixated.
Besides any streaming provider who wants to do MQA must first sign an licensing agreement and obviously no taker at the moment except Tidal.
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If they want to do the first unfold they need to license but I would like to see confirmation that they need to license to stream. I donāt think they do, and if you look at it logically MQA would be better served to leave this decision to the labels. It stops streaming partners from having a say either way.
You have to know itās there to have a choice. 2L provided the MQA files as CD quality (16/44.1).
Unfortunately, so called āMQA-CDā is not that - it isnāt actually 16 bit resolution.
So neither Qobuz or their customers was aware that what was provided as CD quality was actually something else.
Itās fine if 2L decides thatās what they want to provide. But they need to do it in a way that isnāt deceptive.
MQA Ltd does all the encoding in house and distribute under license from the music labels to the streaming partners. The music labels donāt hold the MQA copy. MQA needs to license these copies because thereās a significant cost involved doing all the encoding in house. Unless MQA is willing to do it for free which I donāt think they will ever do it. MQA Ltd is a company that requires to be profitable in diversifying itās business dealings.
First unfolding and rendering are at the customer base point; licensing to manufacturers which is another separate issue to this.
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This is pretty bad for 2L; MQA-CD is technically worse than a regular ā24-bitā MQA to what Tidal Master is streaming right now. I can hardly find any MQA-CD in a Tidal Master. Bad for Qobuz too.
Does anything you have said support your supposition that Qobuz needs to be licensed to stream MQA to its subscribers? It needs to be licensed to process MQA, but not to stream it.
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Yes
So who is paying the licensing fee to MQA to do the processing?
The record companies do the processing with MQA the DAC pays a license to decode MQA as will software decodersā¦
Thatās the manufacturers pay the licensing fee to do decode on their DACs. Iām talking pior to the distribution of the copy to the consumer.
The record label. It is their choice what format to deploy in and what encoding to employ. And that is patently clear in the 2L Qobuz situation. But the thing you need to recognise is that 2L sell files. So it makes perfect sense for them to stream MQA but sell DSD/DXD etc direct themselves. Qobuz are rivals in part of their business model.
I couldnāt jump into that conclusion that streaming option for 2L is restricted to MQA but I agreed they do sell various digital formats as downloads.
The album is tagged as 16 bit 44.1k FLAC unfortunately it playback as 16 bit MQA. This is something Qobuz need to find a way to filter off. So far this is restricted to a small number of labels.
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Does it matter? You would need to know if you were purchasing the album - but streaming? Either you selected that album, and MQA is the only choice, or it has been selected for you by Roon Radio. Would you not listen to it because it is MQA?
They donāt need to filter it out. They simply need to properly identify it so people know what it is and can make an informed choice.
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Yes, it does matter because when I subscribed to Qobuz, Iām expecting Hi-Res lossless streaming and not other lossy format.
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