Well, I guess there is fundamental difference in the approach taken for the white glove treatment we are discussing. In the two cases described, they went back and took a fingerprint of the recording chain (by measuring), which they then compensated for.
Obviously this can only be done for very puristic recordings, where a transfer function of i.e. the Sony recorder can actually be measured. As soon as you have multimike recordings and subsequent mixing, the approach does not work, as the actual transfer function at the time cannot be reconstructed.
As I understand it, “regular” remastering is usually done by ear and not by numbers. But maybe I am wrong here.
I do agree with you, that the whole MQA encoding process is totally unnecessary to correct deficiencies of the recording chain. In fact it would be much better to only do the white glove treatment and then publish the result as PCM instead of ruining it by encoding with MQA or even worse MQA CD.
Now Amazon have got into lossless steaming, more Tidal & Qobuz subscribers will probably switch to Amazon.
This is another ‘death knell’ for MQA. Amazon have no plans to utilise or incorporate MQA. So MQA will become an ever-increasing niche format, with a dwindling distribution platform in Tidal.
I give MQA another three-years. At the most.
As a Tidal subscriber, I’d be sorry to see Tidal and/or MQA disappear from the scene. However, more worrying for me would be if Amazon HD results in the complete demise of current streaming services such as Tidal and Qobuz, and Amazon has no interest in partnering with Roon.
Not actually, Amazon HD will be a catalyst to create even more competition for Hi-Res streaming. Both Spotify and Apple have tested lossless streaming in the past but reluctant to jump on the wagon until there’s enough take up rate. If Amazon HD can shows it has ability to attract millions more subscribers, I’m sure Spotify and Apple wouldn’t stay idle at all. This is definitely good for the consumers. You get Hi-Res streaming from more selections and affordable pricing.
On Roon side, there’s a chance for Roon to work with number of streaming partners to incorporate their APIs, this is definitely good for Roon and the future of Roon.
Vinyl trumps MQA in every way except S/N. And since most music recorded in the last 30 years is heavily compressed, even that advantage is rarely seen.
Yes. What you describe is exactly what a few of us hear. It depends on your preference.
The pro-MQA disposed listeners interpret the smearing as wider sound stage and the distortion as “extra transient punch”.
The con-MQA listeners tend to be skeptical folks who listen critically without being heavily disposed to buy into all the marketing hype. These skeptics are able to evaluate carefully the effect of MQA and determine that these differences are no real improvement on an original high resolution master. To be fair, MQA is only very mildly detrimental to the sound. I don’t shriek when I hear MQA files - they still sound good, however, as a general principle, after careful evaluation, I prefer slightly the sound of original high res masters without the MQA processing.
I have explained before but MQA technically damages the original audio by adding phase distortion ( minimum phase filtering) and the use of apodizing filters (changes the energy and broadens transients). The technical arguments for MQA (pre-ringing is used to justify both filters) are fallacious or misleading as pre-ringing isn’t an issue for DAC conversion of properly mastered music which sits under 20KHZ. Pre-ringing is something you only get with an artificial test signal of extreme high frequency ( outside the audio band) that should never get out of the mastering studio. MQA also compresses the file in a lossy manner which is arguably not much of an issue (this aspect may be the hardest to detect)
Some folks may already have selected Minimum phase filtering in Roon or in their DAC for listening to conventional non-MQA files. Furthermore, very few speakers are consistent in phase across the crossover region. Careful design of speakers with serious considerations of phase tend to be relegated to active speakers and those few passive speaker designers who share the “linear phase” philosophy for preservation of the original sound timbre. That said - linear phase is usually well preserved in the tweeter once above the crossover. (Bass from speakers never conserves linear phase precisely as any group delay plot will show but this seems relatively unimportant) These folks (already using minimum phase or speakers that dont even try to preserve linear phase at all) may hear even less of a difference than those of us who use linear phase filtering (the industry standard for 50+ years because of its technical superiority to best preserve signal accuracy). Minimum phase has its place in the studio - often necessary for in-band sharp filtering where both the filter and its resultant pre-ringing is at audible frequencies and a potential problem.
If you want MQA like sound signature without having to playback MQA contents, you can try NOS DACs. You can allow Roon to do up-sampling from 16bit 44.1k to 88.2k and apply a minimum phase filter, or simply playback in pure NOS mode (not recommended but it sounds gorgeous with a lot of phase distortion!) This is one of the way to enjoy a different aspect of PCM if you prefer more ‘analogue’ sounding.
I wish Tidal would create a “Masters” tier and charge more for it. Or better yet lower the price of the “hi-fi” tier and charge the current price for “master.”
That way I could pay only for the 16/44.1 versions and never see mqa again. Bonus, labels would have to start providing cd quality files for everything.
