Chris, you’re preaching to the choir. I’ve been a fan of digital DSP-based speakers ever since they became a thing years ago. I have DSP actives in my recording studio, my dedicated listening room, my office, our living room and our bedroom. And I’ve shared lots of pictures in various other threads…
I couldn’t agree more with these two statements. On a really good system, ANY excellent recording will sound excellent – regardless of the digital playback format you use. As I’ve said before, MQA neither sounds “much worse” nor “a lot better” than non-MQA. The SQ differences are completely negligible in comparison to factors such as choice of speakers, room acoustics, speaker placement, listening position etc. …
Yes, but some very sensible and knowledgeable people on here constantly get misinterpreted as MQA haters, although they keep stressing they do NOT dislike MQA and do NOT think MQA sounds bad. I find that pretty annoying, to be honest.
I think you hit the nail on the head, Volker. This “if you’re not 100% for us, you’re against us” way of thinking makes the whole discussion more or less pointless.
Amen to that. But such excellent recordings always sound very good if you have decent audio gear. In other words, if the mp3 version (320kb) of that album sounded “terrible” on my system, I’d be really worried…
That’s what @Rockhound, @robbi_burdeck, @Volker, @Alan, @hwz and others wrote, too. Yet some of them get interpreted as “MQA haters” while others are regarded as “blind followers”…
I’m pretty sure Volker was joking (@Volker, please correct me, if I’m wrong). The point is any digital format (from mp3 320 up to DXD or DSD 256 or whatever) sounds good on a good-sounding system. Sometimes the differences are hardly audible. Like some other users here, I don’t get this format fetishism.
What’s not to get? We are talking about a company that is in it to make money and their specified goal is the be the sole provider of hi-res content using their proprietary closed format. It doesn’t matter that there is choice now and it doesn’t matter if you like the sound or not.
Companies are in business to make a profit. Nothing wrong with that. If you don’t want to give them your money, don’t use Tidal Masters MQA and don’t purchase MQA capable equipment.
And Sony and Phillips were in it for the money when they patented the CD and wanted to capture the market. Then Sony tried again with DSD when the CD patents were running out.
All the haters are just upset that they have absolutely no control over whether MQA will ever become a major player in audio releases. That is strictly up to the major labels as it has always been.
I’m pretty sure those people don’t, but do you at least get it now? You said you didn’t. Or do you feel that’s not a valid reason to express concern over MQA?
I feel that is not a reason to be anti-MQA. It should be about the SQ. If you want to use Roon to stream high quality music, you have two choices, Tidal Masters (MQA) and Qobuz. I would not rule out Tidal unless I thought the SQ was inferior to Qobuz.
I just signed up for another year of Tidal Masters for $99.99. I emailed Qobuz that I would renew for another year if they match that price. I haven’t heard back and probably won’t.
I don’t think you are getting it. It is about sound quality and the ability to use the filters of your choice on the hi-res content of your choice. If you want the highest quality out of MQA you have to pay for the use of MQA filters and have no choice to take it further as these filters are at the pay hardware level only.
That’s not what you said. You said this. Let’s move on. If Tidal Masters MQA was inferior SQ to Qobuz, I might agree. It’s not. I don’t pay extra for MQA. I have three DAC’s, two of which are MQA. They were not expensive. I pay less for Tidal Masters MQA than I pay for Qobuz.
Yes, it does matter. MQA is a niche product. They are very unlikely to monopolize the market anytime soon… No reason to panic!
On the contrary. That’s what matters more than anything for people’s music enjoyment. If someone likes MQA better than PCM HiRes, which I personally don’t, why should he or she listen to something else?
No reason to panic!