I’ve given up hope that Roon will ever offer MQA decoding in the near future despite some users are willing to pay for it. Alternatively, I use Aries Mini as an endpoint to playback from Roon. If I want to listen to Tidal Master, I simply switch to Lightning DS app. Though Auralic proprietary decoding is not licensed and certified, it sounds no difference to a MQA certified Mytek Brookyn DAC.
Now, I can’t be bother with MQA, if it here to stay, then they must make an effort to get it into masses, otherwise it is just a niche market and will eventually fade away.
Add: The reason for MQA is my subscription to Tidal HiFi, if not I can’t be bothered at all!
Unfortunately I think the thing that will make MQA “fade away” isn’t us, the consumers. It is the labels who buy into it for DRM. We can all say we don’t want MQA but if they decide to only release using it (but of course sell it to us as “you want hi-res and you want streaming. We have the answer to big file sizes!”) then we are stuck with it.
MQA threads tend to evoke strong feelings on all sides. But if MQA starts being widely accepted by the labels then we do have to figure out how to protest it.
The era of rebuying your music in a new format is over. The labels obviously don’t want to be left out in case their is some profit to be made.
If you’re a label exec you don’t want the board asking you “Why didn’t you sign up for MQA? So-and-so says they’ve made x-n-y profit from it.” So you’re going to sign up to CYA.
But my opinion is reselling of the catalog is not going to work this time, MQA or whatever the method. The future is streaming. Period. And additionally, I don’t think the bulk of the users care about anything higher than 320kbps. So in my humble opinion they are trying to ride a dead horse.
But streaming in MQA, or 24bit/96KHz, or whatever… I am all for.
Agreed. But I think that will be the candy coating for the bitter pill… MQA = smaller file sizes therefore good for streaming. So we can claim that was the intent all along - we did it for the discerning consumers who wanted hi-res streaming.
This is one of those bullshit arguments from MQA that drive me nuts… MQA size is 2x redbook, which in itself is like 4x 320kbps. So it depends what you compare to. Like I said, noone except for a bunch of goonies (aka the people in here and a few more) cares about this.
Tell someone in a capped data plan (either at home or mobile) that you have this awesome tech that will make their music sound better and that will require 8x more bandwidth than their Spotify Premium streaming. I can see many middle fingers flying around.
So no, disagree completely with the size argument.
1- Reselling labels catalogs is over - not gonna happen in meaningful sizes - the labels know this.
2- Labels have signed up to CYA (ie Cover Your Ass) more than anything else.
3- The size/quality argument is complete BS. The “unique file for all formats” is too. On the fly cached streaming to the appropriate bandwidth is what makes sense - a server format that put such a thing in one file would actually be a useful thing, I don’t think it exists.
It isn’t about selling to ‘us’. It is about selling to people who are new to the marketplace. Millennials, folks below 20. About 3 billion of them. And they don’t even need to be into music. MQA embedded into their mobiles means they all buy into it even if they don’t use it! The point is the old model of owning music is gone. The future is buying the right to access music, something we find hard to grasp. Everyone will have the tools to do it. They are playing the long game.
Agreed - the irony for me is that with the debates on here I’ve gone from being 100% streaming to going online and buying hi-res music. So thanks to MQA I’m now “old school”!
I do keep an open mind as the practical result will hopefully be more carefully mastered recordings streaming to me, so that would be good. And I have already given money to these people, it’s kind of hard to avoid doing that (TIDAL, Audirvana, Dragonfly Red, dCS Rossini). It’s not like me bitching about it will change their business model or the success or failure of MQA.
I would like to draw attention to one particularly important matter - some extent contradiction…
Every week I look with interest what’s new appears on Tidal “Masters” site (main MQA source today) and very very rarely I can see audiophile music…
It could mean that music lovers, audiophiles - this is not MQA target. MQA target is: music “CONSUMER”, isn’t it? But they pass up MQA or whatever, I suppose…
So - we all audiophiles, and MUSIC listeners - let’s put a pin in this, if THEY don’t care!
Hi,
That’s an interesting term, care to expand on what music you consider audiophile and what is not?
Personally I don’t the like the term audiophile, yet I love music … I have an eclectic collection of music and I have favourites that encompass most genres.
Thx for the link to the TIDAL MQA catalog. I presume by audiophile he means recordings that had been made by well known audiophile studios like Reference Recordings, Blue Coast Music and the like. I presume those are the most unlikely to sign up for MQA for a few very good reasons:
1- They are smallish and don’t want to pay the royalties
2- If the MQA encoding requires them to send stuff someplace else to get encoded (which I understand is the case) then they would be reluctant to do that
3- Most of their customers have DAC investments most of which do not decode MQA
I personally don’t buy into the technical claims at all. My interest in MQA is solely on the fact that it might result in higher than redbook quality streaming and more careful mastering. I don’t think the better sound would come from MQA to be honest, what I like is the side effect so to speak.
MQA is really playing a pretty tight game here, I think the probability of them being a funny footnote in 10 yrs is quite high (>50% in my opinion). So they will have to straddle a negotiating stance that is less strict than their current one, in my opinion.
PS: Yes there’s 2L, but there’s hardly anything I would consider in their catalog were it not for MQA. I guess this is a smart move for them since I had no idea they existed prior to their MQA releases!
