Given Sony doesn’t license out LDAC, Apple will develop their own and Qualcomm is requiring new headphones along with a new phone to take advantage of their offering, I’d say any company that already sells wireless headphones could benefit.
Agree that zero partners is very odd, just adds cause to be sceptical.
Must be Bluetooth origami
I just hope music streaming service (Tidal) don’t see this as a way to lower bitrates/files sizes to lower their bandwidth needs etc.
Because if it’s meant to sound that good why would music streaming services need to support lossless or hi-res anymore.
Take me for example. I love listening to music via Tidal or Arc on the go with Bluetooth headphones. I only stream and offload at the HIGH setting. If MQair can deliver near lossless better than LDAC or AptX and it sound damn close to lossless or hi-res, I feel the way we listen to music may change.
My view only, a wee bit cynical I suppose.
I don’t think that will be a prevailing sentiment primarily because, as IP pointed out, they don’t have any partners announced and the number will likely be low.
Sony have their own tech, Qualcomm has the most partners out of anyone and Apple will develop their own.
Personally I see this as a positive. Bluetooth headphones are ridiculously popular and delivering higher quality audio to those will only raise the incentive for companies to offer higher quality hardware to make the most out of it.
KEF just launched new Bluetooth headphones, Audio Technica just unveiled the most expensive wireless headphones ever. If you are someone who cares about audio quality you’ll have more options for when you aren’t in front of your system.
It doesn’t seem like all of these codecs are getting rid of lossless or high Res, it seems like they are just trying to close the gap between wireless resolution and wired.
Yes, the ATs are crazy money for Bluetooth as we know it right now. Yes the tech inside them is cool, but BT is still BT. If you’re an Apple user then AAC 264kbps is all you’ll have with them. They probably do sound better than what I have.
My view is that I’m not fully convinced yet that this is a good thing. If manufacturers feel they can charge thousands now for current BT codecs, do you not feel they’ll raise costs for new(er) codecs?
I’m all for advancements in BT to get closer to lossless. However, my Cambridge Audio Melomania’s sound very good with my Android phone on AptX.
Time will tell I suppose where MQair will take us.
Not sure I see the difference between this and the rest of the hifi industry.
Why does Roon charge an absurd premium for a nucleus ? Because people will pay for it. The same is true for all other services / hardware in hifi.
I think the saving grace here will be Apple & Qualcomm. Neither of those companies are going to charge a fortune (in hifi terms) for their devices with their codecs which puts a ceiling on the price of codecs.
Hardware on the other hand, as we’ve seen from Audio Technica & the Roon example, they will continue to gouge people’s eyes out.
Luckily there will be other options, the Bluetooth market is massive with lots of companies competing.
My big problem with Bluetooth headphones is price. Not the current price. But the fact whatever I spend today will be bettered tomorrow. I don’t want to buy a new pair of headphones every year. I’m sticking with wires for my “good” headphones. At least I won’t be compelled / forced to buy next years model when it has better chips in it supporting better sound quality with the same drivers / headband.
And, for this reason, all my BT headphones are “old”. I doubt I’ll be able to experience this wonderful (sarcasm maybe?) new CODEC without a new purchase. Much like I can’t experience binaural ATMOS with head tracking or Sony 360 Reality all because I’m unwilling to buy the right headphones. Poor me. Maybe I should start a YouTube channel. “Audio tech reviews from afar.”
Then don’t. Use whatever you have for a few years (or until the non-replaceable internal battery dies) and then get a new one. FOMO is real. Live in the moment.
yes, yes… and if I start down this road I’d own every BT headphone that did something interesting and never use them 
I’d rather just be blissfully ignorant of this “new” technology.
Bluetooth is for mobile and is perfectly fine as it is for car or plane if you ask me. I’m pretty sure much of the interesting stuff happening there doesn’t make a real difference in those environments.
Maybe. I mean… I do use it while mowing the lawn. Is that mobile?
If you look at “hifi” there is certainly a school of thought where active speakers with DSP crossovers and integrated amps is the future. There is no reason why this can’t be the future of headphones with BT being the digital transport. Right now the limitation is in the BT so as technology works to get around the bandwidth limitations (by better CODEC models) there may certainly be a point in time where the wireless headphone (and their integrated electronics) is better than the wire. especially if things like binaural ATMOS with head tracking becomes popular.
As mobile as it gets.
What about Roon ready wireless headphones?
Maybe that’s where MQair might show its possibilities.
With replaceable batteries, ear cushions etc.
This requires Wifi and, of the very few wifi headphones in existence, they were all poor user experience. Wifi takes a tremendous amount of power compared to BT. The chips are larger. To reach the 5Ghz network takes a different antenna configuration. Just just kind of a mess to get into a small package. Think about how poor the Wifi implementation is in a Raspberry Pi and you don’t really want something that large on your head do you? It’d look a headphone hat plus you need big batteries. It will happen… maybe.
There was / is a rumor Sonos was building a headphone. The advantage Sonos has is that their Sonosnet works on 2.4Ghz and Sonos speakers, basically, build a wireless mesh in your home so power can be smaller, as the headphone uses a Sonos speaker as an AP, with a mesh than trying to reach a single AP in a closet somewhere.
True…but we’ve gone from this
In a 100 years…
In a few more who knows
That’d be cool to see. A couple of Roams strapped to your head maybe 
Now I need a second Roam. Wifi Earspeakers for the win!
At 1.4Mbps, we could already stream uncompressed red book, but no, people want hi-res.