MQA is not a FLAC file, it uses FLAC as a wrapper. It can exist in any lossless wrapper such as ALAC and WAV.
Qobuz has made a public statement that the 2L MQA will stay but they will fix things on their end so it’s clearly labelled. Mans has also offered Qobuz use of his scanner which will tell them if they are getting MQA, not sure if they are going to use it to prevent this in the future.
The, you will always have choice argument is starting to crumble.
Semantics mate, you know the point I was trying to make.
1 Like
It is hardly crumbling, but it does illustrate the issue here. Qobuz’s only recourse is to label the file correctly. They can’t actually dictate what encoding is used by their provider. They can dictate the wrapper as MF kindly pointed out above. But if the labels chose MQA, or some rival encryption should it emerge, they would have to go with it. They can choose not to adopt the first stage unfold like Tidal do, but they cannot actually refuse to supply MQA encoded files. And I think that was demonstrated when another provider had a very public climb down after slagging MQA off a while back.
Well, if your favorite artists were only on the 2L label, that would be crumbling.
I think the anti-MQA folks have their place in this dialog, and an important one. Look at it like this: if there never were labor unions, people would be working 16 hours a day in a coal mine for little pay; if management did not have leverage, labor costs would skyrocket. The point being, it takes both sides to reach a balance.
MQA carries the danger of a lot of equipment being incompatible with its end-to-end scheme. Labels need to hear that not everyone will just buy into that.
Can you point me to what Qobuz made a public statement regarding on this issue? Thanks
There’s an entire thread, which a couple of Qobuz reps (dmackta and David Craff) participate in:
Yes, there’s currently over 100 posts… I’ll have to read it carefully later today to find out what the Qobuz reps have said on the issue…
Or just filter/search posts by the two Qobuz rep username that I mentioned above… might save ya some time… That’s the reason I mentioned their usernames above.