New TIDAL tiers and MQA

Ok, what I’m trying to say is, with regard to engineering or a design philosophy, when you believe are right, you are right and you plough your own furrow. If you are indeed right, others will follow and build upon your efforts.
In the context of active and DSP self contained systems, this has taken off in a big way even though not in the form Meridian designed although the F80 was a step in this direction.
I think we are going off topic here now.

Doesn’t always work that way. VHS/Betamax being the usual example.

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Yes and no as they are both obsolete now because the right technology has emerged and ploughed through…

I predict a betamax revival - for all the audio-cassette-collecting hipsters…

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Off topic but this is what you want:

I have 4K DIVA for another reasons but there is guarantee that 4K Maestro will work.

And you believe what Bob says? He says 100 things for 100 groups.

I don’t know if the original PCM or MQA sounds better. I’ll pick the PCM where I have the choice as I can’t get my head around how baking an already cooked cake can make it any better.

Even if MQA did sound slightly better I’d probably still choose the PCM as I’m not comfortable with the smoke and mirrors.

If I could by a pair of shoes that is better in every way (as a product), but was made using child labour, I’d buy the lower quality ones for moral reasons knowing that children were not exploited!

It doesn’t matter how ‘good’ MQA is anymore. Damage done. Especially after hearing Roon has to pay them per play.

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That’s incorrect. Roon does not pay MQA per play, it pays (and we don’t know how much) to decode. I use an MQA decoder in my system and as such, as I understand things, Roon pay nothing for this.
If MQA is smoke and Mirrors to you, there is plenty of information out there to show what is being achieved at different levels of understanding. There is some very advanced technology being used that does need explaining in an understandable way as most people cannot be expected to study this at the level they would need to. They are music fans after all.

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Pay to decode in the end the consumer will pay as it will be passed down on the whole licensing model eventually it lands at the door of the consumer, which is not the biggest issue the one that bothers me the most is the long term strategy to have one common file for consumer streaming with no ability to control its sonic ability without having to accept its already modified signal

Thanks Chris. I now regret entering this conversation at all.

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The roon COO mentioned in another thread that Roon pays MQA based on the number of MQA files played/decoded.
It is not a fixed cost

That’s the problem . Nobody knows what they will really be getting from Tidal . And they lacked transparency in removing PCM tracks without notice.
What a great way to destroy your customer base.

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Could you link that please?

I find myself in the unusual position of supporting @Chrislayeruk’s point. He has a complete Meridian system and doesn’t use Roon’s MQA decoding at all, since Roon pays per decode Roon pay nothing when he plays MQA as it’s all done by his system. Presumably Chris you’ve disabled the first unfold in Roon.

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Incorrect.

simply put: if you don’t core decode, we don’t pay.

If you core decode, we make less profit. If you don’t core decode, we make more profit. It’s almost that simple.

from Roon’s COO here: Why do manufacturers support MQA? - #294 by danny

You are not able to even play MQA through Roon if you have this on:

So disable that and MQA does not get paid.

This is another reason why MQA is so confusing to many. You cannot even play MQA at all through Roon if you do not core decode MQA. It’s simply not possible to not use Roon MQA decoding and get MQA.

Um. Pretty sure the stream gets passed through intact…

… otherwise the renderer/decoder settings make no sense.

“MQA bills us based on Core Decodes. If a user doesn’t Core Decode, we don’t get billed.”

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Yes you can? when the streamer/dac is a decoder + renderer?

I (obviously) don’t believe that this is the case but without dedicated MQA hardware I can’t tell at all. The position appears to be confusing (at least to one of us :wink: )