You can easily subscribe to Qobuz from anywhere in the world.
On registration you need an IP address of chosen country (I suggest US), which is obtained by using a VPN.
After registration no VPN is needed.
This method is accepted officially by Qobuz.
References to this?
What’s the point in playing 24/192 or 24/96 in a car, even in a Tesla that will obviously be quiter than an oil burner?
I have been listening to that album recently, and it is still amazing after all these years.
Bought it back then and stream it now.
The MQA version sounds very good, but can’t tell if it is better than the redbook version.
It’s personal opinion whether those files sound better than lower res files of course. But in a normal world (non COVID) a large % of people spend more time listening to music in cars than anywhere else. And car companies make very little on car frames, wheels and engines - they make a lot of money on entertainment systems and spend large $s developing high end custom tuned music environments.
it’s not a case of whether hi-res sounds better, you are sat in a small cabin rolling down the road on noisy rubber tyres.
It’s nothing but marketing guff.
Dismiss it if you want but higher end car brands will attempt to create the best audiophile music environment they can as it is one of the most important selection features for buyers.
Yup. While CEO of Gracenote we worked very closely with ever major auto brand and after market entertainment system supplier and our tech was embedded in all of them. I stand by my statement.
Let’s ignore a statistical survey over a guy in charge of a company selling an audio product to the car industry.
I take your post as firmly tongue in cheek. Bit I could be wrong.
Ok. Guess we should take the word of someone who knows little about the space over the words of key decision making auto execs who choose where to put investment $s in their cars because it’s critical to consumer selection and the bottom line. Guess BMW is stupid for its Harman Kardon® Surround Sound Audio System with 464-watt amplifier and 16 speakers. Guess Lexus is stupid for its Mark Levinson Custom Audio System with 835 watts and 14 speakers. I could go on and on and on… What a stupid waste of money since it’s only the 14th ranked selection criteria in some random survey. I’m done with this discussion now.
It’s a marketing point but extremely naive to believe that one of the key decision making points for buying a car is the sound system.
Your job was to sell them that stuff of course you’re going preach the Kool-aid.
Anyway MQA or hi-res in a car system brings nothing to the game except bragging rights on an audio forum.
Question from an inexperienced Tidal user:
When I listen to a MQA encoded file through Roon in combination with a non MQA DAC and I disable all MQA related processes is the result a true 44/16 CD quality file or has it been messed with during MQAfication? I would be seriously ■■■■■■ of if I cannot have standard issue 44/16 anymore.
I am willing to bet that it will not take long that Tidal/MQA will activate a forced downgrade of SQ for all systems that do not have full MQA capabilities. With that they create their own universe and hold customers hostage very much like Apple tried and still tries. That objective is the only one that makes sense to me as the reason behind that MQA move.
Prepare to be seriously [blanked] off, I’m afraid.
Having worked with major labels in the music industry for a long time, one of the most important things they care about is to maintain the ability to sell you another copy of the same music. You’ve all bought some or all of the 45, the LP, the 8 Track, the Cassette, the CD and the SACD versions because each one was “better” in some way than the last one and MQA is the next one in the chain. It’s perfect for them. It’s lossy, it can be marketed as a step up in quality (whether it is or not is obviously debatable as was the debate between the quality of the CD vs the LP) and it preserves the ability to offer a better version of the same music down the line. And yes, IMHO, they absolutely would flip DRM on in MQA if they knew it wouldn’t cause broad consumer revolt. They mourn the day they didn’t force Sony/Philips to include DRM in the Redbook CD standard like the movie industry did with the DVD standard, had they done that we would still be living with DRM in music today. They would return to that world in a second if they could,
As long as only Tidal is streaming MQA, I think we are on the safe side.
And to be honest, if I read about the growth and interest in Amazon’s HQ ‘lossy’ streaming, I think a lot more danger is coming from that side.
Dirk
Not just Tidal any longer. Amazon Music HD can be both “lossy” and MQA. This single inventory MQA will become more rampant as time goes on. Even if MQA ultimately is forgotten, its legacy will linger for years to come.
AJ
Auch. Was not aware that Amazon is supporting MQA.
I do know that Qobuz is streaming music of MQA-promting labels such as 2L.
I wonder if they will manage to ‘manage’ Warner to provide at least music in native CD-format.
It becomes more and more clear that the MQA investors (main ‘labels’) want to see some return on their investment, and start to force other parties in the music distribution chain to follow Warner’s play.
I can only hope that the other 3 major labels that also invested in MQA will not follow suit.
For me, but I am an old guy (feeling young), will never get into that game.
I will not ever buy, stream, … an MQA formatted track, album whatsoever.
Bad luck for artists who would be mismanaged in that way.
Luckily their are alternatives like Bandcamp, that support artists in bringing thei music to rha attention of consumers.
Dirk
