Although I think my locally stored albums generally have the edge I find myself listening to Qobuz 95% of the time; esp. as more and more albums are available in HD.
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Quite a lot in the past has been sd uprezzed cd material and sold as hires. So it does have some merits. Wether you buy into it or not.
If the label upsamples first and then MQA encodes the file how does that help, or any different from upsampling and not using MQA? You still won’t know unless they tell you, so it’s back to the same thing: trusting or not trusting the source. If I listen to a streaming service like Qobuz or TIDAL they get the data from the labels. There should be no difference in provenance between using MQA or not. I still think this is a solution looking for a problem. I don’t buy MQAs marketing on it.
Even if it does has merit – for argument’s sake – it’s not worth it to me to accept a form of proprietary DRM in place of open/free standards.
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What is this DRM you seem to think MQA has? I f I want to play DSD I need a DAC capable of decoding it and up to the rate you may want. Why is this any different to MQA. Not all DACs handle all DSD variants not all DACs offer MQA although most modern ones seem to. You seem to have some dillusion about DRM yet it has none at all. You can play MQA encoded material on anything, same cannot be said for DSD so how is this DRM.
I paid no extra to get MQA decoding on three DACs I own. So again how is this DRM.
MQA license fees will have been paid at a number of stages in the recording, mastering and distribution chain, as well as by HiFi equipment manufacturers. Ultimately, you, the customer, bear the cost if all that.
Is that not the same for anything. Naim products go up in price every year so they recoup their extra dev costs on current products. Christ my Atoms list price is £500 more than I paid for it.
The DACs I have that added MQA are still the same price as they launched with years ago. So where is this extra cost? Sorry cant see it. Tidal has been same price since I subscribed and thats before MQA was adopted. But more importantly what has this got to do with DRM which was what I was responding to.
Hi @CrystalGipsy, whilst it’s not DRM per se ,it is a form digital rights management, in that without a piece of software or hardware that has paid the MQA royalties, you can’t unfold and thus “play” the file.
I’ve tried both Tidal and Qobuz and find it too confusing. There is too much choice. I still find records in my own collection that I’ve forgotten I’ve got.
Tidal’s source of income is you. They pay MQA. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you are paying for MQA.
No you can play MQA content on anything. Yes you don’t get the full encode but it still works. Can’t say that for DSD content unless you downsample so why is this any different? Really explain to me the rational why one is DRM the other isn’t.
To me MQA, primarily a clever process for maximising bandwidth, is at least 5 years too late, at least for mainstream use, full hi res being streamable nowadays unexpurgated. Its other aspect supposedly reconstructing closer to the original than might a random DAC is a moot one given that it is not bitperfect (IIUC). On the various threads that have discussed, it seems that of those who can hear a difference some like the ‘MQA effect’ and others don’t. Each to their own!
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And as I said why is this any different to anything else. Qobuz until very recently where charging and have charge me for over 12 months £24 for hires when now when they feel the pressure they drop it. So is this not the same? New customers of Naim have to pay £500 more than I did so it’s the same. Sorry don’t get why you quite happily except this and yet have a go against MQA when it’s cost nothing.
I thought I knew everything about music. Turns out I didn’t. The music room thread on this forum has been an ear opener. Streaming services allow you to explore the recommendations of like minded people and then you decide whether to buy. If you love it enough you will want to own it. Whether you then store it for convenience is another matter.
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Same could be said for any compressed format but I guarantee more people use them in this country than the whole world of lossless. Have you tried streaming hires on a mobile platform? It’s not viable, mqa makes it possible. We are not the sole consumers of audio on this planet and tbh amount to a very small percentage.
I can’t play MQA on my NDX2 through the “Tidal” input controlled by the Naim amp at hires (higher than 44.1/16bit). (1)
I can play MQA at hires (higher than 44.1/16bit) if I use the Tidal iOS app and Airplay2 (2)
I can play MQA at hires (higher than 44.1/16bit) if I use Audirvana or Roon and have either of those serve my NDX2 via the Roon RAAT input or upnp input (3)
I can play MQA at hires (higher than 44.1/16bit) if, instead of using the NDX2, I change to a licensed MQA enabled DAC (4)
Options 2,3 and 4 only work because someone has paid the MQA license - that’s the definition of a proprietary rights managed format.
I’m simply pointing out that some of the money you give to Tidal is paid to MQA. The same applies to anyone who buys an MQA DAC. The fact that Naim, or anyone else, apply inflationary price increases to their products is entirely irrelevant.
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And why is that any different to playing DSD. Not all DACs or streamers support it. Is this also DRM? Please explain why this is any different.
Of course I have.
I use Qobuz and have an EE unlimited 4G subscription which gives me 50Mb/s up and down with a great ping round trip time.
A hell of a lot better than most fixed broadband. I also get local download caching capability.
Yes, the mobile DAC I happen to use (Audioquest Dragonfly Cobalt) is actually an MQA licensed and unfold capable DAC, but that’s besides the point.
No problems either streaming or downloading hi-res FLAC on the go.
MQA is the answer to a problem no one asked.
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Well I can’t stream MP3 quality consistently on any network I have had in London. Yes get bandwidth at one location that might be amazing but as you move on your commute it falls apart and uncompressed hires for mobile is just not happening Christ even cd struggles most of the time.
Fair enough. London (building refraction and over concentrated subscribers on the RAN) certainly can pose a problem to reliable data transfer.