Is MQA Fading Away?

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nicoff

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A few years ago it seemed that MQA was going to be around for a while. Today, even Tidal (an early adopter) is offering a lower tier subscription without MQA (which translates into less revenue for MQA). And since the major streaming services do not support Tidal, I wonder how long before MQA becomes another Betamax.
 
Slightly off-topic, but...

Betamax failed due to marketing considerations even though it had better picture quality. MQA only exists due to marketing considerations even though it has inferior sound quality.
 
I have seen several print reviewers write some of their evaluation music was streaming utilizing MQA.
 
still-one said:
More and more MQA titles are released each week. Plenty to choose from
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As long as TIDAL pays for them they will continue to be released; after all it costs the label essentially nothing except licensing fees (probably covered by TIDAL) to release a new title. The real question is what happens to MQA if TIDAL folds or decides to stop supporting it.
 
rbbert said:
As long as TIDAL pays for them they will continue to be released; after all it costs the label essentially nothing except licensing fees (probably covered by TIDAL) to release a new title. The real question is what happens to MQA if TIDAL folds or decides to stop supporting it.
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That same "what if" has been on the table for over 5 years now. Tidal doesn't appear any closer to exiting the scene.
 
rbbert said:
As long as TIDAL pays for them they will continue to be released; after all it costs the label essentially nothing except licensing fees (probably covered by TIDAL) to release a new title. The real question is what happens to MQA if TIDAL folds or decides to stop supporting it.
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Actually, Tidal alone is not enough to keep MQA Limited alive. MQA has been losing millions of dollars every year since it was created. Their 2020 financial statements shows that it lost nearly $5 million that year and had sales of about $600k. That is not sustainable even if Tidal survives.
 
MQA is audio hocus pocus. It's a lossy format pretending it's not a lossy format and it made ridiculous claims about how they would authenticate that each MQA release sounded just like the master owned by the recording labels.
 
nicoff said:
Actually, Tidal alone is not enough to keep MQA Limited alive. MQA has been losing millions of dollars every year since it was created. Their 2020 financial statements shows that it lost nearly $5 million that year and had sales of about $600k. That is not sustainable even if Tidal survives.
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Not necessarily. If it wished to, MQA Limited could easily cut its overhead to near zero at this time; the company itself should no longer be incurring costs beyond its payroll (R&D is done, and it doesn't manufacture anything), and it really doesn't need any current employees except bookkeeping.
 
Ok, talk to me like a child here. Is mqa squeezing out a superior format that I’m unaware of? A dac that can resolve all the current formats can be found for a few hundred bucks and tidal is only one streaming option.
 
steve59 said:
Ok, talk to me like a child here. Is mqa squeezing out a superior format that I’m unaware of? A dac that can resolve all the current formats can be found for a few hundred bucks and tidal is only one streaming option.
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The answer to your first question is no.
 
steve59 said:
Ok, talk to me like a child here. Is mqa squeezing out a superior format that I’m unaware of? A dac that can resolve all the current formats can be found for a few hundred bucks and tidal is only one streaming option.
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I'll talk to as an adult. Yes, they have.
 
I just read the rolling mqa debate that brings up 'goldensound's' arguments and it's enlightening for sure. mqa shouldn't replace flac any more than mp3 should, but when it can deliver higher resolution with the same bandwidth by dumping more inaudible bits i'm down. Just listened to division bell 24/192 mqa and currently believe.
 
steve59 said:
...Is mqa squeezing out a superior format that I’m unaware of? ...
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This is indeed the only thing that I care about, because it has been hinted at on a number of occasions that the major labels would prefer to have MQA the only digital download option (over CD's and MP3/4) available to consumers. As long as that doesn't happen, who cares?
 
There is no issue here, just the typical anti-MQA rants from the usual suspects. MQA is available for many albums and through Tidal, and most DACs can decode it. High Res is available for many albums and through Qobuz, and all DACs can play it. If you hate MQA, play your High Res files, subscribe to Qobuz and pipe down.

Ken
 
on my WBF Wadax thread there was some MQA talk, so i spent a few minutes investigating......it is what it is.....

i already had this sense, but just to make sure........i took 30-35 minutes of my life i will never get back, and did a 20 second A/B on Tidal with MQA and then Quboz with standard PCM......with 10 cuts. 100% of the results were exposing MQA as slightly smeared and less vivid.....mostly less separation of the soundstage, and somewhat dynamically muted. none of the MQA were 'bad' musically. just less special.....less alive and real. some of the Quboz was regular 16/44, some the same resolution as the MQA upsample. same result regardless.

maybe some new stuff is mastered with MQA, maybe that makes a difference.

the whole idea of MQA is to 'fix' digital somehow......we already know we don't need to fix it, we just need the Wadax. but honestly that was the similar result with MQA on the MSB, maybe to a slightly less decisive degree. it was a little closer.
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Alpinist said:
There is no issue here, just the typical anti-MQA rants from the usual suspects. MQA is available for many albums and through Tidal, and most DACs can decode it. High Res is available for many albums and through Qobuz, and all DACs can play it. If you hate MQA, play your High Res files, subscribe to Qobuz and pipe down.

Ken
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Well said. I default to Qobuz, but there are still albums on Tidal which are not on Qobuz and many of those are in MQA.


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Been on Qobuz for a while since I dropped Tidal. Why listen to MQA when I have the LP's or CD's or downloads of my fav music. To each their own and there is nothing wrong with that. .
 
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