MQA Discussion

I personally do not do streaming. All my music has been either downloaded or is on those little silver disks :)... I have 89 PCM albums (48khz, 96khz and 192khz) and 84 DSD albums (64, 128 and a couple 256). All of the PCM I have up converted to DSD64 and all are served from the Roon headless server. I know there are people with a ton more, but remember that all of these are only over the previous 9 months or so. I also have 33 SA-CD albums gathered in the same time frame. I just prefer to buy the music I listen to, a collector I guess.... of course I have a ton of old Redbooks that recently I have started enjoying again!
 
'Content is king' typically stands for the fact that no platform can survive without adequate content, rather than that the one with the most content automatically wins. Although there usually is a perceived critical mass threshold though.

But let's not forget, sound quality, format, user experience, desirability of playback devices, personal preferences etc. also do matter. Otherwise no-one would care to use R2R privately.



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j2020 said:
I may be wrong but I think most audiophiles would still prefer to own content rather than pay a monthly streaming fee without any ownership of the files.
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You are correct and I still prefer to own the music I listen to on a regular basis. That said, I have no desire to "collect" music that I may listen to once every couple of years. in fact I go thru my Sooloos unit a delete music I find I haven't played in some time or have tired of. I then decide whether to keep, sell or trade the original CD.

Also since Tidal (and previously Rhapsody) are fully integrated into Sooloos. There is no difference after having tagged a album in selecting and playing a Tidal track when compared to a disc burned or dragged to my MC-200. I have actually never been to the Tidal site other than to sign up.
 
I sent an email to MQA with questions about when more music will be made available. I received an email from Lisa Sullivan in which she responded to each of my concerns. I have copied and pasted her email here.

"Hi Peter,

"Many thanks for your interest in MQA.

"I appreciate your concerns & frustrations. We have been working very hard across an eco-system (labels, studios, services, hardware partners) to drive MQA forward across all key markets.

"I’ve attempted to respond to each of your concerns:"

ME: So how do you propose to make MQA successful if you don't actually start giving us some music to download/stream and listen to.

LISA: "We have been working with the major labels and also many of the independents. Warner music announced their licensing partnership with MQA in May, so expect to see the flow of Warner music soon. In addition to 2L, we have been working with other download stores to launch MQA. HIGHRESAUDIO currently has the largest range of MQA music on their store. More info. Here - http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/post/where-to-buy-mqa-music"

ME: So far it is mainly all talk. When are music producers going to start walking the walk?

LISA: "We are working with many international producers and mastering engineers. Expect to see industry voices being very vocal about MQA over the coming months."

ME: What I am picking up from forum discussions is that people are reluctant to spend money on an MQA DAC... even the inexpensive Meridian Explorer 2... if there isn't any music available that they actually want listen to. They are concerned about putting out the money on the hardware and having it be a useless expenditure because the whole thing ends up going bust because there is not enough musical content to make it viable and lasting. They don't want to jump in with both feet (their wallet) until they know it is going to last. You can't blame them, can you?

LISA: "We absolutely agree which is why the team are really focused on the content opportunities and workflows."

ME: Italians have a saying: ''Tutto fumo niente arrosto,'' which means ''All smoke no roast.''
That is what it is beginning to feel like... a bunch of empty hype.

LISA: "Watch this space. I know you’ve been watching for a while, but it really will be ‘worth the wait'."

"Many Thanks,
Lisa"
 
I received a MQA e-mail late yesterday updating a couple of items one of which was an current artist who has released some MQA content. I ordered the sampler album from David Elias who I had previously not heard of. In my mind his music would be considered light alt-rock. There were 9 tracks on the album I purchased with a mixture of 44.1k, 96k and 352.8k content. it sounds pretty good. Finally at least some not 2L content.
 
Hungry man eating tree bark and berries in order to get something in his belly.
 
I think I have this one (or something similar, DSD Coffee Shop Sampler or something like that) in DSD. Sounds fantastic!

still-one said:
I received a MQA e-mail late yesterday updating a couple of items one of which was an current artist who has released some MQA content. I ordered the sampler album from David Elias who I had previously not heard of. In my mind his music would be considered light alt-rock. There were 9 tracks on the album I purchased with a mixture of 44.1k, 96k and 352.8k content. it sounds pretty good. Finally at least some not 2L content.
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Here you go....

http://oppodigital.com/hra/dsd-by-davidelias.aspx

I too grabbed some of these files for the USB thumb drive I used when burning in my Lumin (using a variety of bit rate and formats of files to do so from various artist downloads). His stuff does sound good, but that's about it IMO. Not something I will personally seek out to hear other than as a burn-in-list. YMMV

It would be interesting to hear the difference between the DSD versions and MQA.
 
Sounds exhausting. You must have a lot of free time!

i have several thousand CDs and they just keep piling up. I think about selling them, but just don't have the time or energy for listing, packaging, shipping them for what would amount to a couple of bucks each. If given the choice, I would buy digital hi Rez over a disc just because it's less clutter.

Plus, storage is so cheap...I just keep them. And you don't really "own" them, you just have a license.


still-one said:
You are correct and I still prefer to own the music I listen to on a regular basis. That said, I have no desire to "collect" music that I may listen to once every couple of years. in fact I go thru my Sooloos unit a delete music I find I haven't played in some time or have tired of. I then decide whether to keep, sell or trade the original CD.

Also since Tidal (and previously Rhapsody) are fully integrated into Sooloos. There is no difference after having tagged a album in selecting and playing a Tidal track when compared to a disc burned or dragged to my MC-200. I have actually never been to the Tidal site other than to sign up.
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radioactive said:
Sounds exhausting. You must have a lot of free time!

i have several thousand CDs and they just keep piling up. I think about selling them, but just don't have the time or energy for listing, packaging, shipping them for what would amount to a couple of bucks each. If given the choice, I would buy digital hi Rez over a disc just because it's less clutter.

Plus, storage is so cheap...I just keep them. And you don't really "own" them, you just have a license.
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Yes. It's terribly exhausting. Once or twice a year I put them in a box and walk into the store and ask what he will give to me for the box. Then I use that credit against something I buy that day.
 
Sounds like something I used to do in the 90's! I wasnt aware there are still these kinds of shops anymore. I miss CD Warehouse.

still-one said:
Yes. It's terribly exhausting. Once or twice a year I put them in a box and walk into the store and ask what he will give to me for the box. Then I use that credit against something I buy that day.
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http://www.computeraudiophile.com/c...ides-unique-perspective-vancouver-audio-show/


"With respect to the MQA demo with the Tidal Sunray G2 speakers, Burmester 909 Mk 5 amp, Burmester 111 MusicCenter/preamp and MQA decoding from the Meridian 808 V6 Signature CD/DAC, sounded excellent to my ears.
Disappointingly, there was no comparison between a regular recording and an MQA encoded version of the same recording. Therefore there is no way to detect, determine, or decide MQA’s contribution to the sound quality other than one is listening to a $300K system with excellent recorded, mixed, and mastered source material.
If one’s speakers are not time coherent, and distort the timing response similar to the measured step responses above, then what sonic value is MQA’s deblurring filter? This precludes that one is striving for accurate playback of what’s on the recording. I certainly am interested in playback accuracy, both frequency and timing response to my ears at the listening position. If that is your preference, then either investing in a pair of time coherent speakers or applying frequency and timing correction to an existing pair of speakers by using DSP are the only two ways today to get playback timing accuracy to one’s ears."
 
j2020 said:
"With respect to the MQA demo with the Tidal Sunray G2 speakers, Burmester 909 Mk 5 amp Burmester 111 MusicCenter/preamp and MQA decoding from the Meridian 808 V6 Signature CD/DAC sounded excellent to my ears.
Disappointingly, there was no comparison between a regular recording and an MQA encoded version of the same recording. Therefore there is no way to detect, determine, or decide MQA’s contribution to the sound quality other than one is listening to a $300K system with excellent recorded, mixed, and mastered source material.
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This always seems to be the story.
 
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