There is no comparison of the popularity of the CD when it was in the same infant stage as MQA is now. If you were to survey (any size subset) music listeners today of their preference for MQA vs. anything else I'm afraid you'd get about a 0.0001% response and lots of blank stares. Compare that to the birth of the CD. There were only a handful of musical formats of the time with the PRIMARY format (records) being threatened with the CD. At that time, back in the early 1980's, everyone that listened to music had heard about this new thing called a CD that was going to make their records defunct. Can't say the same for MQA with the niche audiophile market let alone the general population.
MQA Discussion
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There is no comparison of the popularity of the CD when it was in the same infant stage as MQA is now. If you were to survey (any size subset) music listeners today of their preference for MQA vs. anything else I'm afraid you'd get about a 0.0001% response and lots of blank stares. Compare that to the birth of the CD. There were only a handful of musical formats of the time with the PRIMARY format (records) being threatened with the CD. At that time, back in the early 1980's, everyone that listened to music had heard about this new thing called a CD that was going to make their records defunct. Can't say the same for MQA with the niche audiophile market let alone the general population.
lallygagger
New member
lallygagger
New member
Not yet. My question would be, however, HOW LONG did it take from the first mention of CD to its eventual taking over the recording industry?
Compare 1983-1986 ability for communication. TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, infant-internet......just a couple years for the CD buzz to take off.
Compare recent years since MQA has been mentioned and the ability for INSTANT communication via every conceivable angle / method / bombardment.
The fact that MQA hasn't gotten off the launch pad given all the communications "help" and avenues that are present compared to the old CD days could be representative of the lack of excitement by the end user for yet another format.
I agree with Chris, if they can get MQA prices down to that of MP3 or iTunes, then by default it could theoretically become the defacto standard without joe-bloe user even realizing it. Perhaps it's possible?
lallygagger
New member
Mike, your point that those who love their present DACs can get an inexpensive MQA decoder if their DAC manufacturers don't plan upgrades, is well taken.
My favorite DAC is the AMR DP 777 SE and I do indeed love it.
In the meantime I am VERY curious about what MQA is capable of and I could go ahead and get the Explorer 2 and use it the the AMR DP, using the DP as preamp (and continuing to use the AMR for all PCM playback). What is stopping me is that I have talked to AMR and they are considering offering an upgrade. But they are waiting to see how the market responds to MQA before jumping in. I don't know if I want to spend even a modest amount for the Explorer 2 (250 euro) now and then have to pay for the AMR upgrade later.
Since you are very interested in hearing AMR in your home, can you tell me why you have not availed yourself of the option of getting an inexpensive MQA DAC? Since I am teetering on the brink of doing just this and curiosity might just get the better of me, I am interested in your feed back.
My favorite DAC is the AMR DP 777 SE and I do indeed love it.
In the meantime I am VERY curious about what MQA is capable of and I could go ahead and get the Explorer 2 and use it the the AMR DP, using the DP as preamp (and continuing to use the AMR for all PCM playback). What is stopping me is that I have talked to AMR and they are considering offering an upgrade. But they are waiting to see how the market responds to MQA before jumping in. I don't know if I want to spend even a modest amount for the Explorer 2 (250 euro) now and then have to pay for the AMR upgrade later.
Since you are very interested in hearing AMR in your home, can you tell me why you have not availed yourself of the option of getting an inexpensive MQA DAC? Since I am teetering on the brink of doing just this and curiosity might just get the better of me, I am interested in your feed back.
Well, Berkeley is working on something with respect to MQA and so is Lumin and others. I hope Lampizator doesn't get caught with their pants down with respect to MQA. I have not had any meaningful conversations with Fred or Lukasz, so perhaps they have plans....but if they aren't under an NDA with Meridian for MQA now, then the development phase will be longer.
I am interested in the Mytek DAC and should Tidal release "MASTER MQA", I will be much more inclined to grab something MQA compatible now.
CPP
Active member
Yes sir. Actually we both agreed it sounded better. But like anything in music production, maybe its the reconfigured MQA recording.
CPP
Active member
Its going to take a Tidal streaming initiative at a decent price with a global catalog content ( not just classical) to make it worthwhile. My audio club friend with the Brooklyn loves classical but about as close to classical I come to is Soundtracks
More MQA Partnerships announced:
http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/post/MQA Announces New Partnerships at Munich High End Show
http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/post/MQA Announces New Partnerships at Munich High End Show
lallygagger
New member
Yes, perhaps that they are recordings which have been reconfigured to MQA is the reason.
But your experience in not very heartening to those of us who might be interested in MQA solely for the improvement in sound. I was hoping that Robert Harley was right and that by getting an inexpensive MQA DAC I would hear the big jump in sound quality in those 2L files... something on the order of what I hear when listening to those same tracks in Bluray multichannel playback. Your experience indicates that this might not be the case.
This does not diminish MQA's obvious storage advantage nor its advantage if Tidal and others start streaming MQA, of course.
But still it's a little disappointing to hear about your experience... at least to me, it's disappointing.
CPP
Active member
Same here. my friend who owns the Mytek Brooklyn didn't have any MQA classic rock or jazz or blues music and I wasn't going to buy any MQA music since I don't have a MQA player so maybe there is a difference in those music genres. I hope so,.
lallygagger
New member
CPP
Active member
not at all the upgrade was free. The dac if you read , was equipped with MQA, this new firmware upgrade enabled MQA after the Mytek certification was completed by Meridian. PS: actually the Brooklyn sounds pretty darn good on DSD and PCM.
radioactive
New member
Because when you don't actually have something to contribute, just attack the person rather than have something of interest to say. You should run political campaigns. Enough of the personal attacks, if you can't stick to the merits, the technical details or something else then you are nothing more than a troll.
radioactive
New member
Really good point lallygagger. My statement was more intended to draw a comparison to the many articles and case studies of the cellular phone market from the last 5 years. Yes, it's another encoding format, but quite honestly I don't think any one of us is going to make or break its success. If my posts were followed I hope it was obvious that I'm merely not going to be an early adopter. There are too many issues for me and I also went on to state that there are a lot of other people like me who are also not going to be early adopters (in the US, foreign markets are beyond the scope of MY knowledge).
Like you, I agree that the masses are going to make or break this.
Like you, I agree that the masses are going to make or break this.
radioactive
New member
I don't know about that. I think that MP3 was also a big deal when it came out. The labels were all up in arms because of the file sharing p2p sites like Napster. Consider all the lawsuits that were served to those who were illegally sharing music and all the publicity that surrounded MP3. I'd call that one. Also, if you look back at the original MP3 claims it was that the data lost was inaudible and that the music sounded just as good as the original. One might argue that at it's best, 320Kbps comes pretty close to the original but it's still not the same and the end-result is that their claim was not entirely true.
I'd also consider DVD as a big advance that got a lot of press. It was about improving video too, but a big part of that was Dolby Digital (and Meridian had a hand in the compression part there).
But to your point about "improving sound quality", the last two big things were DSD and 24Bit digital releases and they didn't get anywhere near as much publicity.
I'd also consider DVD as a big advance that got a lot of press. It was about improving video too, but a big part of that was Dolby Digital (and Meridian had a hand in the compression part there).
But to your point about "improving sound quality", the last two big things were DSD and 24Bit digital releases and they didn't get anywhere near as much publicity.
You guys must be too young. There was plenty of "perfect sound forever" fanfare. At least equal to MQA given the limited message mediums of the 80's. There was a period when there was no internet. [emoji6]
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I guess you have decided to not merit this :-
But over all I agree with j2020 where he says, ''Instead of dwelling on the flops, I would rather thank my lucky stars to be able to enjoy the ones that succeed.'
Having listened to MQA via an MQA-capable DAC in the form of the Merdian 808v6 and shared my experience in this thread, I am pretty excited about it. As with all new tech, time will tell of its eventual success or failure.
I humbly suggest to the particular individual here (we all know who he is) who can make negative pronouncements without yet personally listening to MQA with an MQA-capable DAC, that he can just bring a loaner unit home for audition. This simple experiment would come at practically no cost and would greatly help to increase the level of his discussion - with respect to technical merits vs the completely and totally separate personal listening experience.
I humbly suggest to the particular individual here (we all know who he is) who can make negative pronouncements without yet personally listening to MQA with an MQA-capable DAC, that he can just bring a loaner unit home for audition. This simple experiment would come at practically no cost and would greatly help to increase the level of his discussion - with respect to technical merits vs the completely and totally separate personal listening experience.