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MQA Sounds Really Good!

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digicidal

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Your last sentence is the exact situation with DVD, Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray. You can play 4K video on youtube with hardly any royalty.
...
Note that the above does NOT include other underlying IP you need to license which includes MPEG-2, Dolby and DTS, etc., etc.
Are you really equating user-produced content to commercial movies? Sure I'm paying licensing and royalties, I'm paying them to the content creator & publisher. Are you really saying that paying royalties for a source-publisher of physical media is equivalent to paying a 3rd party for simply putting a wrapper around other's creative content?!? :facepalm: I'd have a huge problem with paying extra to YouTube in order to stream movies I own... but I'd have even more of a problem if I had to pay more because they struck a deal with the studios to have them prevent non-YT masters from being available at all.

Really, there is just no way to defend any existing commercial formats on these grounds. Yet we consume them without complaining but get all upset on a format like MQA which has no prayer of becoming mainstream.
No that is just your crusading that's talking... I'm not "upset" at all - I simply will not participate. I have a problem with any non-open format, I just have slightly less of an issue with those that bring an improvement to the table at least. For those who want to support MQA I'm as happy as I am with them supporting any other snake oil salesmen... it's their money - waste away! That doesn't mean I don't think they shouldn't have any kickback - kinda like an exotic DAC with poor SINAD (but a huge following of supporters). ;)

People needed to be "woke" years ago about audio/video formats and help create lower cost versions. Fortunately with the age of Internet, we don't need a consortia to create formats so years from now the problem will be behind us. For now though, let's be consistent and not complain about a little fly in our house where a hungry lion is sitting next to us. :)
People did, but it's simply a fact of modern corporate life that it's largely meaningless. No matter how proven lossless, open-source solutions may be, if you can't make money off it... it isn't happening. Even if it's possible to resolve a medical condition reasonably through dietary means... you can guarantee there will be a pharmaceutical solution as well... and only that one will have a ton of marketing behind it. Just because I don't have the power to stop corporate greed, government corruption, or fraudulent sales tactics... I should stop bothering? One wonders why we bother doing anything then - I guess I shouldn't have an opinion on anything I don't sit on the board of. ;) Those SINAD flies won't bother that lion either, but I still see a value in you pointing out when they're buzzing.
 

Sal1950

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Yet we consume them without complaining but get all upset on a format like MQA which has no prayer of becoming mainstream.
I'm not sure why you keep saying that when you fully know it is the marketing intention of Meridian, Mr Stuart and all to make it such. It's been pushed into Streaming, HD Downloads, CD's and even a few LP's LOL. How much penetration will it take before you'd call it mainstream?
 

audio_tony

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The pressure to make MQA succeed must be quite high, as there are a couple of investment bankers on the board of directors.

I also note that they established a company called 'MERIDIAN LOSSLESS PACKING LTD' prior to MQA LTD.

I suppose 'Quality Authenticated' sounded better then 'Lossless Packaging'....
 

digicidal

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The pressure to make MQA succeed must be quite high, as there are a couple of investment bankers on the board of directors.

I also note that they established a company called 'MERIDIAN LOSSLESS PACKING LTD' prior to MQA LTD.

I suppose 'Quality Authenticated' sounded better then 'Lossless Packaging'....

Especially because for many years Meridian has been pretty far from being "lossless" LOL! :p (Rimshot)

Actually with how much money is represented in any of these "exclusive formats" it's hardly surprising. It's the same with most technologies... even when it is an open standard, there's usually a mechanism to artificially delay or impede competition until the primary members have wrung the biggest profits out of it... then they open it to all once it becomes a commodity and claim they're benevolent. What Intel did with Thunderbolt is a decent analog IMO... but it's easier to do when you have actual innovation involved.

If you don't... like what MQA does for audio or UHC does for health insurance... then you need huge amounts of cash for lobbying and payoffs. ;)
 

amirm

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Are you really equating user-produced content to commercial movies?
No, I am saying the underlaying audio/video format costs very little in royalties. Yet when they are packaged up by a cartel of powerful companies, consumers are charged huge fees. Yet people pay them. So the argument that fees are a problem with MQA doesn't factor in. You consume other formats whose main intention is to milk you out of tons of money.
 

amirm

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I'm not sure why you keep saying that when you fully know it is the marketing intention of Meridian, Mr Stuart and all to make it such. It's been pushed into Streaming, HD Downloads, CD's and even a few LP's LOL. How much penetration will it take before you'd call it mainstream?
A million times more? MQA is a fringe solution to a fringe problem. It will never be mainstream. We can't get mass consumer to care about CD quality. You think we can get them to care about > CD quality???
 

Sal1950

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A million times more? MQA is a fringe solution to a fringe problem. It will never be mainstream. We can't get mass consumer to care about CD quality. You think we can get them to care about > CD quality???
Hell no, but it's not the consumer we have to worry about. The record labels are drooling all over the idea of MQA and locking up the crown jewels of fully lossless HD files. More and more even Redbook level files are coming from the labels with the MQA stamp of BS on them. When the labels no longer release any digital files without MQA and no one objects, bye bye lossless, top quality music reproduction by consumers, and your right, they won't give a damn.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.​
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.​
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.​
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.​
 

amirm

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Hell no, but it's not the consumer we have to worry about. The record labels are drooling all over the idea of MQA and locking up the crown jewels of fully lossless HD files.
Nope. They have been licensing HD content to likes of HDtracks for years. And now Amazon is doing the same. And as I keep explaining, there is no copy control in MQA. You can buy one track and give it to a million people. So it solves no piracy problem even if the labels cared about that. Which they don't.
 

amirm

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More and more even Redbook level files are coming from the labels with the MQA stamp of BS on them.
Really? What labels and how many? There has been a few token ones. Much like Fox released a few HD movies on D-VHS format. Heck that was more significant than anything that has come out with MQA on CD.

CD is a forgotten format anyway. So even if a lot more than that came out, it would not matter.

HDCD was similar to MQA. There were far more CDs in that format. That died years ago as well.
 

Thomas savage

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No, I am saying the underlaying audio/video format costs very little in royalties. Yet when they are packaged up by a cartel of powerful companies, consumers are charged huge fees. Yet people pay them. So the argument that fees are a problem with MQA doesn't factor in. You consume other formats whose main intention is to milk you out of tons of money.
People pay a lot of money to be ' milked ' these days..
 

Thomas savage

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This goes on and on, why not another angle. Why would any end consumer want MQA?
Because it makes a blue light come on and that blue light tells me the artist sees me and I'm having a authentic experience.
 

Blumlein 88

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Because it makes a blue light come on and that blue light tells me the artist sees me and I'm having a authentic experience.
I've got a special mod for almost any DAC. It does things that......well frankly I couldn't talk about...........which nevertheless, will convert any digital file into MQA including full unfolding (or as we like to call it enfolding) which causes the blue light to shine with any recording you can lay your hands on (digital only, this tech isn't available for analog yet). Details have yet to be worked out, but I expect pricing to be about $199.99 for the mod plus S&H. Some early beta testers swear on the quality they are hearing being authentic to the soul of the recording artist. Don't forget you heard about here first.

Here is some prototype work with quantum entangled retroactive authentication occurring inside the special field our device develops. I've actually mentioned it once before here at ASR forums......QE-MQA. Once past recordings have been Authenticated they stay Authenticated inside the special field.
1573274037981.png
 

Thomas savage

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I've got a special mod for almost any DAC. It does things that......well frankly I couldn't talk about...........which nevertheless, will convert any digital file into MQA including full unfolding (or as we like to call it enfolding) which causes the blue light to shine with any recording you can lay your hands on (digital only, this tech isn't available for analog yet). Details have yet to be worked out, but I expect pricing to be about $199.99 for the mod plus S&H. Some early beta testers swear on the quality they are hearing being authentic to the soul of the recording artist. Don't forget you heard about here first.

Here is some prototype work with quantum entangled retroactive authentication occurring inside the special field our device develops. I've actually mentioned it once before here at ASR forums......QE-MQA. Once past recordings have been Authenticated they stay Authenticated inside the special field.
View attachment 38299
I did not know freezing anal beads in ice would bring all these audible benefits.

Obviously now you'll have to buy a replacement though...

Now what did I do with mine.....
 

Sal1950

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Really? What labels and how many? There has been a few token ones.
As you know I won't do Tidal, but how many do you see on Tidal?
Time will tell sir. I only hope our anti-MQA campaign spreads the word enough that the naive consumers won't buy into the marketing and demand it's spread. As long as Amazon and Qobuz can resist the demand, we're in good shape. If they should start adding MQA we're in trouble.
Time will tell sir, I only hope the day never comes when I can say "I told you so".
But I'd much rather you join the good pro-consumer fight and get off this kick of defending that which only serves to hurt the general public.

I've got a special mod for almost any DAC. It does things that......well frankly I couldn't talk about...........which nevertheless, will convert any digital file into MQA including full unfolding (or as we like to call it enfolding) which causes the blue light to shine with any recording you can lay your hands on (digital only, this tech isn't available for analog yet).
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, How about the deblurshitt, can it do the deblurshitt too?
 

Blumlein 88

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As you know I won't do Tidal, but how many do you see on Tidal?
Time will tell sir. I only hope our anti-MQA campaign spreads the word enough that the naive consumers won't buy into the marketing and demand it's spread. As long as Amazon and Qobuz can resist the demand, we're in good shape. If they should start adding MQA we're in trouble.
Time will tell sir, I only hope the day never comes when I can say "I told you so".
But I'd much rather you join the good pro-consumer fight and get off this kick of defending that which only serves to hurt the general public.


OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, How about the deblurshitt, can it do the deblurshitt too?
Oh of course. Would not be QE-MQA without de-blurring.
 

Sal1950

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Only 13 pages of repetitive back and forth about MQA, come on guys your just not trying.
Is that the best shot at sarcasm you can come up with? LOL
 

Wombat

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