Well it seems, to me, that MQA selling points concentrate around two topics: convenience and quality.
CONVENIENCE. I'm not sure how the broadband internet market is in other countries but here in the Netherlands broadband is not an issue (with a few exceptions for maybe less then 5% of the population). It's available and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. We run several high-bandwith applications at home without problems: Qobuz's CD/lossless music streaming, watching (HD/720) TV via a PVR app on a iPad, downloads of large files like OS updates for all devices, watching youtube material and that all at the same time/in parallel over a 25Mbps downlink. Aside the more "philosophical" question whether streaming of, say 196/24, is wasteful/non-efficient given the information density of the extra information, I don't see where MQA coding/folding/origami solves a problem in delivering/distributing hirez content. And if the broadband situation is more dire in other countries/markets it will only be a temporary issue. Not? QUALITY It is sold under several (non-technical) names to us, "hearing the music as intended", "authenticated". IMHO the whole point is completely moot unless the whole chain is MQA authenticated/certified including everything coming after the MQA enabled DAC: the rest of your electronics, the loudspeakers, the acoustics of your listening environment and last but not least: yourself, as listener. "You as listener must also be MQA authenticated" can be substantiated based on recent articles with more information and responses: MQA officials refute the notion that a double blind test would reveal the benefits of MQA or at least confirm not to harm the quality when a non-MQA DAC is used. I believe the MQA folks take that last one even a step further by saying it sounds better through a non-MQA DAC. They explicitly say you need to be trained to hear what the difference is to be able to appreciate it. Well then you hear it maybe as it was intended but wether you like what you hear is still an open question given the enormous variation in recording qualities, on a side note: what would be the benefit of a bad sounding recording that is MQA'ed, the only point I can think of is that MQA confirms (indirectly) that it is indeed rubbish :-) To repeat, the whole 'hear the music as intended' point is moot. Ps. Btw: how's Phono doing? does the all-black SB sound better than the white SB? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ hsmeets's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9716 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=105070 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
