Hi-Res/MQA debate

[Mr. C]

MQA is a solution to a problem that does not exist

[sanchezxxx]

Haha,

Doesn't solve a problem to anyone at home with decent broadband and high end hifi (most of us). To a degree it could be argued that it helps streaming live on mobile devices in areas with poor signal. I'm sure from a licensing / protection perspective it solves some contractual issue somewhere for record co's / rights holders.

Will be interesting to see the way Apple moves forward. Looks like they are going to be dropping all physical ports from future iPhones and have taken optical off MacBooks - Aghhhhh. If Apple don't adopt MQA I don't see it going anywhere.

[StingRay]

Haha,

Doesn't solve a problem to anyone at home with decent broadband and high end hifi (most of us). To a degree it could be argued that it helps streaming live on mobile devices in areas with poor signal. I'm sure from a licensing / protection perspective it solves some contractual issue somewhere for record co's / rights holders.

Will be interesting to see the way Apple moves forward. Looks like they are going to be dropping all physical ports from future iPhones and have taken optical off MacBooks - Aghhhhh. If Apple don't adopt MQA I don't see it going anywhere.

MQA is available on iphones and iOS. Tidal is the only streaming service using it I believe and that maybe putting more people off than attracting them. As broadband speeds have increased then there is less need for it. I don't like some of the marketing either, I think it is misleading.

[Mr Neds]

I’ve heard people say ( on HUKD of all places ) that they could tell the difference between Tidal hi fi and Tidal Masters on their car stereo etc., which is interesting as these are people that know nothing about MQA
and it’s “unpacking”. So back to the notion of people hearing what they want?

[Qwin]

I’ve heard people say ( on HUKD of all places ) that they could tell the difference between Tidal hi fi and Tidal Masters on their car stereo etc., which is interesting as these are people that know nothing about MQA
and it’s “unpacking”. So back to the notion of people hearing what they want?

Or maybe the masters for each version are different and that's the difference they are hearing. There can be several versions of an album/track, especially with older material. This was true with Vinyl/Cd so why should MQA source material be any different.
You can't be certain Oranges were being compared with Oranges.

I have experienced a couple of instances with Qobuz downloads, were a 16/41 cd quality download sounded better, much better, than a HiRes version of the same album. Even the streamed 320kbs MP3 sounded better than the HiRes download. Mastering is everything and a turd is a turd, no matter how much you polish it.