[Hooster]

How are you getting Tidal and Qobuz in Japan, if you don't mind me asking?

You can get it anywhere you like if you have a VPN.

 

[blotmouse]

Interesting, good future info and read by a moderate.
https://darko.audio/2021/04/tidal-forks-mqa/

 

[bfreedma]

Interesting, good future info and read by a moderate.
https://darko.audio/2021/04/tidal-forks-mqa/

John Darko is hardly a moderate in regards to MQA. He’s been one of its biggest proponents/cheerleaders since it was released, writing numerous articles about how “great” MQA is and how unfair the criticism is.

The article in your link is exactly the one sided pro-MQA piece I would accept from Darke.

 

[rkw]

The article in your link is exactly the one sided pro-MQA piece I would accept from Darke.

Did you read the entire article? It is not pro-MQA.

 

[bfreedma]

Did you read the entire article? It is not pro-MQA.

The second half is definitely more balanced. I guess Darko is embarrassed now that MQA has been exposed and is trying to cover for all of the hype he gave them earlier.

 

[rlanger]

You can get it anywhere you like if you have a VPN.

Yes, but the apps are not available on the Japanese Play store, so only available on PC through VPN I guess.

Was never really interested in Tidal, although I would like to try Qobuz. Currently on an AmazonHD trial.

 

[alekc]

The second half is definitely more balanced. I guess Darko is embarrassed now that MQA has been exposed and is trying to cover for all of the hype he gave them earlier.

Indeed. There is nothing wrong in changing mind but this guy is pretending to be an expert while mixing up technical facts and making a business around it. I've stopped following Darko long time ago and due to mqa I am also considering canceling my Tidal subscription. I will just wait a bit for Spotify and possibly new Tidal pricing scheme in my region.

 

[Currawong]

The second half is definitely more balanced. I guess Darko is embarrassed now that MQA has been exposed and is trying to cover for all of the hype he gave them earlier.

I don't think so. I held about the same level of opinion as Darko in the earlier years, and, like him, the more that came to light, the more put off MQA I became. A good point he made in his article is:

In 2019, I pointed a reader looking to better understand my position on MQA at Ricky Gervais’ Twitter feed: “It used to be considered reasonable to listen & try to understand both sides of an argument. But now, if opposing extremists are screaming at each other & you don’t agree 100% with either, you’re considered the enemy of both. It’s why many people are afraid to contribute at all.”

I don't think that is fair to condemn Darko because of either a: his opinions in the past based upon what he knew, and what he had experienced at the time; or b: his refusal to militantly condemn it. If anything, he makes reasonable points.

What really damages any argument against MQA is that is regularly backed up by personal attacks and character assassinations of people who don't agree. The most hypocritical thing ultimately is that the people who are most militantly crying out that their freedom of choice as to how they can listen to music online, are often the ones who want to shout down other peoples' freedom to express a dissenting opinion to their own. Something to think about.

 

[xand]

What really damages any argument against MQA is that is regularly backed up by personal attacks and character assassinations of people who don't agree. The most hypocritical thing ultimately is that the people who are most militantly crying out that their freedom of choice as to how they can listen to music online, are often the ones who want to shout down other peoples' freedom to express a dissenting opinion to their own. Something to think about.

What really damages any argument FOR MQA.

For example, in case you didn't notice (or have blinders on for subjective reasons):

The second half is definitely more balanced. I guess Darko is embarrassed now that MQA has been exposed and is trying to cover for all of the hype he gave them earlier.

Indeed. There is nothing wrong in changing mind but this guy is pretending to be an expert while mixing up technical facts and making a business around it. I've stopped following Darko long time ago and due to mqa I am also considering canceling my Tidal subscription. I will just wait a bit for Spotify and possibly new Tidal pricing scheme in my region.

And as you said, not that Darko is even blatantly for MQA... Just making the anti MQA crowd unhappy for some reason.

I should say that my knowledge of pro/anti MQA is mostly limited to Darko or from this thread.. Where frankly the most the pro MQA people have done is to ask the anti MQA people to go away (from this thread).

 

[originalsnuffy]

I would imagine MQA slide sets (Powerpoint pitch) for record labels come down to:

We can protect your valuable hi res files from being copied and distributed by unauthorized parties. Our compression system is easy on the ears and almost sounds like the original FLAC files. Implicit in our decoding is a nuanced take on watermarking. You have to have an MQA system which is a tightly controlled ecosystem in order to play the music. So bootlegs are stopped in their tracks. Sign here.

 

[bfreedma]

I don't think so. I held about the same level of opinion as Darko in the earlier years, and, like him, the more that came to light, the more put off MQA I became. A good point he made in his article is:


I don't think that is fair to condemn Darko because of either a: his opinions in the past based upon what he knew, and what he had experienced at the time; or b: his refusal to militantly condemn it. If anything, he makes reasonable points.

What really damages any argument against MQA is that is regularly backed up by personal attacks and character assassinations of people who don't agree. The most hypocritical thing ultimately is that the people who are most militantly crying out that their freedom of choice as to how they can listen to music online, are often the ones who want to shout down other peoples' freedom to express a dissenting opinion to their own. Something to think about.

What really damages the MQA discussion is conflating the issue as some sort of referendum on personal choice based on audible preference. My issue is the marketing of MQA as something it clearly is not now nor was not in 2019.

I’ve never taken issue with anyone’s preference for MQA’s audio output. I certainly do take issue with MQA’s business approach and technical obfuscation. The business objectives have been plain to see since day 1 and openly discussed, with those questioning MQA shouted down by MQA/Meridian and their supporters. Something to think about.

I‘ll make further comments in the other MQA thread.

 

[xand]

I would imagine MQA slide sets (Powerpoint pitch) for record labels come down to:

We can protect your valuable hi res files from being copied and distributed by unauthorized parties. Our compression system is easy on the ears and almost sounds like the original FLAC files. Implicit in our decoding is a nuanced take on watermarking. You have to have an MQA system which is a tightly controlled ecosystem in order to play the music. So bootlegs are stopped in their tracks. Sign here.

I'm not sure there's any bootleg protection provided by MQA?

Any link to description?

 

[snapandslide]

After trialling Qobuz for a few weeks, Tidal subscription officially cancelled. Happy to look at Tidal in the future, but for the next year, Qobuz it is.

 

[mammal]

After trialling Qobuz for a few weeks, Tidal subscription officially cancelled. Happy to look at Tidal in the future, but for the next year, Qobuz it is.

Same here, I also noticed that I get less song skips with Qobuz than with Tidal using Roon. Before, there were some networking issues (also reported on Roonlabs community forum) when using Tidal, but with Qobuz all works perfectly. So glad I have switched.

 

[RagnarL]

Hello folks, unfortunately I don't understand this hype around Qobuz. Have both Tidal and Qobuz for a long time, been testing Qobuz time afrer time since 2018. And yes, when I had audio equipment that couldn't unfold mqa fully, Qobuz was much better in terms of sound than Tidal mqa. But when I bought cambridge audio for home and ibasso dx 220 for on the go music experience (now I have Astell Kern spkm gold and Shanling m8 that can make full mqa unfolding) something changed. Qobuz disappointed me in terms of sound quality, hi res music sounds noticeably warmer, compared to Tidal MQA where high frequencies are much airy and more extended. So it feels like hi res music from Qobuz is slightly muddy. Besides it looks like the majority of the hi res files from Qobuz are in 44-48-88 kHz, and there is not a lot of music in 96-192 khz. So when I do A/B testing it seems that mqa music from Tidal has more resolution and sharpness because of the Qobuz warmth. Moreover Qobuz app has more issues and bugs in off-line mode compared to Tidal app.So for now I guess I'll have to cancel Qobuz again (this time I've been trying it for thee months) and stay with Tidal mqa.