Well said David. I couldn’t agree more. One of the other Foums (Reddit) that I frequent is very abrasive and if your ideas dont conform to the give mind then we betide you. You’ll get jumped upon. It’s not that conducive to differing viewpoints. Long may Headphones.com carry on forging a path for honest and polite debate.
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Please don’t he was only teasing. Everyone’s opinion is of value.
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Amen.
Saw someone mention earlier that Apple Music offers a higher quality music stream. Can anyone confirm this?
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Thank you. While I re-read my post, I could understand how my tone, which was intended to be light hearted, might have been construed as snarky, I don’t think that as a whole it is problematical (the word weenie in me is chiding me for using problematical here).
My point was really that while you are entitled to your opinions, there are a few things here that can be objectively fact checked. The MQA algorithm is one of them.
There are many other things on the forum that are properly and solely in the realm of opinion, and I’d never dismiss anyone’s contention that, for example, Koss Porta Pros represent the best cost/benefit ratio of any audio device reviewed on this forum. ( Which arguably they do.)
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There is a fair bit of inaccurate information in this thread … which is excusable given the largely black-box nature of MQA, but still a bit surprising when people are making un-caveated statements about it.
MQA is not guaranteed to be lossless.
It can be, situationally, at lower bit-rates and for certain bit-depths, but it does not encode the full spectrum of data that it is fed in a fully recoverable manner.
It does not encode the same data, with the same fidelity, as simple, native, PCM above 96 kHz, and will, without a full MQA chain, fail to deliver bit-perfect source fidelity even at 16/44.1 kHz unless the source material has less than 13-bits of dynamic range (even then there is modulation in the 2 or 3 LSBs that, while probably not audible, is not bit-perfect to the source).
You can’t get back to the original input file data after running it through an MQA encoder.
A 24/192 file from Qobuz will contain more actual musical data than a 24/192 or 24/384 kHz file post MQA decoding. Though since there is precious little of interest above 10 kHz anyway, this doesn’t tend to matter very much. However, it DOES avoid the MQA reconstruction filters which, so far, and for me at least, don’t seem to do music any favors (when Mytek were applying those filters to non-MQA content in their early iterations of the Brooklyn it was causing audible and measurable distortion).
However, MQA isn’t lossy in the same sense that psycho-acoustic/perceptual encoding schemes (AAC, MP3, Vorbis etc.) are.
MQA can, situationally, sound better than raw PCM.
Sometimes this is down to the masters used for MQA vs. other releases (though those same masters would sound as good encoded in simple PCM). Sometimes it is down to some apparent dynamic-range compression. If you’re not familiar with the effect (which is a major part of the reason for the loudness wars) try using a dynamic compressor on your own raw PCM files. It’ll generally result in more audible low-level detail (as the process of dynamic-range compression necessarily lifts the levels of the quietest sounds relative to the loudest) and a punchier sound.
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I definitely think there’s been too much hype and marketing put into the whole MQA saga. It’s very confusing if you don’t research thoroughly what it’s all about. Each to their own though. Thanks for putting out the relevant info for the less informed like me.
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Hey guys put together a quick video for a new series I launched on my YouTube Favorite Content Fridays, first one is on AmazonMusicHD and some new features they have added and some stuff they are working on! I still use Qobuz and love them!!! AmazonMusicHD is fun too, I hope you enjoy it!!!
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I dont think we get the amazonHD in Canada yet… at least I cant find it offered.
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That’s a bummer do you have Qobuz or Tidal @perogie ?
I had TIDAL and Qobuz for about a year and now only Qobuz. The European bias in the library means I can find a lot of classical and jazz not on TIDAL, but also that seems to be expanding now. MQA seems kind of pointless when you can listen to uncompressed hi-rez on Qobuz. (I don’t use my phone as a music server anymore, so there, too, MQA does me no good).
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I got Tidal, Qobuz aint available up here either.
Im not a fan of Tidal really. Poor classical selection (why Im probably gonna subscribe to Primephonic or Idagio) and their curation isnt great. Plus overly expensive for what you get. So Tidal is mainly for music discovery but I’ll probably switch to Spotify for that as I can get more for less with them - plus they can create a child friendly account (no explicit content) which Tidal wont do. I’ll at least try the free trial and see what the music quality is like.
I imagine amazon will eventually take over given the resources they have so I wouldnt mind at least having access to the HD possibilities but we have different copyright laws and regulations up here that makes digital content sometimes slow to get to us. I still get regional restrictions to purchase and download high res albums from some sites in the US!
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I’m not a fan of Tidal either, crazy you don’t have other options up there.
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I have used Tidal since 2018. Tidal is quite awesome for rap fan cuz it has extra content like interviews and music vids and expansive liner notes. Now I prefer to use my AudFree Tidal Downloader to download all I need from Tidal. The Tidal audio downloads are available to transfer to my car and my antique MP3 player for offline playback.
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The expanded liner notes are pretty cool.
The added ‘animations’ are fun too. Dr. Dre bobbing his head on “The Chronic” is fun.
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They do have hip hop/rap/R&B very front and centre. I grew up and did university listening to a lot of it but Ive drifted away to other genres. Still spin Outkast, Goodie Mob, Tribe and the like on occasion.
I had Tidal and Qobuz each for about a year. I dropped Tidal and just have Qobuz now. It’s cheaper for much higher quality. And better/deeper catalog of jazz and classical stuff.
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I have both Tidal and Qobuz as well. Still trying to decide. If I had to choose today, it would be Qobuz. I will give it a few more months and decide. But I do have a military discount to Tidal, so it is a lot cheaper - somewhat of an advantage, but SQ and catalog depth is the decider. I also don’t appreciate having to wade through the hip-hop on Tidal to find my favorite genres: jazz and classical.
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Didn’t read the whole thread but anyone have a preference for Apple?
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I use Apple Music as my ‘Spotify’ for curation and ease of use (Mac, iPhone, iPad, CarPlay). For higher quality I currently use Tidal, but I may try Qobuz in the future.
The selection is very good, and the quality is fine for casual and on the go listening.
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If I could get Qobuz in Canada Id be there but its not available yet. I get my classical from Primephonic and accept whatever Tidal has for now.
The wife uses Apple for her needs, she likes her music but she’s more of a concert type than headphone audiophile so Covid meant many cancelled concerts for her. I havent used Apple for music in a while now.
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