This format looks like trouble and I am not optimistic about it. In fact it looks to be absolutely terrible.
Have any of the naysayers heard MQA yet?
Two years they have been marketing this god's gift to man and still I haven't.
I'm not ready to throw my perfectly fine DAC in the garbage to upgrade to this amazing new LOSSY format that is a hair away from full on DRM.
With the inconveniences that come with the format I may never hear it.
MQA is an impressive new file format that squeezes superior sound into less space.
No one cares about the space. Surely if someone can afford to re-purchase their music and equipment for this format, they can afford a little extra space and bandwidth.
I'm not too concerned about storage space with my 6TB hard drives and 200GB sd cards.
We may never settle the MQA debate
It will be settled as soon as some users can EASILY listen to some tracks. Oh, maybe it won't get settled.
They are adding mqa support to phones now too, with claims of "astonishing" sound quality.
On a phone. Probably with a 3 dollar DAC inside.
With mqa you get to hear master quality without having access to master quality files.
A Media Conglomerate's ideal situation to milk more profit. No wonder they are jumping on board.
If consumers could buy full quality music what else could they sell for the next hundred years they own the copyright.
Money for everyone (likely not the artists) at every link in the chain. JRiver should capitalize on this and charge monthly fee for mqa playback.
(or don't, and hold on to your credibility)
Why not re-master with mqa's amazing new technique then release the files in any of the current lossless formats?
I will probably never have a chance to play mqa because of geo restrictions anyway.
My prediction: MQA will invade phones, DAC's, and software then start adding restrictions not currently talked about. ie DRM.
I wonder if Apple will start using it before or after this happens?
