In Reply to: RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here posted by Jeff Starr on May 5, 2017 at 22:46:32:
"I don't like their business model"Ah, isn't that the rub?
I look back to the almost comically botched launch of Blu-Ray.
When Blu-Ray first came to the market, it had a noticeably better video resolution than DVDs. However, while the discs were priced over twice that of comparable DVDs, the resolution was nowhere near twice that of DVDs.
The problem was that while DVDs and Blu-Ray discs both told the same story, Blu-Ray discs, despite their marginally improved resolution, did not tell the story twice as well as DVD discs did.
This ignores other industry self inflicted shots in the foot such as new discs refusing to run in your three month old player, or discs halting playback while they used your internet connection to download new advertisements for future movies, or by your player throwing up ginormous, screen filling water marks when you paused the playback in order to gape at the dazzling video.
No, I'd say the Blu-Ray contingent pretty much took the trust of the consumer public, wiped its ass with it, and then hung the filthy sheets on a clothesline on the front part of their corner lot for all to see.
The vast majority of the consumer market quickly decided Blu-Ray did not represent value and sidelined the format until players and discs fell to DVD like prices. Of course, by that time, streaming had overtaken if not surpassed purchases of physical discs.
My heart pumps purple prune juice for the proselytizers of Blu-Ray. You reap what you sow. They had a product that provided perhaps a ten percent improvement in quality for the end consumer, but then offered it at twice the price and with a crushing level of additional DRM. Maybe 4K streaming will save their asses, but my bet is that they still find another way to fuck it up.
I fear MQA is on the same trajectory. If not, I'm having trouble seeing how it is not. It appears to offer, on average, a slight improvement in audio quality, although even this is disputed. What is not disputed is that we'll have to re-purchase old tracks (assuming they are even offered) yet again to hear this improvement, as well as another, fancy-ass and expensive DAC in order to decode them.
Am I wrong? If that is the case I'd be more than happy to hear why I am wrong. But before you tear into me, please be specific about where I've colored outside the lines.
JE
Edits: 05/05/17
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here - Jaundiced Ear 23:40:25 05/05/17 (7)
- RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here - ahendler 09:00:02 05/06/17 (0)
- RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here - zacster 02:34:03 05/06/17 (5)
- RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here - Jeff Starr 09:56:28 05/06/17 (4)
- RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here - zacster 15:37:38 05/06/17 (3)
- RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here - Jeff Starr 04:23:40 05/07/17 (2)
- RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here - zacster 16:46:57 05/07/17 (1)
- RE: Whatever happened to MQA? It's still here - Jeff Starr 23:26:16 05/07/17 (0)