I've heard it on an mqa-equipped DAC in my system and compared it, and it's kind of obvious how I feel about it (given my avatar). Is it different? Yes. Is it better? Well...it's different.
I think what really p#sses a lot of us high-end consumers off is how rags like Stereophile (and especially John Atkinson) have stooped to the level of gaslighting for mqa, even going so far as to insult the entire portion of the Internet who does not agree with him. It's not that they're just *mentioning* mqa, they're hammering it at us hard and fast. And they are not the only ones. The audiophile press are genuinely in disbelief as to why us clueless consumers don't see that mqa is the Greatest Audiophile Thing Ever.
As for the consumers? We just want to know what the press's agenda is. Also, the failure of the mqa folks to appear at a panel at RMAF is telling. And has anyone tried to read the technobabble nonsense in mqa's white papers? Incomprehensible. Give us the clean, no-BS version. And other than highly controlled tests personally hovered over by bob stuart, with masters of unknown origin, has there ever been a truly fair and honest comparison? Not that I know of.
The industry never learned from the failure of HDCD; this is just round two. We have sufficient broadband to stream lossless at a full 24-bit, 96kHz, and with Qobuz on the horizon in the US and Tidal in continual financial distress, there really is no guarantee mqa will be around for streaming in a year or two from now.
Short version? It is the answer to a question nobody asked.
You can guess my vote in this poll...
I think what really p#sses a lot of us high-end consumers off is how rags like Stereophile (and especially John Atkinson) have stooped to the level of gaslighting for mqa, even going so far as to insult the entire portion of the Internet who does not agree with him. It's not that they're just *mentioning* mqa, they're hammering it at us hard and fast. And they are not the only ones. The audiophile press are genuinely in disbelief as to why us clueless consumers don't see that mqa is the Greatest Audiophile Thing Ever.
As for the consumers? We just want to know what the press's agenda is. Also, the failure of the mqa folks to appear at a panel at RMAF is telling. And has anyone tried to read the technobabble nonsense in mqa's white papers? Incomprehensible. Give us the clean, no-BS version. And other than highly controlled tests personally hovered over by bob stuart, with masters of unknown origin, has there ever been a truly fair and honest comparison? Not that I know of.
The industry never learned from the failure of HDCD; this is just round two. We have sufficient broadband to stream lossless at a full 24-bit, 96kHz, and with Qobuz on the horizon in the US and Tidal in continual financial distress, there really is no guarantee mqa will be around for streaming in a year or two from now.
Short version? It is the answer to a question nobody asked.
You can guess my vote in this poll...