Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music MQA Rescued

MQA and all its assets has been acquired by Lenbrook - owners of BluOS/NAD.

Excellent news!

Very happy to see that a well-respected and well capitalized audio company like Lenbrook is the buyer.

Good news for us.

Having googled a few of the news bulletins I am somewhat hopeful that the Tidal MAX nonsense will be resolved.

This is great news!
I wonder what Tidal will do now?

What Tidal do is the million dollar question. They are basically the only source of MQA music (unless Lenbrook start doing deals elsewhere). They probably need to shut down the trolls constantly bang into on about how evil it is also, if it isn’t going to suffer the same fate in their hands.

I have no dog in the fight, as I’m liberal-minded enough to be happy to see grown men make their own decisions about how they spend their money, but from a marketing and PR point of view, I’d suggest that Lenbrook really should not aim to ‘shut down’ opposition but rather to engage honestly.

From what I can observe, we are where we are as a direct result of the perceived lack of candour and rather aggressive gaslighting that the last lot indulged in. Getting into a war of words with those whom we call the rivet counters in the classic car world over unsubstantiable claims was just plain stupid.

If that is what the lack of take-up is being blamed on, that is quite the achievement when one considers the absurdly high levels of tolerance for magic beans that the audiophile community has in general.

My perception has been the exact opposite - a vitriolic witch-hunt by a small, but extremely vocal online, minority opposed to either:

a) the idea that anything should be copy protected and that ideas and artists should be compensated
b) the entire concept of either hi-res, or that DAC filters make a difference

The attacks were way out of proportion to any of the claims MQA made, or any perceived downsides, and were really nothing more than endless, incessant trolling which went unmoderated on particular forums whose owners or moderators tacitly shared those views.

Certain manufacturers who had a vested interest in preserving their own proprietary DAC tech definitely played into this, which didn’t help.

Good luck to Lenbrook. Sincerely.

I agree with you 3dit0r.
Some folks even used it as a way to build an audience and a business. Just like people spread other misinformation online to get an audience and earn money.

Which "certain manufacturers"? I missed that part.

Hi all

I really don't wish to stoke the flames but also being liberally minded, I don't see why there is so much negative feeling about MQA. It isn't been forced on anybody, its the end users choice surely? I guess we would have had the same issues over the Beatles moving from mono to stereo LPs if there had been the forums around at the time. I do remember a lot of negativity around the introduction of CDs back in the 1980's, some of it justified but later addressed by remastering in the 2000's. I listened to Ella Fitzgerald on a pair of DSP7200's at Meridian on a dealers day out (thanks Rick) and it blew me away in terms of presentation and clarity, this is a recording from the 1950's.

I look forward to a time when I can afford to upgrade my system to play MQA properly (any contributions gratefully received!)

Cheers

Jon

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