I ripped a MQA CD to Sooloos and it plays as MQA 176k. I always add a MQA and bit rate suffixes to the CD title.

Sorry I was being too concise and possibly unclear. My point essentially is that the recording process isn't native MP3, but a high res format. By the time it hits the CD it's WAV. We normally buy lossless in FLAC for bandwidth reasons. So shouldn't we pay more for MP3 for the extra processing.

EDIT: Also FLAC supports metadata so is a better format beyond file size.

And I like your examples of MQA CDs, it kind of emphasizes my point really. Who in their right mind would pay this for a CD? (*see below)

It's why SACD and DVD-A never gained any traction.

The ironic thing in all this, the enhancements that MQA has driven through the M ecosystem like the SE speaker upgrades, and the 8x8 upgrades has meant Redbook has never sounded better on my system. So as an curious bystander in this, I still gain. But I don't like the subscription model and so won't be going down the Tidal route.

Cheers
Greg

(*) To be fair, I bought the Roger Waters Amused to Death remaster on SACD from Japan a while back for a similar price. But the packaging is GORGEOUS and it was a one off buy.

Good to know!

Let's hope prices for the MQA CDs tumble...

I agree; it's crazy that those CDs cost that much.

At present, this doesn't affect me personally as I subscribe to Tidal. However, to me it seems a risky strategy only to rely on a streaming platform as the main outlet for a new format. What if that streaming platform goes under?*

I think there is a real need for reasonably priced MQA downloads/physical media to be made widely available for purchase.




*(As an aside, this is compounded if you happen to be a Roon user - at present this is a bit of a pack of cards in this respect, as only Tidal is fully integrated and none of the other streaming platforms are, including others which have MQA content such as Deezer.)

I tend to take a step back to look at this.

Is it likely that Roon will only ever support Tidal streaming ? No.

Is it likely that labels won't ultimately want $$ from streams and downloads ? No.

I have zero facts to support my answers but I don't worry about the risks. The industry has to get the content to you one way or another or it doesn't exist.

Think how many meetings they must have had to come up with that price and senior management time to agree with the pricing strategy. Of course no artist was involved.
I assume the record companies want to reset the consumer price expectation upwards(since a concert visit is easily >£50 for a known artist) and introducing MQA allows them to do this. Of course I am pleased MQA (in physical format) is becoming more widely available.

Sadly, with the price of CDs as they are, and the vast majority of people probably listening on Apple Music, or Spotify, etc. for little money, I think the chances are very good the record companies will not reset the price expectation of a recording upwards, but setup MQA to fail as a mass-market format. We've seen it all before...

I'm sure even Bob Stuart wouldn't favour that particular strategy, having BTDT with DVD-Audio, but I very much doubt he gets much of a say in how the labels set their prices.

Hi

Looking at the site associated with the Darko article, the MQA CDs in Japan are Yen 3,000/US$27.39, which is about £20.75 according to my calculator. About the cost of some re issued vinyl in Sainsburys.

Anyone know someone in Japan?

Just my thoughts.

Jon

Ah, OK, actually £20 is not so bad, I've been paying around that for Hi-Res downloads for a while now.

I suppose the point I was making is that the CDs cost £20.75 in Japan, £46.87 on Prime in the UK.

A bit of a rip off or to be expected?

Jon

Sadly, both. Rip off Britain...