MQA....again.

I wonder about the economics here.  Lenbrook had gone all in on MQA in all of their streamers.  Have they perceived that this gave them a competitive advantage in the market place?  Or did they invest financially in MQA and now that they own it are trying to protect their investment?

  I personally didn’t perceive a consistent sonic advantage to MQA but that isn’t relevant here.  What upset many was their arrogance…we have found the real truth, and will share that with you if you let us have an exclusive headlock on every manufacturer…. And then there was the shameless shilling by the likes of Robert Harley and Steven Stone.  I would love to know if they had a financial stake in MQA

@mahler123 it's difficult not to be cynical about all of this, for the reasons you've alluded to. It seemed to me a cynical attempt, as you say, to "headlock"  hardware manufacturers by puffing up the need/creating a market for a product that was not really solving a problem they claimed, as it didn't exist. Whether MQA sounded better or not is neither here nor there

Another issue I found difficult to swallow the first time around was the claim that MQA files were lifted from original masters, which I found difficult to comprehend/believe (Neil Young certainly wasn't buying it).

Is anyone actually cross shopping a Lenbrook product with a non-Lenbrook product now filled with anxiety for FOMO if they choose a different product? For most who frequent this forum, I would sibmit this isn’t a thing. For those who wish to remain true to the source, that ship sailed when the wax cylinder was introduced, never to return. Recorded sound is a facsimile, one we all enjoy to varying degrees, but a facsimile nonetheless. Enjoy the music in whatever way pleases you.

I thought every audiophile owned a BlueSound product. 🤪

only a very small portion of my playlists are MQA. I might go through and note which are MQA. So I either find it in a different format or on Qobuz or I just won’t listen. I’m wondering if MQA was so hot because it gave us the abuility to listen to very High Rez on a lower bandwidth. Now internet services are so fast at home and on my portable products it really doesn’t matter. Also, Maybe this is why Tidal lowered their prices so they don’t lose every single customer. I man all of them. 
Im sure we will all survive. 

Friendly reminder facts 

1. The native sample and bit rate of the mastering session is the best quality that any product could ever be
 

2. MQA is sonically distorted and lossy.  Might be subjectively preferable distortion or might not, but it's definitely distorted.

3. MQA is not master quality. (See 1.)  MQA is not authenticated. It's almost always bulk processed.