I published music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

A deep dive into MQA, and its problems.
Testing starts at 5:45

Further reading on MQA:

References in MQA's response:

[2] 'The Gentle Art of Dithering', JAES Volume 67 Issue 5 pp. 278-299; May 2019.

0:00 - Intro
1:15 - Summary of topics
1:47 - Pre-video clarifications
3:44 - What is MQA?
5:41 - How I got test files encoded in MQA
6:57 - MQA 44.1khz vs Native 44.1khz
8:14 - MQA HiRes vs Native 88.2khz
11:11 - Reduced Dynamic Range
11:47 - Does unfolding work? (Many MQA releases are just upsampled 44.1khz)
12:41 - No Lossless on tidal if track is MQA
13:47 - MQA "Authentication" means nothing
14:30 - MQA Upsampling filter is leaky
15:33 - Filter attenuation analysis
16:54 - HiRes unfolding analysis
18:53 - Full decode analysis
19:54 - Conclusion
21:19 - My Opinion, and testing cables
25:46 - Why are manufacturers supporting MQA?
27:13 - Best way to play MQA files
27:44 - ifi GTO filter is MQA
28:56 - MQA's response
37:02 - Credits/Thank you

The GoldenSound youtube channel, and all content is created and owned by GoldenSound LTD

[ZReviews]

I am ZeosPantera and I approve this message.

[dt]

And you were right. MQA bankrupt and Tidal switched to FLAC. Excellent.

[totalsonic]

As a mastering engineer, the essential thing to me is that FLAC can represent the data absolutely exactly as I have set it for the master, in a format that is about 65% the file size compared to the uncompressed PCM, and is taggable, streamable, multi-channel ready and capable of being fully hi-res - AND open source and license free. And I have been able to prove to myself numerous times via conversion round trips and null tests that it is truly lossless in its encoding/decoding. With MQA - it's opaque in its process, it is not lossless, and it's encumbered by a license that should in no way be considered acceptable for a "standard".

[lucasntch]

Congratulations on bankrupting MQA in April 2023! You did very well.

[BenjaminCronce]

MQA: We're lossless
Also MQA: Make sure your audio still sounds correct

[jeremy]

Them: "Nothing is wrong with MQA"
Also them: "And that's why we removed your content and banned you."

[tlp]

The only “unfolding” that truly happens is the consumers wallet.

[leowolastname]

I think it's really funny that you made a musical Trojan horse

[yukio]

Probably thanks to this video, the MQA company has filed for bankruptcy. Hooray!

[juliansedor]

Of course MQA is lossless! They're giving you MORE noise, you aren't losing any!

[DMSTV]

Brilliant and thorough detective work.

[CarstenFuehrmann]

You just saved me from the folly of keeping my top-tier Tidal subscription.

[ambreiaju]

MQA stands for Medium Quality Audio...

[fvandenpoel]

Your research confirms the 6moons mqa industry feature from May 2017: MQA does not want anyone to be able to do a QC. The fact that your encodes were removed from Tidal, the fact that the encoder checks for test signals and does not allow those signals to be encoded, ... The HighResAudio Press Release also mentioned that no analysis tools are available to verify the encoded MQA content. Therefore no quality control is possible, and now already three sources have confirmed this in public.

This is one of the best video's on the subject and thanks for mentioning our truncation experiments.

[Some-guy-on-the-internet]

Any company that takes measures to shut down their critics out of fear over being criticized doesn't deserve my money. I was already skeptical of MQA before seeing this video, and now that I have watched it, I know for sure that I'll never use MQA, ever.

[CommendableJournal]

I'm glad that this is the first thing that appears when I search for Mqa on YouTube.

[Loonistrator]

Gee, their response makes them look an awful lot like snake oil peddlers.

[pdxsnap]

You sir are a hero. Thx for taking the considerable time and effort to simply provide facts. Lies are too easy to fabricate, hard work like this to expose them is very welcome.

[ChristyOFaghan]

this is investigative journalism, and deserves a lot more attention

[metal]

Not sure if you saw yet Golden, but you're linked on the MQA Wikipedia entry now. Nice.