<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Hi Ian,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Just to reiterate, Thomas is 100% right in my opinion, needlessly crushing music is by FAR the #1 item that needs to be fixed for better sound, nothing else matters when you start with unsatisfying music. However, assuming you’ve got great sounding music, then all the rest comes in to play!<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The TIDAL MQA material isn’t officially launched yet, but Bob Stuart said there are people who know the URL that would get one to the beta site.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I don’t know how much you know about MQA, but it is several “things” under one MQA name. It is an audio de-blur algorithm, it is a “folding” or <u class="">data</u> compressing algorithm folding 384 kHz or less into either a 44.1kHz or 48kHz/24 bit file (which can be streamed at 1 - 1.3MB/sec) and it is a digital copy protection scheme where theoretically you could make a one-off DAC that is coded to your converter and only people with the same converter could hear the music!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">As far as MQA examples go, without an MQA DAC you can’t hear the whole thing, but one could hear some of the results of the de-blur process using a normal converter. I’m trying to see if I can find you a before and after example. I’ll get back to you.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In the mean time, you can check out Morten Lindberg's 2L label “test bench”. Even though he is recording at 352.8kHz, Morten still finds the MQA to create a superior sound.</div><div class="">It’s a mind blower to see a 44.1kHz/24 bit file feed the MQA converter and the resulting FFT goes right out to 176.4kHz!!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html?" class="">http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html?</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best,</div><div class="">Bob</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On May 8, 2016, at 6:20 PM, Ian Shepherd <<a href="mailto:ian@mastering-media.co.uk" class="">ian@mastering-media.co.uk</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div>Bob L,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Can you recommend a release that really highlights the benefits of MQA ? Is there a way to tell which files on TIDAL are encoded with MQA ? And is there a converter you’d recommend ? </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Although I’m afraid Thomas may well be right, I’m curious to give it a try.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Ian</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 8 May 2016, at 14:27, Bob Katz <<a href="mailto:bobkatz@digido.com" class="">bobkatz@digido.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" http-equiv="Content-Type" class="">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" class=""><p class="">Guys: <br class="">
</p><p class=""><br class="">
</p><p class="">It's a good thing I buy my music either on CD or from HD tracks
or similar vendors. I only buy the AAC from the iTunes store when
one of my clients wants me to reference a CD that I don't have and
I have to listen to it "now". If then I like that music, then I go
out and buy it, usually on CD. Amazon has become my major vendor,
I pity the brick and mortar stores, though Best Buy seems to be
hanging on, they don't have the CD collection I can get online
from Amazon. I can then transfer the CD into iTunes and use on my
iPhone if I like. <br class="">
</p><p class="">For my highest-sonic-quality personal entertainment on my iPhone
I use an incredible app called HFPlayer from Onkyo..... in
conjunction with an Oppo DAC that connects via Lightning directly
to the iPhone and plays any high res. flac files I have on the
iPhone up to 384 kHz/24 bit (and also plays DSD directly into the
ESS Sabre DAC in the Oppo DAC).... It beats the crap out of the
Astel and Kearn stuff that is so unreliable and uber-expensive. <br class="">
</p><p class="">Bob L., I tried the Astel and Kearn player and got it to crash in
15 minutes, three times before I called it flakey. And their
communication with their dealers and reps is exremely shakey. I do
not like this company. If they wanted to make a dependable music
player, why did they pick the Android operating system?<br class="">
</p><p class="">Also, sorry, Neil Young, this Oppo/iPhone combination beats the
Pono because I can also take phone calls :-(. If I'm jogging or
don't want to carry the DAC, the HF Player will downsample the
high res material so it will work out of the iPhone's regular
headphone jack. <br class="">
</p><p class="">Tip: the Oppo PM-3 headphones are killers! Maybe the most
accurate and impacting headphones you can get and carry with you
to play music. <br class="">
</p><p class="">If you want to salivate about the best portable playback on
earth, in my opinion, read my review of the Oppo pieces and the HF
plyaer: visit
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/katzs-corner-episode-11-oppo-explosion#RiXt3ToxveQ4BMf5.97">http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/katzs-corner-episode-11-oppo-explosion#RiXt3ToxveQ4BMf5.97</a>
These PM-3 headphones have bass that goes down to the center of
the earth, are extremely accurate and tonally neutral.... With a
little of the 64-bit EQ in the HF-player you can get even more
accurate playback.... and the Oppo DAC/headphone amp is clean and
punchy and open.... <br class="">
</p><p class="">I have tons of high res flacs that fit in a 64 GB iPhone. If
Apple lost for me the purchased AAC music that I have from the
iTunes store I'd be pissed, but not that pissed because I just
don't have that much money invested in AAC material I bought from
the iTunes store. It seems to me that music must be in the iPhone
backup that's on my Mac, though, isn't it???? I'm only
semi-attached to the cloud. I use icloud for Notes, Calendar,
etc., but not for music (I think). I share my iTunes library with
a few OSX computers.... maybe that's through iCloud? Yuk....</p><p class=""><br class="">
</p><p class="">Bob K.</p><p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/7/16 2:39 PM, Thomas Lund wrote:<br class="">
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:BAAC7455-B634-4085-9C85-C36CAEC83C3D@lund.one" type="cite" class="">
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Hi Bob,
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">This casual treatment of tracks fits with what I'm
seeing in iTunes. One has to actively disable cloud replacement
time after time so iTunes doesn’t steal your known-good tracks.
From Tidal I’ve heard how record companies require them to carry
only the newest (crappiest) version of a track, and make sure
originals aren’t available.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Compared to such demolishment, I’m afraid MQA is a
sheer marketing detail which is bound to disappoint consumers
just like the myriad of previous attempts at promising “hidef".
24 bit, 16 bit, 14 bit, 12 bit resolution: Doesn’t matter.
Dither or not: Doesn’t matter. Sample rate DSD, 192k, 96, 48,
44.1k: Doesn’t matter. Lossless, 320k, 256k, 128k: Doesn’t
matter. The version of a track/squashing is what generally
matters.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">cheers,</div>
<div class="">Thomas</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
<div class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">On 07/05/2016, at 00.20, Robert Ludwig <<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:gatewaybob@mac.com" class=""></a><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gatewaybob@mac.com">gatewaybob@mac.com</a>> wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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charset=windows-1252" class="">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode:
space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div class=""><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.iphonehacks.com/2016/05/apple-music-isnt-deleting-music-libraries.html" class="">http://www.iphonehacks.com/2016/05/apple-music-isnt-deleting-music-libraries.html</a></div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I think this article explains it pretty
well. It isn’t as horrible as the blog describes, but
it is still taking <u class="">way</u> too much
control for me to ever want to use their service.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">BTW, Tidal has 300 albums with MQA so with
an MQA converter you can hear streaming 96kHz or even
352.8kHz music!</div>
<div class="">MQA is really revolutionary.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Best,</div>
<div class="">Bob L.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<br class="">
<div class="">
<div class="">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" class="">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/6/16 5:01 PM,
Grimm | Eelco wrote:<br class="">
</div>
<div class="">
<pre class="" wrap="">Dear friends,
If this story is true it is unimaginably horrific.
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://blog.vellumatlanta.com/2016/05/04/apple-stole-my-music-no-seriously/">https://blog.vellumatlanta.com/2016/05/04/apple-stole-my-music-no-seriously/</a>
Can anyone please tell me it is not true?
Cheers,
Eelco
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="80"><font face="Courier" class="">
If you want good sound on your album, come to
Bob Katz 407-831-0233 </font><font face="Courier" class="">DIGITAL DOMAIN MASTERING STUDIO
Author: <b class="">Mastering Audio </b></font><font face="Courier" class="">
<a href="http://www.digido.com/" class="">Digital Domain Website</a>
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number
of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.<font color="#ff0000" class="">
<b class="">Please excuse the weird typing - this message dictated by microphone. Contact me by regular email. </b></font></font></pre>
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_______________________________________________<br class="">MLA mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:MLA@grimmaudio.nl" class="">MLA@grimmaudio.nl</a><br class=""><a href="http://grimmaudio.nl/mailman/listinfo/mla_grimmaudio.nl" class="">http://grimmaudio.nl/mailman/listinfo/mla_grimmaudio.nl</a><br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""><div class="">
<div class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;">***</span><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><div style="font-size: 13px;" class="">Ian Shepherd</div><div style="font-size: 13px;" class=""><a href="http://mastering-media.co.uk/" style="color: blue;" class="">Mastering Media Ltd</a> - Audio Mastering, Blu-ray and DVD Excellence</div><div style="font-size: 13px;" class=""><a href="http://twitter.com/ianshepherd" class="">http://twitter.com/ianshepherd</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></span></span></div><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0px;" class="">Mastering Media Ltd,</span></div><font face="Helvetica Neue" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Kemp House, 152 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX</span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-size: inherit; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><div class=""><div class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; font-family: Arial;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;" class="">Registered in England and Wales </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; font-family: Arial;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;" class="">Company No. 073500450</span></div></div><div class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Tel. +44(0)1487 842498</div></span></div></div></span></div></span></span></div>
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