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Why Can't The Audio Magazines Do This?

There is a post on the Super Best Audio Friends forum where someone was comparing MQA files to 44/16 files, both streamed by Tidal. She was shocked at how big the difference was and loaded them into Audiacity and found that they came from two completely different masters:

1) The MQA file had 4 to 5 dB greater dynamic range.
2) The MQA file is roughly 6 dB louder (the post shows results with a linear scale, so it is difficult to judge precisely).
3) The MQA file had treble frequencies above 5kHz attenuated by 3dB to 6dB, depending on frequency.

It seems to me that this type of blatantly misleading "comparison" MQA is making available on Tidal should be the subject of a free and open press, rather than just repeating MQA's talking points and taking MQA's advice to simply "listen".

One can easily deduce that Tidal's Redbook files likely came from the CD master, whereas the MQA file likely used the HDTracks 192/24 remaster at:
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=prince&album=prince

One would need to do a spectral analysis on the HDTracks version to know whether the re-EQ was done by Prince (before his death he apparently re-mastered much of his early work), or if MQA performed the re-EQ. In the first case, MQA's deception would be cause for great concern - their files apparently won't sound better if they don't use a better master. In the second case it would be a far more egregious case of deliberate deception by MQA.




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Topic - Why Can't The Audio Magazines Do This? - Charles Hansen 23:06:58 10/6/17 (206)
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