Not just AKM, ESS chips support MQA as does the RIAA, AS, Stereophile and many others so not an obvious swindle to them. On the other hand, Linn, Shiit, Bryston, reviewers Miska and Archimago easily knew the drawbacks and some went so far as to document it with objective measurements years ago.
This MQA mess is a good thing. An opportunity to find out who is believable and who isn't in the industry. It's good for Tidal because now they can stream hires flac instead of MQA and save bandwidth to boot.
It could be bad for Block the parent company (they make the Square payment processing system) if anyone is paying attention.
Are the online review sites mostly to blame? Hardly, if you are a fan blame yourself for not being able to put things in perspective when reading subjective evaluations if any sense can be made of them to begin with. As an example, here is Robert Shryer's descriptions of what he heard at the Montreal show. Systems from 5k to half a million. You tell me which is which from this useless drivel:
“
fluid, seamless, deep-hued, textured, and layered in air currents—air seemed palpabe in the front of and behind the instruments. The soundstage was vast and seemed microscopically energised with tactile musical information.
the soundstage blew open like a high-resolution hologram, contoured images placed solidly in space. The presentation brimmed with information delivered in a confident, coherent, tactile, effortless, refined manner.
the sound was engaging: rhythmic, real-life organic, texturally refined, with a tonal palette that walked the line almost dead center between natural and sweet.
This system delivered sound so pure and inviting, I felt helplessly compelled to hang on to every detail. It sucked me in as way few systems can.
exhibited liquid momentum, extended dynamics, life-sized images, explicitly rendered vocals, a fascinating sense of the energy of notes being expulsed into the air, and a deep, layered soundstage.
sublime, sweet and sophisticated, with levels of touch, microdynamics, texture, color, veracity, and musical rightness.
The system produced a bulging, tangible, well-sorted, music-charged soundfield filled with luxuriant detail.
organic, sweet, richly textured, and tonally pure, providing luscious, natural vocals and an entrancing sense of easy musicality.
a transparent, tactile presentation with a refined, airy, bouncy, sweet, detailed character. It sounded sumptuous, effortless, and musical.
how coherent the sound seemed within the large soundstage across the whole range of frequencies, low to high. Voices and instruments sounded steady, full, and explicit with a tactile presence.
“
C'mon, man.
