Tim,
I think you partially misread the article you are linking, perhaps due to the provocative commercial email . No where in the linked article I can read such comment and endorsement and I can not give it the same interpretation you did. To be fair I think HP would be happy to see his magazine is an open area where people can debate audio ideas and concepts.
BTW, I have no opinion on MQA - currently I have no interest in the format. But I find RH sentence
"Absent a deeper understanding of what’s important and what isn’t in digital audio, file size became a proxy for resolution. " worth the whole article and much more challenging.
And yes, MQA ranks with cables and power conditioners in the list of explosive subjects of audio!
Micro as Mike pointed out Tidal with MQA is proving to be sounding not as good as Qobuz running without MQA. So depending on how that streaming skirmish pans out maybe native hi res streaming may just be an easier fit to the flow of the music streaming future.
Unlike the MQA tech traditional tweaks like power conditioners and hi-end cables have been around like forever (to quote my audio happy nephew) and seem well and truly embedded tricks of the trade going forwards in our audio world. MQA may be lucky to be an even remembered moment less than a decade after its inception given the way it has seemingly fallen off the audio hi-vis agenda lately. Dolby me no betacams I say.
Not that MQA tracks are that bad or anything (I’m happy that music now confidently sails over the fundamental sonic barriers in streaming these days and musical freedom easily trumps sonic anxieties) but given that a less can be more processing approach can be a good one then simply just going full native could just be the easier, more natural and better answer to the resolution needs of the future.
So perhaps just native hi-res will win out now that improved bandwidth has made hi-res delivery possible and also at the other end of the scale we have upscalers like the mscaler that have lifted red book performance so very far already so that MQA may just prove an unnecessary niche in the workings of a current and future hi-res music delivery system.
Also I’m not sure about the whole democratisation angle in Robert Harley’s stance on MQA at any rate as for me any additional licensed system in music access seems to add a layer of control and ownership in the system rather than imbuing any additional freedom or empowerment.
Explosive power conditioners are however confidently a way of the audio future along with all the raging enflamed dangers of burying treated kitty litter into pine boxes and the forever flaming marvels of tipping snake oil over our hi-end cables to make the sound shine ever more brightly and warmly. The more traditional and enduring tweaks will likely (and perhaps more deservedly) be a part of the continued wild fire of debate on the audio horizon.
MQA is just more likely to be a rather short lived wet match going out perhaps more with a whimper than any bang regardless of the attempts to create a bit of noise to lift (or salvage) MQA and its profile. Realistically the noise is just being made in just one small office in one small corner of a decreasingly powerful and increasingly less influential and more commercially endangered audiophile press. So when does journalism become overtly little more than PR. If everyone mostly considers it more just entertainment rather than seriously explorative and expositional why bother having any serious hi end editorial space. As Tim (who clearly comes at this with higher journalistic intention) is an example of someone in the industry who understands the core importance of preserving proper editorial intent and content.
I’m not sure the usual inflated writing suspects who have so overtly embraced the more commercial aspects of audio media as the fundamental agenda and through their hubris and poor theatre are no longer influencing anything much these days (let alone very much shaping the future). Mostly these days they are handily providing show coverage and some helpful product release info so it is useful but just can it be more?
