09-27-2019, 01:38 PM
MQA is a patented, proprietary system with a restrictive license and required fees that have to be paid to use it. There are no implementations of MQA in Open Source audio players because it's illegal to do so. The purpose of the MQA system is to extract revenue from the recording, distribution and playback of music. It has nothing to do with quality because the format uses lossy compression.
The success of proprietary systems like MQA depends entirely on whether major companies in the music and audio electronics industry adopt the system and force it on consumers. This would require them to pay the MQA patent holder the required annual licensing fees, and yes, these fees would be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. It's the listener that pays for systems like MQA.
Thankfully, Amazon adopted Open Source FLAC (100% lossless) for their HD Music service. This would appear to be a death sentence for MQA. There is simply no need anymore for any company to adopt it.
The success of proprietary systems like MQA depends entirely on whether major companies in the music and audio electronics industry adopt the system and force it on consumers. This would require them to pay the MQA patent holder the required annual licensing fees, and yes, these fees would be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. It's the listener that pays for systems like MQA.
Thankfully, Amazon adopted Open Source FLAC (100% lossless) for their HD Music service. This would appear to be a death sentence for MQA. There is simply no need anymore for any company to adopt it.
