MQA now on Tidal

MRJAZZ said:
If someone wants to see (hear :D) what Tidal MQA can do with their own software feeding a non MQA Dac check out Duke Ellington....Afro Bossa......

Cheers......
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Hah! I just listened to that this afternoon!
 
Is there a way to search only Masters recordings, or to identify Masters recordings in search results?
 
rbbert said:
Is there a way to search only Masters recordings, or to identify Masters recordings in search results?
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I've never found a way in the masters section. I would rather have them put the music in by MQA genre first then allow a search or at least if you do search via the overall search there should be a way to identity what is MQA, I guess it comes with time
 
A small fly in the ointment to consider:

What if Tidal, given its horrendous financial situation, goes under?

Where does that leave MQA?


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Mike said:
A small fly in the ointment to consider:

What if Tidal, given its horrendous financial situation, goes under?

Where does that leave MQA?


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Well, judging by the reaction of many digital audiophiles that have proclaimed MQA as the second coming, even if Tidal goes under, one of the other streaming services will probably pick it up.
 
I don't think TIDAL will go under but I am convinced - almost certain - that it will be acquired. You are very likely to see consolidation in this space. One day Pandora may merge with Spotify etc. Apple may buy TIDAL (albeit a distressed sale given poor financials). But you get the idea... MQA I am convinced stands a chance of becoming an industry standard. Why not? It can be streamed, played through with or without a compliant dac. It's all good. ;-)
 
Hopefully someone else will step in a take over, otherwise, the money spent on MQA hardware is somewhat wasted unless the dac is used, as is, just like any other dac. I hope or believe that we would be able to buy MQA encoded music for our dacs and they'd still be playable on non-MQA hardware.

Mike said:
A small fly in the ointment to consider:

What if Tidal, given its horrendous financial situation, goes under?

Where does that leave MQA?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
Well if MQA dies, all the MQA haters and non-MQA DAC manufacturers will rejoice , they will dance in the streets and write I told you so columns on forums everywhere.

If Tidal fails, someone will pick it up.
 
I am not a MQA haters... quite the opposite. I am in fact someone who tries to take an objective view and play devil's advocate. If a product proves itself to me then I am just as vocal exclaiming their virtues.

If Tidal fails I believe it will be a huge issue or hit for MQA. The streaming, Tidal using audiophiles are exclaiming it's second coming status, as well as they should since it is like comparing Redbook CDs to high resolution.

However, the few head to head comparisons that I have seen done; comparing a MQA file running through a MQA DAC, of reasonable price level such as the Brooklyn or the Explorer 2, against the same album in high resolution download running through a similarly priced non-MQA DAC have preferred the high resolution download. Honestly I have not seen many of these true head to heads done, but every one I have seen have came to this conclusion.

I also totally understand those who have the insanely expensive Meridian unit will fully exclaim the second coming... that is to be expected since obviously they are drinking from the Meridian kool aid... just kidding, just kidding. :D

I also believe that if Tidal does really go down some one will step in and buy them. It is very much a needed and popular service. Everyone had better hope it is not Apple though.... they will bring it into the Apple fold and using other manufactures products will slowly fade away.... I can see an Apple MQA DAC :D.... it will become part of iTunes...

I also believe if Tidal is in as serious shape as you say then Meridian has to be looking elsewhere since streaming really is the only way for MQA to truly make in roads into the audio market.
 
There are rumors that there are actually many more MQA titles on Tidal than just the ones in the "Masters" section. Can anyone with Tidal and a MQA DAC confirm this, and if so list a few albums?
 
I have directly compared MQA with my non-MQA DAC to the same hi-res titles (on Warner Music, so presumably the same masterings). I can't say which I prefer, they are different and both quite listenable. I have to susoect that using a MQA DAC would tip that preference to the MQA file, although as yet I don't know that for sure. I haven't actually read any other well matched comparisons that clearly prefer the traditional hi-res to the MQA, although I agree there are aspects of the traditional hi-res which are preferable to the partially decoded MQA.
 
I'm not home to be able to check, but I wonder if the Tidal desktop app will partially decode the MQA on those. Are they identifed as "Master" on the bottom status bar when they are selected?
 
Rob

They are identified the same as the others once you actually play them it is just the fact that for some of them there are four different versions of the album shown and to find the right one you have to play them all. And then to not have to look for it again save it to favorites or a Masters playlist.
 
Ouch.... not good.... I thought Tidal was popular? Is it very poorly run or is it not really as popular as I thought?
 
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