MQA now on Tidal

Mark,

The $2K Mytek Dac sounds really good too:) Especially HW decoding the MQA/Tidal files. The excellent report that Mike just posted says otherwise, but when Andy brought over his Mytek we both heard a noticeable difference between the SW decoding and the HW decoding.

One clarification is that I did not mean that digital "beats" analog, my meaning was that I enjoy both equally. Up until lately I could never have made that statement as if you put on an LP or tape it usually, even on not so good recordings, was more involving than any digital that I had ever experienced. Since I got the Select, it really changed my perception and it had nothing to do with MQA.

I'm happy, your happy, we're all happy:)
 
mep said:
Um, did I miss something or did this guy never talk about how the comparisons sounded?? His article reminded me of articles written by Amir-full of charts and graphs and technical explanations, but not one damn thing about how something actually sounds.
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I thought the article was VERY interesting, but like I said the results were different that he measured vs. what I and Andy heard regarding the HW and SW decoding of the MQA files.
 
I'm not surprised Bob loves the $90k MSB Select DAC. I heard it playing MQA files at RMAF and it was incredible. I was visiting that room with a large group of guys from the Tampa Audiophile group and we all agreed - best digital we've ever heard.
 
mep said:
Um, did I miss something or did this guy never talk about how the comparisons sounded?? His article reminded me of articles written by Amir-full of charts and graphs and technical explanations, but not one damn thing about how something actually sounds.
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the goal of his blog is to try to dig beneath the surface of technical claims made by others, then clarify, and either support or debunk. Although he will occasionally comment on his sonic impressions (more often in his posts at SH Forums than on his blog), that is not his focus.
 
mep said:
Um, did I miss something or did this guy never talk about how the comparisons sounded?? His article reminded me of articles written by Amir-full of charts and graphs and technical explanations, but not one damn thing about how something actually sounds.
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Silly you Mark, measurements tell you all you need to know. [emoji849]
 
rbbert said:
the goal of his blog is to try to dig beneath the surface of technical claims made by others, then clarify, and either support or debunk. Although he will occasionally comment on his sonic impressions (more often in his posts at SH Forums than on his blog), that is not his focus.
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So we agree that his article is a techno-geek article. Techno-geek articles are fine for those who find them fascinating, but they always leave me cold if they don't try and correlate their beloved measurements to what they hear.
 
Rhapsody said:
I thought the article was VERY interesting, but like I said the results were different that he measured vs. what I and Andy heard regarding the HW and SW decoding of the MQA files.
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This full MQA via Tidal is really an easter egg that the Brooklyn can command such praise coming from a pleasure of your resident Select II dac.
 
justubes said:
This full MQA via Tidal is really an easter egg that the Brooklyn can command such praise coming from a pleasure of your resident Select II dac.
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Yes, the Brooklyn is a real bargain, especially with having the full decoding HW MQA decoding at that price. The Select II is in another league sonically in any formats (MQA, DSD, high res PCM etc) and it should be for the $$$, and I only heard the Brooklyn for a brief time and was focused on the HW MQA sound, which was great. But what I did hear of the Brooklyn with the HW MQA decoding was very good for $2K. No, it was just very good sound period.
 
mep said:
So we agree that his article is a techno-geek article. Techno-geek articles are fine for those who find them fascinating, but they always leave me cold if they don't try and correlate their beloved measurements to what they hear.
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I find measurements useful as a complement to listening, not as a substitute, and most likely I'll be cold in my grave before there are many measurements with good correlation to what I hear. BUT, a big part of that IMHO is that not only do we all hear things differently, we also describe the listening experience differently, thus the limitation with relying only on listening descriptions. I trust nothing about that statement comes a surprise to the educated audiophile.
 
Can anyone explain this to me? I use a Windows laptop attached to my DAC, and in the Tidal desktop app I searched for "Wieniawski" and got no hits at all. When I go to another computer (desktop) and log in to Tidal there, the same search returns multiple hits. Adding one of the albums to "My Music", it then shows up and will play on my laptop...
 
Hmm. To answer at least part of my question, the search function within the desktop Tidal app appears to be much less complete (or helpful) than searching on the Web page. Has anyone else noticed this?
 
rbbert said:
Hmm. To answer at least part of my question, the search function within the desktop Tidal app appears to be much less complete (or helpful) than searching on the Web page. Has anyone else noticed this?
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That's interesting. I would have thought the Tidal ap would be more complete than searching via your web browser. The main reason for my assumption is the Master section does not even show up when accessing Tidal via a web browser, only via the Tidal ap,
 
try a search for a classical composer and/or artist. In most cases I have tried, the Web interface gives many more relevant returns than searching within the app. As I said, if I add them to My Music on the Web interface, they then show up in My Music in the desktop app. This applies even to MQA albums, although as usual you don't know that until you play them in the app.

Tidal's Web page does say an improved search engine is coming very soon. I have sent in a request about the issue I have noticed.
 
Mike said:
I'm not surprised Bob loves the $90k MSB Select DAC. I heard it playing MQA files at RMAF and it was incredible. I was visiting that room with a large group of guys from the Tampa Audiophile group and we all agreed - best digital we've ever heard.
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Given your portfolio of brands Mike, MSB would integrate very nicely. You may wish to reach out to Vince and see if you can add the line. (Something tells me you likely already have! [emoji6])


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La Dolce Vita said:
Given your portfolio of brands Mike, MSB would integrate very nicely. You may wish to reach out to Vince and see if you can add the line. (Something tells me you likely already have! [emoji6])


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Nope. I haven't. Great brand and the Select DAC is fabulous.


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Mike said:
Nope. I haven't. Great brand and the Select DAC is fabulous.


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It's worth reaching out to Vince Galbo. While you have phenomenal dacs already (Berkeley, Lampi, etc) your shop is quickly becoming the destination shop for the creme della creme...


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