MQA now on Tidal

Mike

Mike

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TIDAL Launches New ‘Master’ Audio Feature


New York/London/Las Vegas, 5 January 2017: Global music and entertainment platform, TIDAL, today has announced the availability of ‘Master’ quality recordings. A wide variety of content from labels and artists, including Warner Music Group’s world-renowned music catalogue, is now available in Master audio across all of TIDAL’s available markets worldwide.

TIDAL has integrated MQA, the award-winning technology that enables this innovation, and has offered it to all TIDAL HiFi tier subscribers under a new ‘Master’ listing. Initially available on desktop, a wide range of recordings are already available and the collection will grow rapidly.

“TIDAL is committed to bringing members closer to their favorite musicians and offering MQA sound quality will allow subscribers to hear music just as it was recorded in the studio,” said a TIDAL representative. “We’re thrilled to bring master quality sound to our members.”

Mike Jbara, MQA CEO, said, “TIDAL is an artist-centric music company. We could not be more excited that they share our vision of having fans hear the authentic performance of their favorite music.”

Visit TIDAL.com/Masters to learn more, non-members can sign up for a complimentary 60-day trial.

-Ends-


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Re: MQA on Tidal

Looks like there is NO price increase. Wooo Hoooo!
 
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Re: MQA on Tidal

Looks like I got my Aurender N10 and Meridian 808v6 at the right time! Should have my system up and running by March. Can't wait!!


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Re: MQA on Tidal

Blue Coast Music's response:

Music and Audio for Fine Ears

Midweek News

This week's rebates and discounts can always be found at:
Blue Coast Music Newsletter
http://bluecoastmusic.com/holiday-gift-certificate

Hi friends,

The Gift Certificate program continues through January 31, 2017.
http://bluecoastmusic.com/holiday-gift-certificate
Some of you have mentions smaller and larger certificates... write to us and we will try to accommodate.

Nick Phillips, Jenny Maybee, Jenna Mammina and Rolf Sturm are in New Orleans at the Hyatt participating in the Jazz Education Network Conference. Sounds like an exciting event!
http://nickphillipsmusic.downloadsnow.net/haiku
http://bluecoastrecords.downloadsnow.net/special-event-37

Last week we had a great response about data and costs of uploading changing. Some suggested moving to Tacoma, :) Interesting that many of you suggested we sell MQA downloads because the file size is smaller. Actually, the issues we face were not about our customers downloading music.... it's about uploading multitrack music masters for archiving and storage.

That said if MQA is an interesting topic. We would consider selling MQA downloads if you, our customers presented a viable demand. Truthfully, the folks at MQA haven't made it easy for small labels to get information and rumors run rampant about the cost of licensing the MQA technology. If you have information, let us know.

We sell the original formats as recorded ... and if that's DSD256, all the better. MQA is not a recording format the way DSD is. MQA downloads will never sound as good as what we're already selling.. it might sound different and our customers might like it... but better than the original masters? Not likely. When I can have the technology at the studio to do a proper comparison, I'll report back to everyone.

Brian Moura sent a link to me this morning from computeraudiophile addressing the question... are DSD and MQA vaporware formats?

Here was my response at computeraudiophile....

_The difference as I see it between DSD and MQA are this... DSD is a recording format. MQA is not. Those devoted to DSD recording are probably not soon going to give that up. DSD recording was available long before the downloads were available to consumers. _

_Blue Coast is agnostic when it comes to selling formats of music to customers... we sell what they want to buy... but we're clear when recording that Blue Coast Records uses DSD or analog, no PCM. That's my choice. _

_When we're selling a DSD256 file to a customer from BlueCoastMusic.com or Downloadsnow.net it really is a copy of the master. All other formats are converted from the DSD256 master. Conversions are not perfect copies. The question is... does anyone really care about perfect copies? _

_Based on buying habits of our customers, I would say "no". Most people buy on convenience as to what their DAC is. Still, there are plenty of people who seek the quality of DSD256 even at higher prices. _

_Is there a market for DSD downloads? Right now, yes and it's growing. _

If your company business model is to grow huge and sell off the company, then catalog size matters. Blue Coast is not looking to compete with the biggest catalog of music, just do the best work we can.

We won't be giving up DSD anytime soon. :)

We'd love to know your opinion! Send an email to [email protected]
Enjoy your music!
Cookie Marenco
Founder and Producer
Blue Coast Records
Blue Coast Music Group


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Re: MQA on Tidal

Yes and I thought DSD was originally an archiving format.

Who's on first?


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Re: MQA on Tidal

I am playing the Roberta Flack "Killing Me Softly" album from Tidal thru my Sooloos/808v6. I sounds marvelous. Now looking for the other 160+ titles they added today.
 
Re: MQA on Tidal

I am very surprised at how varied the initial offerings are. There is something for everyone and it will take days for me to choose which ones I might add to my SooLoos library.
 
Re: MQA on Tidal

still-one said:
I am very surprised at how varied the initial offerings are. There is something for everyone and it will take days for me to choose which ones I might add to my SooLoos library.
Click to expand...

How's the SQ vs PCM?


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Re: MQA on Tidal

Odyssey said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't MQA supposed to sound better on a non-MQA DAC than Redbook?
Click to expand...

Not from everything I have read. A MQA file only sounds good when played through one of the few MQA DACs, and sounds not so good when played through a non-MQA DAC. Remember, MQA is a transport system for PCM files, not really a new format. So really designed more for streaming. If streaming and file size is not a big concern then there should be no advantage. Also material originally recorded in DSD or mastered from original tape to DSD should in fact sound better.

However, for a streaming service such as Tidal, with a MQA DAC you should get better sound because higher resolution PCM files can be streamed without bandwidth issues.
 
Re: MQA on Tidal

Mike said:
How's the SQ vs PCM?


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Click to expand...

MQA is a transport system for PCM files. Other than their claims of optomizing for DAC used in recording it should not sound different than the original PCM file. If it does :doubtful:.... the real advantage is being able to stream high res files without the band width issues.

I talked for quite some time with David Elias, one of the first artist to embrace MQA. He stated in no uncertain terms that his original DSD recordings sound better, but MQA is fantastic for streaming and portable use...
 
Re: MQA on Tidal

Today is the day page has turned for the better in digital. IMHO this is a game changer for people who enjoy music. Without a cost increase we now have potentially and hopefully thousands more MQA titles coming our with Tidal.
 
Re: MQA on Tidal

This all comes down to time domain resolution and lack of distortion. The two main reasons why our brains prefer analog sound. We can thank the pioneers in this industry (Pacific Microsonics ) who paved the way for MQA. We can thank the Meridian team for the hopefully mass adaption of this.

The gap is closing and closing fast. I'm gonna go ahead and say very similar to when high performance cars when with DSG Transmissions and movie studios by far adopted digital cameras and playback. In other words, the newer technology has closed the gap between old and new.

This is a good day to be an audiophile and music lover regardless of what format and technology you prefer.
 
Re: MQA on Tidal

Jim,

Did I say anything negative about MQA... NO... I said it is a transport system for PCM files, which in fact it is... if you enjoy your music through Tidal it is a big deal for you, as I said... if you have one of the few MQA DACs...

If you do not listen to your music through a streaming service, or if you are not dealing with a size constraint like you might be on a portable than it is not a big deal.

Is there anything what so ever that I just said that is untrue or in correct? If so please correct me...
 
Re: MQA on Tidal

I thought MQA made adjustments to the file based on flaws in the recording equipment?


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Re: MQA on Tidal

Mike said:
I thought MQA made adjustments to the file based on flaws in the recording equipment?


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Click to expand...

Again, from my understanding they make adjustments to the files depending on the DAC used for recording... if it is originally recorded as PCM then they assume their adjust is better than the recording engineer... ok debatable which is better, but if it was originally recorded in DSD or tape... according to David, who has done extensive DSD recording, and one of the first artist who fully embraces MQA, the DSD is more analog, better, but at a huge size trade off. MQA allows for high res PCM at smaller easier to stream or carry in a portable sizes.

Again I truly hope it is a big improvement, but it appears to really be a big deal more for Tidal users. Now if they start offering MQA decoding in software, such as Roon, with their Tidal integration then that would be really huge! I might actually even consider subscribing to Tidal :D...

What DACs actually have MQA support? Meridian ultra expensive... cool! Their cheap which seems to be kind of.... cheap... the Brooklyn, which I seriously considered... there are at the least twice that number of companies who have officially stated they will not support... it has to have software support...

Again I am sure there are others companies with support that do not come to mind.
 
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