MQA now on Tidal
- Thread starter Mike
- Start date
Jack,
To close the loop, after I drove myself crazy trying to connect my pc to my MSB dac, it was never going to happen until Tidal finally added the MSB dac to their list of supported DACs. Once I updated Tidal today, the MSB connected with no issue. F'ing Tidal
I don't even listen to the MQA for now as I've gone back to enjoying listening to the music that I want to listen to on HiFi Tidal.....back to being a happy camper, but the MQA excursion was fun and maybe down the road Tidal will MQA their entire list of titles.....then I would surely go back to listening to Tidal/ MQA.
still-one
Active member
Jack,
To close the loop, after I drove myself crazy trying to connect my pc to my MSB dac, it was never going to happen until Tidal finally added the MSB dac to their list of supported DACs. Once I updated Tidal today, the MSB connected with no issue. F'ing Tidal
I don't even listen to the MQA for now as I've gone back to enjoying listening to the music that I want to listen to on HiFi Tidal.....back to being a happy camper, but the MQA excursion was fun and maybe down the road Tidal will MQA their entire list of titles.....then I would surely go back to listening to Tidal/ MQA.
I don't understand your passing on the option of playing MQA versus standard CD quality when you have the option. I would never restrict my listening to MQA or Hi Rez audio as the selection is way too limiting. That said I have identified the MQA version of a number of albums I will play when I have a choice between the two. Maybe because Tidal is so integrated into Sooloos once I have tagged a file or added a track to a playlist it is no different from choosing any other music from my iPad app.
Jim, I don't have an "option" for MQA on the music that I want to listen to. None of the may 20-30 albums that I normally listen to not to mention 2-3 new albums that I seem to run into every week, which are also not available via MQA, leaves me back at the HiFi option. Of course if the music that I wanted to listen to was MQA'd I would surely listen to it via MQA, but it's not.
still-one
Active member
Now, I understand.
I know there are lot's of good albums in the Masters list and even the "others" that don't happen to be listed. I do on occasion listen to something from the MQA offering and yes, it sound great, but before long I am back to listening to the music that I really like and even though it doesn't have the same SQ that the MQA has, it still sounds VERY GOOD as I have optimized my system to get the most out of HiFi Tidal. Most importantly and the reason I default to the HiFi titles is that overall my musical listening experience is much more enjoyable for me listening to the stuff that I happen to be digging right now.
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Are the albums you really like to listen to available in high resolution downloads or do you prefer to only stream your music?
Hi Randy, The majority of what I like to listen to is NOT available with Hi res downloads. Even it if was I've been hooked on streaming Tidal for at least a year now. I've NEVER enjoyed my daily listening experience as much since I started to stream Tidal....it just works for me. I have LOT'S of GREAT vinyl, R2R and a bunch of DSD (native and non-native) and for whatever reason I NEVER have a desire to play any of them. I love picking up my Ipad picking an album, listen to a few tracks, on to the next album, a few tracks and on and on......for hours. It's really just the personal way that I like to listen, nothing more to it than that.
I do listen to albums straight through the entire album on Tidal if it is one of the albums that I know and love. Playing a few tracks works for me when researching new music to add to the music that I love and listen to regularly.
radioactive
New member
Re: MQA on Tidal
I guess it depends on whom you ask.
In the early releases of this track, it wasn't noticeable. On later remasters it started coming out and becoming more audible. I can't hear it in the Vinyl releases - and I've heard several. The recording engineer that did the current remaster that is the HDTracks 24/96 version, as I recall, stated that it was a conscious choice to leave it be and not try to remove it because it would have been too disruptive. Maybe some new tech has come out recently that enabled them to remove it without such harm to the track? Perhaps Bob Stuart himself took it as a challenge and wanted to "fix it", I haven't the slightest idea. I can say that it's almost as if they went with one of the earlier recordings and converted that to MQA since those weren't "cleaned up" and the squeak wasn't really a nuisance.
If you haven't heard it, the squeak comes at a fraction of a second before he hits the bass drum (every time he mashes that pedal with his foot). I just wish he had oiled the damn thing!. Little did he know it would be the source of countless discussions once this famous song became remastered.
I guess it depends on whom you ask.
In the early releases of this track, it wasn't noticeable. On later remasters it started coming out and becoming more audible. I can't hear it in the Vinyl releases - and I've heard several. The recording engineer that did the current remaster that is the HDTracks 24/96 version, as I recall, stated that it was a conscious choice to leave it be and not try to remove it because it would have been too disruptive. Maybe some new tech has come out recently that enabled them to remove it without such harm to the track? Perhaps Bob Stuart himself took it as a challenge and wanted to "fix it", I haven't the slightest idea. I can say that it's almost as if they went with one of the earlier recordings and converted that to MQA since those weren't "cleaned up" and the squeak wasn't really a nuisance.
If you haven't heard it, the squeak comes at a fraction of a second before he hits the bass drum (every time he mashes that pedal with his foot). I just wish he had oiled the damn thing!. Little did he know it would be the source of countless discussions once this famous song became remastered.
radioactive
New member
Very interesting. You said you've managed to optimize your system for Tidal playback. I know it may be a bit off topic (we can start a new thread on Tidal Optimization Techniques or something like that), but I think a lot of us could use to pool our experience in getting the most out of Tidal. I suppose some of this may be dependent on gear (like if you're using the Sooloos or the Lumin Player), but for PC Playback with USB Driven DAC there are a lot of settings and knobs to adjust. Care to share?
I have my Aurender N10 or W20, my MSB Select II DAC, which I am also using as a preamp, into either Vitus or Goldmund amps. I have 10 sets of speakers to choose depending on my mood or what's going on at my studio. All of the pc's, cabling, Entreq grounding and room/system tweeks, have been tuned and selected so that the Tidal streaming sounds just the way I like it.
Most importantly for me is the speakers and their interaction with the room, Jim Smith taught me that in 2000. I have MANY room treatments and tweeks that have all been adjusted and tuned with Tidal streaming in mind.
If I change or add one power cord or one tweek then I usually have to make sure every other variable in my overall recipe is retuned or adjusted to make the final result optimized for my liking and that happens to be for streaming Tidal.
Of course when you play vinyl, MQA, R2R, cd's or DSD they all sound great as well and sonically they ALL have a better SQ level than the Tidal streaming. The kicker is that I have Tidal streaming 16/44.1 up to the magic level for me personally and I get to use the interface that I prefer and being able to enjoy all of the benefits of streaming which for me heightens my overall musical listening experience to a MUCH higher level as playing any of the other available formats.
radioactive
New member
I think a lot of people would jump on your wagon if they believed that Tidal was going to be around in 5-7 years (or longer even). I enjoy Tidal. It was Roon that really got me into trying it out. Love both. I'll just enjoy it while it lasts, which hopefully will be a while. MQA is a bonus and I'll probably be upgrading my DAC in the next year or so anyway. Might as well see how MQA fits into that when I do.
Yep, me too, I enjoy it now and have a hard time believing that even if it's not Tidal that there will not be some other form of streaming MQA files with MQA DACs. It's too good and too easy for it to be abandoned imho.
Although if it all ever goes away I am sure that there will be somebody streaming at least 16/44.1 and I'm happy with that as well.
RDSChicago
Member
Streaming is here to stay. I would bet in 10 years that nobody will have any of the own music files anymore.
Agreed. And now that we've come this far with Tidal and MQA streaming, even the SW unfolding, I can't see MQA which is ideal for streaming going away either. If it's not Tidal someone else will be doing it.
radioactive
New member
You make a good point about simply software unfolded music. In the US, I can't think of any mainstream place where you can get 24Bit, hi-resolution audio streamed to your DAC. Europe has Qobuz but I'm unsure if they stream hi-rez. Even if MQA is not the end-goal, getting hi-rez streamed from a mainstream provider with lots of titles is a first, and pretty cool at that.
justubes
Member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2014
- Messages
- 76
Hi Rhapsody,
Owning the both the Aurender N10 and W20 streaming Tidal, can you say there is a good improvement of the W20 over the N10 doing Tidal Streams?
I too have Tidal setup carefully and tweaked till i no longer really have a desire for CD playing the same tracks.
Hi Justubes,
Not trying to be evasive but sonically both the N10 and W20 work great for me streaming Tidal. I could live with either one and not think about the other. The W20 with the battery, the enhanced storage and connections to DCS make a difference for certain users but like I said for streaming Tidal I'm fine with either one, they both sound great to me.
RDSChicago
Member
Hi Rhapsody,
i now do 99% of my listening via Tidal. I don't have an MQA DAC. My DACs do not include built-in native Tidal. I am using a Mac laptop via USB. In one of my systems I use a Wyred4Sound Recovery. Is there something else I should be using in my system, such as a dedicated streamer, that would improve/optimize the sound or should I leave well enough alone? Most servers emphasize storage fiist and streaming second which is why, not having music files, I haven't felt the need to purchase a dedicate music server like a Lumin. I don't have expensive USB cables and was wondering if they really make a difference? Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
i now do 99% of my listening via Tidal. I don't have an MQA DAC. My DACs do not include built-in native Tidal. I am using a Mac laptop via USB. In one of my systems I use a Wyred4Sound Recovery. Is there something else I should be using in my system, such as a dedicated streamer, that would improve/optimize the sound or should I leave well enough alone? Most servers emphasize storage fiist and streaming second which is why, not having music files, I haven't felt the need to purchase a dedicate music server like a Lumin. I don't have expensive USB cables and was wondering if they really make a difference? Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
justubes
Member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2014
- Messages
- 76
Thanks for your reply.
I presume you can tailor the sound to an extent using the tweaks and understanding room interactions, as such, you do not find any significant differences with using either the N10 or W20 for tidal.
I am just trying to jump onto the MQA band wagon and it will probably requires quite an investment even if i just go for the N10, as it will be used for streaming Tidal and hope it will not be a waste.
Very much wanting to try MQA now with a addition of a MQA streamer, again, then there does not seem to have any dacs at the moment to play in the league of the N10 or W20.