MQA now on Tidal

Berkeley Audio Design is pleased to announce the introduction of MQA Rendering planned for Q2 of 2017 as a field installable upgrade for the Alpha DAC Reference Series 2.

When used with MQA core decoding software such as TIDAL HiFi, Roon, Audirvana, etc. the Alpha DAC Reference Series 2 will provide full MQA decoding while minimizing processing noise within the DAC. This approach results in improved audio quality by splitting the MQA processing overhead between external software and the DAC, resulting in lower noise in the DAC and increased D to A conversion accuracy.

Field installation of the MQA Rendering upgrade will be a simple process of placing the DAC in Update Mode by pushing several front panel buttons while powering the DAC on and then playing a provided 44.1 kHz, 16-bit WAV file that contains the software through any of the DAC’s digital inputs.

Berkeley Audio Design is committed to providing the highest possible quality reproduction of MQA encoded recordings and we feel this approach strongly furthers that commitment.
 
Berkeley Audio Design is pleased to announce the introduction of MQA Rendering planned for Q2 of 2017 as a field installable upgrade for the Alpha DAC Reference Series 2.

When used with MQA core decoding software such as TIDAL HiFi, Roon, Audirvana, etc. the Alpha DAC Reference Series 2 will provide full MQA decoding while minimizing processing noise within the DAC. This approach results in improved audio quality by splitting the MQA processing overhead between external software and the DAC, resulting in lower noise in the DAC and increased D to A conversion accuracy.

Field installation of the MQA Rendering upgrade will be a simple process of placing the DAC in Update Mode by pushing several front panel buttons while powering the DAC on and then playing a provided 44.1 kHz, 16-bit WAV file that contains the software through any of the DAC’s digital inputs.

Berkeley Audio Design is committed to providing the highest possible quality reproduction of MQA encoded recordings and we feel this approach strongly furthers that commitment.

Very cool!


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Maybe my math is wrong, but I'm seeing over 1200 MQA albums on Tidal. Some new, some old. Great mix so far and I'll tell you what, it won't be long before MQA surpasses DSD in terms of volume of titles.
 
Good video Jim. Thanks for sharing. The MQA naysayers are awfully quiet these days. I will be interested to see how those companies who have come out so strongly, publicly, against MQA, deal with things going forward.
 
Mike..where are you seeing '1200 MQA albums' on Tidal.?...I see the 'Masters' albums but am not seeing MQA albums..
 
There is a spreadsheet over at the Roon site, see link below. This has all of the MQA/Masters files, that exist in Tidal. The file is kept up to date by Tidal/Roon users.

If you only look in the "Masters" section in the Tidal desktop app then you only see the 600ish number, but if you look at this spread sheet and then go and find the albums mentioned and search for them, then find the album, which there will probably be 2 or 3 of the same album in the search results, hit play and look at the Masters descriptor on the right bottom of the Tidal app and you will find one of the 2-3 copies is a MQA album.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10VtON9VjMAt3uyHC2-Oo2MjIa3orv9DKZfwiRQKmTAA/htmlview#
 
Good video Jim. Thanks for sharing. The MQA naysayers are awfully quiet these days. I will be interested to see how those companies who have come out so strongly, publicly, against MQA, deal with things going forward.

I have been too busy with reviewing the VPI Avenger table to download Tidal and mess around with MQA. I will get to it in due time. I was curious though if everyone who initially flipped for how great they think MQA sounds still feels the same way or is the romance getting stronger or has anyone fallen out of love? Rob??? For those that preferred DSD over PCM prior to Tidal coming out with the MQA releases, do you now prefer the sound of MQA PCM over DSD?
 
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