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MQA arrives on Tidal

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But the question is what you are comparing to? Do we know the only difference is MQA - and the reference is not somehow negatively affected by the MQa processing?

By the way, isn't DIRAC eq?

Could be a combo , the unfolding , must be some eq involved , the upsampling and dsp .dirac, my system, I dunno .. its their recipe and they intend to keep it that way..so dont expect the working papers from them

Dirac is a full time and freq correction.. plenty eq in it if you fiddle with the target graphs
I can switch it in or out MQA still makes a huge difference whether it on or out


all ive seen is 24/96 and the output im using , a usb to spdif converter is only capable of 2496 ..so maybe it just says NO if the software is unfolding higher rates ..... im clueless
 
Hi Rodney,

In my case, the standard version shows up as 16/44.1 (as you'd expect), and the MQA version is 24/44.1, and subjectively sounds better to me - somehow more "delicate", if I had to put it in words. (I am just listening to the first track on that album, via headphones)

I assume I am hearing the benefits of MQA encoding/filtering during the A/D conversion but obviously there is no MQA decoding going on my side, since my DAC can't do it.

So you are saying in your setup the same track shows up as 24/192?


Chers,
Samuel.
There's definitely a bug in the Tidal Windows app. I can reproduce it on two different PCs on three different DACs in two different locations. Sometimes the selection of my DAC/Exclusive Mode under "Streaming" flips back to "System Default". When this happens, Exclusive Mode is cancelled and my MDAC displays 16/44.1 and MQA stops. If I can get Tidal back to Exclusive Mode, then MDAC displays 24/96 or 24/88.2 again.

I reckon this bug may be why some people cannot hear a difference. If their DAC didn't show them their bitrate, they would probably never discover that "System Default" had been selected.
 
Gary, some of the classical releases on the 2L label decode as 24/88.2.
Several DACs don't do 88.2

I notice that Joni Mitchell is one of the more "different" sounding examples. Many JM Cds are encoded HDCD, which means that without a HDCD player, they are compressed, so the MQA version SHOULD sound better
 
Gary, some of the classical releases on the 2L label decode as 24/88.2.

I agree that there needs to be an easier way of finding the MQA albums.

That's right with a MQA DAC I'm seeing most of the 2L material unfold as a 4 x multiple of this, 24/352.8.
I think if any one is seeing these albums decode as 24/96 with software decoding then they have a problem. I hope I'm right;)
 
I think this guy on the meridian forums nailed it

The other thing is that the limited number of MQA albums on Tidal means that I've been going back and listening to old albums, which is not something I'd normally do terribly much of - I'm much more a new music kind of a guy. And part of the reason is that old albums don't always sound that flash in SQ terms ... so the MQA versions I've been listening to are just revelations.

There's a well known effect that whatever you listened to in your late teens is pretty much the defining music of your life. And part of the reason (in my case at least) is that the songs and the bands that you first heard during those impressionable years had this vivid quality to them, which - if you're into a bit of hifi - seems to get paler and paler as the decades roll by. The sheer impact of hearing Phil Collins drum his way through In The Air Tonight for the first time is never quite matched again; particularly as newer albums come out and the quality of the recording and the mastering is just so much better than anything that could be achieved in the 80s. Even when I've bought the the later hi-res versions of older albums, it was really for nostalgia's sake as they never quite recaptured the visceral quality of those first analogue listenings, IMHO.

MQA is completely different. Leaving aside the technological machinations, those old albums now have a life and an energy that instantly dragged me back to the first moment the stylus hit the vinyl and some new band exploded into my teenaged bedroom. So I've been working my way through the (limited) back catalogue on Tidal and the effect is the same, no matter how much of a muddy mess the original album was - I'm looking at you, Yessongs.

Over the last few decades of enjoying hifi, I'd come to expect that old albums are a bit like a slices of life preserved in amber - interesting, but no longer engaging in the way they were when they were new and fresh. MQA has utterly changed my view ... I don't know how it's done (alright, I kinda have an idea from tipping my toes in the shallow end of the technical descriptions), but I find the effect transformative - MQA can take a recording and turn it back into music. It's a truly stunning achievement, and Bob and team should be justly proud that they've not only improved the way new music is listened to, they've also found a way of exhuming and reinvigorating the past in a way that I didn't believe possible without a time machine.

So I'm completely convinced by the promises made about MQA. Someone should go grab Bob out of his office and stand him against the wall so we can all take turns throwing praise and accolades at the man.

I played around with a Meridian Explorer 2 a while back.

Have never really "done" digital before. 16/44 has always sounded ghastly to my ears right from the start and still now.

MQA did indeed "fix" the various forms of distortion that I could hear present in everything where the sampling rate was taken down to just 44.

The debate I see still seems to be the "16/44 is perfect because Nyquist Shannon said that it would be and therefore I am on the right side of this argument because there is mathematical proof that this is so."

No, there wasn't, and there isn't. Something that works on paper can't necessarily be replicated in the real world and it never has been. We may have got close to it, perhaps. Maybe so close that most peoples' ears will "accept" 16/44 though still wondering just why it is that very good vinyl, a dated, anachronistic and thoroughly flawed medium, can sound so marvellous in a way that 16/44 never could.

My findings - those of an improved sense of solidity in the stereo image and the lack of that horrendous crystalline glassy edge to things, especially on the fade, seem to be being mirrored in what people are hearing. It doesn't have that thing I describe as a "choppy sense of truncation" which I suspect others mean by "transients".

Basically, per the post above, it's a bit like "good analogue".

I intend buying the Mytek DAC though I might order another Explorer 2 to play around with for now as they're cheap to buy and there's a catalogue of stuff that now includes stuff that I'm familiar with.

So having stayed away from hi-fi for about 25 years believing it to have died because of the 16/44 format enforced by those wretched plastic discs, it looks like 2017 is going to be a really good year.

The return of "hi fi" and I'm really hoping that now Tidal is making MQA available to a wider audience that interest in it will pick up as people hear it and wonder "Why didn't we have this 30 years ago?"

Digital can finally hold its head up high against an analog from master-to vinyl performance. And not only that, hopefully, walk all over it and give us something genuinely new.

This isn't "about proving people wrong". I think people are right to be cynical that this may be a contrived attempt to install a proprietary format. However, some open-mindedness involving a potential acceptance that "red book" is not and *was never* "perfect" might be helpful.
 
Does anyone know what the volume setting on the Tidal desktop app should be? I usually keep iTunes at max volume and attenuate with hardware. Is Tidal the same? Does it matter?
 
Does anyone know what the volume setting on the Tidal desktop app should be? I usually keep iTunes at max volume and attenuate with hardware. Is Tidal the same? Does it matter?

I've ordered another Explorer 2.. (first one died)

I do recall, from the instructions for that, the advice was to set the source output volume at maximum, indeed I think the suggestion was that MQA mode may not activate at lower levels.

But then that's for *that* DAC.
 
Thanks. It's validating for me at half/default volume on my Brooklyn. I'll give full volume a shot
 
Of course, the $64k question is : how much will Tidal charge for a MQA subscription?

OK, it's now included in a HiFi subscription but they're bound to charge once MQA is established

How much would you pay?
 
Of course, the $64k question is : how much will Tidal charge for a MQA subscription?

OK, it's now included in a HiFi subscription but they're bound to charge once MQA is established

How much would you pay?


Spot on. Tidal realises that MQA is a niche market. They'll need to squeeze their customers until the pips fly out.
 
i wont pay a cent more until all my albums I like are MQAed..and the only ones that will are the audiophiles anyway.. a minute market..
Maybe it will stimulate change from premium to hifi subscriptions or draw more people to tidal...
 
I'm guessing Tidal will push up prices for MQA eventually, based on my opinion of some of the owners!
I suppose Spotify, deezer, Amazon et al will be watching the uptake with interest to see if they want to get in on the hi-res market or not.
 
I'm guessing Tidal will push up prices for MQA eventually, based on my opinion of some of the owners!
I suppose Spotify, deezer, Amazon et al will be watching the uptake with interest to see if they want to get in on the hi-res market or not.
Deezer maybe - but why would those who haven't offered straight 16/44 flac bother?
 
Anyone get 88.2-96K to light up on the Rega DAC (1st Gen)? I'm playing Astral Weeks in Master quality with exclusive mode enabled over optical from my MacBook and only getting 24 bit/48K.

Well, my Rega DAC is now lighting up on 88.2-96K. I had to uninstall the desktop app and reinstall on my MacBook but everything is working great now.
 
Mine too. Has someone told tidal ?
Sort of. I reported back in the autumn (2016) that my Windows Tidal app was flipping out of Exclusive Mode and back to "System Default" for no reason. At that time, it didn't matter too much to me and I didn't push for a fix. Now, of course, it is a disaster 'cos it means I cannot listen to MQA software unfolding without faff.

Tidal gave me a small refund - which suggest that they accepted the bug - said they would work on it, then closed the problem ticket without telling me.
 
Everything mine has 'unfolded' has been 96.

Is there a way to see all master albums, or a way to determine what is a master album amongst a search? If not they need to sort that out.

What is your setup?
 
Hi Harry

I would avoid win 8. If you type in windows 10 download image into google the first result is direct from Microsoft, you can download the official image and either burn to disk or to USB.

You can purchase an OEM windows key for 7 quid on eBay. Probs not totally legit but I have done it 4 times now with no issues.

Go straight to windows 10, do not pass go.

That being said what spec is your lappy, if its vista then I am assuming at most a core 2 duo with tops 2 gigs of ram? really its a bit of an arc and will most likely struggle to do anything meaningful. This MQA business is using at least 20% of modern CPUs, so a core 2 would probably fold up into a quantum singularity like at the end of Poltergeist.

Harry, you can still upgrade to win 10 legally at zero cost. Microsoft still make the upgrade from from 7 or 8 free for users using 'assistive technologies- see these links.
Hope this helps
https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/microsoft-windows-10-free-upgrade-offer-assistive-features/


https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/acc...2459594)(TnL5HPStwNw-0FBZfNm6YPFXNhiu3o52rA)()
 
Just played 20s of Beyonce through the Explorer2 dad and it looks like it only unfolds to 44/48hz as only the blue MQA light came on.

Court Spark however unfolds right out to 176/192khz so it all depends on source material.

Suspect unfolding will become a new phrase in the digital world.

I'll try that out tonight - I assume you are referring to "Court and Spark" by Joni Mitchell?
 
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