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MQA arrives on Tidal

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garyi said:
My thought would be its the remaster that matters, not the MQA.
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Given that...

- the improvements are equally impressive with bang up to date recordings like Beyonce's Lemonade
- the effort to fully remaster an album like Steven Wilson does takes weeks per album
- the number of albums already done that are still appearing at a rate onto Tidal

...my thought is that it's more likely it's the MQA.

Chris
 
Well it seems its not remastering
I can play the undecoded MQA file and then change instantly to decoded (in settings in the tidal ap , go to streaming and click on or off "passthru MQA).. and thats what makes the difference .. and the difference which is profound , is nothing you need to AB to make sure it exists..its plain to hear. and it's good
 
Rodney gold said:
Well it seems its not remastering
I can play the undecoded MQA file and then change instantly to decoded (in settings in the tidal ap , go to streaming and click on or off "passthru MQA).. and thats what makes the difference .. and the difference which is profound , is nothing you need to AB to make sure it exists..its plain to hear. and it's good
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Wow, yes, you're right. That's it all right!

Chris
 
Not that I pretend to understand any of this but from reading forums and being exposed to the views of people who I think know what they are talking about an aspect of MQA that is not being discussed here which is very important is the matching of the digital filters of the initial analogue to digital transfers with the digital filter is in the DAC. This is the authenticating in the MQA


The following is an excerpt that seems to make sense from someone who understands all these things

Re the Mastering Authenticity part of MQA. For that to occur, ... is matching the encoding and decoding reconstruction sync filters (think filter algorithm and 'taps') between the ADC master and the DAC decoder encoding and creating the ANALOGUE signal at each end of the system chain.

SJB
 
cporton said:
You only see the Masters with the £19.99pm Tidal HiFi service.
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Or $ 19.99 or Eur 19.99 per month.

So once again we are paying top dollar. ;)

According to someone high in the Meridian camp, MQA makes all recordings sound like they have come from the same studio.

Whether that is good or bad, better or just different or worth the entry fee, is up to the individual.

I think to state that MQA 'is how the artist signed off the origional' is contentious and may be subject to advertising standards scrutiny.
 
cporton said:
Given that...

- the improvements are equally impressive with bang up to date recordings like Beyonce's Lemonade
- the effort to fully remaster an album like Steven Wilson does takes weeks per album
- the number of albums already done that are still appearing at a rate onto Tidal

...my thought is that it's more likely it's the MQA.

Chris
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I follow this. If it's a pre-master (whatever the format) copy of music then it's this that needs to be compared with a post mastered copy, in order to get any idea of the MQA element. Otherwise, you are comparing an unfutzed with copy v a mastered copy. I would expect that to be quite different.
 
SteveS1 said:
I'm not sure I follow this. If it's a pre-master (whatever the format) copy of music then it's this that needs to be compared with a post mastered copy, in order to get any idea of the MQA element. Otherwise, you are comparing an unfutzed with copy v a mastered copy. I would expect that to be quite different.
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I think Rodney Gold's point about being able to switch the MQA element on and off using Tidal allows us to see what MQA is adding.

Chris
 
This is getting more confusing as it goes on :)

We need MQA or Tidal to confirm the ins and outs otherwise we're doing a constant merry go round.
 
I've been following this with interest.
Is my understanding of 'remastered for MQA' (or similar,-whatever Tidal are doing to create MQA Masters) correct in that Tidal are going right back to the original analogue master tapes or original digital studio recording to create these masters?
If that's correct, it sounds a little dubious that Tidal can get access to such material?
Or am I mistaken in this understanding. If so, what is actually being remastered?
 
misterdog said:
Or $ 19.99 or Eur 19.99 per month.

So once again we are paying top dollar. ;)
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Diplomatically put. Some might say we are being ripped off once again.

For once price gouging hasn't put me off tho. Meridian Explorer2 ordered this morning and Tidal trial activated. Hopefully a relatively inexpensive way to see what all the MQA fuss is about....
 
MQA is a specific file compresion utility, it is adding nothing. There should be no difference between original and MQA file. Trouble is you probably do not have access to original source in Tidal. Also does MQA telling you in what form was original file? You just do not have fair comparison. Switchig on and off MQA processing give nothing because without proper decoding there is a loss of information.
 
Tidal MQA fully decoded by an MQA enabled DAC certainly exceeded my expectations.

For the first time streaming sounds truly good to my ears.

Additional cost for me is zero so I must say:

Well done Mr Stuart and well done Tidal!
 
vln said:
Well, no - the change over to Master/MQA is free for Tidal HiFi customers, remember?
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I might be wrong, but I thought it was only for subscribers to the more expensive HiFi service, not Premium.

Furthermore, the difference here is that MQA was set out to be used for streaming from the start, so up until now if you were streaming music as MP3 or CD quality or whatever, now you can just stream it as MQA. No need to re-buy all your music.
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But couldn't that just as well be done using FLAC - without (indirectly) paying MQA licensing fees, and being tied to a specific service?
 
gints said:
MQA is a specific file compresion utility, it is adding nothing. There should be no difference between original and MQA file.
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Indeed there shouldn't. But as Jim's study (and my looking at spectrograms) shows, there is actually a difference within the audible spectrum.
 
radamel said:
If you have and can't hear the difference I then ask... what's your setup?
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I haven't said I can't hear a difference - it is just unclear what is causing the difference (and if it is an actual improvement). As I have written, I can also see a difference (that supposedly shouldn't be there).
 
Julf said:
I haven't said I can't hear a difference - it is just unclear what is causing the difference (and if it is an actual improvement). As I have written, I can also see a difference (that supposedly shouldn't be there).
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Let me rephrase, if you aren't sure it's an actual improvement, what's your setup?
 
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