music fiend
life lusting
Well to me me it will cost.
£ 1600 for a Mytek Brooklyn and £ 20 /month forever.
So £4 grand over 10 years. Hardly free......
Or I could buy 200 new Vinils..
Hehehe!
MQA arrives on Tidal
- Thread starter jamesd
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Hehehe!
Julf
Facts are our friends
But have they?
If they were convinced it is smoke and mirrors that sells, then yes, definitely.
Other highly respected experts have sold us pups.
The point is not a smidgen of coloration, the point is stuff where there shouldn't be any according to the theory published by that highly respected engineer.
From another thread, John Westlake has an interesting take on MQA.
"My understanding of MQA (MQA seems in a constant change of flex - I can only guess as a result of the negative opinion of some manufacturers refusing the stringent and invasive licensing conditions):-
1. Meridian will not allow the audio Data to be manipulated in anyway - which for the average company can be a good thing - but severely restricts what we have planned with FDAC and its FPGA's. In fact we would not be allowed to issue a software update without submitting and approval from Meridian (and associated extra cost).
2. No Room correction, EQ or the such (if you believe in such things)
3. No External connection to the "decoded" digital output Data = no FDAC / MDAC2 Master / Slave interface or transmitted (once decoded) via the SDPIF interface etc.
Its my personal belief that the reason Meridian does not want this data available is that MQA is being sold to record company's concerned about releasing "High resolution content" to the public and MQA is packaged with DRM - once this data is decoded then there is no way to enforce DRM.
4. It goes against every bone in my body to enforce what I believe is DRM onto "my" customers - it sickens me that Meridian dangles a juicy carrot in front of customers eyes of better sound quality, but then rams DRM up there backsides... it is my claim that Meridian interest is not in better sound quality - but generating income via licensing / royalty fees.
The basis of MQA does not need the DRM aspects - its only there for Meridians and the records company's best interests.
5. I will not summit full schematics of my design that I have labour for over 5 years on to a "competitor" - MDAC2 and FDAC feature very unique circuits. I can understand this not being a concern for company whose designs are basically a collection of op-amps and manufacturers applications notes - but FDAC / MDAC2 is far more then this.
I could go on but I'm working on the MDAC2 design - I'm having an internal "race" with Jarek who is also working on a design
"My understanding of MQA (MQA seems in a constant change of flex - I can only guess as a result of the negative opinion of some manufacturers refusing the stringent and invasive licensing conditions):-
1. Meridian will not allow the audio Data to be manipulated in anyway - which for the average company can be a good thing - but severely restricts what we have planned with FDAC and its FPGA's. In fact we would not be allowed to issue a software update without submitting and approval from Meridian (and associated extra cost).
2. No Room correction, EQ or the such (if you believe in such things)
3. No External connection to the "decoded" digital output Data = no FDAC / MDAC2 Master / Slave interface or transmitted (once decoded) via the SDPIF interface etc.
Its my personal belief that the reason Meridian does not want this data available is that MQA is being sold to record company's concerned about releasing "High resolution content" to the public and MQA is packaged with DRM - once this data is decoded then there is no way to enforce DRM.
4. It goes against every bone in my body to enforce what I believe is DRM onto "my" customers - it sickens me that Meridian dangles a juicy carrot in front of customers eyes of better sound quality, but then rams DRM up there backsides... it is my claim that Meridian interest is not in better sound quality - but generating income via licensing / royalty fees.
The basis of MQA does not need the DRM aspects - its only there for Meridians and the records company's best interests.
5. I will not summit full schematics of my design that I have labour for over 5 years on to a "competitor" - MDAC2 and FDAC feature very unique circuits. I can understand this not being a concern for company whose designs are basically a collection of op-amps and manufacturers applications notes - but FDAC / MDAC2 is far more then this.
I could go on but I'm working on the MDAC2 design - I'm having an internal "race" with Jarek who is also working on a design
Possible reasons for them not to do this include that the sound quality output from an iPad isn't sufficiently high to justify it and the processing power on an iPad is too low to do the decoding.
Chris
We seem to be debating MQA as much as Tidal here.
Remember the previous thread for MQA: http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=165839
Remember the previous thread for MQA: http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=165839
garyi
leave blank
OK a short listening session and a couple of obs.
Tidal sounds bloody marvellous! I mean in general, what a great sound.
Would be great if there was something similar to 'connect' to control the pc from another computer, having to screen share is beastly.
As for the MQA, well I don't have an MQA dac, but the dac shows the bits move to 96 with 'masters' stuff playing. All I can say is, wow. Yes a hell of a difference. Have not done a lot of compares yet but stuck with tunes I know. Division bell is on there in both formats and the difference is markedly different with MQA relieving some of the sinus clearing sharp end that I can hear with my system.
Much wider sound stage and stuff far more clearly defined. I genuinely try to avoid this bollocks, but its just really weird hearing instruments in their own space absolutely rock solid.
Close to the Edge, again sounds really stable, hey, even the wife commented.
A revelation tonight, I don't know whats happening, but I think I might be lighter 20 quid a month here.
Tidal sounds bloody marvellous! I mean in general, what a great sound.
Would be great if there was something similar to 'connect' to control the pc from another computer, having to screen share is beastly.
As for the MQA, well I don't have an MQA dac, but the dac shows the bits move to 96 with 'masters' stuff playing. All I can say is, wow. Yes a hell of a difference. Have not done a lot of compares yet but stuck with tunes I know. Division bell is on there in both formats and the difference is markedly different with MQA relieving some of the sinus clearing sharp end that I can hear with my system.
Much wider sound stage and stuff far more clearly defined. I genuinely try to avoid this bollocks, but its just really weird hearing instruments in their own space absolutely rock solid.
Close to the Edge, again sounds really stable, hey, even the wife commented.
A revelation tonight, I don't know whats happening, but I think I might be lighter 20 quid a month here.
Pedro83
pfm Member
A good point, but the later, perhaps Pro models may be up to the task. They do produce high benchmark results. Inc the A9 chip.
That said, I have a trashcan Mac Pro, 6 core Xeon with 64GB RAM and when listening to these studio masters on the Tidal OSX app my CPU load ramps up to nearly 20% which I find quite a lot. Especially when Audirvana, regardless of sample rate uses 1-3%.
Pedro83
pfm Member
This chimes with my findings too. I am hearing all sorts of new things, and as you say, the detail to instruments, and the soundstage is remarkable. Yet i'm not using an MQA enabled DAC, until AQ update the Black and RED DACs. I have the latter and cannot wait to hear what will be the real thing. Early signs couldn't be better, IMO.
I have tested every album that's available that I either own or know well / own and every MQA walked away with it with ease. No brainer, time after time. Some of the comparisons were done with DCC discs, some of which I never imagined could sound better.
Thankfully I am already 20 quid a month down. I don't think Tidal can charge more until they have thousands of these studio albums available. Let's hope there is no price hike. Who knows....
Stunsworth
pfm Member
I've been listening for a few hours and have been impressed so far. No direct comparisons with non-encoded albums, but the soundstage on the MQA albums has been rock solid with instrument's locations precise. Maybe I'm imagining it, at this stage I don't really care.
Pedro83
pfm Member
Indeed. I have been collecting what are reputed to be the best pressings for c.10 years and every MQA has won hands down. Led Zeps included. I have been comparing these to the 45rpm Led Zep vinyl rips I have and boy the MQA certainly has a lovely edge to it. I note this MQA library it getting bigger and bigger too and going in the right direction with real music. Thank god I haven't seen any Jay Z yet. Moondance is another corker. Biggest leap for me so far is Blood Sugar Sex Magic by RHCP. I have several vinyl rips of this album but again, the MQA is just something else.
Funny as I stated to a mate on here yesterday, all the MQA albums have a similar sound sig to them. Then someone quotes a chap from Meridian stating all MQA should sound like they have been recorded in the same room - I concur.
Pedro83
pfm Member
Julf,
Why don't you do your own listening and kindly inform us of your findings instead of coming across as a stuck up jerk (yet again). I have compared what are flat transfers to this MQA and whilst it is pretty much obvious they are from the same tapes, there is something special about MQA.
No smoke and mirrors to my 33 year old ears. I like what I hear, and I look forward to what I hope to be further progression with MQA. Alanis Morissette- Jagged Little Pill is sounding stellar. Jaw dropping stuff. I've stopped the comparisons, pointless.
Pedro83
pfm Member
I have saved a few Studio masters in 'My Music' these albums are appearing on my iPhone and ipad, but whether they are the same, i don't know. I'll give them a listen tomorrow but its not a level playing field. mac Pro is my main machine, vs app on iPhone.
I did check CPU usage when listening to Spotify premium on my iPhone, and Tidal's above albums. CPU usage was pretty much identical, thus indicating the files on iPhone and iPad are not the ones on the OSX App as it uses up to 20% on my Mac pro when playing the studio files.
Seanm,
Someone has had the idea of reviving the other MQA thread, to allow the discussion about the "behind the scenes" processes to go over there.
I'd be happy to get anyones take on the new Tidal service, but perhaps from the perspective of having tried it and get some experiences here?
Chris
Pedro83,
I tried doing that to see if I could get the browser version playing MQA files to my DAC (my Explorer 2 arrived today so I was playing around!) but no, it wouldn't output MQA to the DAC.
I'm pretty sure you'll find the same with the iPhone/iPad - I don't think it's possible yet - but let us know how you get on.
Chris
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