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MQA arrives on Tidal

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Ian M said:
Is this the case now with the Tidal desktop app. I have only seen posts of people getting 24/96 from the 24/48 stream. Is anybody getting 24/192 without an MQA DAC?
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Ian M said this

Ian M said:
As a test I turned off MQA decoding in my DAC and Roberta Flack was decoding at 24/48. Turned it back on and MQA light up and it reports it as 24/192. It certainly sounds really good. More experimentation needed.
Van Morrison also decoding as 24/192.
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which implies that you need an MQA DAC to get the full benefit. If you don't have one you will get 24/48 with the MQA bits allegedly buried somewhere inaudible. But there will be lots of confusion, especially from people with macs where the sample rate can be set at a system level.
 
AndyU said:
Ian M said this



which implies that you need an MQA DAC to get the full benefit. If you don't have one you will get 24/48 with the MQA bits allegedly buried somewhere inaudible. But there will be lots of confusion, especially from people with macs where the sample rate can be set at a system level.
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Yes I know I wrote both posts:) I'm still interested though, do you only get 24/96 with the desktop app and not 24/192 if using the app to decode?
 
Ian M said:
Yes I know I wrote both posts:) I'm still interested though, do you only get 24/96 with the desktop app and not 24/192 if using the app to decode?
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Before we even go there, there seems to be a confusion here as to whether the tidal player app in windows or mac is unpacking the 24/48 at all, or whether there is just some upsampling going on.

I would like to see a spectrograph of a capture [if one could be sure that the recording software was not sample rate converting] to verify whether there is information above 24Khz. There is of course no way of knowing without measuring because you can't hear it.

FWIW on my win 10 machine outputting to a dacmagic XS the blue light remains on which I think means that the dac is getting 44.1 or 48khz with tidal masters. (incidentally on my pc tidal does not find any output devices in settings)
 
adamdea said:
Before we even go there, there seems to be a confusion here as to whether the tidal player app in windows or mac is unpacking the 24/48 at all, or whether there is just some upsampling going on.

I would like to see a spectrograph of a capture [if one could be sure that the recording software was not sample rate converting] to verify whether there is information above 24Khz. There is of course no way of knowing without measuring because you can't hear it.

FWIW on my win 10 machine outputting to a dacmagic XS the blue light remains on which I think means that the dac is getting 44.1 or 48khz with tidal masters. (incidentally on my pc tidal does not find any output devices in settings)
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I agree. My findings so far are that streaming through Roon, so nothing to do with Tidal app, every Master file is 24/48 or 24/44. With an MQA DAC they unpack to 24/48,24/96 or 24/192. Some are not MQA and remain at 24/48.
 
So I have Roon and tidal. If I get an Explorer2 and connect it to my MBP I can get MQA into my C-2 preamp via a 3.5mm to rca?
 
Rug Doc said:
So I have Roon and tidal. If I get an Explorer2 and connect it to my MBP I can get MQA into my C-2 preamp via a 3.5mm to rca?
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If you already have Roon and Tidal, you can listen to the Tidal Masters now in 24/48 or 24/44 depending on the source file. Roon are supposed to be working with MQA on an embedded software decoder so once released, in theory you wont need an MQA DAC to hear the full fat unpacked MQA playback, whatever that is.
 
I thought the process also had to take note and account of the receiving dac to be true full monty MQA .. not sure computer decoding will do that??
 
From the MQA website:

"To truly unlock the richness of MQA you’ll need a device or software with an MQA decoder. On playback of MQA content, the player indicates that you are hearing exactly what the artist recorded and approved in the studio."
 
DNM said:
From the MQA website:

"To truly unlock the richness of MQA you'll need a device or software with an MQA decoder. On playback of MQA content, the player indicates that you are hearing exactly what the artist recorded and approved in the studio."
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That seems to play games with the meaning of "hearing exactly".

The folding 'origami' process can be expected to mean the replayed waveforms differ from the ones recorded prior to MQA encoding - assuming there was any HF in the first place, of course.

The implied claim is that the listener can't actually hear the differences. But of course, you can't check that without having access to the source material *before* it was run though MQA encoding and decoding. Instead you have to accept that the recording artist has "approved" what you should be getting.
 
Ian M said:
I agree. My findings so far are that streaming through Roon, so nothing to do with Tidal app, every Master file is 24/48 or 24/44. With an MQA DAC they unpack to 24/48,24/96 or 24/192. Some are not MQA and remain at 24/48.
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Have had a further fiddle with my windows player and the tidal app, it seems to me that the tidal app is not using asio and seems not to be working in exclusive mode. It seems therefore to be outputting whatever sample rate is set for shared mode.
Is this just me?
 
Jim Audiomisc said:
That seems to play games with the meaning of "hearing exactly".

The folding 'origami' process can be expected to mean the replayed waveforms differ from the ones recorded prior to MQA encoding - assuming there was any HF in the first place, of course.

The implied claim is that the listener can't actually hear the differences. But of course, you can't check that without having access to the source material *before* it was run though MQA encoding and decoding. Instead you have to accept that the recording artist has "approved" what you should be getting.
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Yes, its as clear as mud hence I had zero interest in MQA until I started listening to these Tidal recordings through a non MQA Dac. I'm keeping an open mind, and ears, because it looks like MQA's claims can never be verified due to the proprietary nature of it. A bit like Dirac Live to some extent.

Actually, looking at the Audirvana announcement, its still unclear if you need an MQA dac:

"Audirvana Plus brings the best Sound Quality with the convenience of advanced library management, DSD / DXD, multichannel audio playback and many more features. Its companion app A+ Remote brings remote control from iPad/iPhone for further convenience. Audirvana Plus 3 (available end of January 2017) integrates the MQA Core Decoder, enabling to get the full MQA quality with MQA devices, including the renderer only ones. Users who don’t have a MQA capable device will also benefit from the 2x sample rate of MQA streams thanks to the decoder in Audirvana Plus 3 that performs the unfolding."
 
DNM said:
From the MQA website:

"To truly unlock the richness of MQA you’ll need a device or software with an MQA decoder. On playback of MQA content, the player indicates that you are hearing exactly what the artist recorded and approved in the studio."
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John Coltrane died in 1967, nearly 50 years ago. How exactly did he approve the MQA master of Giant Steps?
 
AndyU said:
John Coltrane died in 1967, nearly 50 years ago. How exactly did he approve the MQA master of Giant Steps?
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Andy, I think you're confusing me as an MQA fanboy :)

I'm simply sharing the promotional blurb from the MQA website that states the decoding/unwrapping can be undertaken by and MQA dac or software decoder. Still not sure if thats the case or not.
 
DNM said:
Blimey, the Masters I've listened to so far all sound considerably better than the regular CD versions I have stored in my Tidal Favourites. Thought MQA was supposed to be a con like HiRes?
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I've been playing the Masters through an Audioquest Dragonfly DAC (so just using the Tidal app to "unfold" the files I guess rather than using a full MQA DAC) and the sound quality has really, really impressed me. It's clearly not a con and could well be a game changer for digital sound quality - wasn't expecting something so impressive.

I've ordered a Meridian Explorer 2 DAC to swap with the Dragonfly now... to try the full MQA experience. Plus Tidal keep adding new albums to the list too...

I'm with DNM. "Blimey" :)

Chris
 
Update: I've been back into the settings in the Tidal app, and have got it connected to the MDAC 'exclusively' and its now playing Pink Floyd Division Bell as 24/96 according to the MDAC, which I feel we can trust. So, it works, at least, and its not dishing up a watered down version. So it looks like a hardware MQA DAC isn't needed. If Meridian would then release the code as open source, MQA may have a future...
Sounds ok, will do a comparison with local files when I get time, decorating calls.
 
cporton: If it's the Dragonfly Black or Red you have they will become MQA compatible soon via software update.
 
JemHayward said:
Update: I've been back into the settings in the Tidal app, and have got it connected to the MDAC 'exclusively' and its now playing Pink Floyd Division Bell as 24/96 according to the MDAC, which I feel we can trust. So, it works, at least, and its not dishing up a watered down version. So it looks like a hardware MQA DAC isn't needed. If Meridian would then release the code as open source, MQA may have a future...
Sounds ok, will do a comparison with local files when I get time, decorating calls.
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Sounds OK? Isn't it meant to be a significant sound improvement with the wow factor? My CD copy of The Division Bell sounds brilliant FWIW.
 
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