Tidal Masters

[Fretless]

http://tidal.com/nl/masters

Streaming users prepare for real audiophile quality sound !

Tidal have announced their new Masters service which will deliver your favourite music in 24-bit 96KHz FLAC high definition purity.
Rather than the ho-hum sound of 16-bit 44.1 KHz CD's or utterly crappy MP3's.

Will probably cost a bit more though ...

Oh -and Sonos users can forget it as that system only supports 16-bit.

[Fretless]

Oh bother - there is even a 2-month free trial on offer !!

Might just have to give it a go. It's a hard life ...

[savvypaul]

I have downloaded 24/96 & 24/192 files from Qobuz - wonderful!

[savvypaul]

Yes, I've tried Qobuz regarding high res, but my point above still applies. Unless recorded originally in a high res format, what you get will never be high res. You can't convert up from 44.1/16 to higher res and manufacture in any additional sound artefacts. Unless I am mistaken, the CD standard will still rule.

Qobuz say this:

"24-bit HD albums sold by Qobuz are created by our labels directly. They are not re-encoded using SACD and we guarantee their direct source. In order to continue on this path, we prohibit any tampering with the product."

I buy a lot of vinyl, so I'm very wary of this sort of issue - far too many reissues are simply being cut from lower-res digital sources. The Qobuz hi-res downloads I have are recent releases, on the original label, so I would be much more confident that they are from the studio masters. The difference I hear between the streaming 16 bit version and the downloaded 24 bit file is very clear and worthwhile.

[savvypaul]

I'm cautious because I have purchased a couple of proper high res recordings from specialist sites and have been disappointed because although in the more detailed format, the overall recording quality is crap (including distortion) and in that circumstance, I'd rather just listen to CD standard.

Yeah, 24 bits of 'badly recorded' is sometimes even worse. I listen to the 16 bit streaming file first before I shell out...

[Fretless]

If the streams are created directly from 24-bit masters (or DSD) then that should be noticeably better than CD-quality.

[Fretless]

I'm finding the Digi+ Pro to be a cut above the standard version. Using it with Moode and the advanced kernel setting. The fact that the new board has separate reclocking chips certainly improves the SQ quite dramatically.

There are Jitterbugs in the Pi's to reduce internal 'noise' and also one in my central router - which does have a subtle but noticeable effect on all players running on the network. A cheap and effective little extra.

[CN211276]

This has been in the offing for so long I had doubts that it was ever going to happen. Can't wait to give it a try together with my new LS6 speaker cable which arrived earlier than expected. Favourable initial reports about Tidal Masters on PFM and 24 Bit is compatable with my Chord Mojo.

On the subject of the Jitterbug I found that it provides a noticeable, but not drastic improvement. Adding a second one (as Audioquest recommend) provided the same level of improvement as the first.

[CN211276]

Initial impressions are very favourable, but I don't know how much is down to 24 Bit or my new NVA LS6 speaker cable. Will have to do some listening in 16 Bit to fully assess the LS6

[Geoff.R.G]

Having looked at the site I can see a number of recordings that will have been created originally on tape, Hotel California as an example. The original tapes will probably exceed CD quality and remastering will remove much of the noise so I would expect that the stream will be better than 16/44.1. Will it be as good as a native 24/96 or 24/192 recording? Probably not but worth a try to see how good it really is.