Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

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Ithilstone
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Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by Ithilstone »

Found interesting test on YT

"I published music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review"
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CycleCoach (Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:43 am) • Toontrev (Fri Apr 16, 2021 11:52 am) • slinger (Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:42 pm)
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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by TheMarlin »

Wow. That was very interesting.
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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by Ithilstone »

TheMarlin wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:56 am Wow. That was very interesting.
I would say that if it is all true (and it looks like it is) the whole MQA is biggest audio BS of a decade...
That it is far from perfect I knew I use tidal and some of my old CD rips sounded better than master MQA version from Tidal

But I did not expect that their "masters" do not come from true master recording and even worst it is not even as good as standard FLAC 44.1 16bit - Well I wasn't expecting that... also injecting files with distortion and noise - just very sad LOL.
It looks like just another BS rip off...
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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by NSNO2021 »

I am a Tidal user and have been for a while and to be honest, it's ok and absolutely nothing more. Very rarely do I hear something and think that's better my vinyl/CD version. It's definitely over priced and I am looking forward to more competition in that space as it will lower the subscription price and improve the quality of the output.
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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by NSNO2021 »

I listened to the YouTube video, in my opinion it's damming. As a result I have cancelled my subscription and asked for a refund of my previous payments. It will interesting to see if and how they respond to my email. My gut feel is they won't reply but you never know.
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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by Fretless »

The competition in hi-res streaming audio is getting more intense.

Amazon HD is CD standard 16bit/44.1KHz
Amazon Ultra HD is 24bit up to 192KHz

Qobuz: 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.

Spotify: 320kb/s OGG Vorbis

Tidal:
Master - High Resolution to Ultra High Resolution audio. Guarantees music fans that they are listening to the original master recording — authenticated by the artists themselves. Unrivaled quality, clarity and depth (up to 9216 Kbps or 24 bit / 192 kHz).
HiFi - Lossless quality audio (1411kbps or 16bit / 44.1kHz).


What Hifi's views on the subject:

https://www.whathifi.com/amp/best-buys/ ... g-services

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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by Latteman »

Interesting- according to my dac input lights Tidal premium is 44.1khz whereas free Amazon music is 48khz
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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by NSNO2021 »

Belatedly I have concluded Tidal is something of an expensive con. On the plus side at least it goes someway to explaining why my streaming experience so far has been all a bit so so
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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by Fretless »

I do not use a streaming service but do buy download albums from Bandcamp.

These are provided by the artists themselves, presumably straight from studio masters. The WAV downloads are pristine and quite a lot are 24bit resolution.

Buying an album from them gives you both a downloaded version and unlimited streaming access via Bandcamp's own site. Plus you can be certain that a sizeable part of your payment goes to the artist.

Recently I have bought whole discography collections from some artists which come with big discounts.

Win-win. :dance:

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Re: Music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review

Unread post by CN211276 »

When MQA came on the scene it was very interesting, but I became more and more sceptical because of the mystique surrounding it. Now I think it is smoke and mirrors. There was no way I would be buying a MQA DAC as I was satisfied with my Chord and Rob Watts was one of the many dismissing MQA. I was subscribing to Tidal at the time but gave Qobuz a try and preferred it. I have been with Qobuz ever since but much of the time have used Tidal in parallel because of their special offers. I only stream Tidal where there is a gap in the Qobuz catalogue and cancel before the full payment is due. I do not think Tidal are doing themselves any favours by embracing MQA. What HiFi seem to have some sort of affiliation with Tidal coupled with a downer on Qobuz.
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