HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Found interesting test on YT

"I published music on Tidal to test MQA - MQA Review"

Wow. That was very interesting.

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...

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.

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.

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

Interesting- according to my dac input lights Tidal premium is 44.1khz whereas free Amazon music is 48khz

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

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.

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.