With MQA filing for bankruptcy, I think Tidal is planning on them no longer being a part of their infrastructure.
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And ten characters for the minimum post length in this forum.
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Hey gang, please see our thread on MQA developments here:
We don’t have any issues with discussing what’s transpired regarding the format. All we ask is that you don’t attack each other. You’re free to express your feelings about MQA, but please respect differing opinions. Thanks!
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Even if you don’t believe hi-res offers SQ benefits, MQA streams red book more efficiently also.
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I’m aware MQA is contained in a FLAC file, but don’t see how this is relevant to the issue I raised?
We have to select an MQA or non-MQA, or sometimes multiple resolutions/versions of either for various reasons (mono/stereo/special editions, etc., etc.). So we usually choose one version to be a library version. Are you saying that you know the way Tidal will transition from MQA to vanilla hi-res is by retaining the same version that is currently MQA and simply replacing the MQA FLAC with a vanilla FLAC?
If they don’t do that, but just introduce a different version, then at some point discontinue the MQA version, Roon will not have a way to know the missing library version should be replaced by a different hi-res version, or a different red-book version (depending on whether a particular user might choose to pay a potential new pricing tier or not), will it? Or am I missing something?
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How so? And “more efficiently” than what? That assertion is suspect.
AJ
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Uh, Tidal (and/or record labels) replaced a great many CD quality FLAC albums with MQA processed versions, and that did not throw Roon for a loop. Those library albums persist.
To illustrate, my Roon library dates to July 2016, and sorted by date added, the very first imports are from Tidal Collections (for those Roon veterans who know what I am talking about). Well, guess what? The very first Tidal album imported just so happens to be 16 bit 44.1 kHz MQA. Yet, it certainly was not so in 2016. Because MQA did not exist on Tidal in 2016.
AJ
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Can you explain how that’s done? With or without MQA, uncompressed red book (44.1kHz/16bit stereo) has a rate of 1.4112Mbps. FLAC compression will of course reduce that, but since MQA adds more information to the samples (that is similar to rising the noise floor a bit), I would think that it makes compression less efficient, not more.
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MQA’s “compression” only happens at the 1x → 2x folding. For 1x source material, my understanding is that MQA is just filters to reduce pre-ringing and stuff, plus the authentication bits.
If the auth bits are held at 1x/24bit, then there could be no quality loss. If they are held at 1x/16bit, there be destroyed data. The data may not matter for sound quality, but you have destroyed it nonetheless.
TLDR: I would argue MQA + Redbook is not more efficient than just Redbook FLAC.
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Sounds like a good idea to me…
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A minimum phase filter does the trick. No need for proprietary stuff.
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Do we know the timeframe for this change on Tidal? It may just be a PR statement by the CEO to try to prevent subscribers from jumping ship based on the news.
I sure would like to see the words “decoded” or “expanded” somewhere in those lines.
Of course we can still listen to MQA material, it’s just a FLAC with a higher noise floor… 
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If they are keeping existing MQA files so we can still play them if we like them and they’re in our library, I’m cool with that.
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I’m not convinced that Tidal’s MQA are actually different than normal FLAC files. I think they may just take normal FLAC files and overlay MQA in-between. Just my suspicion though.
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Is it really that easy?
No, not that easy. Minimum phase also has issues.
E.g., Meridian were among those who pioneered apodising filters, so Bob Stuart knows full well a minimum phase filter’s strengths and weaknesses.
He and others have felt the need to continue pursuing even more complete solutions.
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I don’t think TIDAL is known to have an encoder. I’m not sure they would ever do this either – the CPU and storage required would be costly with very no/little benefit.
I think the accusation that is often made about their non-MQA at the mid-tier of the pricing is that it is still MQA content with the MQA bits destroyed so it can’t be decoded as MQA. There is no evidence of this either as far as I know.
It was not noted in the AMA and I don’t think this plan was announced or spoken about elsewhere.
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Yes, if you want to remove pre-ringing. If you want to remove post-ringing also, the only way is to increase the bandwidth, but that would result in a “leaky” filter. That’s what MQA seems to be using, according to measurements.
Such as?
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One does make Mr. Stuart money, the other one doesn’t. That’s a pretty major issue, isn’t it?
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