I see, thanks.
Maybe we have a misunderstanding here. I did do several listening comparisons but they would not meet scientific standards as they were no ABX tests, controlled panel tests or AB comparisons with a reference track involving prior level and EQing normalization to an inaudible delta and alike. This is what I would call ´reliable´ and I have a feeling no-one ever did such a test with MQA ever as it remains unclear what the reference would be in this case and how to achieve the aforementioned normalization for a test. At least I am not aware of any publication.
Meaning I did a lot of listening tests and was even involved in producing MQA CDs. Results were completely inline what is to be expected from a technical point of view and pretty opposite from yours as well as differing from track to track what is to be expected with a format technically adding something.
All that matters is what sounds good to your ears. Nobody hears the same and there is no test for “sounds good to me.”
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Still tons of MQA on Tidal with Roon. If I use Tidal connect on my iphone and there are ZERO MQA albums.
This is not true. Tidal app and roon are actually playing the same albums. Tidal app has removed the MQA decoder and now just shows MQA as 44/16 Flac. I say it’s misleading. Anyway, roon said they are showing you the true file type. I was going to switch back to Tidal after all MQA was removed, but sadly that didn’t actually happen.
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I can confirm what @davidh said. This is one example of Roon playing MQA format even though I set Roon to play anything else over MQA.
And the same album using Tidal app
If you have Tidal set to MAX in Roon, Tidal is going to send MQA if they don’t yet have high resolution Flac for that album. Change the Tidal setting from MAX to HIGH in Roon and see if Tidal doesn’t send 44.1 Flac, the same as plays on their Tidal app, just as a test.