MQA now on Tidal!

Tidal is making it a little easier to recognize the MQA albums. When you hover your mouse over the album’s name in the album view (e.g., viewing an artists discography) you will see a pop-up with the full album name and “96/24 Hi Res” label next to it. At least that’s what I’m seeing in some of the albums…I suspect this is still in flux.

Thanks I figured it out now with you help!

No idea whether the mqa stuff (still undecoded) is helping, but Alanis unplugged sounds very good this evening. Always used to think it a bit flat, but really enjoying it now.
Could be some of the other interim changes, placebo, or just my mood, but for now, very unscientifically, I’ll just chalk it up to mqa :slight_smile:

Just waiting for Roon to do the same magic Tidal does in their app, but then better of course. (No pressure)

[quote=“Wayne_Bull1, post:81, topic:17883, full:true”]

So looking at this from the outside, MQA is unlikely to deliver the true potential of the 192kHz master
[/quote]What is missing from that argument is the concept of streaming, and that bandwidth=money.
Looking at MQA file sizes, they are about 60% that of the corresponding 96/24 flac file.

So even if we grant the argument that MQA is actually Lossy in nature (which is debatable) , it represents a very significant bandwidth savings. Maybe not on your end, but think about the cost savings on Tidal’s end, who it serving up to how many people at a given time?

I have completely confirmed that the streamed MQA files on Tidal are superior to the “standard” resolution version. I call that development a Good Thing.

4 Likes

Are the dragonfly dacs getting an mqa upgrade?

Yes supposedly by the end of the month firmware update.

1 Like

Wayne,

Before you assume anything, read the in-depth white papers about MQA. Stuart, et al claim lossless as far as what is heard and more accurate as far as timing, which, it turns out, is more important than extended frequencies.

This is based on assumption claim that as far subjectively listening. However technically there’s a difference between a raw PCM and MQA even with the same bits and sample frequencies. As far I understand it is technically lossless up to 22k but above that it needs to ‘throw away’ (whatever it deemed not able to perceivable) data to maintain a reasonable amount of bit rate so to stream on a limited bandwidth like in Tidal. I’ve listen to MQA vs CD quality in Tidal and I must say it sound very good indeed. MQA is not a truly a lossless format but does very well to improve the sound quality of CDs and the reasonable bit rate lands itself perfectly for streaming services.

1 Like

Totally agree with you Paul.

My post was just showing a manufacturers point of view, not mine :laughing::laughing::laughing:

John,

This was a post to show a manufacturers point of view, not my own. I’m very much in favour of new developments :laughing::laughing::laughing:

@joel I certainly hope 1.3 comes soon for all we have been waiting for and that MQA software decoding does not delay the initial release. At this point many of us are waiting on 1.3 as the next version to fix bugs, such as the TIDAL login bug on Linux.

Please don’t get distracted with getting MQA software decoding in the first 1.3 version of Roon.

I agree. It took Tidal quite some time to get MQA up and running and Roon should not be far behind but I would be unsure if MQA will come in the initial 1.3 release. ROON has been great but things have come in fits and starts over the last year.

1 Like

Just to know, does anyone know (maybe some Roon insider…) if there will be any additional fee for master subscription in the future?
The tidal page is not so clear about it.

“What will it cost? We are introducing this to all TIDAL HiFi members at no additional charge.”

Introducing… :thinking:

Exactly. Just like what Netflix did originally when it started renting BluRay. First it was included, then it became an additional expense if you wanted to keep doing it.

The first hit is always free :slight_smile:
-mike

I imagine the marketing for now is geared towards getting Tidal’s "Normal"or “Standard” subscribers to upgrade to the HiFi / Master tier of service. For now, we’re riding their coattails.

But do we really expect any media content we like and use to go down in price?

I think it should be clear from the start if the cost will be the same or not.
If I buy a MQA DAC to benefit the improved sound and suddenly i will find that I have to pay an additional fee in Tidal without knowing it first, this would really make angry…
I think I’ll begin to ask to Tidal support service… unless our Roon men know something in advance…

It’s very unlikely that anyone in Roon would know Tidal’s business plans and if they did, there would almost certainly be confidentiality restraints.

It may even be out of Tidal’s hands. Presumably Tidal is able to introduce MQA at no additional charge because the rights owners are not imposing an increased charge on Tidal. That could change.

Amazing how quickly we become “used” to something…and then find something to complain about…usually about “cost”

Take a look at the two screenshots below from HDTRacks.com…Until about 3 days ago, THOSE are the Prices that we had to pay to have access to Recordings of a similar high resolution [Masterings is a subject left to another day]

And these are just for the approx 10 Albums listed…not for access to the approx 500 MQA albums currently available…or the > 3,000 promised soon…all for the same price as what we were paying this time last week

Sometimes the glass is actually half full :wink:


6 Likes

I know Ronnie and you’re right when you talk about the price of HiRes downloads compared to streaming, but I’m not complaining about the cost but about the ambiguity of this “introduction” of MGA-Master, about the fact that user doesn’t know if the price will grow up or not.
I’d only like to know if master subscription will cost more or not so that I could choose if update the subscription and in case buy a MQA DAC.
I would have preferred the tidal told us something like “our goal is to offer for free master quality to HiFi subscribers” o “master quality will be for free for the first xx days for those who have HiFi subscription then …”
Anyway before complaining I’ll try to ask to support.

Not sure about the rumor mill, but a month or so ago I read on one of the audio websites, the plan for MQA streaming to be an extra surcharge. But maybe that has changed.