Please go read those links and all comments.
I read it all years ago - I’m not reading it again dude
Not sure why anyone on Roon would want to suppress information suggesting that Tidal is engaged in dubious marketing practices with its “Master” label – but you do you. cc @noris @mike @danny
Nobody is suppressing or alleging anything.
I’m asking you to not be lazy and go learn and read because everything has been discussed to death already years ago (as I’ve said 4 times already).
I’ve given you great reading material to start with. Have fun !
In other words, you can’t or won’t provide a quote alleging that Tidal is engaged in dubious marketing practices with its “Master” label
Have fun with your allegations Norman.
This is a topic that has gotten very boring for many people for reasons I’ve mentioned 4 times already.
All the best !
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The beauty of renting music is that it’s easy to walk away and find another provider if you don’t trust the provenance or you can down grade.
The worry of renting music is that the record label or artist can pull all of their music at any time and leave you without.
I would rather buy what I like in a format that suits and use renting to ‘try first’.
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@WiWavelength, while you are indeed correct to what’s the masters tag means in practice, and you are correct in that MQA content does not need to be hi-res, this is from the the Masters page at TIDAL:
What is TIDAL Masters?
HiFi audio is a superior sound but is still limited in its resolution—44.1 kHz /16 bit. TIDAL has partnered with MQA to deliver something substantially better: an authenticated and unbroken version (typically 96 kHz / 24 bit) with the highest possible resolution—as flawless as it sounded in the mastering suite. And exactly as the artist intended it to sound.
There are definitely some “marketing liberties” taken here, and if a user was take that above statement literally, it would indeed constitute misleading or false advertising.
I think @Norman_Spector has a right to be upset here, even if many have come to terms with the actual meaning of “Masters”.
EDIT: I’m wrong! I missed the word “typically” in the parentheses in their description. Sheesh. I am wrong, and that “typically” makes it a legit claim. Sneaky nonetheless.
MQA is such a terrible topic.
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Heh. Thanks for clarifying. And “marketing liberties” is a nice way to put it!
Agree completely with you.
Thanks, Marian 
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Just after I subscribed to Roon, I reviewed both Tidal (as recommended by my neighbour) and Qobuz. Played through my Meridian systems, both sounded pretty good compared to say, Spotify. But I found that Qobuz were upfront with what they were offering; clear statements of bit rates and resolutions for all tracks. Tidal give you all sorts of techno gabble that just does not tell you explicitly what you are getting. I just don’t think that, as a consumer, I should have to learn to interpret obscure hyped descriptions to understand what I am getting.
I think that that is proved by the fact that debate about the meaning of MQA and Hi-Res has raged for years. If the terms were clear there would be no debate.
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If a company is selling a great product, there’s no reason to dissemble
Mate your rude
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Master Quality is only on the original 24-track or lower reel to reel in the studio. It depends on the Musician, record label, etc., the date recorded, on what final quality the consumer “us” or we will get. Whether Meridian or any other name under Harmon International, those days of pioneering companies are long gone. Samsung has owned them for about five years; all Harmon Companies, including AKG, Armcam, Bang and Olufsen, Becker, Cambridge, Crown, Lexicon, Mark Levison, Revel, Studer, and many more. Most are just brand names used in car audio, and they’re all out of business as independent companies. Look inside; many of the same parts. Albums are also compressed, in most cases way more than any CD, and you only have 30-something minutes; music has been squeezed since the beginning. Most people’s blind tests are not going to be able to tell, with your label saying Meridian, or Accuphase, or McIntosh (a few old ones that still exist today). They can hear an LP difference, but it’s the background noise and click-and-pop nostalgia that will wear off soon. CD’s are the best, streaming, not many people can tell the difference.
.MQA is downsampled from the higher sampling rate using MQA magic to speed up delivery and apparently remove some digital nasties while retaining aspects of the higher resolution file. What you’re hearing is either a 44.1/16 or 44.1/24 download if I understand correctly.
It is not a scam or a ripoff!
A 24/96 Flac file ripped from a 16/44 (Redbook) CD is going to sound no better than CD, and here too there will be variances depending on which mastering/remastering of the source landed on the CD.
Most of us will have bought several masterings of CDs and experienced markedly different results.
Likewise, most of us have bought ‘hi-res’ material at 24/96 or higher and found it to be worse than the best mastered CD version in our collections.
HDTracks has been plagued in the past with poor source material sold as high rise.
The nomenclature is not a guarantee of quality, whether buying ri-res files, or renting them from streaming services.
Have I got that right?
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