Tidal stops streaming MQA titles?

[Cheung_Hon_Wah]

Mostly Universal Music, Warner still playable, MQA version replaced by 16/44 FLAC

[Mediahound]

Verified. That album is not playing MQA for me even though the version is listed as MQA.

Perhaps Tidal is starting to shut off MQA.

[Marian (I stand with Ukraine)]

It’s certainly nice of them to start with my favorite composer ever.

[Mediahound]

It’s not all albums yet though doesn’t look like. It may be that certain labels like Universal have jumped the MQA ship now.

[SandsOfArrakis (The Spice Must Flow)]

I’ve checked it as Roon lists Tidal as having both a FLAC and MQA version available. And it is a FLAC indeed. No MQA authentication or decoding on my Loxjie.

[wklie (Peter Lie)]

@Mediahound

That album is not playing MQA for me even though the version is listed as MQA [in Roon].

Using Lumin app there is no MQA version of this album.

Only 16/44.1

[SandsOfArrakis (The Spice Must Flow)]

Hmm I’ve checked the album with the Tidal app. And it shows up as regular HiFi here, not as a master. My iFi Zen DAC V2 also doesn’t show it as an MQA. It looks like the metadata of Roon is wrong in this case. There is only a FLAC version.

[Todd68]

I put on some Miles Davis this morning and MQA is still alive and well with that. I’m getting a 192 kHz stream as I type. But, given recent news, I suppose it’s just a matter of time before the hiRes FLAC replaces it.

[Cheung_Hon_Wah]

Also Trevor Pinnock’s Bach Well Tempered Clavier Book 2 of same series still playing in MQA 192k, but book 1 still 16/44 only, I think the TIDAL is undergoing some transition process……

[MusicFidelity (Guy)]

It is too early to tell until we start to seeing hires flac albums appearing in Tidal.

[Mediahound]

I do think it’s happening on Tidal and they are getting rid of MQA now. New Metallica album says MQA but also doesn’t play as MQA:

[SandsOfArrakis (The Spice Must Flow)]

Track 1 is FLAC. However track 2 is

[Mediahound]

Not for me, I’m playing track 2 here (it says Shadows Follow at the bottom), no MQA:

[SandsOfArrakis (The Spice Must Flow)]

It is MQA here.

Roon lists 3 versions for TIDAL.

[Norman_Spector]

Not playing MQA in Tidal on my Meridian system. Still Hi-res on Qobuz. Also possible to purchase this album

[Tigo]

It’s a work in progress for Tidal…- albums across all my playlists are gradually switching from MQA to Flac…

[glc650]

The question is is it true FLAC or just FLAC with MQA tags removed.

[Tigo]

I’m seeing all formats…- I stopped looking at all of it, as they’re working on the switch. It’s not worth the attention as it’s early in their switch. They have xxxx millions number of albums / tracks…I’ll wait till the last quarter of the year before checking it all…

[Marian (I stand with Ukraine)]

Again, I might be wrong, but there are no MQA tags; there is MQA signaling in the audio stream. If the signal path doesn’t show MQA, it means it’s not there anymore.

[glc650]

@Marian

Again, I might be wrong, but there are no MQA tags; there is MQA signaling in the audio stream.

Tags, signaling, whatever you want to call it (I’ve seen it referenced multiple ways). Either way, it’s how MQA is backwards compatible with FLAC and Tidal simply has to ignore/remove that “signaling” (same kind of thing can be done with Roon’s MQA settings) but that doesn’t magically make the track native FLAC. Now if they are replacing that MQA content with native FLACs (or adding another version of the album that is native FLAC), then that is a different story.

@Marian

If the signal path doesn’t show MQA, it means it’s not there anymore.

Except there’s been plenty of examples where either Tidal or the studio messed something up and an MQA album didn’t play back as MQA.