It’s a bit of a headache to sign up for Qobuz in another country, but can be done I hear.
I know the process but it feels a bit like in the age of torrents 
1 Like
All it took for me was a local VPN. Not complicated.
1 Like
Not to deviate from the topic and get moderated 
but I read that while it’s easy to create an account via VPN, the issue is using a Paypal account or bank card which was not issued by the country in which you are trying to subscribe?
Things may have changed since I’ve read this though.
Mmmm, 100% analog vinyl… Just like MoFi.
Don’t know as not currently a subscriber. Wasn’t an issue at the time I signed up a few years ago.
Removing MQA signaling is not so easy. It can survive bit reduction. Because authentication is more about marketing value than it is data integrity.
If Tidal is replacing MQA with just 16 bit truncated versions, Roon still may authenticate them as MQA.
AJ
1 Like
not saying you’re wrong, but I think we should all be aware of the distinction about how “music” is flagged as MQA or not…
ie:
- within the file itself (encapsulated within the FLAC wrapper): a suitable player is able to recognise the flag whilst playing the file, with aim of performing additional processing on the file
- in the website database/ metadata: all music tracks have an attribute “MQA ?” assigned to them, displayed to the site/app users when browsing music. If the attribute is set “Yes” then the user is informed the music file is an MQA file.
In a well-configured system, the database (item 2) will be derived from the source files, ie at import the file is read and the database flag set according to whether the embedded MQA flag is present. But in a less perfect system or a system undergoing rapid change, the 2 might not be so well connected….
So I just suggest caution when discussing MQA flags, to avoid misinterpretation caused by this possible ambiguity during discussion……
1 Like
To my knowledge, two ways you can determine if a file is MQA encoded: The tags and the data itself. Roon does not analyze the data in the file, only looks at the tags.
But Roon does unfold during playback, right? Also, do streaming services stream tags also, or just the audio data?
Back to the OP’s question, many of the DG and Decca titles that lost their ‘Master’ tag in the last few days, appear to have them back. Not all, yet, but it may be worth checking.
I checked on the Meridian Hitchhikers spreadsheet, and Book 1 was definitely there in MQA in January…fingers crossed.
I know it is not unusual for albums to get removed from streaming services - cannot fathom why some classic Karajan recordings for EMI went - and much as I have valued MQA recordings, the lack of clarity/transparency as to what happens has always been an irritant. It would be really helpful if Tidal gave an official update, rather than occasional posts on other sites. I came very close to cancelling yesterday.
And this is before anything gets unfolded.
1 Like
which “tag” do you refer to ?
the flags embedded within the music data file ?
or
the flags displayed when you browse the database ?
or
some other “flag” ?
I purchased a few of the Aretha Franklin White Glove MQA albums - which I think are the best transfers of those albums, and I own probably most of the transfers out there. Since most of my library is AIFF, I transcoded them to AIFF. Roon would not show them as MQA and the signal path would not show MQA (I don’t 100% recall this but almost certain). But my DAC (dCS Rossini) would fully decode and render the file as MQA because it “discovers” it in the samples.
The solution was to leave the files as FLAC, untouched. I recall looking with Yate and did find an MQA tag in the metadata.
Interesting question is whether Roon will do the first unfold. I did not have Roon do the first unfold because my DAC does the full decoding, but I wonder if Roon would trigger the unfolding DSP engine without the file metadata indicating it is an MQA file. I don’t know.
1 Like
The ‘Master’ tag/flag on the Tidal site; some Universal ones disappeared, and at least some have returned.
Played them via Roon, and MQA authentication also present.
That’s interesting. Are you saying you used dbpower amp to convert an mqa file to aiff and your dac discovered it as mqa?
As long as it’s a lossless format, MQA will be unaffected, since it’s carried in the audio data.
1 Like
And that’s a good thing imo. I like hi-res flac far more than mqa.
2 Likes
If it’s all down to the MQA signalling then how come Roon has had issues where it belivies the stream was MQA but they where not, it tried to decode them and then they would not play. This was reported by a number of users and I believe they put a fix out for it.
Yes, it is all down to MQA embedded signaling. Authentication/decoding does not require metadata tags. Otherwise, MQA CDs would not work. Because the Red Book standard does not carry metadata tags. And MQA DACs with full decoders via USB or S/PDIF would not work. Because those transmission methods do not carry metadata tags. Think about it.
AJ
1 Like
I was thinking about just this back when the “Some Tidal FLACs are now just MQA with the signalling/MQA Tag removed” debate was going on.
Is such a thing even possible?
What I’m getting at is that if the signalling is carried in the least significant bit (or whatever the exact technical thing is), can one just remove it without destroying the track?
Edit - Or was that the point: That for 16/44 MQA to work the original FLAC has to be made lossy to make room for the signalling thus these FLAC>MQA>FLAC tracks, if they exist, aren’t true FLAC because they’re now lossy 