thanks. end game for me. no planning to buy new headphones.^ Very nice collection
MQA or non-MQA DAC upgrade?
- Thread starter Palartemis
- Start date
tidal masters is MQA files? or just lossless 24/96? do i feel sound difference using MQA renderer vs MQA full decoding DAC from laptop no software added to decode MQA qore? both dac's translates 24/96 music or full decoding will get 24/192?
gimmeheadroom
Headphoneus Supremus
Masters are all MQA.
I don't know the details about what various DACs do, my Brooklyn DAC+ is a licensed implementation that does the full expansion.
friend, see here youtube shows how set tidal for first 2x unfold master file mqa and on left bottom shows icon with MQA letters that play mqa file. on my pc after im setting made same dont shows icone 'MQA" ,so tidal not first time 2x unfolding master file. my dac only renderer and unfolds 8x ,so im listen not full mqa sound quality
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Audiophiliac
100+ Head-Fier
Qobuz in Audirvana also sounds rich compared to Tidal at higher bitrates.
bagwell359
Headphoneus Supremus
TIDAL is planning on putting out hi-res lossless, no MQA. I read that as that the peak of MQA use has probably been seen.
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MQA has gone into administration (bankruptcy). Looks like it's only downhill for MQA from now on.
Tidal has no choice but to gradually move away from MQA by introducing lossless FLAC Masters alongside the already existing MQA Masters.
Tidal has no choice but to gradually move away from MQA by introducing lossless FLAC Masters alongside the already existing MQA Masters.
Audiophiliac
100+ Head-Fier
MQA was a scam from the start. Getting rid of the option is the way to go. Only streaming the original higher res files will sound the same as the original higher res files.
MQA stood for My Queer Ambitions. I hope none of you bought a dac with an extra cheap chip that everything has to pass through. :\
Market has spoken. MQA will soon be no more (as soon as Tidal phases it out), since Tidal is the only streaming service featuring MQA.
I suspect that there will be zero tears shed for MQA.
I suspect that there will be zero tears shed for MQA.
Audiophiliac
100+ Head-Fier
Netflix streams 42 times as much as 192 flac audio, for less money than Tidal charges for the higher plan, which didn't send any more data than 44.1.
Game companies will let you download files at your full internet speed as much as you want. I could que up 30 games to download in Steam, and just keep deleting them, then re-adding them to the que, and they still charge the same as everyone else. X-box Game Pass will let me do the unlimited downloading, too, for $12/month. I don't think bandwidth is costing streaming companies very much. Granted, the goal is really not to have to DL your games more than once, ideally, and if people did work their bandwidth on purpose like that, the costs may be different. But the point is, 192 flac is a puny amount of data to stream.
Game companies will let you download files at your full internet speed as much as you want. I could que up 30 games to download in Steam, and just keep deleting them, then re-adding them to the que, and they still charge the same as everyone else. X-box Game Pass will let me do the unlimited downloading, too, for $12/month. I don't think bandwidth is costing streaming companies very much. Granted, the goal is really not to have to DL your games more than once, ideally, and if people did work their bandwidth on purpose like that, the costs may be different. But the point is, 192 flac is a puny amount of data to stream.
Yes, I agree. MQA was never about cost of bandwidth. It has always been about a proprietary (closed) ecosystem to make people pay more to be able to use it.
I'm not against closed off ecosystems if they bring genuine innovation (and as long as there are free or open-source alternatives), but in MQA's case, if the closed ecosystem is just for the sake of being closed without any innovation... Let's just say MQA got what it deserved.
Audiophiliac
100+ Head-Fier
MQA was the plan to charge more for higher res, without having to stream more than 44.1. You had to buy the same dac you were happy with, except with the cheap chip first, to get the altered stream to be the higher sample rate stream they said it would work out to. MQA is not the original higher res file, it is altered, and needs magic to make it seem like transparent higher resolution. Of course the measuring devices people tried said it didn't work out to the same as the original higher res file. Scam from the start.
OnlySoMany
Headphoneus Supremus
I second this. Better dac will sound good with anything. I'd go the Chord route personally.
That's the whole idea: choose a good dac for being a good dac - not for having or not having MQA.
MQA feature will quickly become irrelevant as Tidal will start to phase out MQA Masters with Flac Masters.
In my humble opinion as soon as Tidal has enough of it's library in hi-res Flac it will drop MQA completely. It makes no sense to support two formats, especially when one is going into bankruptcy. But even if it won't stop supporting MQA, it will definitely stop adding new music in MQA format. Hence my original idea, it's just a matter of time till MQA chip in your dac will become irrelevant.
MQA feature will quickly become irrelevant as Tidal will start to phase out MQA Masters with Flac Masters.
In my humble opinion as soon as Tidal has enough of it's library in hi-res Flac it will drop MQA completely. It makes no sense to support two formats, especially when one is going into bankruptcy. But even if it won't stop supporting MQA, it will definitely stop adding new music in MQA format. Hence my original idea, it's just a matter of time till MQA chip in your dac will become irrelevant.
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