[canali]

guys so just to be clear:
mqa is only available thru the desktop app.
but for hifi we only get that through the chrome browser and not the desktop app?

 

[bigbeard]

  guys so just to be clear:
mqa is only available thru the desktop app.
but for hifi we only get that through the chrome browser and not the desktop app?

​hifi is available on the desktop app, along with regular quality, and mqa

 

[WhiteKnite]

  Why use software decoding, as opposed to allowing your DAC to do it?
Either way, I agree, the audio difference is quite discernable, more so than going from Spotify Premium to Tidal Hifi; Master's sounds very spacious and pure. I heard it instantly.
 
Amount of content is low...not too many albums.

Considering it just rolled out I'm not too worried about that.  They have a pretty good selection of well mastered albums.  Something to keep in mind is a lot of music was never released in hi-res so you wouldn't gain any benefit to having the entire catalog streamed in MQA anyway, as it would just be 16/44 upsampled.  

 

[Andrew Rieger]

So I'm confused. According to this page, Tidal MQA can only be played with the PC/MAC Desktop App: http://tidal.com/us/download

So does that mean that any external device that acts as a Tidal streamer (like the Bluesound Node 2) cannot currently play MQA files through Tidal? This is seriously confusing.

 

[Berzerkuz]

It works on my node1, been streaming MQA most of the day and it sounds great. When the track is playing it says MQA now instead of CD for quality.

 

[canali]

It works on my node1, been streaming MQA most of the day and it sounds great. When the track is playing it says MQA now instead of CD for quality.

Have you been able to any a/b comparisons between mqa and hi-fi modes, same music?

 

[Berzerkuz]

I haven't yet, but the MQA tracks that I have listened do sound very clean, the background seems darker making details pop out more.

 

[WhiteKnite]

I'm still trying to figure out how passthrough mode works on my Modi.  It shouldn't... so is it downsampling?  Or software decoding?  Am I getting 24/96? Really odd

 

[sabloke]

I haven't yet, but the MQA tracks that I have listened do sound very clean, the background seems darker making details pop out more.

I concur, getting the same impression while playing Masters files. Not much metal there yet, but I have to say, Deftones never sounded better!

 

[Topspin70]

How are you guys telling which album is MQA, other than going through the Master tab in What's New? I saw from an earlier post there are more than what's shown in that tab. Is there a way to see what format is an album in? 

 

[WhiteKnite]

OK just figured out why it works on my Modi.  The bad news is now I really want something that can actually decode MQA haha.  Does anyone know if the AK100ii or AK70 can decode MQA in USB DAC mode?  I know they support it but does it work when connected to a PC?

 

 

1. The MQA "audio origami" process wraps files in a 24-bit FLAC container which can be read by non-MQA enabled DACs. When playing back high-res content on a non-MQA DAC, the file is presented to the DAC as either 24/44.1 or 24/48 depending on the original sample rate family. You cannot play back an MQA encoded 24/96 file as a 24/96 file on a non-MQA DAC.

 

[discape]

Re: Masters, the DAC I currently use only has 16bit 44hz output, does that mean there wouldn't be any difference for me for me from the usual Tidal HiFi?

 

[Chikolad]

   
The only thing is that though they are highlighting the 30,000 tracks available in Master quality, I can only find about a hundred or so under the Masters section in What's New. Are the rest being rolled out over time or am I missing some other section where the other Masters quality tracks are located?

 
There are plenty more that are not shown in the Masters tab. I don't think there's any way to search for them specifically, you will have to try (and hope) and see for yourself

 

[discape]

Well well well....
 

 
 
I compared Hifi vs Master , Master setting on the same album (Coltrane Giant steps) clearly MUCH quieter than HiFi.
 
Also note the cutting off in HiFi above 22khz,
 

 

[wdh777]

So do you think they will come out with masters via iOS app? I don't have a lap top and only stream hiding via the app? Also, will you be able to get this quality straight out vs via dac so I could just use. Pair of el8s? But I assume I won't get it from my chord tt into my gs mk2? Thanks