[gimmeheadroom]

@gimmeheadroom you still have Mytek dac with MQA filter, am I right? Awesome setup

I have the Brooklyn DAC+ which is a great diagnostic tool for MQA. You can see the incoming sample rate and bit depth, and the expanded sample rate and bit depth. I don't use my desktop gear much though, especially not in the summer because it's too hot to wear headphones and I prefer speakers.

I have an Oppo 205 which has MQA support and can also play MQA CDs. I have 2 BluOS devices that also support MQA.

Most of the time I'm streaming from Tidal over one of the BluOS streamers into my big rig. Hmmmmmm speakers

 

[Brain Damage]

I have Tidal for MQA and other services for Redbook. Tidal is cheap and good, even if they go Redbook and ditch MQA completely it's still worth having. But I would prefer they kept MQA and if they're gonna have Redbook, add it as a second album etc. rather than deleting the MQA copies.

This is what Tidal should have done the other way round when MQA was a new introduced format instead of replacing a vast number of their Redbook copies with the idea that their undecoded MQA versions were sufficient. I probably would have stuck with them for the choice. However, it was pretty clear they jumped fully into the MQA pool and at a rapid pace too. Personally speaking (and IMHO) I am glad I made a move over to Qobuz for the choice between Redbook v Hi res. Can get the most out of any type of purchased equipment without narrowing your options down to MQA implemented dac amps, etc. Especially now that MQA is slowly exiting the door.

 

[NickT23]

This is what Tidal should have done the other way round when MQA was a new introduced format instead of replacing a vast number of their Redbook copies with the idea that their undecoded MQA versions were sufficient. I probably would have stuck with them for the choice. However, it was pretty clear they jumped fully into the MQA pool and at a rapid pace too. Personally speaking (and IMHO) I am glad I made a move over to Qobuz for the choice between Redbook v Hi res. Can get the most out of any type of purchased equipment without narrowing your options down to MQA implemented dac amps, etc. Especially now that MQA is slowly exiting the door.

How does mqa music sounds like ?

 

[Brain Damage]

How does mqa music sounds like ?

Put it this way, I hear little difference (if any) between MQA and native DSD and Hi Res FLAC files. Qobuz is therefore my go to streaming service. Not to mention the £10.83/month v £19.99/month Tidal offering.

 

[Brain Damage]

Put it this way, I hear little difference (if any) between MQA and native DSD and Hi Res FLAC files. Qobuz is therefore my go to streaming service. Not to mention the £10.83/month v £19.99/month Tidal offering.

I think the fact I have discovered my liking of R2R and 1-bit dacs (thanks to Cayin's RU6 and RU7; and HiFiMAN's EF400) for their analogue and organic timbre is another reason for further shifting me away from MQA. These are just my opinions. I fully respect other's views that are vice versa. That's the beauty of this hobby I guess.

 

[NickT23]

Put it this way, I hear little difference (if any) between MQA and native DSD and Hi Res FLAC files. Qobuz is therefore my go to streaming service. Not to mention the £10.83/month v £19.99/month Tidal offering.

I have a question. By little difference do you mean MQA having slightly better sound quality, like more clarity and perception of 'hi res' sounding than native DSD or hi res flac files. Moreover, how would you compare mqa to hifi for Tidal subscription ?

 

[NickT23]

I think the fact I have discovered my liking of R2R and 1-bit dacs (thanks to Cayin's RU6 and RU7; and HiFiMAN's EF400) for their analogue and organic timbre is another reason for further shifting me away from MQA. These are just my opinions. I fully respect other's views that are vice versa. That's the beauty of this hobby I guess.

Because most R2R and multi bit manufacturers dont hype the mqa bs while mqa and r2r are not that compatible. As for r2r and 1-bit dacs, I dont hear the difference unless they have different sound signature. They are mostly transparent if not mistaken.

 

[Brain Damage]

I have a question. By little difference do you mean MQA having slightly better sound quality, like more clarity and perception of 'hi res' sounding than native DSD or hi res flac files. Moreover, how would you compare mqa to hifi for Tidal subscription ?

No, not at all. When I had Tidal 18 months ago, it swung in roundabouts: some Tidal Masters seemed to sound slightly better than the Hi Res FLAC version; but some Hi Res FLAC albums (e.g. Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On') were noticeably better than the Tidal Masters version). There was nothing in it for the vast majority of it and so I cut my losses. I couldn't justify paying an extra £109.92 per annum for no real benefit and for pigeon holing and limiting my purchases for dac amps and dongles that render or fully decode the hardware. Trust me I had done that in purchasing renderers like Dragonfly Black and Zorloo Ztella, not to mention LG V30 and V40 which are MQA decoders. AB testing between Tidal & Qobuz for months helped inform my decision. Then I later found a love for R2R and 1-bit dacs which make any argument for MQA even more irrelevant.

 

[Brain Damage]

Native DSD albums are hard to get and limited in terms of catalogue. But from having purchased The Rolling Stones 'Beggars Banquet' DSD, it sounds more dynamic than FLAC. I am intrigued with DSD, especially with the Cayin RU7. It's a brilliant dongle.

 

[milkdudd]

I was planning to come back to Tidal at some point, planning to purchase the $120 yearly pass from Best Buy. Now those are oddly "sold out" If that doesn't change I'll continue to stay with Qobuz, which sounds fabulous. I'll just have to work with what has been inferior searching for genres of music and such. Maybe there's some YouTube tutorial or something that will help

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I was planning to come back to Tidal at some point, planning to purchase the $120 yearly pass from Best Buy. Now those are oddly "sold out" If that doesn't change I'll continue to stay with Qobuz, which sounds fabulous. I'll just have to work with what has been inferior searching for genres of music and such. Maybe there's some YouTube tutorial or something that will help

Many people sign up for the free version of Spotify (by the way they're threatening to come out with a high res tier again, queue Yogi Berra) because supposedly the discovery is very good. Then you can play the songs/albums you like on whatever...

 

[NickT23]

Many people sign up for the free version of Spotify (by the way they're threatening to come out with a high res tier again, queue Yogi Berra) because supposedly the discovery is very good. Then you can play the songs/albums you like on whatever...

Been wanting high res lossless spotify been years...

 

[NickT23]

No, not at all. When I had Tidal 18 months ago, it swung in roundabouts: some Tidal Masters seemed to sound slightly better than the Hi Res FLAC version; but some Hi Res FLAC albums (e.g. Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On') were noticeably better than the Tidal Masters version). There was nothing in it for the vast majority of it and so I cut my losses. I couldn't justify paying an extra £109.92 per annum for no real benefit and for pigeon holing and limiting my purchases for dac amps and dongles that render or fully decode the hardware. Trust me I had done that in purchasing renderers like Dragonfly Black and Zorloo Ztella, not to mention LG V30 and V40 which are MQA decoders. AB testing between Tidal & Qobuz for months helped inform my decision. Then I later found a love for R2R and 1-bit dacs which make any argument for MQA even more irrelevant.

Swung roundabouts, are you referring to placebo when comparing Tidal masters and Hi Res FLAC version ? By Hi Res FLAC do you mean 'Tidal Hifi' or rip CD flac ? Because there are differences. Anyway, are you trying to say there are some tracks, album where Tidal masters (MQA) sound slightly better than FLAC, DSD and 'Tidal Hifi' and likewise, vice versa ? Like you said, "I hear little difference (if any) between MQA and native DSD and Hi Res FLAC files."

 

[devilboy]

Forgive me if this has been discussed already. I'm getting dropouts in every song I play. Sometimes twice a song. They're only like a millisecond but they are all clearly audible. Does anyone else get dropouts and Tidal?
I've been using Tidal for a long time and I didn't have this problem before. I really hope I fix this because I generally like the interface. It's easy to navigate. Because of these millisecond dropouts, I've joined Qobuz and the interface is horrible. The navigation sucks. I can't stand it.

 

[Ferdinando1968]

Forgive me if this has been discussed already. I'm getting dropouts in every song I play. Sometimes twice a song. They're only like a millisecond but they are all clearly audible. Does anyone else get dropouts and Tidal?
I've been using Tidal for a long time and I didn't have this problem before. I really hope I fix this because I generally like the interface. It's easy to navigate. Because of these millisecond dropouts, I've joined Qobuz and the interface is horrible. The navigation sucks. I can't stand it.

I don't seem to have recently experienced any drops in Tidal streaming from either the native app or ROON.

Have you noticed if the drops only occur with MQA files, or you don't use MQA ?

Generally when 'strange' things like these happen to me involving services used by thousands of others, I tend to think that the problems
I experience are due to my configuration, otherwise there would be many complaining.