Tidal Masters & MQA Thread!

[Marqzen]

Never thought there would be a day that a green led on my Chord Mojo would pop up while streaming from Tidal, haha  But i must say i really dont hear that much difference compared to the "HIFI"  (lossless) quality. Maybe i just need more time whit it

 

[waileaguy]

Having a Tidal issue and looking for help. On my computer, HiFi/Master streaming shows up and MQA works fine with my Meridian Explorer 2. On my Onkyo DP-X1A, I have HiFi but Master is not part of the selection. I know the Onkyo supports MQA but cannot seem to get Tidal to recognize it.   Ideas?

 

[Limblifter]

  Having a Tidal issue and looking for help. On my computer, HiFi/Master streaming shows up and MQA works fine with my Meridian Explorer 2. On my Onkyo DP-X1A, I have HiFi but Master is not part of the selection. I know the Onkyo supports MQA but cannot seem to get Tidal to recognize it.   Ideas?

 
 
Tidal streams MQA through desktop app only.  

 

[waileaguy]

Thank you for this. I couldn't recall if I had read this earlier. Hope Tidal gets around to offering it on their mobile app in the near future.

 

[headfry]

  Never thought there would be a day that a green led on my Chord Mojo would pop up while streaming from Tidal, haha  But i must say i really dont hear that much difference compared to the "HIFI"  (lossless) quality. Maybe i just need more time whit it

I find that the differences are mostly in soundstage and imaging - nicely and realistically
portrayed instruments and voices, nicely layered and natural sounding
while in the HIFI version everything sounds relatively flattened
out and smushed together, as if in a sheet. In some important ways, the difference between listening to a pretty
good recording and an actual performance. I think Tidal decoded Masters are much nicer to listen to.

 

[canthearyou]

Tidal streams MQA through desktop app only.  

Wrong! It streams MQA on Android using UAPP.

 

[headfry]

I'd like to recommend Joni Mitchell's  "Hejira" album... ideally on Tidal Masters (or hires) the first four songs will prove 
that Joni Mitchell is an angel incarnated to convey the profundity of existence, life, meaning, 
art....music...poetry......album done in '76...she had just turned 33 when it was released....
 
 
Joni Mitchell is an artistic genius. If you like the music of e.g. Kate Bush, Cat Stevens, The Beatles,
Steely Dan.,...
 
I highly recommend Joni Mitchell "Hejira" - the first four cuts will tell you. Others appreciate this album too?

 

[headfry]

Hi Res Compared with Tidal decoded MQA - any impressions?

 

[manpowre]

Hi Res Compared with Tidal decoded MQA - any impressions?

Yes, I own the album Three by Blue Man Group in high res 24/96, and the album was made in 2015, which means the Masters version and the MQA version on Tidal should be the same master just converted to MQA including the HDtracks version, I doubt they remastered the album for MQA release.
 
In MQA the album is louder, some instruments are kicking a little too hard and I have to adjust volume a bit down throughout the tracks, and in the calmer areas of the music I turn up the volume again. Also I can hear a better and more precise instrument playback with the foobar 24/96 version, its not much, but just as much as its noticeable.
 
I also recorded 3 of the songs with my Tascam UH-7000 in MQA unfolded 24/96, the master version, and my own foobar player and the MQA version is actually louder in the parts of the music where most instruments play at the same time compared to both HDtracks and hifi version on Tidal. So I got proof that MQA does something to the decoding of the music or the encoding. I have thought about cutting one of the songs into pieces, and keep the calm part of the song separate and measure that against the different versions, and cut the busy part of the song out and measure that specifically. But I havent got to this yet. 
 
I know you want positive impressions, I read the first page, but impressions are impressions even if its slightly negative.
 
I dont have anything against MQA, I just found myself adjusting the volume more with MQA than with the master version and my foobar version. 
 
The album Three by Blue Man Group is very very dynamic album with alot of different drums and it challenges the system to reproduce instruments accurate, and that is why this album is great to listen to the differences between the signal chain or different ways of playback.
 
If anyone want to give the album a go, listen to the 2 last tracks, Giacometti and Torus. With a grand slam in the track Torus halfway in. My hands are moving every time I listen to it.
 
While writing this, I did a listen on those 2 songs, first HDtracks version, and then I switched to Tidal masters version, and immediately I could hear something was missing. just like something is clouded, some of the details in the instrument hits got hidden. Hard to describe really. And immediately I heard louder music aswell, to a level where I again turned down the volume one notch (about 3db) to the comfortable listening level I use.
 
My first attempt of finding out what was going on with MQA on my system was one of these sound pressure units you can purchase for 20 dollars. Its not a scientific approach, but I also wanted to check the db level I play my music at, and I found that for some of the albums I play I passed 84-85db with MQA, while on tidal hifi version I was at 80-82db as max.  Now the Beyonce album really takes the cake (I dont listen to Beyonce, but it is fairly a fresh pop album and it was advertised as MQA on Tidal. This album is on hifi version 86db as max on my system with similar level of volume as other songs I play, while the MQA version is 88db.. and that just is uncomfortable.
 
My last comment is that when people listen to different versions like tidal HIFI version vs tidal MQA version, they also have to ensure that the desibel level is identical, otherwise you can get to this feeling that the MQA version is better as its louder on many of the albms on tidal.

 

[headfry]

Thanks for your detailed reply, much appreciated. For myself, I find Tidal-decoded Masters
generally sounds much better than Tidal HIFI.... mostly in soundstaging/imaging, refinement, textures,
and greater natural-ness andd ease - even at lower volume levels - for me this has nothing to do with
preferring the louder track - (and the Masters generally plays noticeably quieter than HIFI).

To my ears, Tidal-decoded Masters compares very well with conventional hi-res.

 

[Sir Alamon]

there are really some weird albums in the master section, nominally some punk records or some ipercompressed records that do not benefit at all from being a "master"

 

[manpowre]

  there are really some weird albums in the master section, nominally some punk records or some ipercompressed records that do not benefit at all from being a "master"

What about Madonna- Like a Virgin ? that was recorded in 13 bits ! and still 13 bits on MQA.

 

[DangerToast]

Silly question, as I am confused by MQA:
 
So, I have the Tidal Hifi service, and when listening on my desktop, I am able to access the master quality album options. However, I am listening via a schiit stack, and schiit does not support mqa, as per their website. My question is this: when I am listening to master quality tracks on tidal through my desktop and schiit stack, am I getting any improvement over normal hi-fi quality? Is the app itself doing all the heavy lifting and delivering a higher quality signal to my stack? If so, what exactly is that difference? Is it 24/96 vs 16/44?
 
Thanks for helping me understand this.

 

[L8MDL]

Silly question, as I am confused by MQA:

So, I have the Tidal Hifi service, and when listening on my desktop, I am able to access the master quality album options. However, I am listening via a schiit stack, and schiit does not support mqa, as per their website. My question is this: when I am listening to master quality tracks on tidal through my desktop and schiit stack, am I getting any improvement over normal hi-fi quality? Is the app itself doing all the heavy lifting and delivering a higher quality signal to my stack? If so, what exactly is that difference? Is it 24/96 vs 16/44?

Thanks for helping me understand this.

Seems to me that if MQA is everything it's cracked up to be you should not have to ask!

 

[manpowre]

  Silly question, as I am confused by MQA:
 
So, I have the Tidal Hifi service, and when listening on my desktop, I am able to access the master quality album options. However, I am listening via a schiit stack, and schiit does not support mqa, as per their website. My question is this: when I am listening to master quality tracks on tidal through my desktop and schiit stack, am I getting any improvement over normal hi-fi quality? Is the app itself doing all the heavy lifting and delivering a higher quality signal to my stack? If so, what exactly is that difference? Is it 24/96 vs 16/44?
 
Thanks for helping me understand this.

Hi @DangerToast, 
 
Take a look at this link for proper MQA explanation:
http://www.audiostream.com/content/mqa-decoding-explained
 
MQA has 3 unfolding levels, 2 of them are software decoded, while last level is hardware decoded only by MQA certified DAC's. 
The first level is 24/48 which has better noise floor than 16/44/48.
 
The second level is 24/96 which is software decoded in Tidal only when you see the "MASTER" lower right in Tidal. BUT, you have to change your driver to support this, so if you are on windows, right click your sound icon in notifications, and change the properties for your playback device. Also disable any enhancements, AND set volume in driver to 100%, and the windows volume to 100%. Once you change your driver, depending on your setup, you should see 24/96 show up on your DAC.
 
The third level is 24/192 which is only for hardware MQA enabled DAC's. This is where the big fuzz is right now as MQA want each DAC provider to pay MQA group for the DACs that are going to be MQA certified. There is a MQA light (blue?) that is enabled when the third level is unfolded on the DAC. Also MQA doesnt provide an MQA encoder for people around and DAC providers to actually test and review the MQA encoding/decoding process.
 
Personally I set my driver to 24/96 as I usually play those files from Foobar2000, and I also listen to some MQA on Tidal, and those times I listen to new content I end up with normal HIFI, but I dont bother to change to the 16bit version which the HIFI is.
 
@L8MDL, completely unnessasary comment as people need to ask if they dont fully understand things which is the sole purpose of forums right?