Tidal Masters & MQA Thread!

[rkw]

9. Album information with credits, better on Tidal. Allows you to find other albums by same mastering engineer, individual musician, etc.

I have both Tidal and Qobuz. They look equivalent to me for credit information details and searchability (e.g. mastering engineer), just that UI/UX steps to get to the result are different.

4. UI is better in Tidal and UX is better in Tidal.

Not for classical music (my primary listening). For example, Tidal lists everything as individual tracks, whereas Qobuz will group tracks under a primary work (e.g. movements of a symphony).

2. Playlist downloading and caching in iOS allows listening to CD and HiRes on-the-go, in your car, etc., without using any data on your mobile plan.

Both Tidal and Qobuz can do this on mobile apps. Qobuz also has offline capability on the desktop app (not on Tidal).

 

[Powermankw]

Are you streaming through the desktop app or the tidal connect?

Because tidal connect don't have access to the hi res files yet....it still streams mqa.

I also could not believe that they launched the hi res Flac marketing and left out almost every streamer....considering that streamers usually use tidal connect.

Tidal keeps disappointing....only if Qobuz was available in my country....

I use Aurender. I'm not entirely sure what their Tidal add on is. What ever it is there is a fee, but mine already had it loaded (used). It's not tidal connect. I have used it with roon and volumio and others. I am actually very happy with Aurender app... Except figuring out how to stop the the damn que from playing.

 

[Powermankw]

Remember that MQA format is "folded" so when it says 44kHZ or 48kHz you're likely getting 88, 96, 176, or 192 kHz.

For all the little gripes, Tidal is still better than Qobuz in my opinion. Why I hold this opinion:
1. I'd much prefer having an MQA on Tidal than not having the track at all on Qobuz. Musical selection is better in Tidal. MQA isn't bad and indeed I find it better than 16/44 CD quality and competitively close with 24/192 HiRes. (This is generally true but note: variation does exists between individual tracks.)

2. Playlist downloading and caching in iOS allows listening to CD and HiRes on-the-go, in your car, etc., without using any data on your mobile plan.
2a. Listening to uncached HiRes music over a mobile plan uses far less data and can be done with less bars/reception/bandwidth.

3. Playlists and collections are better in Tidal. Adding, removing, sharing, managing: generally better.

4. UI is better in Tidal and UX is better in Tidal.

5. Track radio is better in Tidal: Finding similar music based on an individual track.

6. Multiple Custom Mix playlists based on genres you are observed to like, are better in Tidal. Same for "Suggested New Tracks" and "Suggested New Albums" and "Recently Played", "My Most Listened", and even the track- and discography histories of what you listened to each month of the year. Not counting their Explore page--which I don't use--there are literally about 11 different ways and angles to explore music based on history and suggestions in Tidal.

7. Following an Artist and getting their New Release notifications. It's better in Tidal.

8. Multiple masters/remasters/versions of same album, better on Tidal.

9. Album information with credits, better on Tidal. Allows you to find other albums by same mastering engineer, individual musician, etc.

10. Tidal allows easier switching between exclusive mode for bitperfect and non-exclusive mode for allowing software EQ.

With all that said, I don't want to invalidate the politically correct "mainstream audiophile opinion" about why Qobuz is better. I just find that those opinions focus a LOT on smaller reasons and gripes while ignoring all the larger reasons above, for why Tidal is quite competitive and arguably better than Qobuz.

All subjective preferences... Which is all it usually is. I am not a whore for either and have had both for as long as I streamed. Tidal tends to have more of what I want to listen to... But there is stuff on Qobuz not on tidal... And I don't listen to rap or classical.

I have never found any differences in sound quality between the two and my system is certainly more than capable.

I never gave a crap about MQA because I have never had any data or storage woes. I don't like the voo doo box and their misrepresentations are more than obvious. I DO like that the fact artists get more money from tidal... "IF" they are being truthful about that... But I don't hate Tidal either... Except the latest melt down. I continue to use it regularly. But if they don't get this nonsense straightened out soon, I'm finally out.

Qobuz... What's to debate. No drama, no wild claims, no proprietary voo doo... They just stream quality hi res music for the same cost. And I rarely use either app alone. It's all thru a streamer. I do listen from the apps in my vehicle, but I just listen to play lists.

Preferences matter to users, but they don't make one superior. Tidal is a big kid on the block, but I appriciate no drama with qobuz. I have yet to drop either.

 

[Lexxie]

The Tidal client does the initial unfold and will then output 88.2khz if you are indeed playing MQA. If your DAC is showing 44.1khz you're playing 44.1khz. (The '2nd/3rd unfold' don't actually exist and are instead just MQA's chosen oversampling filter

Thanks for clarifying. I was referring to the output shown on the computer end. (My DAC doesn't have a fancy LED screen). I can see my comment was ambiguous now. But the two observations together now create a complete picture for those of us trying to get a grip on understanding all this stuff.

 

[Maxpain]

Tidal desktop app does nothing to the stream if you set it up correctly. Otherwise, passthrough MQA wouldn't work. Passthrough MQA does work, it's a proof the Tidal app does not do anything to the stream.

Also, most streamers do not use Tidal Connect. Most streamers have their own apps. Tidal Connect was an attempt to replace the streamer's UI but it is kind of a dumb idea, since the streamer UI can play from multiple services while Tidal cannot.

It certainly sounds different than tidal connect.....I first noticed when I tried Roon....

Roon also has its own UI for tidal....I was playing from the same source of course (my laptop) and they were sounding different. Tidal has some options that can also change the sound like the "Normalize volume'' which is audibly and clear changing the sound...but ''force volume'' and ''exclusive mode'' but I allways had those disabled.

I can't comment about mqa...I have also read stuff over the internet that hifi tier (Flac) is also mqa tagged differently. I don't really know about that stuff so I can't say anything about it.

For me tidal connect was very useful because the zen stream doesn't have its own UI so it's either tidal connect or how else would I use it?

 

[gimmeheadroom]

It certainly sounds different than tidal connect.....I first noticed when I tried Roon....

Roon also has its own UI for tidal....I was playing from the same source of course (my laptop) and they were sounding different. Tidal has some options that can also change the sound like the "Normalize volume'' which is audibly and clear changing the sound...but ''force volume'' and ''exclusive mode'' but I allways had those disabled.

I can't comment about mqa...I have also read stuff over the internet that hifi tier (Flac) is also mqa tagged differently. I don't really know about that stuff so I can't say anything about it.

For me tidal connect was very useful because the zen stream doesn't have its own UI so it's either tidal connect or how else would I use it?

If you don't have force volume and exclusive mode, I'm not surprised it doesn't sound like it should. Those have to be on or it's not bit-perfect.

 

[Maxpain]

If you don't have force volume and exclusive mode, I'm not surprised it doesn't sound like it should. Those have to be on or it's not bit-perfect.

I mean I had disabled the normalise volume not the exclusive mode.

Exclusive mode is suppose to bypass the os mixer I think? Force volume wouldn't mater if you keep volume at 100%.


I tried really hard to get optimal experience with the tidal desktop app...its just tidal connect sounds better. Not talking night and day but noticeable better for me at least.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I mean I had disabled the normalise volume not the exclusive mode.

Sounds right

Exclusive mode is suppose to bypass the os mixer I think? Force volume wouldn't mater if you keep volume at 100%.

Yes, you want to bypass Windows mixer. Most desktop apps don't allow it, as far as I know only Tidal and Qobuz (the latter is not available here)

I think force volume should help, I wouldn't trust the volume adjustment.

I tried really hard to get optimal experience with the tidal desktop app...its just tidal connect sounds better. Not talking night and day but noticeable better for me at least.

It's hard to know without knowing your exact setup. I didn't want to have 3 desktop apps for each of the three streaming services I use, 2 of which don't have bit-perfect anyway. So I have two Bluesound boxes and one MusicCast. They both allow me to control streams from multiple services over one UI which is pretty nice, and they're bit-perfect. For me it takes a lot of the aggravation out of streaming.

 

[Maxpain]

t's hard to know without knowing your exact setup. I didn't want to have 3 desktop apps for each of the three streaming services I use, 2 of which don't have bit-perfect anyway. So I have two Bluesound boxes and one MusicCast. They both allow me to control streams from multiple services over one UI which is pretty nice, and they're bit-perfect. For me it takes a lot of the aggravation out of streaming.

My setup before zen stream was my An Asus laptop connected to a ZEN DAC signature with usb. I used Tidal windows desktop app and Roon. Roon did work fine but no way I am going to pay what they are asking for software....

 

[gimmeheadroom]

How does the zenstream work if it doesn't have app support for streaming services? I didn't understand what you wrote a few posts ago.

I don't blame you on not buying roon. I hated it anyway, a week or two into a free trial I ditched it.

 

[Maxpain]

How does the zenstream work if it doesn't have app support for streaming services? I didn't understand what you wrote a few posts ago.

I don't blame you on not buying roon. I hated it anyway, a week or two into a free trial I ditched it.

I use tidal connect to stream from tidal.

Roon was ok but 15 euros for a player? Even with the eq effects and everything.....it's way overpriced....it costs as much as tidal which actually contains all the music!

I would have buy it if it was reasonable...but they was charging like 700 euros if I remember well.....I mean....foobar is free....anyway....

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Yeah foobar is great. All roon is is a crappy UI to your own music. And it requires all the music to be tagged which is a total fail.

 

[Lexxie]

 

[Lexxie]

Woo hoo, now if we could click or hover over it to see the sample rate, wouldn't that be nice?

 

[BS5711]

Yes, seems to be on all platforms at once, iOS and Windows working fine.

The Android app had a pop up saying this feature was available but it doesn’t seem to be working, might need a restart ?