Sounds good dbtom. Thanks.
Tidal - offering MQA
Showing 17 responses by tomcy6
kalali, I have a Node 2. I have the Tidal and BluOS apps on my desktop and my Android tablet. I stream to the Node 2 via WiFi. I check the Tidal app on my desktop to see what albums are MQA encoded. I can then select that album in the BluOS app on my desktop or on my tablet and it will usually play the MQA version but sometimes it selects the cd version. I guess they haven’t deleted all the cd versions of albums they have listed in MQA. I have the Node 2 plugged into my cd player’s DAC and it verifies that it’s getting a 96 khz stream. It looks like they’re rolling this out pretty fast, so I’d take advantage. The Bluesound website has forums if you have problems. |
grannyring, I suggest getting the Tidal app on your desktop, go to the homepage, in the Albums section there is a link above the album art called Masters, click on that to see what albums they’ve got in MQA and you should be able to select the album in Roon and play it. I’m not sure about that last part as I don’t have Roon. |
dbtom, Are you using the Apple Tidal app? I can find Settings, the Streaming tab and it's set to HiFi/Master but no output device or gear icons. I'm using Windows on my desktop. mtrot, you can sign up for 30 days free. I think they were running a 90 day promotion around Christmas I don't know if they still are. As cymbop says, they've got a lot of albums. Probably not everything you'd want to hear but enough to keep you busy for a long time. |
dbtom, I think you'll have to go to the MQA site and read up to really understand it, but basically MQA is a lossless format that allows hi-res files (96/24) to be streamed in a package the size of cd quality files and reconstructed by an MQA decoder without loss of quality. Apparently the artist or the record label (they wouldn't lie to us would they?) signs off that the coded/decoded file is Master Quality. MQA says that you will get an improvement in sound quality without an MQA DAC, but more of an improvement with an MQA DAC. Time will tell, but so far my ears say there is an improvement. |
Just some informal preliminary observations. I compared the cd quality and MQA versions of Joni Mitchell’s song Court and Spark streamed over Wifi from Tidal through the $500 Bluesound Node 2. The rest of my system is higher quality components and is revealing. I could not switch quickly between cd and MQA. I listened to the song in one format then went to my desktop and switched to the other format and listened to the song again. I listened to each format twice. In MQA Joni’s voice and the cymbal behind her sounded more natural and clear. The sound was more 3d as opposed to a flatter 2d presentation in cd quality. I’m not a trained listener or musician and the Bluesound is not the highest quality streamer. Doing A/B comparisons gives me a headache and I don’t enjoy doing them. Prior to MQA I found that a cd sounded better than that same cd streamed from Tidal through the Node 2. Maybe I'll do the same comparison with MQA. So the difference to me is not jaw dropping, maybe with a better streaming setup it would be, but I will definitely use MQA when I sit down to just listen. |
kalali, your last post confused me a little. My understanding is that the DAC in the Node 2 is MQA-enabled. If you use the analog outs on the Node 2 (i.e.use the Node 2’s DAC), you get full MQA unfolding. If you use the digital out on the Node 2 connected to a DAC that is not MQA-enabled, you get MQA Core, which is limited to 96/24 and is not fully unfolded (i.e. you do not get the full MQA benefit to sound quality). I don’t know how great the difference is between MQA Core and full MQA unfolding, especially on Tidal streamed files. I also think that because the Node 2 costs $500, it probably doesn't have the highest quality DAC and the benefit of using the digital out to a higher quality DAC may exceed the benefit of full unfolding of the MQA stream. What do you think? Here is the link to the Audiostream explanation of MQA decoding: http://www.audiostream.com/content/mqa-decoding-explained#W7YtStJMR56xKvhO.97 |
I don't want to spoil the fun but this is from Tidal's support topics: What will it cost? We are introducing this to all TIDAL HiFi members at no additional charge. |
Can anyone tell me how to add MQA albums to the list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10VtON9VjMAt3uyHC2-Oo2MjIa3orv9DKZfwiRQKmTAA/htmlview# I found a couple by Rory Block not on the list. |
Here is a link to the albums on Tidal that are MQA encoded: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10VtON9VjMAt3uyHC2-Oo2MjIa3orv9DKZfwiRQKmTAA/htmlview# Some, but not a lot of jazz. |