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Is MQA in your Future?

botrytis said:
TIDAL ONLY DOES PARTIAL UNFOLDING. In order to get the 2nd unfold and full MQA affect, you need both a new DAC and Software. What don't you understand about that?

Tidal even said that. Also explained here.https://www.audiostream.com/content/mqa-decoding-explained

So you are really not listening to the FULL high res MQA with tidal unless you have the DAC.
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There is no other software to buy or download.

Tidal, whether it’s the app on your computer or your phone, is the software required and you’re using it anyway to do your streaming (and it’s free). It does the first unfold and passes it onto your DAC. If your DAC can’t unfold further it just reads it as a FLAC since it sits inside a FLAC container. It it’s MQA certified, the DAC will complete the full unfold.

In fact, I get a full unfold and I don’t even use the Tidal app. The BluOS app that I use to control my Bluesound Powernode 2 does all the work.
 
IPADave said:
The little blue MQA light. It's just a flag that gets set in the file. How hard do you think it is to set that flag regardless of the source of the master. The master could be anything, once it goes through the MQA encoding the flag can be set.

-dave
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Haha, you guys are a cynical bunch! :)
 
tubeyea said:
Just for the record, normal hi-rez file don’t sound bad on my MQA capable dac, they sound great.
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Glad you decided to stick around! Yes, I think either probably sounds good on most systems including mine. There is probably the issue of peoples systems here and what sort of detail it is capable of delivering, as well as hearing and room acoustics. If I didn't get the feeling this thing was being shoved up our collective butts, and then someday having to pay another middleman for any new music out there I would not care in the slightest whether MQA survives and was being used or not.

I just don't feel the need to pay royalties for something that at best really either does nothing, or makes the music sound worse on non-MQA DAC's. If that is true, and it would not surprise me for a big company bent on getting MQA to payback investors, to say it is "backwards compatible" and then have it come out in the blogs that your MQA files will sound worse unless you pony up.. There are so many possible hooks on this thing, for something that at best doesn't do anything that a 24/192 FLAC file will, my impulse is to kill it before it gains a foothold! That is mainly why I am opposed to it.
 
MQA partners, AudioQuest, CanEVER Audio, dCS, Esoteric, IAG, Krell, Lumin, Mark Levinson, MOON by Simaudio, Pro-Ject Audio Systems, TEAC, Wadax.

Audiolab and Quad are aiming to launch several produc
Alobar said:
Glad you decided to stick around! Yes, I think either probably sounds good on most systems including mine. There is probably the issue of peoples systems here and what sort of detail it is capable of delivering, as well as hearing and room acoustics. If I didn't get the feeling this thing was being shoved up our collective butts, and then someday having to pay another middleman for any new music out there I would not care in the slightest whether MQA survives and was being used or not.

I just don't feel the need to pay royalties for something that at best really either does nothing, or makes the music sound worse on non-MQA DAC's. If that is true, and it would not surprise me for a big company bent on getting MQA to payback investors, to say it is "backwards compatible" and then have it come out in the blogs that your MQA files will sound worse unless you pony up.. There are so many possible hooks on this thing, for something that at best doesn't do anything that a 24/192 FLAC file will, my impulse is to kill it before it gains a foothold! That is mainly why I am opposed to it.
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I have no intention of ever buying a MQA file, it’s simply a streaming method to get a full gallon file in a 1/2 gallon container.
 
Rex81 said:
There is no other software to buy or download.

Tidal, whether it’s the app on your computer or your phone, is the software required and you’re using it anyway to do your streaming (and it’s free). It does the first unfold and passes it onto your DAC. If your DAC can’t unfold further it just reads it as a FLAC since it sits inside a FLAC container. It it’s MQA certified, the DAC will complete the full unfold.

In fact, I get a full unfold and I don’t even use the Tidal app. The BluOS app that I use to control my Bluesound Powernode 2 does all the work.
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But you aren't getting the full MQA benefit with the 'deblurring'/time domain filtering which can only be done in an MQA DAC.
 
Erik Tracy said:
But you aren't getting the full MQA benefit with the 'deblurring'/time domain filtering which can only be done in an MQA DAC.
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I am, actually. I use a Bluesound Powernode 2. All Bluesound products are 100% MQA compatible. The best part is I was using Tidal and Bluesound products before they introduced MQA capability. It's all a bonus to me.
 
Rex81 said:
I am, actually. I use a Bluesound Powernode 2. All Bluesound products are 100% MQA compatible. The best part is I was using Tidal and Bluesound products before they introduced MQA capability. It's all a bonus to me.
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Cool.

I just wanted to be the 'broken record' here to point out that claimed MQA benefits are multifaceted - it is not only the software 'origami' folding/unfolding.
 
tubeyea said:
MQA partners, AudioQuest, CanEVER Audio, dCS, Esoteric, IAG, Krell, Lumin, Mark Levinson, MOON by Simaudio, Pro-Ject Audio Systems, TEAC, Wadax.

Audiolab and Quad are aiming to launch several produc


I have no intention of ever buying a MQA file, it’s simply a streaming method to get a full gallon file in a 1/2 gallon container.
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Buying or renting, you are still paying for it although the price is currently disguised under the radar of Tidal Hi Rez, sort of. But it seems like a certain, and quite possibly large portion of that extra $10 a month must be going to Meridian.. Wouldn't it be nice for Tidal to just stream CD or 24/96 and forget about all the whop la? Well I think so anyway. Of course if you are happy paying for what should be free, I'm cool with that!
 
Alobar said:
Buying or renting, you are still paying for it although the price is currently disguised under the radar of Tidal Hi Rez, sort of. But it seems like a certain, and quite possibly large portion of that extra $10 a month must be going to Meridian.. Wouldn't it be nice for Tidal to just stream CD or 24/96 and forget about all the whop la? Well I think so anyway. Of course if you are happy paying for what should be free, I'm cool with that!
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But you see, I don’t pay an extra $10 because of my military discount so try again. I also was an early adopter of Tidal so my price didn’t rise when they went live with the master gig.
 
E-Stat said:
Sorry, but I have no idea what you're asking. I merely observe facts.

I own quite a bit of music and subscribe to both Sirius XM and Tidal HIFI for exposing me to new content.


Which is what Quobuz does in Europe and will soon do here in the states. They stream 24/192 lossless.
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That is one I will be looking into then. Beings that streaming hi rez uses a fraction of the data used for watching on demand TV, bandwidth, even here in my remote local where we are often way behind, it has caught up enough to where streaming music is immaterial. And guess what, bandwidth is only going to become more plentiful!
 
tubeyea said:
But you see, I don’t pay an extra $10 because of my military discount so try again. I also was an early adopter of Tidal so my price didn’t rise when they went live with the master gig.
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That's cool, and I am glad that they are giving a military discount too..
 
[Mod Edit]

Yes, I like streaming, but I’ve been buying records since the early 70’s, never quit, I can tour the banana music warehouse on a whim, 20 minutes away. I buy other hi-Rez content as well and still have a reel to reel. Sure I like streaming, it’s a no brainer.
 
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tubeyea said:
I have no intention of ever buying a MQA file, it’s simply a streaming method to get a full gallon file in a 1/2 gallon container.
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That's a benefit to the streaming provider -- more deliveries per bandwidth dollar/pound/yen/whatever, and/or less bandwidth per delivery -- and perhaps to bandwidth-limited consumers, though bandwidth always improves over time[1], which renders that benefit rather marginal over losslessly compressed delivery.

I'm assuming it's taken as given that lossless formats are inherently superior to equivalent lossy formats. I understand MQA is lossy, though psychoacoustically tuned to sound good?

The benefit to the promoters to promote it -- like audio magazines -- is obvious: they're paid to promote it.

What's the benefit to the content producer? Copy protection? Reduced storage requirements?

--
[1] E.g., I'm in an area that was promised to "never" get broadband. Then we got broadband. Then promised to "never" get high speed broadband and we got high speed broadband -- all in less than a decade.
 
[Moderation Note]: This thread has been closed, cleaned up from thread-crapping and interpersonal swipes. Debate is fine. Interpersonal back-and-forths are not. You can disagree without being disrespectful.

Play nice folks. It will be easier to close the thread and issue timeouts, than to have to take the time it took to clean up this mess. That will be the approach next time.

Thread re-opened for business...

Rich P
 
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Thanks for the clean up!

I'm a Tidal HIFI/MASTER subscriber, but honestly I wish they would simply stream high resolution lossless content like Quobuz.
 
Like I said before, we should be thankful we live in a time that we can choose from so many different formats of music whether it be basic Quality streaming or the highest quality streaming, we can choose and that's a freedom and right that we have. I don't know about everyone else but im very thankful that I'm alive in these times to see all of these new changes in technology, it makes me even more thankful that I lived in the times when we were so limited. Enjoy the music and happy listening :thumbsup:

Audiofreak71
 
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