Tidal Masters

[RoadDawgWest]

The Tidal streaming service now offers high resolution music stream using MQA (Meridian's technology).
Tidal Masters streams should be 24/96 versus 16/44
Currently only available on the desktop version of Tidal, and of course must be a subscriber to the HiFi package. If you are a subscriber Tidal Masters is offered at no Extra cost.
More information here:

[Madfloyd]

Interesting, thanks for the heads up.

[RoadDawgWest]

I took a quick look over my lunch break, and there appears to be about 200 titles so far.
I quickly tried my portable DAC with the PC Tidal application, but it does not appear to be working as expected.
If I understand MQA the 2L Norway title should playback at 24/352 if the DAC supports it. That did not happen, and I suspect it is user / configuration error.
I'm less familiar with playback on PCs, and will try on my MacBook Pro, or mini to see if I get different results.
Still promising.

[JCOConnell]

Of course you need to go out and buy a whole new MQA compatible DAC to get the benefit of the new signal.

[Dave Clark]

Not so. As I understand it, and have read elsewhere, the Tidal app will do its own MQA encoding if your dac is not MQA. Is an option in the Settings.

[Joe Pittman]

As you can see in the thread bellow, the Tidal app MQA conversion is only working with MAC at the moment. Tidal PC app does dot work yet, but apparently they are working on it.

[MylesBAstor]

Of course you need to go out and buy a whole new MQA compatible DAC to get the benefit of the new signal.

Isn't just a plug-in accessory required here?

[RoadDawgWest]

Of course you need to go out and buy a whole new MQA compatible DAC to get the benefit of the new signal.

I believe you are correct on the MQA DAC. I was under the impression the Tidal PC application would unwrap the files, and playback on the external DAC at 24/384.
You are correct if you are using a portable music player.
Let me see what more I can find out.

[Joe Pittman]

Check out http://tidal.com/us/masters

I've tried to find some of the albums at Tidal, but I'm not sure the albums are playing at hi-rez. I'll try hooking up one of my USB DAC's to the computer and see what is happening...

[RoadDawgWest]

Was able to hook up two different DAC (Grace M920 & LH Labs Geekout V2+) to a Mac mini (OS X 10.8+) with the Tidal application installed.
Both DACs tried are not MQA compatible, but I was able to get Tidal to connect to both DACs at 24/88 when playing various selected "Master" titles, but not at 24/96.
With the Mac mini it appears to be working as advertised with Tidal performing the software decoding.
There is a setting to enable MQA passthrough, but this would require an MQA compatible DAC.
Here is a screen capture of the Tidal HiFi/Master option, and DAC Settings



When enabling MQA Passthrough both DAC still produced audio, but the indicators switch to 16bit/44kHz

[JCOConnell]

I thought the MQA processing was hardware as well as software which is why you would need a MQA compatible DAC for decoding. No?

[rbbert]

No, not with the Tidal app

[JCOConnell]

then why cant roaddawgwest get anything other than 16/44.1 audio out when using regular dacs?

[Rhapsody]

I am using non MQA 24/96 Dacs and streaming the MQA files through an Aurender N10 and there is a substantial increase in SQ vs. the same albums that are non MQA.....in my system it is not subtle and I am totally surprised and appreciative of this new path that seems to have opened up....quite something in my opinion and this is without an MQA DAC at the moment.

Previously I have been VERY skeptical of MQA, but after experiencing what I have experienced with these first set of titles available on Tidal in my system I am now "a believer".

[RoadDawgWest]

Bob,
Was your DAC running at 24/96 or 24/88 with the MQA Tidal albums?
I did not really listen last evening with all the clicking around between Tidal settings, and trying out the two DACS, but I have to agree there was audible indications of better sound quality.
--Don

[RoadDawgWest]

It appears that Tidal added 100+ additional Master titles since yesterday.
Wonder how this is going to impact the Hi-Res download business?

[Rhapsody]

I am using non MQA 24/96 Dacs and streaming the MQA files through an Aurender N10 and there is a substantial increase in SQ vs. the same albums that are non MQA.....in my system it is not subtle and I am totally surprised and appreciative of this new path that seems to have opened up....quite something in my opinion and this is without an MQA DAC at the moment.

Previously I have been VERY skeptical of MQA, but after experiencing what I have experienced with these first set of titles available on Tidal in my system I am now "a believer".

Hi Don,

My 24/96 dacs are buried in my Goldmund active Satya speakers, so I cannot see what they are showing as with a display as on stand-alone dac's. I did run the songs through the MSB Select II which has a display but I did not see what the rate was.....I was too busy being amazed at the sound on both systems.

This is all new to me as of last night, so I know nothing about who's doing what to who, all I know is the sound is definitely different and better. I will know more in a few days after talking with the Aurender and MSB folks once they return from CES. It will all clear up soon.

[Rhapsody]

I just checked on my MSB Select II Non MQA DAC (at the moment as they are doing an upgrade) and when playing one of the Tidal MQA files through the Aurender I am getting 24/48K vs 16/44.K with the normal Tidal streaming files.

[Beaur]

Also did some experimenting. I have the Bel Canto 3.5 DAC. When playing the masters from the Tidal app or Roon the DAC reads 44.1. The DAC does change, when I play other Hi-Res files, to a higher sampling rate. While definitely not the last word I would tend to believe that to currently take advantage of MQA you will need some hardware that decodes the files. MQA's website also mentions this;http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/how-to-get-it. I know Roon has said they will be able to do it at some point in the future. I do not have HQ Player but it may be able to also. My Audirvana has lain dormant since Roon but they supposedly can also.

Given the above, you are going to need an MQA enabled DAC to fully implement this. Besides Meridian and Mytek what other DACs that are MQA compliant are out in the wild right now?

[Rhapsody]

MSB has the final beta MQA module at CES. Will be available for the MSB dacs shortly.

[RoadDawgWest]

I have not been able to get the Tidal PC application to work with my DACs. Therefore cannot get the benefit of the "Master" titles.
Reached out to Tidal support, and they informed they are aware of this issue. This issues has been reported mostly with the Tidal PC application, and very few or none with the Mac Tidal application. They did not provide any timing on the update to resolve this issue.

[Rhapsody]

Bummer......with the Aurender it's working great. I am sure they will fix the pc version soon.