Mqa worth it in 2019

Music Talk
21

Gotta love DRM being sold as a higher quality format lol

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22

But Amazon doesn’t have exclusive mode, so there’s that. Do you trust Window’s mixer?

23

because Canada :man_shrugging:

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24

This may be changing soon. Members of this forum have commented their Amazon app now includes this option. It’s apparently a quiet and limited beta. But could conceivably go mainstream soon.

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25

:joy: LMAO. That sir belongs in the hifiguides forum quote “hall of fame.”

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26

eh mostly because i dont want to have all my stuff on amazon and qobuz doesn’t seem to fit me… plus tidal has a student version

27

@Nick_Mimi is by far the most quotable man on this forum. Or any other that I read, for that matter.

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28

From what i hear they will have it soon

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29

That’s a good thing!!

30

I would really like quobuz to come to Canada

31

Ditto man… that’ll be a good day

Mqa is a bit of a piss off

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32

It’s why I’m glad we at least get a 7digital store up here. Proper flac up 24 bit per album same price as physical release

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33

agreed… that and Bandcamp :+1:

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34

Here’s the thing with MQA - you only get 13 bits lossless. All the other data uses lossy compression. So in theory, you could get 9 db less dynamic range than 16/44.1 (though that’s unlikely in practice). To my ears, MQA prioritizes detail over dynamics. With with extremely dynamic transients, not only does MQA compress the impact a bit, but it leaves things sounding smeared in the time domain.

Earlier today, I compared the Tidal MQA of Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 1 with the vinyl pressing. My speakers are flat down to 25 Hz. Digital playback was via an Apogee Element 24 running at 192k. At the same volume, I could kind of feel the MQA transients in my chest a bit, but the vinyl version actually made furniture rattle across the room, and I could feel it through the floor. So clearly transient response and bass linearity are issues for MQA. However, the MQA also had a subtly veiled sound, and that is definitely not the fault of the Apogee interface which inherently has a very direct sound.

The main promise of MQA is that they require certain mastering standards. But in my opinion, just master it to that standard, and release it as full lossless PCM/FLAC/ALAC at 24/96 or higher.

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35

I also find that mqa also fails to recreate a sense of space that a traditional lossless does, it just doesn’t sound as spatially accurate

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36

I did notice a certain lack of ambiance and sparkle with MQA. But I’m starting to wonder how much of that is just Tidal. Even with Tidal Hi-Fi, some supposedly lossless streams just don’t sound as good as the CD release - rolled-off high-frequencies, lack of textural detail, etc.

37

I do think they mess with them master wise, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were slightly limited or had some normalization put in place

38

Like right now, comparing the Tidal Hi-Fi version of Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” with the Australian black CD pressing from 2005, the very first thing I noticed is that the tape hiss frequency on the CD is at least 1/2 octave higher than on Tidal. The differences in instrument timbres and textures is just stunning. I think Tidal may very well be doing something behind the scenes to try to save on the amount of data they transmit.

39

Well that was timely. My Amazon HD app updated this morning and it now has exclusive mode. It doesn’t seem to be actually taking control of my DAC, however. The bitrate on my DAC shows 192kHz (my Windows default setting) no matter the content. All other apps the DAC changes with the content. Any ideas?

40

My McBook pro is set at 24/768 most Amazon HD run 24/44.1 maybe I need reset the Mac?