Master Streaming is here! More on the way!

[dtsequoia]

TIDAL is the first to offer master quality streaming (96khz/24bit)(TIDAL.com, 2017). Apparently others are inbound (TheVerge.com, 2017).

Great reason to have great equipment!

http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/5/14171748/tidal-master-level-recordings-high-res-audio-hifi

https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000397069-TIDAL-MASTERS

[sludgeogre]

Yet another branding exercise that requires you to buy new equipment. It doesn't make sense. I still think this is going to fail just like SACD and DSD did. A good Schiit DAC and Ascend speakers paired with a proper amp is all you need in this world.

[dtsequoia]

I guess... However, the market population that this is going to appeal to is the population that you, I and the most that peruse this forum belong to. I don't think many of us would need to buy any new equipment to make the most of this new service.

[Mag_Neato]

For current Tidal Hi-Fi subscribers there is no change/increase to your account, but you can only access the Master titles via the desktop application. Since I only access Tidal via their iPhone app I would, consequently, have to purchase a laptop to take advantage of this.

[dtsequoia]

For current Tidal Hi-Fi subscribers there is no change/increase to your account, but you can only access the Master titles via the desktop application. Since I only access Tidal via their iPhone app I would, consequently, have to purchase a laptop to take advantage of this.

Currently, but TIDAL mentioned that they are working on porting it to the mobile app soon. And yes, for current subscribers of the HIFI service, Master is free. I mean, I would never buy a laptop for that, lol. I certainly agree with both of you there (if that is what you were referring to Sludge). But, the silver lining in my original post is that other streaming services are planning on upgrading their quality. To MQA? I don't know. But, I am hoping for lossless in the least for services like Pandora or Spotify. I am sure this push by TIDAL will force other services to upgrade, which benefits all of us audiophiles!

[mikesiskav]

Although I don't use Tidal, I do use an HTPC for nearly everything in my system. My HTPC is pretty high end, but for someone who is looking for something small and inexpensive, something like this could do:

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC5i5RYH-Processor-2-5-Inch-Support/dp/B00SD9IS1S/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1483735470&sr=1-7&keywords=intel+nuc

[enricoclaudio]

I was checking TIDAL Masters and there are some interesting albums. I had to update the desktop application before have access to the MASTERS tab. I did an A/B comparison between MASTERS and HIFI and it's very hard to tell the difference. At least not noticeable with my Dynaudio studio monitors.

[dtsequoia]

Although I don't use Tidal, I do use an HTPC for nearly everything in my system. My HTPC is pretty high end, but for someone who is looking for something small and inexpensive, something like this could do:

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC5i5RYH-Processor-2-5-Inch-Support/dp/B00SD9IS1S/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1483735470&sr=1-7&keywords=intel+nuc

Man that thing is cool.

[sludgeogre]

For the Tidal application, you don't need a new DAC, because they are converting it to PCM before it hits your computer, so that begs the question, why even bother with MQA at all? It's just a marketing tool at this point for them.

For what Meridian wants to do, you'll need a DAC that claims MQA compatibility. They have been trying to get manufacturers on board, but because of what happened with DSD, no one is biting, so I think they reversed their approach with Tidal and just made it a server side implementation, but since it's coming to your computer in PCM anyway, I don't see how it can make a single bit of difference.

Schiit has an incredible breakdown of why MQA is a huge mistake for the industry: http://schiit.com/news/news/why-we-wont-be-supporting-mqa

I think their best point is the first one, what MQA is trying to demand. We've seen this before, and it's just people elbowing their way into the market, trying to demand that they get market share because of their technology, when it doesn't really solve anything in the first place.

I'm all for these services giving out better quality, but the way to do that is the Hi-Fi approach that Tidal has taken, with better PCM streams. MQA is just another way to squeeze money out of people while giving them no benefit and just buzzwords.

[enricoclaudio]

OK I just discovered that you have to make some setting changes that were not available before to get real 96khz/24bit. You have to go to TIDAL/Settings and make a change on the audio interface as follow:

1409

1410

[dtsequoia]

OK I just discovered that you have to make some setting changes that were not available before to get real 96khz/24bit. You have to go to TIDAL/Settings and make a change on the audio interface as follow:

1409

1410

Thanks Enrico. I was just sending it out by setting my output to 96khz/24bit via toslink in audio MIDI setup. Setting it to exclusive (as you have shown) and looking at the audio input on my receiver; exclusive mode does in fact change the output from my iMac based on the media being listened to. The Beach House album I was listening to was at 88.2khz, then I switched to M83 Junk and that is showing 96Khz.

[MJP]

It's sort of annoying that they don't actually tell you which version of the album is the master version. Usually the second, but seem to need to hit play to confirm. On my system, it's sort of a mute point though, both sound similar and niether Hifi nor master sounds as clean as a cd from my old onkyo CD player. Probably some combination of streaming, conversions and the likely cheap soundboard in my laptop. I think it is good though, if there is a "better" than cd streaming option, maybe it will at least pressure other providers to go lossless. Spotify sounds like junk compared to tidal, but tidal is expensive, so would be nice to have another option....

[enricoclaudio]

It's sort of annoying that they don't actually tell you which version of the album is the master version. Usually the second, but seem to need to hit play to confirm. On my system, it's sort of a mute point though, both sound similar and niether Hifi nor master sounds as clean as a cd from my old onkyo CD player. Probably some combination of streaming, conversions and the likely cheap soundboard in my laptop. I think it is good though, if there is a "better" than cd streaming option, maybe it will at least pressure other providers to go lossless. Spotify sounds like junk compared to tidal, but tidal is expensive, so would be nice to have another option....

I have two daughters in college so I take advantage of the student discount so I pay $9.99 for TIDAL HiFi. I agree that for $20 is expensive, though.

[Wadia171i]

Here is a list of MQA titles please add and please correct anything that is wrong. I hear a quite substantial difference in MQA. Also if you don't have a MQA dac let the software unfold the master. Meaning do not turn MQA passthrough this allows software to do unfolding then you should hear a difference it's also based on quality of recording you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig. . When you have a MQA dac then set to passthrough so dac unfolds.
Enjoy https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10VtON9VjMAt3uyHC2-Oo2MjIa3orv9DKZfwiRQKmTAA/htmlview#

[bkdc]

24-bit/96kHz does not sound any better than 16-bit/44.1kHz to most human ears even with the most expensive equipment. If you don't believe it, perform an A/B test after you resample your 24-bit 192kHz high res files to 16/44.1 and see if you don't score 50:50.

24-bit 96/kHz or 24-bit/192kHz does allow a lot more "headroom" to perform the mastering and mixing.

The most important factor in audio quality of the source material is the original recording and mastering. This involves exquisite attention to detail of mic placement, room acoustics, and mastering. Nothing will revive a pop-rock album that has been overprocessed and had the natural-sounding life squeezed out of it through mixing and processing.

Almost any modern redbook CD audio file from a studio that cares about sound quality (Sonos Luminus, Stockfisch records, etc) will sound infinitely better than a mainstream pop song in hi-res audio.

[kelseyj]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I am too curious. Will some recording tools like Audacity, or so called Audfree Tidal Converter be able to save the Master quality of a song?