Tidal Masters??

[bmwr75]

OBG mentioned Tidal Masters in a post the other day.

I checked out the web site and looks like it costs $20/month to gain access.

Somebody tell me more about Tidal Masters.  Just how good do the tracks sound?  Are they CD quality?  Is there any ability to download tracks to keep forever?

[schwarcw]

Greetings Scott!

I saw that.  Check out his link:  http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/175663/tidal-introduces-mqa/p3

A lot of discussion there.  I was at the Rocky Mountain Audiofest this year.  There Meridian people explained to us that the MQA format was originally conceived to slightly compress the files size to allow more hi-rez streaming of music over the internet in Europe.  The file compression and playback through their Meridian's player (MQA) showed some "improvement" in the SQ, which was not expected.  However, it's also being marketed to provide access to the "verified" masters through some certification.  There is a lot out there on this topic if you search.

My observations, I heard a difference in an A/B comparison.  But I don't know if it was better or just different.  I am going to watch this from the sidelines.  I do want to hear more MQA "masters" through their equipment.  I try to keep an open mind.

[papabearjew]

I already subscribe to TIDAL at $20/month and if I read correctly that will include this new technology though it's very limited at this point.

[bmwr75]

Thanks for the link.  I was unaware until now the Tidal Masters required an MQA enabled DAC to achieve the best sound.  Think I'll wait to see how this plays out.

[schwarcw]

I agree Scott probably good to watch this for a while.  The good news is that Tital is trying to find a way to stream Hi Rez files through their subscription service.  That is a good thing as the market is wide open for that service.  But will customers subscribe???

[OldiesButGoodies]

Craig (from headfi, Music to My Ears) and I spent two hours last Sunday at the cave comparing Tidal masters to the original recordings (both at Tidal and at Apple music) over various cans (Stax cans rule) and through the speakers (we used Fleetwood Mac Rumors as reference tracks, Audio.gd DAC 19).  Tidal masters sounded better both in terms of noise and some spatial sense that they somehow add (maybe using reverberation).  The noise floor was definitely lower,  as if the file had been DSP processed the subtract noise.  The notes (cymbals etc.) seem to linger a bit longer.   Overall I liked it.  Did I like it enough to justify the $20/month?  That is a tough subjective opinion (to me the great value-add by Tidal is the music videos,  but this masters thing is not bad),  but it is a nice feature.   

(Now I am going to click on the link Carl posted to see what the rest of the web thinks of Tidal masters)

[OldiesButGoodies]

Craig (from headfi, Music to My Ears) and I spent two hours last Sunday at the cave comparing Tidal masters to the original recordings (both at Tidal and at Apple music) over various cans (Stax cans rule) and through the speakers (we used Fleetwood Mac Rumors as reference tracks, Audio.gd DAC 19).  Tidal masters sounded better both in terms of noise and some spatial sense that they somehow add (maybe using reverberation).  The noise floor was definitely lower,  as if the file had been DSP processed the subtract noise.  The notes (cymbals etc.) seem to linger a bit longer.   Overall I liked it.  Did I like it enough to justify the $20/month?  That is a tough subjective opinion (to me the great value-add by Tidal is the music videos,  but this masters thing is not bad),  but it is a nice feature.   

(Now I am going to click on the link Carl posted to see what the rest of the web thinks of Tidal masters)

Read the Polk forum article.  Don't understand: I listened to the masters tracks through Craig's Audio.gd DAC 19 (2009 vintage?) and my M2Tech Young DSD DAC (recent) - neither was designed for MQA decoding - yet the  tracks played fine and sounded great (and different/improved from the regular versions,  also in Tidal, tracking with the comments on SQ mentioned in the forum).  Is the iMac doing the MQA decoding in the app?  [maybe that is what one of the Polk forum posters implied].  Seems like you get the masters benefit without needing an MQA-compatible DAC (like the Meridian).