Topic: Anyone use Tidal to access MQA music?

[heathen]

I've literally seen nothing but grudgingly great reviews.

There is a LOT of actual objective technical information (not just subjective claims and marketing BS) about MQA here: http://archimago.blogspot.com/

And if you want specific links, check these out: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/reviews/mqa-a-review-of-controversies-concerns-and-cautions-r701/ and http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/10/mqa-final-final-comment-simply-put-why.html and http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/09/mqa-core-vs-hi-res-blind-test-part-ii.html

Consider this objective information, or don't.  Your choice.  And that's the last I'll say on the subject in this thread.

[MakersMarc]

Thanks for the info. I'm out.

[MakersMarc]

Just got done listening to Physical Graffiti cd quality, then the MQA.

My player isn’t done burning in but it’s night and day to me, MQA wins to my ears. Resolution is amazing.

[MakersMarc]

Hearing ABB 71 Fillmore East just jaw dropping.—

[frostdotcom]

How is mqa going to be better than uncompressed? MQA starts with uncompressed and compresses it in a way thats better than mp3 but still lossy.  how is it going to improve the cd you have?

[MakersMarc]

Just sounds better. Better than cd. To me.

[frostdotcom]

i guess if taking the same uncompressed track and throwing away some data sounds better to you then it does but at best its not worse in terms of how this stuff all works.  Glad your enjoying music tho, as thats whats important.

[beroti_music]

Old topic, but still relevant.
Tidal ditched lossy and is now fully lossless plus its cheaper than spotify. Needles to say, I switched from spotify to tidal.
With my DAP and headphones (see signature) the sound quality really is super good. So good that I started selling all my cds and vinyl and will never look to buy physical copies again.
How about you guys? Do you prefer streaming or owning your music? Or maybe both. And why?

[Thelonious]

I’m interested in what others are doing as well.

I still have a NAS and curate my own library. This could be my CDs I ripped years ago, vinyl (all analog, often specific pressings) that I record to hi res and, of course, live shows.

For the longest time I found steaming pretty poor quality. I still use YouTube Music for steaming it a Bluetooth speaker on a gold course, but I almost never stream to my home playback system. I did try Amazon Music for a while, which supports lossless and hi res playback, and I did find it to be very good quality for a new hi res release (Gillian Welch and Davi Rawlings Woodlands is a great example of a really good sounding new release in hi res). I’ve also tried Apple Music in the past.

My issue is no longer about the technical capability of streaming itself, it’s more about the mastering of the files. Apple masters sound genuinely different than the same song on other services in many cases. They are optimized to leverage the “special audio” and, I suspect, some of their hardware which is still primnluetooth dependent.

I recently cancelled my Amazon music (again) not because of the quality of the service, but because I still need to have a NAS for my live recordings and I don’t trust any service to maintain a library of old jazz and blues albums that are far from mainstream. I also like selecting vinyl pressings, for the mastering rather than the resolution level, of many albums (Beatles albums are an example where these vary significantly between releases) and I don’t want to trust any service Apple or Amazon to curate these on my behalf.

I get that maintaining a NAS, and turntable set up, is really a HUGE hassle and makes little sense for most people. That said, for critical listening, I still want control over my sources even though I believe that the technical quality of strezming is now sufficient.

I am using decent external DACs, headphones and playback systems as well. That said, the difference in a mastering can be heard on even a decent Bluetooth speaker.

[beroti_music]

Valid point! I still have my own library as well with cd and vinyl rips. Before selling, I rip the cd (or in some cases vinyl) if I really want to keep a digital copy of it. And of of course my tapes.
I dont have a NAS yet. Just hard discs.

[Thelonious]

Yep, and I totally get the case for streaming and it certainly has come a long way.

The NAS is super helpful as I use WIIM streamers throughout the house and a "Musicstreamer" app on my iphone and, between those playback devices, I'm pretty happy with the ecosystem. However, in addition to the cost of purchasing and maintaining a NAS, there is a processing of anything I download (from kickdown for example) where I need to set up the metadata, etc. as both the streamers and the app are finicky about how they catalog the library. That said, the ability to access anything in my library from any of my devices, without looking for a specific drive, is very helpful.

[heathen]

How about you guys? Do you prefer streaming or owning your music? Or maybe both. And why?

I prefer owning because music is important enough to me that I don't want to rely on someone else for it (not to mention relying on an internet connection).  Also I've seen stuff get pulled from streaming services so I know there's no guarantee that what's on there today will still be there tomorrow.  These days the vast majority of my music purchases are downloads, and any CDs I buy get ripped to my HDD, so my playback is always coming from a computer at some point.