New TIDAL tiers and MQA

Network Audio
42

MQA is an abomination just like GMO foods and should be avoided like the plague.

2 Likes
43

If I listen to MQA while eating my GMO foods does it cancel out and make both good? See, my mother (who is not an audiophile so Iā€™m not sure she should be trusted) told me that two wrongs donā€™t make a rightā€¦ but my maths teacher said two negatives do make a positive so Iā€™m confused as to who I should believe (I donā€™t think my teacher was an audiophile either).

5 Likes
44

I do avoid it like the plague.

45

Yeah, if you take a perfect cereal box, and fill it with crap, then seal it, once it is bought and taken come and opened, itā€™s still crap that you take out of it.

46

Digital has become good enough in 2021. Even AAC lossy from Apple benefits tremendously from:

  1. better speakers that fit and match room acoustics best (no way I am turning our living room into a recording studio)
  2. matching amplifier to the speakers
  3. looks of the system
  4. analog source
  5. cables

The reasons I donā€™t care for MQA at all, is that Vinyl, CDs, Internet radio, AAC and ALAC offer me all music I really need. These formats are so good that I can clearly hear differences in good and poor recording / mastering.

I tried DSD titles on the DSD compatible Stellar Gain Cell DAC, it sounds good, but it sounds good because Blue Coast Music knows how to record and master like Guss Skinnas does. Fact is that I can hardly or not hear the difference between de FLAC and ALAC transcoded DSD file or DSD itself. Transcoding performed either by DSD Master on iMac or the BlueSound Vault2 (into FLAC).
Conclusion: services that offer native recorded high res, not the upsampled stuff, seem to really invest in good recordings and mastering. The file format or medium with which that excellent recording is played on my system is academic.

My system is fully MQA certified, but that format is not available and itā€™s performance is so questionable that I donā€™t bother investing time or money finding titles that actually sound good.

1 Like
47

That is pretty funny. You just upgraded to the DCS and you quote financial as one of the consideration of using Tidal.

thanks for putting a smile on my face.

1 Like
48

One might as well save money where you can.

2 Likes
49

I am fully capable of talking out of both sides of my mouth :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

2 Likes
50

Arenā€™t we all. :wink:

2 Likes
51

:+1:t2:

52

And Iā€™m fully capable of talking out of myā€¦ā€¦ā€¦.oops, better not go there. I donā€™t want to force Elk into flagging me!