MQA Sounds Really Good!

[Zensō]

yup of course! on my iphone apple music and tidal both at max so i would think they would be volume matched ...

Not necessarily. The streaming services have different volume targets. In my experience Tidal is louder than Apple Music and Spotify. Again, if you really want to get at the truth of what’s happening, you’ll need to volume match to 0.1 db.

 

[Zensō]

My own incomplete experiments confirm the AAC issue is present when streaming from an iOS device, but yes, there is good information elsewhere, e.g. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252848734

The behaviour I see when streaming from Apple Music on my Mac (Big Sur, lossless capable) is:

- Airplay 1 on my MoodeAudio device: constant ALAC 44.1/16 (260-280KB/s) sound stream, no buffering;
- Airplay 2 on my DENON receiver: same average bandwidth, but with buffering.

My guesses as to why this may be present on iOS devices:

- Maybe there is adaptive encoding that downgrades to AAC in case of network issues (I use good quality wireless, have not tried wired connection);
- Maybe it is to do with Apple Music DRM considerations.

The key, I think, is that Airplay 1 is single endpoint only, whereas Airplay 2 can stream to multiple endpoints. Apple is likely purposely defaulting to AAC on Airplay 2 due to potential bandwidth issues when streaming to multiple endpoints. Streaming high-res sources to multiple rooms can cause lots of problems for anything other than highly optimized LANs (just take a look at the Roon forum and the endless issues people have with their network setups due to high bitrate, multi-room streaming on that platform).

 

[mediocrebutarrogant]

if you cant tell the difference between E30 and E50 and MQA and non MQA ... you / your system is the problem

 

[SIY]

if you cant tell the difference between E30 and E50 and MQA and non MQA ... you / your system is the problem

Looking forward to seeing your evidence for your claim.

 

[mediocrebutarrogant]

Looking forward to seeing your evidence for your claim.

My evidence is my experience. So I got the E30 initially . I hooked it to a cd player over optical and also ipad over usb camera adpater .. sound was really good.. then i got E50 hooked it to Tidal over USB with MQA passthrough ... the difference is just absurd.. too beautiful

 

[muslhead]

My evidence is my experience. So I got the E30 initially . I hooked it to a cd player over optical and also ipad over usb camera adpater .. sound was really good.. then i got E50 hooked it to Tidal over USB with MQA passthrough ... the difference is just absurd.. too beautiful

That's your proof?

 

[SIY]

My evidence is my experience. So I got the E30 initially . I hooked it to a cd player over optical and also ipad over usb camera adpater .. sound was really good.. then i got E50 hooked it to Tidal over USB with MQA passthrough ... the difference is just absurd.. too beautiful

OK, so you have nothing. Which doesn't surprise me, but you did have a chance to prove my cynicism unjustified.

These sort of empty claims are no more credible than (regulars here know what's coming) claims of alien abductions with anal probing.

 

[mediocrebutarrogant]

OK, so you have nothing. Which doesn't surprise me, but you did have a chance to prove my cynicism unjustified.

These sort of empty claims are no more credible than (regulars here know what's coming) claims of alien abductions with anal probing.

i have described a repeatable procedure , where the outcome can be reproduced ...

 

[mediocrebutarrogant]

i have described a repeatable procedure , where the outcome can be reproduced ...

Ofcourse not to be disrespectful, and i am eager to learn , you are far more knowledgeable, but from my amateurish point of view and jsut blackbox approach i cant deny what i am hearing

 

[SIY]

i have described a repeatable procedure , where the outcome can be reproduced ...

"Repeatable" is one thing, "having controls" is another. You don't, not even rudimentary controls. Just evidence-free claims.

 

[mansr]

i have described a repeatable procedure , where the outcome can be reproduced ...

Lots of people claim repeated alien abductions too.

 

[Sal1950]

These sort of empty claims are no more credible than (regulars here know what's coming) claims of alien abductions with anal probing.

OH NO, not the Anal Probing again.

 

[SIY]

OH NO, not the Anal Probing again.

It only hurts the first time.

 

[Orfanik]

It only hurts the first time.

You seem to be particularly well aware

 

[SIY]

You seem to be particularly well aware

Once you go Grey, you can't stay away.

 

[JSmith]

blackbox

They sound great in any format;

JSmith

 

[Orfanik]

Once you go Grey, you can't stay away.

lol indeed

 

[JABrown]

Totally unscientific but when I played "Windy" on Tidal I mistakenly played the "HiFi" version which was unimpressive. After recognizing my mistake I located the MQA version and it was outstanding. Could be the result of using a better master or the MQA process or both.

 

[Orfanik]

Totally unscientific but when I played "Windy" on Tidal I mistakenly played the "HiFi" version which was unimpressive. After recognizing my mistake I located the MQA version and it was outstanding. Could be the result of using a better master or the MQA process or both.

That's the question ! Maybe someone here could analyse both of masters ?

 

[SIY]

Totally unscientific but when I played "Windy" on Tidal I mistakenly played the "HiFi" version which was unimpressive. After recognizing my mistake I located the MQA version and it was outstanding. Could be the result of using a better master or the MQA process or both.

Dunno, I don't use Tidal, but MQA seems to be deliberately set up to make it difficult to do a level-matched ears-only comparison. It's entirely possible that these are two different masters- one easy thing to do if you're curious is to record each, then look at the spectra to see if they're different.