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Tidal’s New Lossless Tier Says Goodbye to MQA (but does it really?)

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Mnyb said:
Living in Sweden where Spotify dominantes the market . I’ll opt for waiting a bit more and test thier hifi offering.
I have a quite large local collection, streaming is more of complementary activity for me.
If I really really like something i get myself some files or media .
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To be fair Spotify is huge everywhere, their business model is changing to compete with YouTube and TikTok, not really to take Qobuz and Tidal’s non-existing share of the pie.
 
AdamG247 said:
If the above article and link story proves true. Looks like @amirm was right about MQA going away and it took 2 days for news to break.
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Nah- they are just differentiating their tiers a little more - I have a funny feeling when some of the anti MQA crowd (Im anti in principle, agnostic in reality) start digging into what some of the "lossless" tier contains, it will be some of these 13/44 files that have been creeping in lately. I hope not, I hope one can use Tidal and get redbook files going forwards.

Also, either the linked article title has changed, or your post title is misquoting them. MQA is most definitely staying in the highest tier- it now reads " Tidal’s New Lossless Tier Says Goodbye to MQA"-
 
pjug said:
From the article:

HiFi Plus – $23.99 AUD a month with lossless High Fidelity sound quality (1411 Kbps), Master Quality audio (up to 9216 Kbps), and immersive audio – 360 Reality Audio, Dolby Atmos Music

You would think if they are saying goodbye to MQA they might use different terminoligy than Master Quality audio

Edit: I'm confused. Does HiFi Plus tier still include MQA. I think so? But also hires PCM up to 9216 Kbps? The confusion fest does not make Tidal attractive to me.
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No, Master Quality Audio IS MQA , there is no PCM above 44/48 on Tidal that arent MQA, new or old tiers, thats the unfolded MQA files that go up to 9216kbps

Thats how they have always described it
 
DavidMcRoy said:
My take on this is that Tidal MAY BE being intentionally vague with their language. The term “MQA” doesn’t appear in this particular notice, but there are still references to MQA (the process) in Tidal online propaganda if you look for it.
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MQA is Master Quality Audio- it isnt vague, its just using the expanded acronym.

Edit, OK the A in MQA is Authenticated. But they are keeping mqa in this tier.
 
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abdo123 said:
It’s actually Master Quality Authenticated, you might want to get your facts right before you mansplain to others :p
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That's a good point.
 
Jimbob54 said:
No, Master Quality Audio IS MQA , there is no PCM above 44/48 on Tidal that arent MQA, new or old tiers, thats the unfolded MQA files that go up to 9216kbps

Thats how they have always described it
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Ha, that's funny. Maybe Deezer should have their player upsample the redbook and also say they are providing up to 9216kbps.
 
pjug said:
Ha, that's funny. Maybe Deezer should have their player upsample the redbook and also say they are providing up to 9216kbps.
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Well, in fairness, we know a lot of the stuff sold as hi res files and probably lots of stuff on Qobuz etc is taken from analog tapes, not hi res digital masters. The whole more than redbook situation is a bit of a mess to be honest.
 
Jimbob54 said:
Well, in fairness, we know a lot of the stuff sold as hi res files and probably lots of stuff on Qobuz etc is taken from analog tapes, not hi res digital masters. The whole more than redbook situation is a bit of a mess to be honest.
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Well we know there is no real >48KHz in MQA. 96000*24*2 is 4.6 Mbps, so the 9216kbps is BS. I knew MQA puts out this lie about >48KHz capability but I didn't realize that Tidal had translated the lie into bps units.
edit: the above assuming that Tidal masters are all MQA, don't include any 24/192 PCM.
 
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pjug said:
Myself, I won't consider paying for Tidal unless they completely do away with MQA. I'd take 320K lossy over MQA at the same price just for honesty's sake.
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It'll be competitive
 
Jimbob54 said:
Nah- they are just differentiating their tiers a little more - I have a funny feeling when some of the anti MQA crowd (Im anti in principle, agnostic in reality) start digging into what some of the "lossless" tier contains, it will be some of these 13/44 files that have been creeping in lately. I hope not, I hope one can use Tidal and get redbook files going forwards.

Also, either the linked article title has changed, or your post title is misquoting them. MQA is most definitely staying in the highest tier- it now reads " Tidal’s New Lossless Tier Says Goodbye to MQA"-
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Hi Jimbob54,
The Title of the Article, linked in the first post wording is (cut and pasted): If I made some editing error, my apologies. It most certainly was not to intentionally mislead. Below is word for word the title:
‘Tidal’s New Lossless Tier Says Goodbye to MQA.”
 
AdamG247 said:
Hi Jimbob54,
The Title of the Article, linked in the first post wording is (cut and pasted): If I made some editing error, my apologies. It most certainly was not to intentionally mislead. Below is word for word the title:
‘Tidal’s New Lossless Tier Says Goodbye to MQA.”
Click to expand...
It is entirely possible that they edited the title of the story. I said this in my previous reply but using a phone screen and must have fat fingered up the reply. Either way you are correct the title appears to be different than how I named the thread. Lots of word salad when reading anything from Tidal.
 
AdamG247 said:
It is entirely possible that they edited the title of the story. I said this in my previous reply but using a phone screen and must have fat fingered up the reply. Either way you are correct the title appears to be different than how I named the thread. Lots of word salad when reading anything from Tidal.
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No worries. My take is the same as others, they are creating a "no whistles and bells but still hifi" tier above their lossy 320 premium to compete with upcoming Spotify lossless then the audiophile mqa /atmos tier sits above.
 
AdamG247 said:
Hi Jimbob54,
The Title of the Article, linked in the first post wording is (cut and pasted): If I made some editing error, my apologies. It most certainly was not to intentionally mislead. Below is word for word the title:
‘Tidal’s New Lossless Tier Says Goodbye to MQA.”
Click to expand...
That's not from Tidal official site.
https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/...What-Audio-Quality-Do-TIDAL-HiFi-Plans-Offer-
HiFi Table HDservice Mobile (1).jpg
 
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AdamG247 said:
It is entirely possible that they edited the title of the story. I said this in my previous reply but using a phone screen and must have fat fingered up the reply. Either way you are correct the title appears to be different than how I named the thread. Lots of word salad when reading anything from Tidal.
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I'd suggest you change the title of this thread to match the (new) article title to avoid further confusion. We have more than enough misleading information coming from Tidal and MQA themselves...
 
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