Downloading MQA or normal FLAC?

[Sancho67]

In Tidal-Gui, when i selected to download the Tidal Masters music files, am I really downloading the original and exact MQA file? When I downloaded the 192khz-24bit MQA file and played it in my AIMP3 windows player, the display was only 48kHz-24bit, so i suspect it is downsampled to a lower resolution, is it? Or if the downloaded file will be played in MQA enabled player, will it really unfolded and play to 192k-24b? Please advise.

[regendier]

I have Audirvana (Player for first step unfolding) and use Dac Zen Signature and it should be fine, indicating MQA, some people will know more about this

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On Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 12:11 PM Sancho67 ***@***.***> wrote: In Tidal-Gui, when i selected to download the Tidal Masters music files, am I really downloading the original and exact MQA file? When I downloaded the 192khz-24bit MQA file and played it in my AIMP3 windows player, the display was only 48kHz-24bit, so i suspect it is downsampled to a lower resolution, is it? Or if the downloaded file will be played in MQA enabled player, will it really unfolded and play to 192k-24b? Please advise. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#669>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AJ2LHW2DGN4UR2VPFHBFXYLTZ2A6PANCNFSM5BB5CUPA> .

[snabbeltax]

AIMP3 is a crappy free player and does not do the unfolding of MQA(or DSD)
For MQA playback you have to use ROON, or Audrivana or Foobar2000 at least.
You need a MQA certified DAC as well.
Hiby, Hilidac or Onyx or Dragonfly for portable. For desktop I have a iFi ZenDAC V2 wich is brilliant.
Here's a list of all kinds of equipment out there.

[Wim1975]

You get the exact same mqa as it's on Tidals servers.

You do need expensive software and or hardware to be able to do unfolds. You are paying extra for :
a) software doing a first unfold
b) hardware doing a second unfold (renderers), or both unfolds (decoders)

In (a) the software doing the decodes is charged by mqa ltd 100$ and that extra fee is charged to the end users (license fee)
This means you won't find free mqa decoding software, it's all about the money. None of the money is going to the artists, it's all going to the company.

In (b) the dac manufacturers also paid mqa ltd 100$ to implement "mqa decoding" which is actually just an upsampling algorithm with very weak filters. Most manufacturers don't even like mqa, but they implement it anyway because they fear dropping sales because the marketing team of mqa have brainwashed a lot of people in the past convincing them that mqa sounds better. (It doesn't, it adds nothing).

Actually this is all so ridiculous as mqa is lossy and as you can find the lossless version on Qobuz,
where you don't need expensive software nor hardware to play it, and the lossless version sounds much better.
It isn't even a problem these days to stream 192k files. Mine are downloaded in 5 seconds. As longs as the download time is shorter then the playback time, you're pretty safe.

Maybe it's time Yaronzz stops this project and focuses on a qbzdownloader. Mqa is as good as dead anyway since GoldenSound proved in a youtube video that mqa is one hoax. It's not lossless, its worse. And it's the solution to a problem they created themselves.

[snabbeltax]

https://tidal.com/forartists

[snabbeltax]

Alles verder goed meneer WH?
Denk aan je gezondheid het is maar een hobby, voor mij althans.
Dat jij Bob en Peter haat moet je zelf weten maar reflecteer dat niet op mij.
Volgens mij heb jij andere zaken om je nu druk over te maken dan een beetje MQA te roasten .
Nogmaals stay healthy , je hebt het nodig.

[hangman04]

I agree. Just stick to 16/44.1 flac, 95% you wont be able to hear/feel the difference not even with highend audio equipment. but if u still think u can benefit from 24/96 then get Qobuz. chances are there u might find higher quality samples than on tidal although the catalogue is smaller i think.

[snabbeltax]

chances? hahaha. If you look at the comparison fig. below between Qubuz and Amazon HD you see that Qobuz is giving you distorted over 0Db volume to compensate dynamics.
If you don't know what you are talking about you better say nothing.

[Wim1975]

LOL. You just showed two graphs of a totally different master. 👎 🥇
One is 24/48 and the other is 24/44. LOL

DIFFERENT SAMPLE RATES so DIFFERENT MASTERS.
Some masters have a low DR : no more details, drums sound fake like "hello kitty" drums, etc. They sound like any mqa.
Some masters have a high DR : crisp and detailed, until they turn it into mqa, then it sounds like a low DR.

Good to see you didn't include the graph of an mqa version, as it will be much worse !!! LOL

So I think you better say nothing at all as you are obviously just copying some graphs you don't understand.
"Digital audio for dummies" would be a good place to start for you.

Last week I visited a speaker shop and the owner plays QOBUZ for demo's,
He agrees with me, that mqa is not for high end systems, not worth investing in.
Haven't seen a single mqa dac in his shop. He likes quality. He's honest, etc.