Norah Jones - Tidal vs. Hi Res ?

Buellrider, you're doing the right thing! MQA doesn't add anything good to the soup.. The SACD/PS-3 rip of Norah Jones's album is the best choice! :)

Eric, not the title you asked about, but I have a/b tested Come Away With Me between Tidal MQA and a brand spankin’ new copy of the vinyl (signed by the guy who engineered the vinyl!).  

After several listenings, I concluded the vinyl made the music itself sound about 2% better.  But you still had to listen to the record hiss.  Filtering the hiss stole a bit of the vocal.  Decided I could be very happy listening to the MQA.  But still play my records from time to time to get that last little bit!

 Young whippersnapper ,,  i use Tidal.  Nothing on tidal sounds better then my CDP.  when i A,,B. The 
Tracks.    Tidal is just easy
To use.    CD,s are not all over the place also. IMO 

Is “ Properganda “ the non MQA version of “ Propaganda “? BTW , my Harley Road King goes “ Potato Potato ! And then I put non MQA , Andrews Cams in her and I now have Catsup on my potatoes ! Catsup is the non MQA version of Ketchup ! It’s a viscosity variable ... And I was gonna get an MQA enabled DAC . Think I’ll just stay with fries .

I've done some comparisons, and do find that I generally prefer the DSD64 of the Norah Jones "Come Away With Me" version off my NAS over the MQA version that's based on that remaster.  However, the caveat that I would put on there is upgrading components on the router does go long way in bridging that gap.  Upgrading the power supply and the ethernet cables. 

At the same time, I do prefer the MQA over non-MQA version over Tidal. 

What I would like to do at some point is get a local MQA file and compare that to whatever highest res non MQA verison of the file.  

Hi @ejr1953 

Can you try Tidal without MQA and tell me what you think? 

Best,

E

I'm not sure the dates or sampling rates from the spreadsheet I received are accurate, it seems that the dates are not.  Sorry for that.

I do have the "Come Away With Me" SACD and have compared that to the MQA version streamed from Tidal...and the SACD version (to me) sounds better.

Having said that, I come to the same opinion for other Tidal MQA content vs. the SACD versions I own.  Anne-Sophie Mutter's Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto is strikingly better (to my ears).

Since Not Too Late was released 2007, and Copy Controlled ended in 2006, it's right on the edge of possible. 

Sorry @kalali I'm not trying to be a scientist right now. I'm just curious if anyone else had this experience. 

erik, I thought you were expecting an objective response not a subjective opinion thus my questions. This thread is otherwise pointless.  

There are 1 or 2 Norah Jones cd’s that had anti copyright info embedded in them, you couldn’t copy and burn them, I wonder if this is one of them and it screws with the purity of it.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XJBRFRCDL._SY355_.jpg

https://img.discogs.com/XZvqMWuttNS8235z5X9M4sXffxk=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg)...

Cheers George

Calm down guys...Norah Jones isn't worth arguing about.

I am afraid this is getting derailed. I really did not want to talk about MQA per se, just this particular recording. Not really interested in doing any sort of A/B comparisons for you either.

I just noticed that the redbook Not Too Late on Tidal doesn't sound as good as the Hi Res version and wondered if anyone else had this experience. 

Best,

E

erik, a couple of quick questions just out of curiosity: did you compare the MQA’d version of the track in Tidal, and how did you play the file for this (same) track, e.g., USB from computer, server via Ethernet connection, etc.? 
To be more objective, you should at least compare the tracks with the same 24/96 resolution.

potato potaoe, mqa has never made me tip my hat to it in all the times I've heard it.

Cheer George 

@2psyop   

Didnt you know? A properganda is what some people have for Xmas instead of turkey.

https://www.napoleongrills.com/Portals/0/images/recipes/RoastHolidayGoose/recipeBlog-restChristmasGo...

BTW what is properganda?

Its not (MQA) propaganda...accuracy of release date(s) notwithstanding, they are delivered at higher bit rates and sound much better than the non-MQA versions. 

There are two "Not Too Late" both added to Tidal both with release dates of 1/1/03

They’re full of it like other MQA properganda, as it wasn’t released till 2007 recorded Recorded Summer 2005–Fall 2006

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Too_Late_(album)

Cheers George

Someone sent me a spreadsheet of the MQA titles available on Tidal, it's probably at least a month old, but has the Norah Jones albums on it.  There are two "Not Too Late" entries on the spreadsheet, both added to Tidal on 10/3/17, both with release dates of 1/1/03, one is listed as 96k the other is 192k.

I should check to see if there is a date on the Tidal site. I do not thing I could hear 1 or 2 dB of difference in the dynamic range, but the mastering differences make sense. 

It is interesting. It shows what ha sbeenargued before, that the SACD version may indeed sound better, but not because of the format but because of the mastering, since the redbook layer has the same greater Dynamic range.

This sites my bible for getting the best version and it’s never let me down.
But looking at this they’re all a bit of a muchness, the 2012 sacd redbook layer looks the best by a touch, the last one a 2007 Blue Note version has the worst compression.

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Norah+Jones+&album=Not+Too+Late

Cheers George