Yes Tidal still has lots of music at 16/44.1 to listen to and it sounds great. Also there is Qobuz if you want straight hi-rez and no MQA. I subscribe to both and like them both very much.
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MQA, from a technical standpoint, may or may not be your cup of tea. In theory though, things marked MQA have a better mastering pedigree, so whether you listen to them with or without an MQA DAC, you may still get a benefit. Given the 500K titles lost in the MQA fire, your mileage may vary. As others noted, Qoboz has high res without MQA requirement and so does AmazonHD but your playback path options are pretty limited. |
I have Tidal and Qobuz. I listen to Qobuz more, turning to Tidal when I can't find something on Qobuz or if I want to listen to one of Tidal's "My Mix" playlists (they are usually good). I have one DAC with MQA and listen mostly with a DAC with no MQA. It sounds as good, if not better on the DAC with no MQA, mostly because it's a better DAC and a more resolving system. You can hear differences between MQA and no MQA. Are they better? Worse? It's subjective. Will you hear a track that isn't MQA and say to yourself "that sounds awful!". I doubt it. Will you jump out of your seat because the MQA version is so much better? I doubt it. More depends on how it was recorded, mastered, your system, etc. than whether it is MQA or not. |
Thank you all. One way you can always test is to stop or downgrade the service and see if you notice. I'm doing the 4 month trial that Tidal was offering. I figured I'll keep it for that time period, and then switch back to Spotify. I honestly fully expect to miss it, but if I don't I'll just save my money. I do have vinyl and CD to keep me busy anyway. |
I have Tidal and really enjoy the music library. For mobile streaming, HiRes music signal sometimes will drop off due to reception quality. Sportify MP320 would be the choice. Anyway, music is not just sound quality. Tidal 16/44.1k would be good enough if not better than Qobuz 24/96k. I have an Oppo105D which as Tidal App build in. So I will stay with Tidal. |
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HiFi sound on TIDAL streams lossless audio by utilizing the FLAC format, providing large and uncompressed audio files for a more authentic listening experience. In order to stream MQA on any DAC, you can make use of tools such as AudFree Tidal Music Converter. It can convert your tidal music to high quality regular MP3 and other audio formats. You can then transfer them to DAC and other devices for playback. And it won't touch the quality of the original audio. What's more, it will retain all the ID3 tags of your Tidal music tracks. |
I do not have a MQA dac and for the last few days, I am comparing Tidal hifi to hifi+(we do not have Qobuz in Canada). Here's my preliminary findings : MQA : Music seems more dense. Details are more evident. More spectacular. Hifi : Less in your face, more natural. More air between instruments. I will pursue the comparaison but honestly, at first glance, I think I prefer the hifi / non MQA version. What do you think? Anybody else made the comparaison? PS : English is not my first language so... |
Do a free trial of Qobuz if it’s available where you are. I switched from Tidal to Qobuz a couple years ago and will never go back. MQA is the answer to a problem nobody had and nobody asked for. It’s an algorithm built to modify the original signal to what IT thinks it should be — original artist’s intent be damned. No thanks. Plus, there’s more hi-res material on Qobuz that requires no special features or silly unfolding — what a joke IMHO. I’ve seen lots of people here switch from Tidal to Qobuz along with me who are much happier both with the sound quality and user interface. People switching from Qobuz to Tidal, not so much and can’t even remember anyone saying they did that. To me, that says it all. |
I had Tidal for 4 years and switched to Qobuz 6 months ago. I much prefer Qobuz for the following reasons: (1) Qobuz just sounds better. Not on every single album but on the vast majority; (2) Qobuz has about 10x more hi-res content than Tidal and I prefer Qobuz 24/96 (or 192) to MQA; (3) Qobuz is quite a bit cheaper than Tidal and if you pay by the year it is more than 50% cheaper than Tidal for a hi-res tier; (4) Qobuz is more classical and jazz oriented and has a lot more offerings in these genres than Tidal. Since I'm not into rap, hiphop or the like I do not miss Tidal at all. |
@cagma7 Why is Qobuz still not available in Our Home and Native Land? Seems very strange and unfair to our knobs from the North. |
