As a newly converted believer in streaming music I have to say Tidal must be hard to beat.
I am playing a lot of their masters albums which my bluesound vault manages to run at the full 192 via its own internal dac which I output via single ended analog outs to my Mcintosh c48.
I was able to directly compare this with the digital out from the Vault going into the c48 which is limited to 96.
The album I used for a 7 way comparo( read on) was crime of the century by supertramp.
The Tidal MQA at full 192 sounded slightly fuller, more lively than the mcintosh limited 96 version although both knocked the ripped flac files at 44.1 into next week for depth and realism.
Next up came a test of my original cd played via digital out and balanced xlr to the c48, here the xlr was a clear winner but I still feel the Tidal MQA was richer.
Finally I gave my vinyl copy a spin...well as you all know vinyl is just well VINYL and it is just so hard to compare it to anything else imho.
For $20 a month I am sticking with Tidal for a while and as it seems they are adding MQA albums daily I am quite content right now, I mean Uriah Heep at 192? Heaven!
I am playing a lot of their masters albums which my bluesound vault manages to run at the full 192 via its own internal dac which I output via single ended analog outs to my Mcintosh c48.
I was able to directly compare this with the digital out from the Vault going into the c48 which is limited to 96.
The album I used for a 7 way comparo( read on) was crime of the century by supertramp.
The Tidal MQA at full 192 sounded slightly fuller, more lively than the mcintosh limited 96 version although both knocked the ripped flac files at 44.1 into next week for depth and realism.
Next up came a test of my original cd played via digital out and balanced xlr to the c48, here the xlr was a clear winner but I still feel the Tidal MQA was richer.
Finally I gave my vinyl copy a spin...well as you all know vinyl is just well VINYL and it is just so hard to compare it to anything else imho.
For $20 a month I am sticking with Tidal for a while and as it seems they are adding MQA albums daily I am quite content right now, I mean Uriah Heep at 192? Heaven!