No I’m not joking, I used the patterns of information I had available and eliminated the information that didn’t fit the patterns, then only one name remained (and it wasn’t any of those five).
Hi FR–No I know them all and they all gave presentations at EVS2019. My Presentation was “Is sCMOS the Next Imaging Revolution?” I am a MS in Aeronautical Engineering–specializing in Instrumentation, Guidance and Control. Astronomy is a retirement job. Now that you know my topic, you should be able to find my name, which BTW was mis-spelled.
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it was a bit childish from me however. I hope you didn’t took it badly.
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I certainly did not take it badly. I was impressed at your interest.
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your speciality is not common. The reason of my interest. I would like to have such a passionate job in my life too. However i will not say my life is sad…
Why are you looking for Tidal Masters?
Your nds DAC cannot decode them.
Or can your Melco do a first unfold? Not I think?
So they will sound roughly the same as any other files, except the important fact that the recordings have been selected to be relatively inoffensive.
And they are generally higher res than cd.
My understanding is not without the first unfold
With the compression they will play, but maybe not the same as a plain 16/44 or 16/48 (and the difference I suspect may not be positive).
But with a free subscription no harm in trying.
i was just curious, wanted to know how many albums there are. I recently subscribed to Tidal for one month. Not to listen, just know.
They don’t though as some of the bit depth is lost to the MQA conversion (there may be other things). Easily tested on a back to back Tidal MQA vs 16bit version.
Ah - I see.
They say:
“We have over 170,000 tracks from major labels, our TIDAL artist owners, and key independent labels. We will continue to add more master-quality content over time.”
My tests with MQA first unfold vs 16/44 via Naim app showed zero difference.
They were neither better nor worse.
I haven’t heard the full unfold.
But even those who say they prefer MQA usually say the differences are subtle.
But subtle differences in SQ are easily accounted for with expectation bias plus track selection.
So can the Naim app even select Tidal Masters?
If so, do we have to check every one to avoid the Tidal Masters?
in reality they have only about 1200 albums. It’s what i saw in my app.
However Baihill said indeed 17000.
Why bother to do this at all if to your ears and on your system the sound quality of MQA vs 16/44 is absolutely identical?
On the other hand, if you hear the ‘distortion’ that some people report that they can hear when they listen to MQA material (something I personally do not hear on any of my systems) then this could indeed present a problem.
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That would be interesting as they are different encoding formats… to my mind it’s like saying MP3 sounds the same as WAV… I guess possible on some lesser systems… and if a system was so un resolving, one might be better off with MP3 or Ogg Vorbis anyway.
Just my two pennies worth
I think Bailyhill said there are 17000 that aepre ousted as having been converted to MQA, not that they are on Tidal.
Simon - that is an unexpected and rather bold statement.
Many people (running a multitude of systems and posting on a number of forums) have reported a disappointment with MQA recorded material because they hear little or no difference in sound quality between them. A number of others have reported that they cannot listen to MQA encoded tracks because they hear a particularly unpleasant ‘distortion’ when listening to them. Others of course, dislike the very concept of MQA with a vengeance for a number of well documented reasons.
However, I have heard very few people make the claim that if MQA is preferred to (or even sounds as good as or identical to 16bit/44) then that persons hearing, or the quality of their hi-fi systems must be suspect, and perhaps better suited to MP3 sources. I rather suspect that this comment is simply a bit of mischief making on your part.
For the record, on my main system (which I believe to be both pretty ‘revealing’ and of a reasonably high quality), Tidal’s MQA masters (with a first unfold using Roon) generally sound at least as good (and usually, but not always subtly better to my ears) than Tidal’s 16bit/44.1 equivalents. On this same system, the sound quality of MP3s versus 16bit is normally very apparent. I do not hear the unpleasant ‘distortion’ that you and a number of others report is always evident whilst listening to MQA encoded material.
For the record, I can also not detect any significant difference between FLAC and WAV file sources on this ‘revealing’ system, although I did detect a difference whilst using a ‘lesser’ Naim streamer that I used to own. Mmmm?
Has your pretty damning opinion of the sound of MQA encoded files been gleaned entirely using your own Naim/Chord based systems (presumably using Roon’s first unfold) or have you listened to MQA on any high quality systems that fully cater for MQA - assuming of course that you are of the opinion that the very descriptions of ‘catering for the full MQA unfold’ and ‘high quality system’ are not mutually exclusive?
Having submitted my previous post, I feel I have to clarify my overall position in respect of MQA.
I decided to experiment with MQA using my 2nd (AV) system when my Chord Hugo DAC stopped working. I purchased a Mytek Brooklyn+ DAC on the basis that if I wasn’t impressed by MQA and if I did not like the DAC then it could be returned to the dealer.
To cut a long story short, I decided after a fairly comprehensive set of tests that more often than not, I preferred the sound of MQA encoded masters on Tidal to their 16bit/44.1 equivalents. I also purchased a small number of MQA encoded ‘hi-res’ downloads and compared a number of MQA masters on Tidal with hi-res PCM files I had purchased from Qobuz, and concluded that on my system and to my ears, there was no advantage whatsoever in purchasing MQA encoded albums. As a result, if I now ever choose to purchase a high resolution version of an album, I choose to purchase it from Qobuz in PCM form.
I choose to listen to MQA masters on Tidal, but I am of the opinion that the quality of a DAC itself is of much greater importance for a whole host of reasons than whether or not that DAC caters for MQA. I have chosen to retain the Mytek Brooklyn+ in preference to my Chord Hugo DAC in my 2nd system because on the whole I prefer the overall sound signature of the Brooklyn+ DAC (on my system) than that of the Hugo DAC - nothing whatsoever to do with its ability to cater for MQA.
So in summary, I am not hugely impressed by MQA, although I don’t discount the possibility that I might be if I owned a DCS or a Meridian Ultra DAC.
I don’t beleive it can ‘find’ them but I don’t use Tidal on the Naim App at all. It’s obviously possible to do so from Tidal’s desptop App which is how I selected my comparisons and then I used Bubble to do the comparison.
Well I did say to my mind, rather than an absolute assertion…
But also as MQA encoding is different from its equivalent PCM encoding that if it were to sound ‘identical’ I would have to conclude there is a limit of the resolution of the replay system.
MQA encodings are designed to be played back with limited resolution and with higher digital sample value noise on PCM DACs… but provide sufficient clarity as to be usable.
Now if a DAC or system is designed to playback MQA encodings directly, such as your Meridian DACs, then this is clearly different… and then the debate is whether you notice MQA compression artefacts compared to PCM, and clearly you don’t and that is great for you, and I am sure many others… but that is different to the physical encoding and PCM compatibility point I was referring to… and if you were not we crossed threads 
What concerns me is that if you choose to use gear that doesn’t support MQA (including all Naim gear) it could be that Tidal eventually have most or all of their catalogue in MQA only. So it could sound worse than it would have done in regular 16/44 FLAC, but your streamer will tell you that it is 16/44 FLAC. This would play nicely into the hands of MQA, as it would create the impression that 16/44 is worse.
At that stage, Qobuz via Roon would be my solution. But perhaps I have misunderstood how this all works.