Tidal launches HiFi Plus

So a few weeks ago it must have been an accident but the Apple app was showing the hifi tier as lossless but was still aac. I got my money refunded but for some reason the subscription is still working. I tried it again today and it lossless now. Looks like the MQA albums just come thru as 44.1k flac, so either cd quality version or converted on their end. I’m using roon, so can easily see file type.

Spoke too soon. Some MQA stuff is still coming thru and being unfolded by roon. I personally would rather avoid MQA so still going to hold out for Spotify Hifi service.

Is there any chance the middle tier will be a reduced library? I plan to downgrade but expand to a family subscription. When you create additional ids can you copy the existing one?

Isn’t anyone going to stick with £19.99/mth and give a bit extra to their favourite artist?
(Assuming I’ve understood correctly what Tidal are offering)

This was actually found out months ago on some Australian forum and posted on the Roon foro. The hifi tier still has mqa and if you have a decoder and renderer it will still work, your just not getting the first unfold from the Tidal app.

Heres a grab of what’s playing to my Sonos arc being authenticated as MQA. I imagine you will get all 44.1 /24 mqa passed through. Be interesting if 48/24 is available or this is down sampled or you get a proper cd version.

Looks like only 44.1/24.MQA material comes through as MQA all others do not come through as MQA tested 48/24 and a 96/24 which would be from a 48/24 unfolded source and they come as 44.1l16. Really be interesting to know if this is a true 44.1/16 source or MQA downsampled.

My guess is it’s downsampled. If you look at where only MQA is offered, Qobuz was only offering hires files. So think the labels we’re trying to cut corners and not offer the cd quality version at all. So think Qobuz the safer bet for unaltered files. Not sure how Apple Music handles this. If they always have a cd quality version available.

so is this in the uk, I have not got an email?

So I assume it’s better to have roon MQA rendering turned off since these MQA are only 44.1k?

It’s nice having additional albums with Tidal and true lossless on the non-MQA stuff. I’m assuming my subscription will lapse after first month passes. Think since I asked for refund they couldn’t actually cancel it immediately.

I got an email from Tidal this afternoon. They are upgrading me to HiFi Plus at no extra cost! Just looked at the pricing on the UK website and the CD quality is now £9.99/month. Think I will cancel and renew at the reduced price.

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You can do that by simply logging in to Tidal, and “downgrading” your subscription from "HiFi " to “HiFi” :+1:

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Yeah, just done it Dave. Thanks

Nice end to the day. Chord DACs don’t do MQA so a downgrade it is then.

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No

From my understanding of streaming that’s not a very cost effective way of supporting your favourite bands. Maybe save the £10pm and use it to go and see them next time they tour

why? if they are going to give 10% of my fee (=1.99) to my fav. (=most played?) artist each month it’s actually much better than whatever .000 £ they normally pay per streamed track. No?

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Glad I saw this. I never received an email. Thanks for the thread!

Are they giving that much? (I confess I haven’t read the details)

Even so, £10 spent on a ticket should give more to the band I’d hope

“Please support those poor rich artists by making them richer. Please don’t ask awkward questions like why a poor artist with marginally less plays of a specific song or album could be paid next to nothing thanks to our formula.”

I downgraded immediately once I knew I retained CD quality and they were trying to flog the higher tier with statements which are essentially blx.

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This is my biggest motivator in keeping the expensive package. I will keep it, for now.

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Just for clarity, Tidal is offer a 10.00 tier that is CD quality for half the price of my current subscription? For those that have downgraded, have you noticed any change in sound quality? Hoping that Naim has integration with Apple so in Canada, we can enjoy hi res albums. Don’t need MQA.

I think I understand that Naim streamers don’t unpack MQA anyway, right? So CD-quality is the best you can get from Tidal on a Naim streamer without an external DAC (no, thank you)? Does anyone offer streaming in better-than-CD quality that Naim streamers will natively decode?

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