Tír Na HiFi

Hi all,

Dunno if anyone is interested, but TIDAL have an introductory offer of 120 days of the hifi level subscription (including MQA, etc) for €1.99. Obviously it doesn't work if you've already had an offer or already have an account, but I certainly couldn't resist at that price. Don't forget to cancel if you sign up and don't want to pay the full €20 per month once the 120 days is up.

Here's the link: linky

The phone app is very slick too, and it works with most streaming hardware....

Now I need a second email address!

What is the minimum broadband data rate to play FLAC files? Ours is suspect at the moment, circa 2.5 MB......

You'd be pushing it at that Tom. I think you can "download for later" but I don't think you'd get uninterrupted play with that speed.

Rocker wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2019 11:38 pm What is the minimum broadband data rate to play FLAC files? Ours is suspect at the moment, circa 2.5 MB......

Hifi streaming is 44/16 FLAC, so around 600-900kbps. MQA is up to 3000kbps or even a bit more even its lossy compression (and sounds worse IMHO)

hudo wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2019 11:55 pm

Hifi streaming is 44/16 FLAC, so around 600-900kbps. MQA is up to 3000kbps or even a bit more even its lossy compression (and sounds worse IMHO)

I agree, I found that MQA didn't sound on same level as my FLACs on my hard drive, but it is lossy format anyway.

Well, the small bit of listening I've done so far has left me very happy with MQA, but each to their own. For me, the comparison isn't with local files, but rather with other streaming options. So far "normal" CD quality TIDAL is better than Spotify, and MQA TIDAL is better than normal TIDAL. I'm in a difference use-case to most of you, but I'm happy that the difference is real. Whether it's worth the extra tenner a month is a different question.

Oh no, I'm happy with the CD quality from Tidal, no doubt about that, but all the hysteria about MQA quality sound, is a lot of snake oil for me. Sometimes I found unpleasantly, to listen some MQA/Master titles on Tidal. That's all.

I seems to be hit and miss for me with MQA. I guess it is down to how they remaster it rather than the technology. I have heard some albums that sound way better in the MQA version and others that sound the same or worse than the regular version.

In my opinion, if they wanted to improve sound quality, they would standardize and offer DSD stream, which would push whole industry in adopting it more in mixing/mastering/dacs/... and that would be the right direction, but they went with DRM combined with hit and miss quality benefits, so very questionable value for us, end customers.
Nobody is buying Meridian any more, so they come up with this brilliant business model to take a piece of cake from each sold device/player.