Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music Apple Interested in Purchasing Tidal?!

Word on the street is that this is a done deal!

I guess Apple do not even know what is MQA now.Are we thinking too much?

That outcome would be terrific but the cynic (or businessman) in me says no way.

The Guardian piece seems pretty logical and I imagine the only thing further from Tim Cook's mind than high res streaming is MQA if he is indeed looking at Tidal.

Ken

Worst scenario for me: If they fold Tidal into iTunes it would be terrible. I got rid of iTunes when I purchased my first music server a decade ago. All the fussy DRM controls on ripped files were/are awful. And if MQA deceased at birth it would be back to where we were pre-Tidal. I could imagine eschewing streaming in favor of good old CD purchases.

Best scenario: Apple maintains Tidal as a separate service and helps promote grow of MQA.

Fantasyland is only a couple hours south of me and it's influence is strong.

I agree with you. Exclusive releases are Tidal's biggest asset. Tidal disappears in to Apple Music and three quarters of my Sooloos library disappear with it.

I wouldn't be put off MQA if it wasn't streamed. The thing which has been making me cautious about expensive upgrades is simply catalogue availability and a fear it won't become enough of a de-facto standard to mean we get depth of catalogues. What I'd hate to happen is for it to become another DVD-A or SACD and have the same old releases on it, when every type and period of music is of interest to me and could benefit.

In which case, given the increasing availability of hi-res recordings, what would be the likelihood of Meridian offering an MQA process at home, à la apodising? Either built into a sufficiently powerful endpoint and done on the fly, or processed on a home computer before adding the tracks to the home catalogue, using proprietary code which users would have to pay for and metadata which contains the necessary recording information (type of DAC and whatever else MQA requires) a little like the paid database access we currently have for track/artist info and covers, but maintained by Meridian cooperation with the record companies?

Probably talking nonsense, and no idea if it's possible, but just thoughts.

I think with the recordings we have, the damage is already done and to correct this the individiualy recording chain fingerprint is required.

Perhaps it's possible as the discs would be indentifiable and the fingerprints must be known but that would be along way off.

Also the Authentication is at the heart of the issue. Only the studio/Artist/copyright holders can do this.

But this is what we really want, clarity and certainty that what we hear is 'the real deal'.

Thoughts with no knowledge, Chris 😎

Apple considering bid for Tidal in bid to bolster Apple Music

oh well, it was good while it lasted.

Personally I help they can keep their independence a bit longer, but in a world that is all about the momentum of numbers of users it doesn't seem likely.

And well Apple just have too much money and can just do what they like ... to benefit Apple

In a perfect world... Apple buys Tidal and releases iPhone 8 in 2017 with MQA support and offers hi res streaming One can hope.

On a side note what does that do to the deal Meridian has with Tidal, all bets off??

I really don't think this is good news. Apple won't run two services side by side so Tidal will be folded in. I am not convinced Apple really cares about HiRes music unless there is big demand from the public and we know that most people don't care. Let's face it, even among Tidal users I bet audiophiles who pay the higher price for CD quality are the minority of user accounts. Too bad because I am really enjoying the Roon/Tidal integration as well as the Tidal apps and service.

I am glad that I still purchased and ripped a large library of my own CDs into Roon as a baseline to my collection but I really do like having the Tidal integration for discovering new music. I hope it continues to live.

Really hoping to be wrong.

Audioboy... I hope your right and they don't just kill it to gain more numbers. The whole existence of Tidal from the beginning was CD quality streaming and for Apple to just kill it would be sad.

When did Apple ever buy a company and not kill it and absorb the customers/staff?

I don't remember any such occasion. These "small" companies just become departments.

The bigger question is whether Apple realises that lossless audio and MQA are worth bothering with.