Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music Tidal MQA albums found so far

Hi Tennant,

Trial and error I'm afraid.

If I see 2 or 3 versions within Sooloos, I play each one, then add the one I prefer to my library.

I'm hoping the Streaming strategy is that everything will be MQA at some point hence why there doesn't seem that much of an effort to help people find the MQA titles at the moment.

Happy Hunting

Every MQA album that is imported into your Sooloos library is automatically tagged 'mqa'.

Seems that more Universal albums are trickling though at the moment they seem only to play with the Tidal app; I get server error if I try to retrieve my favourited MQA albums, and they are not all coming through to my Roon Library. Still, when the bug disappears, there's some good stuff:

Bychkov 'Manfred'
Solti 'Elektra'
Kleiber 'Figaro'
Karajan 60s Brahms, Respighi, 'Butterfly' with Pavarotti,
Pavarotti 'Macbeth'
Britten 'War Requiem'
Uchida Schumann & Mozart
Ansermet 'La Mer'
Freire 'Brahms'

New DG releases are sometimes there; Villazon 'Duets' but no Zimmerman Schubert.

Will update more when Tidal let's me.

Whilst these are annoying bugs, I still cannot fathom the lack of social media updates by MQA; no wonder the 'vaporware' gang get to rally and slander (astonishingly personal and vicious at times - does anyone know the back story of Meridian/Pono/Ayre?) when this progress is not even charted.

Fingers crossed we still get more releases, and as far as I can ascertain, after the major release of most of Callas' great live recordings, next week we get Bowie's Berlin trilogy and 'Scary', and in October some great stuff from Warner - Karajan 'Rosenkavalier', Klemperer 'Dutchman' and DG Karl Richter 'Bach Oratorios'.

Richard

Richard

You are a fount of knowledge on the MQA Trickle, thanks for letting us know. I will go check these out !

Best /bt

Aside: please listen to the Zimerman Schubert despite it not being MQA. It's great!

I heard some Zimerman Schubert on Radio 3, and it sounded sublime, but I am now so hooked on MQA that I will wait... seems to take about 2 weeks for some new releases.

Saying that, though I can see the recently favourited albums in the app, they are not all coming through to Roon... hope it's a bug with Tidal that get's resolved soon.

Richard

A friend of mine just introduced to me his Liszt Sonata - wow - he captures something magical which escaped many other greats.

Yes, a really great version of the Liszt Sonata.

Managed to get them all through in Roon by un-favouriting the last one ("Queen on Air") and then favouriting again.

Missed out in the above list the 'Norma' from Bartoli, and great albums from Albrecht Mayer, Jonas Kaufmann (Puccini), Renee Fleming, Alisa Weilerstein, Valentina Lisitsa, Joseph Calleja and Riccardo Chailly (Rossini, Brahms Serenades).

In the background have Freni and Pavarotti closing Act I of 'Butterfly' (from 'Bimba, bimba non piangere') and their voices are just ravishing. Never got this from any other source/format.

Another wow!

Richard

Richard,

Second your endorsement of the Butterfly, I had it on yesterday for most of Act 1 and the voices, particularly the balance of them wrt to the orchestra, is so ideal. Decca microphone handling captured a great performance and we now can enjoy it as if its direct from source.

The Solti Elektra I sampled the final track - massive presence and power yet Nilsson's voice soars supreme above the din. It made me recall how some coners said Solti was overpowered, overdriven, but it still sounds amazing.

The Ansermet La Mer was more revelatory for me. This is an early stereo recording from 1957 ! Yet in this format it sounds as good as all FLAC recordings (Abbado, Baremboim, Karajan, Dutoit) and in fact is better. The detail, tactile presence of instruments, the depth of the bass notes. Wow. It goes on my list of demo recordings (alongside Rostro Don Q).

I'm very dependent on your useful updates to look for what is out there in the classical space, so thanks for doing us all the service of hunting them down.

Best /bt

'Don't look at the carpet'...

For me, Bowie's last truly great album ('Low') reaches MQA, as the Berlin trilogy, 'Stage' and 'Scary' appear in Tidal today.

Halfway through 'Low' and it sounds so fresh and vibrant, though perhaps less puzzling than when John Peel played the whole of it early in January 40 years ago.

"Heroes" on next, but 'Always Crashing' is sounding bloody brilliant, and may need to go round and round again.

Only nagging thought is whether MQA is tuned to Meridian equipment or vice-versa.

Richard

ps "Heroes" best I've heard it.

Hi Richard,

It’s unlikely that the other hardware partners would sign on if there was an unfair edge reserved for Meridian hardware, esp the DSPs. I recall most of the audio fairs demo runs used non-Meridian speakers (one with Bob S I recall was Wilson Audio). I haven't gotten round to Bowie, but enjoying the Bossa Nova Playlist very much.

Have a great weeekend /bt

More Universals

Karajan: 1960s Beethoven Cycle
Pavarotti/Sutherland: Lucia, L'elisir, Fille, Favorita
Takacs Quartet: Beethoven Cycle
David Oistrakh: Concertos
Argerich: Bach
Ashkenazy/Previn: Rachmaninov Concertos
Askenazy/Solti: Beethoven Concertos
Bernstein: Faust
Lucie Horsch: Vivaldi

Gustavo Dudamel, Nicola Bendetti, Leonidas Kavakos, Vanessa Benelli Mosell: multiple albums.

As before, not everything coming through straight away, and not even seen as favourites in Tidal;not getting server error though, so presumably they are accessible in time.

In the Hi Res pages of Presto Classical, there are lots more Universal Classics in a not available to download category, which suggests MQA really are getting through the catalogue.

Just need a better search function in Tidal!

Richard