Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion MQA - Related technology, products and music MQA Limited in Administration (Chapter 11)

I do hope MQA manage to find a new owner. I would be disappointed if the format ceased to exist. Still sounds better to me, and I like the checks on provenance. Limiting the amount of information needed when streaming hi-res content is also beneficial to energy usage, which is of benefit to the planet.

Indeed, many of the MQA albums we have added to our Tidal collection are still there, but the Boston Symphony series Under Stalin's Shadow have all reverted to 16/44. The Tidal folks tell me this was dictated by the record label (Deutsche Grammophon) and/or the distributor. They would not tell me how to contact them. I'm going to next try the BSO (long term patron) but not holding my breath. We do much prefer the MQA versions when available.

John

I still see a lot of content that is relevant for me still issued in MQA.

I have been away from the forum for a few months and had not picked up on this up at all until today.

Arrived at work this morning, put my headphones on and fired up TIDAL. First time since last Thursday.

The sound seemed a little odd and the Audioquest Dragonfly was showing green so I faffed for a bit.

Then I saw that the resolution box was labelled Max and not MQA.

A quick scan of my favourites showed that all MQA labelling has disappeared. And the penny dropped.

What a sad day for quality audio.

Curious.....my Tidal apps still show MASTER as the selected resolution for both playback and download (Phone).

Has your account changed ? Are those settings still available to you ? Phone or laptop?

I think you need to kill the app and start it again for the new version to run.

The work use case was a Windows 11 laptop which forced a TIDAL restart after I started it.

Just tried on my home Windows 7 laptop which showed Master. I played the track "Born to Go" from Hawkwind's "Space Ritual". Checked on the 818v3 display which showed 88kHz PCM - not MQA.

TIDAL then provided a new version so I restarted. Master is now Max but the same track is playing PCM at 192kHz.

When I play the track you specified, the info on my 218 states "MQA Studio 48k".

I updated the phone app just now and see the Master is now Max.

I suspect that it is for MQA if we can no longer specifically select it.

Disappointing.

What I am finding puzzling is that most Fridays, in recent weeks, a whole load of new MQA albums are released. The cynics say they have been converted already, but it doesn't make much sense if the plan is to just have PCM...I doubt MQA are in any position to litigate. Or is it all automated, and a pain to change at this point?

A great shame if it does go. But then Bob Stuart is usually too far ahead of the curve, pioneering active speakers that are now commonplace; surround sound with DVD-A, only to find Atmos in that space 20 years later.

Are you playing TIDAL directly (as I am) or via Roon?

Not sure that Max in Tidal isn’t now a cover-all term for anything over 16/44.

I checked and most (all?) of my MQA albums in Tidal are now labelled Max in the Tidal app, when they were MQA the other day. However, Roon still reports, and authenticates/unfolds an MQA stream on the same albums, at least on the ones I’ve checked…

E.g.

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No 5, Malcolm Sargent, London Symphony Orchestra, Everest Records - Tidal now displays Max, but Roon still reports/decodes MQA versions: MQA 44.1, or MQA 192.

Brahms, Violin Concerto, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Giulini, Perlman, on Warner Bros. Tidal now shows Max, Roon: MQA 44.1, or MQA 96. Again, Roon authenticates these and unfolds, looking at the signal path…

So either Roon’s signal path is broken or Tidal is still MQA even though it now displays Max…