[QUESTION] Tidal dl MQA downloads are defaulted to 16-bit FLAC, even when the quality is set to MASTER. How can i fix this? An older version of Tidal dl didn't have this issue.

[GorillaCentral]

Please forgive me if this issue has been answered a thousand times! Tidal dl is an amazing program that I used frequently and after
re-installing it this latest version won't download MQA properly, the files are downloaded as 16-bit FLAC even though I have my download setting on MASTER. Is this a bug or is this program too smart for me and I just didn't install it properly? Again this is an amazing program and if this issue gets fixed before my Tidal Hifi subscription expires i plan on buying yaronzz multiple coffees :-)

[dam0]

Tidal are now issuing 16/44 Masters recognising the authenticity of the track as well as CD quality. Unfortunately this is now easily confused with 24bit hi-res tracks.

I use MusicBrainz Picard to rename the album with the bitrate to indicate the quality, e.g '[2000] Roll On [MQA 16/44]'

[GorillaCentral]

Tidal are now issuing 16/44 Masters recognising the authenticity of the track as well as CD quality. Unfortunately this is now easily confused with 24bit hi-res tracks.

I use MusicBrainz Picard to rename the album with the bitrate to indicate the quality, e.g '[2000] Roll On [MQA 16/44]'

I'm sorry I must be in a very dumb mood today, so Tidal is now issuing 16-bit files and labeling them as "Master" quality? Are you saying there is a way around this as well? What is MusicBrainz Picard? Please help! Don't wanna let this month of Tidal HiFi go to waste! Plus I really think yaronzz deserves that coffee i plan on buying him

[moisespr123]

These 16/44 tracks are essentially MQA in the form of MQA-CD format.

[ruslaniv]

Tidal are now issuing 16/44 Masters recognising the authenticity of the track as well as CD quality. Unfortunately this is now easily confused with 24bit hi-res tracks.

I thought if a track is marked "Masters" it means it's at least 24/44 or better (like 24/96).
Are you saying that now Tidal marks regular 16/44 tracks as masters?

[moisespr123]

Tidal are now issuing 16/44 Masters recognising the authenticity of the track as well as CD quality. Unfortunately this is now easily confused with 24bit hi-res tracks.

I thought if a track is marked "Masters" it means it's at least 24/44 or better (like 24/96).
Are you saying that now Tidal marks regular 16/44 tracks as masters?

There are both 16-bit and 24-bit MQA tracks. Best way to confirm it is MQA is to see if the encoder is "MQA encoder" or check if it has the MQAENCODER metadata.

[dam0]

yes, I thought Masters should be 24bit too, but here's the announcement -
https://www.mqa.co.uk/newsroom/news/tidal-masters-adds-millions-of-master-quality-tracks
'Bob Stuart, MQA founder, explained, “..MQA opens a clear window and delivers all the detail and nuance of the original song. The music industry’s catalog contains millions of significant performances from the early days of CD where, sometimes, the recording was created in 44.1kHz 16bit and where no alternative existed. We are delighted that Warner Music Group is bringing this content to TIDAL.”'

[ruslaniv]

yes, I thought Masters should be 24bit too, but here's the announcement -

I did not get from this article, if WMG/Meridian are going to process/re-encode/do_some_MQA_magic to upscale the old CDs to 24/96 or they just going to release them as 16/44 and mark them "Masters" too?

[ruslaniv]

There are both 16-bit and 24-bit MQA tracks. Best way to confirm it is MQA is to see if the encoder is "MQA encoder" or check if it has the MQAENCODER metadata.

Ah, yes, the proper metadata is indeed present in the track.
I wonder though, if there is a software tool that could tell what a track would unfold to on a proper DAC- 24/96 or 24/192.
I know you can't unfold MQA without a decoder but I would think there should be some metadata that you can read?

[moisespr123]

There are both 16-bit and 24-bit MQA tracks. Best way to confirm it is MQA is to see if the encoder is "MQA encoder" or check if it has the MQAENCODER metadata.

Ah, yes, the proper metadata is indeed present in the track.
I wonder though, if there is a software tool that could tell what a track would unfold to on a proper DAC- 24/96 or 24/192.
I know you can't unfold MQA without a decoder but I would think there should be some metadata that you can read?

https://github.com/purpl3F0x/MQA_identifier

[Willhiro67]

You can use USB Audio Player Pro (Android), I think is 7 bucks, cannot remember how much I paid for it. It does tell you the correct unfolded bit rate, but it many cases it duplicates it even when the original is 24/44.
The files below are MQA originals as:
John Lennon (24/44)
Dire straits (16/44)
Kiss (24/192)

On the picture you can see the correct bit rate in red. (Dire Straits is an actual MQA 16/44). The green square is the USB Audio Pro effort to unfold the MQA and in some cases if just duplicates the Frequency even thou the original is only 44. Their max goes to 96, therefore you can see the KISS song at that rate because it cannot unfold it to 192.

Hope this helps

[ruslaniv]

You can use USB Audio Player Pro (Android)

Sorry, I'm an Apple guy)).
But I got a trial version of Audirvana and here is what it shows (but man, 100 bucks for an audio player app!):

Also, using MQA Identifier referenced earlier in the thread, I get this:

And if course the Tidal media downloader shows the encoding too, but I guess it reads it from Tidal, not from the actual tracks:

[Willhiro67]

I normally use A&K SR15 to listen to music, and it decodes pretty nice all MQAs. I just ordered a Sony ZX507. I'll see how it plays MQAs.

[shaun-ba]

I've used Roon, and in my opinion the only true way to fully unfold/decode and render MQA files is to use hardware DAC.

I let Roon do the first unfold (software), and then my DAC the later, but it sounded way worse than just letting my DAC do it.

My DAC is SMSL M400, its fantastic.

[Willhiro67]

I heard the SMSL is really good, but I like portability, since I use headphones to hear my collection anyways

[GIOMONALDO]

hola yo había usado con anteriormente el athame en su ultima versión hace mas de 1año y allí obtenía los flac a 24bits en 44.1khz en adelante. Y si los percibía diferentes en mis dispositivos. Pero comenzó a usar el tilda gui y al principio los bajaba y dejo de hacerlo. Hasta ahora no he visto solución a esto. Pero lo del master si suenan diferentes con mas profundidad. Yo he bajado las canciones de otros lugares en alta frecuencia. Y así he convertido a como las necesito y no m convence aun así. Considero que tidal se percibe mejor.

[talios]

Unfortunately this is now easily confused with 24bit hi-res tracks.

Does this mean we're (somewhat) better off just requesting hi-res and not Masters then?