Tidal masters

Hifi nut just talk us through that again? What are you trying to do... connect your mobile app playing and decoding Tidal Masters and connecting via USB to your ND5XS?

if you are talking streaming, the Naim apps don't do any decoding.. they simply are control points for the streamers. The streamers do all the decoding.

Simon

Hi Simon, with MQA only being on tidal s  desktop app only, I would have to use my laptop and connect into my Chord 2 qute to get the masters, but surely a lap top won't sound as good as my naim nd5 xs

But doesn't the tidal app do the decoding of MQA hence the option of passthrough 

Hi how good things sound I guess is relative and subjective ultimately.. but that aside the Naim streamer can only play and decode MQA media if it has the MQA decoding libraries built with in it...I understand from Naim that they won't consider this integration until the maturity and efficiency of the MQA libraries improve.  An alternative is to use an off board MQA decoder like your laptop running the Tidal Desktop app and send SPDIF or toslink to the digital inputs on the ND5XS, that should sound quite good if you like the MQA sound, certainly if you have a good quality SPDIF/Toslink feed.

Simon

Thanks for the advice Simon,would I be better connecting directly into the Chord 2 qute then from my laptop?

Apparently Audirvana will do the MQA Tidal decoding in Version 3.0 of its software which was due at the end of January but has yet to arrive. 

andarkian posted:

Apparently Audirvana will do the MQA Tidal decoding in Version 3.0 of its software which was due at the end of January but has yet to arrive. 

The beta is out and about already

dayjay posted:

andarkian posted:

Apparently Audirvana will do the MQA Tidal decoding in Version 3.0 of its software which was due at the end of January but has yet to arrive. 

The beta is out and about already

I have looked but can't find it. Last news was it will be available in about 3 weeks.

andarkian posted:

dayjay posted:

andarkian posted:

Apparently Audirvana will do the MQA Tidal decoding in Version 3.0 of its software which was due at the end of January but has yet to arrive. 

The beta is out and about already

I have looked but can't find it. Last news was it will be available in about 3 weeks.

The most recent info on Audirvana website (forum), stated by the software writer on 2/2, is that the official public release was "expected in about 2 weeks".

Forgive me if I ask a really, really stupid question.  I use a 272 to stream Tidal.  I use the naim app on an iPad to change song, control playlist, like a remote control.  In layman terms,  how to I listen to the highest quality (masters?) using this setup?   

you dont

jon honeyball posted:

you dont

At least I will quit trying to figure it out.  So spend $30k on equipment, then  get the best streaming service and can't get Tidal's highest quality music.  That makes a lot of sense.  

Zackwater posted:

Forgive me if I ask a really, really stupid question.  I use a 272 to stream Tidal.  I use the naim app on an iPad to change song, control playlist, like a remote control.  In layman terms,  how to I listen to the highest quality (masters?) using this setup?   

To listen to Tidal Masters at it's full potential, you meed an MQA enabled DAC, and there are very few on these on the market as yet. None of the Naim ones are. Also, Tidal Masters are only available via their Mac or PC desktop app.  

Zackwater posted:

Forgive me if I ask a really, really stupid question.  I use a 272 to stream Tidal.  I use the naim app on an iPad to change song, control playlist, like a remote control.  In layman terms,  how to I listen to the highest quality (masters?) using this setup?   

The only way is through the Tidal desktop app. I've done it (see post above) by playing the desktop app on my MacBook Pro through a portable DAC and plugging that into an input on my NAC 282 pre-amp. The only way to control this is through the computer; the Naim app is redundant here.

Naim won't support Tidal Masters for the foreseeable, maybe until it is a more concrete entity, if ever. But then, Masters is not purely the original music in a higher resolution; it's tweaked as the engineer thinks it should sound rather than as the original artist/producer thinks it should. So it's not the Holy Grail.

Having listened to MQA for a couple of weeks, I've quite happily gone back to normal HiFi Tidal. I really wouldn't fret; it's not a big deal.

I really wouldn't worry about it, MQA isn't going to be around for long, it's obvious.  It solves a problem that doesn't need solving, and even if it did, most music listeners don't know it exists and are perfectly happy with MP3s.  

Using Tidal on the 272, is there a specific way to set it to the hifi setting on the Naim app?

Zackwater posted:

Using Tidal on the 272, is there a specific way to set it to the hifi setting on the Naim app?

Go to Settings - Input settings - Tidal - Quality and choose between Normal/High/HiFi. 

ChrisSU posted:

Zackwater posted:

Using Tidal on the 272, is there a specific way to set it to the hifi setting on the Naim app?

Go to Settings - Input settings - Tidal - Quality and choose between Normal/High/HiFi. 

Thank you very much!   

Zackwater posted:

ChrisSU posted:

Zackwater posted:

Using Tidal on the 272, is there a specific way to set it to the hifi setting on the Naim app?

Go to Settings - Input settings - Tidal - Quality and choose between Normal/High/HiFi. 

Thank you very much!   

My pleasure!

If you're paying for a HiFi subscription, you might reasonably assume that you would be receiving a lossless stream by default, as that's what you're paying for. The fact that the aforementioned setting sometimes has to be set manually is just one of the ways in which Tidal provides lossy streams while charging you for lossless. Other examples of this include:

1) Random albums often playing AAC for no obvious reason.

2) MQA 

With all the discussion around MQA, there is an interesting article on the Linn blog.

Google - MQA is Bad For Music. Here's Why

musicnuttyboy posted:

With all the discussion around MQA, there is an interesting article on the Linn blog.

Google - MQA is Bad For Music. Here's Why

Nice reading ... makes you think ...

musicnuttyboy posted:

With all the discussion around MQA, there is an interesting article on the Linn blog.

Google - MQA is Bad For Music. Here's Why

Thanks for that. They are such greedy sausages!

Who in their right mind are perfectly happy with mp3,worse thing ever invented, I won't be listening to my focal utopia headphones  with mp3 any time soon

Not a big deal said the Ostrich with his head in the sand. 

http://www.audioxpress.com/art...-on-demand-streaming

Sony Records is next ...

Bill Allen posted:

Not a big deal said the Ostrich with his head in the sand. 

http://www.audioxpress.com/art...-on-demand-streaming

Sony Records is next ...

I was referring to the sound quality rather than the wider implications