Full MQA music list.

Thanks for the list!

Wow! Thanks for the info. But I can’t understand why Tidal can’t put all it's MQA music under one easy to scroll section.

Wow! Over 3300 MQA titles!!!

@linnlingo,

All the MQA albums are listed under ’Masters’ tab in Tidal app. There are 458 albums currently available for North America customer base.

I just went into the large MQA section on the link above. I put a title in "My favorites" section on Tidal. It wasn't listed under the "Masters" tab. It still played in it's MQA form.

Only a portion on the total MQA files available on Tidal are presented on the Masters tab. The remainder must be found by happenstance without that list above.

linnlingo has a great point.

Dave

Only a portion on the total MQA files available on Tidal are presented on the Masters tab. The remainder must be found by happenstance without that list above.

That is absolutely true.  Only a small amount of albums are listed under the "Masters" tab.  Also, there are now "Masters" playlists.

I'm not sure that list posted above is complete.  I just found a Nat King Cole LP ("The Extraordinary") that is on Tidal as a Masters recording that isn't on the spreadsheet list.

I do agree this setup is somewhat inconvenient.

The fee is $20 a month’ Is it unreasonable to have all MQA music on an easy to find format. I’m far from being a computer expert maybe someone can explain why this is hard to do. If your going to promote a premium music format you should have a top of the line setup.

Totally get your frustration linnlingo. I think JayZ is actually promoting something else more than music per se and much of the "music" is only the vehicle.

Once a week or so, I look at the "New" tab by genre to see what has been added. Jazz is being added at a snails pace and there remains huge gaps in the catalog. "Pop" (or whatever the proper label is) is added at the speed of light. Many of the MQA selections on the "Masters" tab make me wonder why someone would care about the sound quality of that "media" at all. Even MQA can't rescue it. 

Regardless, it makes no sense not to have a tab with a complete library of MQA titles.

Dave

@dlcockrum 
"Many of the MQA selections on the "Masters" tab make me wonder why someone would care about the sound quality of that "media" at all."

Great point.  I had to laugh when I saw early albums by the Faces (Rod Stewart, Ron Wood et al) available as MQA.  Don't get me wrong...love the music and SQ can be good on some of these but not thinking these were guys sweating the details.  They were lucky to find the door into the studio on some days.  Does seem a little like silk purse from sow's ear.

I'm in a running email exchange battle with Tidal on the subject of MQA.  Like most, I'm concerned that the entire available MQA list is not available under the "Masters" tab.  When I asked if they were going to fix the issue the help desk response was was "only the engineers know and they are not telling us their plans".  I think all users should contact them and register their complaint.  I will probably keep subscribing until they have a good competitor.  

So please help me understand. Not all of that gigantic list is MQA????

mr m,

The issue here is the poor job that Tidal itself does at creating a central repository for MQA titles.

Why should paying customers have to resort to a spreadsheet to identify MQA titles, or worse, only find them by happenstance?

The "Masters" section of Tidal as such a central library of MQA titles is a joke. Appears to me that the same despots that select titles to highlight in the "New" (non-mqa) section of Tidal are in charge of the Masters Section as well. At least 50% of the titles added weekly to the Masters section are virtually unlistenable from a sound quality standpoint. As for the musical value of same, well I will just leave it at, "It is not my taste".

There are exceptions of course and infrequently a real gem gets included, but it is a rarity and seems to be getting worse over time, IMO.

We appear to have made a major mistake by inferring that Tidal MQA=audiophile/music aficionado.

Dave

Folks,

I recognize the MQA albums are scattered all over the place. I have spoken to Tidal, they are aware of the issue and working on improving the user experience.

The way I see it, it’s a work in progress. Be patient and continue to enjoy the MQA or non-MQA files based on your personal preferences.

And those who are not happy with MQA or Tidal content are free to make a switch to Spotify or other low resolution streaming services :-)

I am thankful for all the progress made so far with high resolution streaming, limited as it seems but never the less providing elevated musical experience.

Peace out!

Too much time as a "work in progress" may end in Tidal MQA becoming a "work in congress".

Dave

Been getting frequent emails from Tidal announcing their "exclusive" promotions and urging members to listen. Seems that they have plenty of resources for that.

This month this far:

1) Taylor Swift
2) Mount Joy "Where I'm From"
3) Indochine "13"
4) Arcade Fire
5) Celebrate Latinx Heritage Month (today)

Judge for yourself.

Dave

A bit off topic, but related to Tidal...

Anyone experiencing frequent buffering playing MQA or regular music files on Tidal.  Hadn't had significant issues until a month or so ago.  Now frequent interruptions for buffering seem the norm.  Would be curious to hear from other Tidal listeners.  Thanks.

(Hope linnlingo won't mind.)

Yes. I have the same problem of buffering with Tidal. Not sure if it is at their end or mine.

One thing Tidal could  do is show the sampling rate and if an album is MQA before you play it. Pretty annoying to not know until you press play. And @ghosthouse yes I have been experiencing buffering also where I never had issues in the past just with Tidal not with my own files. In fact I bought a new wireless gateway yesterday thinking my old modem/router was causing the problem.

@mr_m  & @jond - 
Gents - thank you.  Reassuring.  I didn't want to have to go out and get a new router or bang on the door of my ISP.  Dealing with them can be a bit frustrating until you get through to the right person.  

As jond noted, no problems with my ripped files.  I need to double-check with Spotify but I think no buffering issues with it.  My 1 year Tidal subscription that came with the Aries is about up.  It'll be aggravating to start paying and get this kind of performance.  

@ghosthouse  understood and I imagine Tidal will figure it out. Also kind of glad it happened in the sense of I realize we've been paying $10/month to rent the stupid gateway over 10 years that's $1200! (I don't pay the cable bill my gf does should have looked sooner lol). So a state of the art gateway for $178 will pay for itself in 18 months.

@ghosthouse & @mr_m

You may wanna read up on this thread about the buffering issues with Tidal.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-is-the-most-common-cause-of-dropouts-when-streaming-tida...

Like with all other media, just because it is MQA does not make it the best recording you can find.

I have plenty of examples where the original CD or Vinyl sounds better than MQA.

It mostly boils down to the mix and mastering quality....so YMMV between various MQA masters.

That said - the Deluxe Led Zeppelin MQA is a huge improvement on the multitude of releases over the years...

@lalitk 
Thanks for reminding me about that thread.  I read it and just checked my internet download speed (speedtestdotcom).  It came in at  60+ Mbps which seems okay though paying Xfinity for Burst which is supposed to be 150Mbps max tested direct off the ISP modem via ethernet cable, I believe.  My speed was wireless off an Airport Express router (and w/DirecTV, also wireless, recording a program).  Will review that thread again...see if there is anything else I can do on my end.  Kinda suspect it is Tidal since everything else runs "glitch" free.

randyhat,
Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this list!
I have found that, to find a lot of new MQA on Tidal, you need to go into each artist I'm interested in, one by one, and scroll thru the albums on their individual page.  With your list I found some gems to add to my "favorites".
Thank you!

Archimago has run a blind MQA listening test: http://archimago.blogspot.nl/2017/09/mqa-core-vs-hi-res-blind-test-part-ii.html More statistical analysis will follow, but for now there is no significant preference for MQA over and above Hi Res PCM, and even those respondents who expressed confidence in their identifications were actually doing little more than throwing a dice. Personally I would have loved to see Red Book CD 16/44 thrown in as well.

As an update the buffering issues with Tidal seem to have largely subsided its been working fine for me for the last three days or so. Has anyone else experienced a similar bounceback?

Improvement noted here also.  In my email correspondence with Tidal support  a couple of days ago they acknowledged this was a known problem and assured me they were working on it.  I streamed off and on all day yesterday without a disruption.  So far this morning it is working fine.

@randyhat  glad to hear you heard from Tidal thanks!

@jond
jon - Things seem to have improved here too. Still some very occasional buffering but very short-lived. Nothing like before. Hardly any longer than the break between tracks on a recording. Improvement noted in about the same time frame as what you report.

Sorry. Hadn’t yet seen Randy’s note about communication with Tidal when I wrote the above.

Also if a track buffers it plays fine if you start it again at least that's been my experience the last few days.

Unfortunately buffering seems back with a vengeance this weekend for me at least. Anyone else having issues? Emailed Tidal support last night no response yet.

Yes, jond, it comes and goes and completely eludes attempts to find repeatable root cause IME.

Dave

Sorry guys, @jond ~ please keep us posted once you hear back from Tidal.

PS: I have not experienced any buffering issues with Tidal.   

@lalitk will do and naturally its seemed fine all day today go figure.

I got the following response from Tidal this morning.

TIDAL Support [KevinMN] (TIDAL)

Oct 2, 8:26 AM EDT

Hello,

I am one of the Techs here at TIDAL and I am happy to help you.

Based on the information you provided, this issue may be resolved by making some adjustments to your device in question.
Please change the DNS settings on your device by following this guide:
https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using?hl=en

Also, please recycle the power of your network equipment (WiFi router, modem, etc.) for 1 minute (powered off).

If you continue to have problems, please let me know.

Best Regards,

Kevin - Technical Support Specialist
TIDAL Member Support

Not really sure about this DNS setting stuff anyone else have an opinion?

@willemj


Interesting blog blog and test by Archimago. He has identified one of the causes of audible differences between DACs - the filtering methodology used. His test attempts to eliminate this by modelling this. If anyone is looking for an accurate DAC then you really have to read up in detail on the filtering methodology applied, as it really is possible to get transparent filters but it is more likely the manufacturer has used filters as quasi tone controls.

I submitted the request below to Tidal Streaming regarding the number of MQA albums available on my Aurender:

"My Aurender N10 Music server displays 448 MQA albums. Does Tidal have additional MQA albums in your MQA album library that are NOT included in the Masters tab on my Aurender Conductor App? I heard that Tidal has over 5,000 MQA albums but less than 500 of them appear on the Aurender Conductor App.

What sequence are these albums in? Do I have any sort options so I can get them in artist sequence and also selections by genre on my Aurender? I am constantly looking for new classical MQA albums and it would be nice to have a genre tab for this option. My assumption is the sort sequence is controlled by Tidal and my Aurender might not be able to provide any additional sorting options. The ability to sort MQA albums and select them by genre would be a very helpful Aurender feature.

Aurender also reports Tidal Streaming has much more than 448 MQA albums, but Tidal) is just displaying new MQA albums just like new albums. Aurender believes the albums are ordered by added date and they can’t change order. At this moment, Tidal does NOT offer a way to filter or change the sort order with MQA flags, so there is no way Aurender can display all MQA albums.

In summary, is it possible for all the MQA albums to be displayed on my Aurender Masters tab? What options, if any, might be available for my Aurender to have the necessary API options to enable sorting and selection from the full MQA Album list? Thanks".

The Absolute Sound, Issue #279, on page 136 also states there are about 5,000 MQA Coded albums but fewer than 500 of them appear on the Aurender Conductor App. I emailed Tidal and am waiting for their response.

Please see the respond I received from Tidal below:

"Thanks for reaching out. Please contact Aurender Customer Support as they developed the app that interfaces with TIDAL and therefore should be able to further assist you in this matter. 

Please note: MQA Albums can be found at “What’s New” and select “Masters” in the Albums section. The limited view of MQA albums in this section is a known issue. 

The developers are aware of the limited search capabilities for MQA albums. They are working on advanced search capabilities for MQA. I am sorry for the inconvenience. 

If you search for artists, albums, etc, if it is of the MQA format, an "M" will be displayed next to the title".  

I am not sure exactly what this means but wil forward it to Aurender to see if they can provide access to the 5,000 MQA Coded Albums.  Any comments?

I am not sure exactly what the above means.  Does this mean that Aurender needs to do something to provide access to the 5,000 MQA Coded Albums.   If Tidal does something on search capabilities for MQA Albums, I am hoping Aurender can also provide something similar on the Aurender Conductor App (assuming the API supports it).

The REAL problem, it seems, is there are 5,000 coded MQA albums and it would be nice to have them displayed and available on the Aurender Conductor App.   Based on the above response, I do not know if API Aurender is using will allow access to these MQA albums.   Maybe Aurender need to contact Tidal to determine how to better identify the MQA Coded Albums.   I do not know if it is even possible.  I asked Aurender these questions.  

It is not an Aurender issue but a Tidal one and one they are fully aware of!
I am awaiting reply from my email to them.
Any Tidal app only shows approx 500 titles under masters tab. We know is closer to 5000, and the ones they show are....well lets keep it clean here!
It is disgraceful that $20 a month cannot enable them to afford to employ a decent software engineer who could place all masters in one easily searchable location.