Thanks for sharing such a clearly articulated comparison. Never thought of ripping vinyl to DSD to avoid the physical limitations of the system. I recently joined Tidal and share the frustration of limited Masters. I am really impressed how well a plain old CD sounds when done right. But vinyl reigns supreme as far as overall ability to articulate the emotions, feeling and sound stage. MQA would be second, followed by DSD/Hi-RES, CD, then FLAC.
MQA vs. ripped vs. vinyl vs. hi res
Just curious what other people think about the sound quality (SQ) of Tidal MQA vs. cd's that you have ripped (cd or DSD) or the same music you have on vinyl. It has been all over the map for me. IMO, there isn't a favorite medium or a medium that ALWAYS wins out over the others, DSD might be more favorable to me. When MQA is very good, I prefer it over vinyl. There are many many cases where vinyl is superior over anything, and there are times when my ripped sounds better (ripped by using MAX or XLD using higher bit rates).