Well Over 10,000 MQA Albums on Tidal Now

My pleasure. I can't get over how good MQA sounds, especially through Audirvana. Plus my dac playing it as DSD. :)
 
I just ordered a ridiculously inexpensive iFi DSD Black Label DAC for $199 which adds MQA. My greatest fear is it is going to outperform my Wyred4Sound DAC-1 LE femto clock DAC which was 5x the price. Ahhhhhh, technology.
 
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I just ordered a ridiculously inexpensive iFi DSD Black Label DAC for $199 which adds MQA. I greatest fear is it is going to outperform my Wyred4Sound DAC-1 LE femto clock DAC which was 5x the price. Ahhhhhh, technology.

MQA is simply fantastic. One of the greatest audio innovations of my audio lifetime. And it's free!
 
I was afraid this would happen! The iFi iDSD Black Label ($199) is not only keeping up with the 5x more expensive Wyred4Sound DAC-1LE it’s besting it in regular decoding AIFF, FLAC DSD, etc, not by a huge margin but enough that I find myself listening to it more than the Wyred4Sound PLUS I get MQA decoding which I’m finding alarmingly good.

I’m listening to Getz/Gilberto released with MQA on Tidal. I’ve listened to this album at leas 30-40 times and hear some of the mic ambience and other low level detail not heard with regular DSD 128.

I am a little annoyed I had to update the firmware but on Mac it was a snap. I am running Roon software on my Mac Mini which does the “first unfold” of MQA. I’d use Roon even if it didn’t but it made getting a high performance, low cost DAC VERY easy!

@Prime Minister , your post pushed me over the edge to give MQA one more try, thank you.
 
I was afraid this would happen! The iFi iDSD Black Label ($199) is not only keeping up with the 5x more expensive Wyred4Sound DAC-1LE it’s besting it in regular decoding AIFF, FLAC DSD, etc, not by a huge margin but enough that I find myself listening to it more than the Wyred4Sound PLUS I get MQA decoding which I’m finding alarmingly good.

I’m listening to Getz/Gilberto released with MQA on Tidal. I’ve listened to this album at leas 30-40 times and hear some of the mic ambience and other low level detail not heard with regular DSD 128.

I am a little annoyed I had to update the firmware but on Mac it was a snap. I am running Roon software on my Mac Mini which does the “first unfold” of MQA. I’d use Roon even if it didn’t but it made getting a high performance, low cost DAC VERY easy!

@Prime Minister , your post pushed me over the edge to give MQA one more try, thank you.

Glad to help, Mike. It is pretty damn miraculous, isn't it?
 
@MikeT. Careful there!

I received a severe dressing down at a SMAC meet recently for saying I enjoy the sound of most MQA files over standard Redbook. Guess I am not supposed to trust my ears.
 
@MikeT. Careful there!

I received a severe dressing down at a SMAC meet recently for saying I enjoy the sound of most MQA files over standard Redbook. Guess I am not supposed to trust my ears.

Yeah, you better watch out. Listening and making up your own mind isn't allowed in some audio circles.
 
@Olson_jr us radical thinkers and pioneers have always taken abuse at the hands of our unliberated Audio brethren :roflmao: The emoji is just making sure everyone knows I’m not taking this too seriously, or am I? :confused:
 
I was afraid this would happen! The iFi iDSD Black Label ($199) is not only keeping up with the 5x more expensive Wyred4Sound DAC-1LE it’s besting it in regular decoding AIFF, FLAC DSD, etc, not by a huge margin but enough that I find myself listening to it more than the Wyred4Sound PLUS I get MQA decoding which I’m finding alarmingly good.

I’m listening to Getz/Gilberto released with MQA on Tidal. I’ve listened to this album at leas 30-40 times and hear some of the mic ambience and other low level detail not heard with regular DSD 128.

I am a little annoyed I had to update the firmware but on Mac it was a snap. I am running Roon software on my Mac Mini which does the “first unfold” of MQA. I’d use Roon even if it didn’t but it made getting a high performance, low cost DAC VERY easy!

@Prime Minister , your post pushed me over the edge to give MQA one more try, thank you.
@MikeT. is that the Nano model of the iFi iDSD Black Label ?
 
@MikeT. is that the Nano model of the iFi iDSD Black Label ?

@airdronian, it is! iFi Nano DSD Black Label, and I’m really blown away. I’ve had the Wyred4Sound DAC-1LE MME (Much More Expensive) for a few years. It supported DSD and does a fine job but compared to the iFi it seems to suffer a bit of brittleness. This is a matter of a few degrees but nonetheless, I find myself listening to the iFi pretty much all the time.
Plus, paired with Roon, it’s MQA compatible. Since I was already on board with Roon it was a minimal investment. I’m still on the annual Roon plan but will likely pull the trigger on a full license next year.
 
I haven’t experienced this much improvement in detail and low level resolution with a component in a long, long time. The iFi DSD Black Label on any file type I throw at it OR streaming is nothing short of amazing. Sweet, yet detailed. Capturing fingers on the guitar strings, fading syllables of a musicians voicing, bite of strings/harmonica/piano/you name it amazing DAC for $199.
Soundstage is freaking astounding as well.

Sorry I’m gushing.

I’m kind of sad to see my Wyred4Sound DAC sitting there, powered up, idle.
 
Thank you for this! I just started a trial of Tidal and downloaded the latest Audirvana. Sounds great!

EDIT: This is a real game-changer for me. And so many more albums than Spotify! Lots of great recommendations. It reminds me of MOG before it was bought and killed by Apple. Thanks @Prime Minister
 
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Thank you for this! I just started a trial of Tidal and downloaded the latest Audirvana. Sounds great!

EDIT: This is a real game-changer for me. And so many more albums than Spotify! Lots of great recommendations. It reminds me of MOG before it was bought and killed by Apple. Thanks @Prime Minister

My pleasure!
Tidal doesn't make enjoying MQA that easy, but once you get it sorted out, it's incredibly rewarding. Is your DAC MQA compatible? If not, you are only getting half of the benefit. From what I can see, MQA is one of the best things to happen to audio in my lifetime.
 
@Prime Minister; I followed the great advice on this forum and play Tidal on Audirvana. Audirvana offers a Tidal 3 months free trial coupon, which paid for the Audirvana upgrade twofold.

It's my studio, so: Mac Pro with optical out to a Grant Fidelity TudeDAC-11. That went to an Emotiva, but now to an NAD 2200 into ELAC UB-5s. It sounds quite nice!
 
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