Studio quality from Tidal (MQA)

[TEK]

Looking forward to this:

http://www.whathifi.com/news/tidal-to-launch-hi-res-audio-streaming-in-2016

But at the same time I'm wondering if there are other that support studio (not CD) streaming solutions?

I do also not quite see the close connection between MQA and delivering studio quality music.
It's not like data traffic should be a huge issue - after all Netflix streams movies in 4K - and that requires much more bandwidth than any high-res audio file will ever do...

I guess I also will have to figure out how MQA is passed on to the DAC - will the PC extract it to a common format before passed onto the DAC, or will the DAC have to be upgraded....

Edit: Seems like there is a site for MQA: http://www.mqa.co.uk/

[wkhanna]

no answers to this thread over at Computer Audiophile yet, but a chance to get info directly from the (Bob Stuart) horse's mouth.

[JonMarsh]

The trouble with Netflix and others streaming video is that they have very lossy, high compression codecs. Of course, it does require some bandwidth- but I have hi rez music albums ripped from SACD to 24/176 kHz (did that myself) and they're 4-5 GB in some cases. So not unlike streaming a DVD. If you look at a typical "HD" streamed movie, such as iTunes, with current codecs they're running 4-5 GB for a feature length movie. I have' seen any streamed 4K yet that I thought was overall as good as a Blu-ray disk, if you know what you're looking for on a large screen. BTW, normal Blu-Ray movie is 25-30GB, and the one reason they aren't 50-60 GB is more aggressive codecs and compression than DVD.

[TEK]

Yes, I have also noticed that my impression is that "HD" from netflix usually is at a quite lower quality than "HD" from BluRay discs. I assume that is due to lossey codes beeing used.
And I assume that in all cases keeping the bandwidth usage down is a good thing for all of us - if it can be done in a lossless way.

BTW, I do see that one of the arguments for studio quality is that recent research shows we have specialized neurons in our brain. These neurons are specialized in interpeting spacial information from audio signals - causing parts of the audio signal that before has been tought to not be important to have great importancy for how our brain percive the sound.

I have always been sceptical to the idea that just because you cant hear a signal directly it does not affect how you experience the sound.

(The neuron stuff is freely from a couple of days old memory - I might not have got it perfectly correct)

[wkhanna]

Agreed with your impression on hi-res, TEK.
The good ones (mastering, engineering, etc) display a deeper, more focused and tactile 3D image in my experiance.