TIDAL > Original FLAC, how?

[Exaco]

Hello, i've noticed that Tidal sounds alot better than FLAC etc, i've been comparing the Tidal app on PC and PotPlayer using FLAC music and TIDAL sounds smoother, warmer and seems to have more Depth to the sound.. 

I've tried it with alot of albums, Tidal just wins everytime and it's not some placebo effect. Maybe it is because they stream the sound through some fancy DAC/AMP that gives that effect? So it goes like: Raw file from TIdal's servers > Tidal's DAC -> My DAC ?

Or maybe my FLAC files aren't really FLAC? I mean for example someone just converted it to 2000kbps FLAC format from 320kbps mp3 and called it a day ?

[Havardr]

41 minutes ago, Exaco said:

Hello, i've noticed that Tidal sounds alot better than FLAC etc, i've been comparing the Tidal app on PC and PotPlayer using FLAC music and TIDAL sounds smoother, warmer and seems to have more Depth to the sound.. 

I've tried it with alot of albums, Tidal just wins everytime and it's not some placebo effect. Maybe it is because they stream the sound through some fancy DAC/AMP that gives that effect? So it goes like: Raw file from TIdal's servers > Tidal's DAC -> My DAC ?

Or maybe my FLAC files aren't really FLAC? I mean for example someone just converted it to 2000kbps FLAC format from 320kbps mp3 and called it a day 

 

Tidal does not send their files through a DAC before it gets to you. A DAC is an Digital to Analog Converter. This happens on your end.

If your FLAC files sound "bad", it's probably a bad conversion, like 320kbps to 2000kbps like you said.

[Exaco]

7 minutes ago, Havardr said:

 

Tidal does not send their files through a DAC before it gets to you. A DAC is an Digital to Analog Converter. This happens on your end.

If your FLAC files sound "bad", it's probably a bad conversion, like 320kbps to 2000kbps like you said.

Well i guess its gonna be it, different encoding, some songs sound 1:1, but for example Vinyl RIP at 5400kbps of Linkin Park sounds alot more silent and muffled in my files than Tidal's standard "Hi-FI". 

[Volbet]

1 hour ago, Exaco said:

Well i guess its gonna be it, different encoding, some songs sound 1:1, but for example Vinyl RIP at 5400kbps of Linkin Park sounds alot more silent and muffled in my files than Tidal's standard "Hi-FI". 

If you're comparing a vinyl rip to a pure digital stream, then that might be why there's a difference.

There are plenty points of failure when it comes to digitizing a records, and if anything is not set correctly it'll sound wrong.

And that's not even going into the different mastering techniques that are utilized when making the record.

 

But if we're comparing apples to apples, then it might be the specific masters that Tidal is provided by the mastering houses.

[Dackzy]

1 hour ago, Volbet said:

But if we're comparing apples to apples, then it might be the specific masters that Tidal is provided by the mastering houses.

to add to that if you get a MQA file from tidal, then the pitch will be a bit different, since it packs 24bit info into 17bit.

[Volbet]

1 hour ago, Dackzy said:

to add to that if you get a MQA file from tidal, then the pitch will be a bit different, since it packs 24bit info into 17bit.

Isn't MQA "folded" in a 13 bit carrier?

[Dackzy]

9 minutes ago, Volbet said:

Isn't MQA "folded" in a 13 bit carrier?

pretty sure it is 17 bits, but yeah either way  it is "folded" which gives this pitch change unless the master has taken it into account, which I haven't heard any that have done tbh. I have always been able to pick out MQA when I heard it.  

[Volbet]

On 10/2/2018 at 6:10 PM, Dackzy said:

pretty sure it is 17 bits, but yeah either way  it is "folded" which gives this pitch change unless the master has taken it into account, which I haven't heard any that have done tbh. I have always been able to pick out MQA when I heard it.  

I'm just thinking that MQA was created to fit into the CD standard (meaning a max resolution of 16 bits), and then about 3 bits are "distorted" due to the folding, meaning that you'll have an effective 13 bits of resolution in the carrier without a decoder.

Essentally it works on a similar principle as Dolby Noise Reduction.

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, Volbet said:

I'm just thinking that MQA was created to fit into the CD standard (meaning a max of 16 bits of resolution), and then about 3 bits are "distorted" due to the folding, meaning that you'll have an effective 13 bits of resolution in the carrier without a decoder.

Essentally it works on a similar principle as Dolby Noise Reduction.

The general use is to make higher quality files fit into smaller "spaces". I know that they have talked a lot about original DSD file size vs the same file but MQA formattet. 

Some sites mention that CD exsample others say make 24/96 be the same size as 24/48.

It is honestly a bit confusing, because there are so many sites that report similar things, yet a bit different.