Do i need MQA streaming

Cabunag

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Apr 2, 2021
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Both Amplifiers im thinking about dont support MQA
Yamaha R-N803D
Marantz PM7000N
Are they worth buying now if they dont support MQA.

Right now im using Amazon Music Unlimited i get for just under £7 a Month. Can only use Amazon by Bluetooth as Yamaha dont support it, the Marantz supports Amazon Music. Thank you for reading this.
 

superhans

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Oct 19, 2020
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In a word ' No'
I had a 4 month trial of Tidal with MQA DAC via the Bluesound Node 2i
I was not impressed. My verdict after the trial - its snake oil. Cancelled the sub, sold the streamer
I am sure there will be plenty of happy MQA folk out there, but I just coudn't hear it's worth over Qobuz & others.
I now use Qobuz for the most part which sounds great to my ears.
 
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Winter

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Oct 28, 2019
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Both Amplifiers im thinking about dont support MQA
Yamaha R-N803D
Marantz PM7000N
Are they worth buying now if they dont support MQA.

Right now im using Amazon Music Unlimited i get for just under £7 a Month. Can only use Amazon by Bluetooth as Yamaha dont support it, the Marantz supports Amazon Music. Thank you for reading this.
hi im streaming amazons hd music sounds really good .!
 

petergabriel

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Oct 30, 2019
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I have tested Tidal and Deezer Hifi for a month to compare the two. Deezer being lossless flac, while Tidal is lossy MQA.

My initial impressions were that Tidal sounded better (I spent a lot of time making sure I was listening to the same masters/editions for a fair comparison), but after a while I found the sound fatiguing.

What initially sounded like a clearer more detailed sound, is probably the downside of the introduced noise in the MQA files, which will manifest itself as a brighter sound, and probably why people on first hearing find Tidal more detailed and clear. It is not. After a while, my ears just got tired of listening to Tidal, much like an overly compressed file.

So, if a streaming service like Deezer, who uses flac for their hifi tier, sound less detailed, it may simply be because they are using a lossless streaming format, with no introduced noise. Your ears will thank you in the long run.
 

Marcus99M

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No you don't need MQA, I have a SU-9 dac with a full MQA decoder and I am just waiting for Spotify lossless so I can quit Tidal and Roon.
 
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I would love to hear from someone who does think MQA offers something more than Qobuz/Amazon HD. I tried hard during my 4 months with it, but just could not hear a tangible benefit.
I conducted a test to compare Qobuz and Tidal using Roon with settings as the primary MQA decoder and performing the second and third MQA unfold on the amplifier. The difference was very noticeable in favor of Tidal.
 

My2Cents

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Nov 10, 2023
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Both Amplifiers im thinking about dont support MQA
Yamaha R-N803D
Marantz PM7000N
Are they worth buying now if they dont support MQA.

Right now im using Amazon Music Unlimited i get for just under £7 a Month. Can only use Amazon by Bluetooth as Yamaha dont support it, the Marantz supports Amazon Music. Thank you for reading this.
Quite a big difference in price (and performance) between the R-N803 and the PM7000N. Here in the USA the Marantz is currently 3x the price of the Yamaha as the 803 has been discontinued.
What are you currently streaming from/to? Are you considering a switch from Amazon to Tidal?
You could potentially just use a WiiM to your current amp?
If you're not using Tidal then you don't need an MQA supported amp. Tidal's desktop app has MQA conversion built in and so if you use a computer to stream you can use a USB cable and go straight to an amp. (assuming that the amp. has a USB input - the 803 does not).
Ultra Hi Res (> than 16/44.1) is overated anyway, as a lot of music is just flat out poorly mastered for digital distribution/consumption. Even listening to a well recorded and mastered 24 bit 96kHz .wav file doesn't yield much (if any) difference on a budget system. However the offer of 'ultra hi res' is a great tool for music streaming services to hike up their prices with the 'expectation' of higher fidelity.
Last I checked Music Cast does support Amazon music (at least it does in the USA although the manual states that it varies by region). It also supports Tidal connect but not at full available resolution (depending on the receiving device).
 
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manicm

Well-known member
MQA is a nice to have - I will never find value in streaming full fat hires as it's a waste of bandwidth, and MQA fills that gap nicely if I want to dabble.

To the other poster, the Tidal desktop or phone app will never fully unfold MQA audio, you still need a compatible DAC or streamer to get the full benefit.
 
Quite a big difference in price (and performance) between the R-N803 and the PM7000N. Here in the USA the Marantz is currently 3x the price of the Yamaha as the 803 has been discontinued.
What are you currently streaming from/to? Are you considering a switch from Amazon to Tidal?
You could potentially just use a WiiM to your current amp?
If you're not using Tidal then you don't need an MQA supported amp. Tidal's desktop app has MQA conversion built in and so if you use a computer to stream you can use a USB cable and go straight to an amp. (assuming that the amp. has a USB input - the 803 does not).
Ultra Hi Res (> than 16/44.1) is overated anyway, as a lot of music is just flat out poorly mastered for digital distribution/consumption. Even listening to a well recorded and mastered 24 bit 96kHz .wav file doesn't yield much (if any) difference on a budget system. However the offer of 'ultra hi res' is a great tool for music streaming services to hike up their prices with the 'expectation' of higher fidelity.
Last I checked Music Cast does support Amazon music (at least it does in the USA although the manual states that it varies by region). It also supports Tidal connect but not at full available resolution (depending on the receiving device).
See post #17
 

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