Fair enough you find TIDAL's hi-res version (presumably when comparing the same tracks) better sounding than Amazon's, but to attribute that to the MQA encoding is a bit of a leap IMO, given that you've no proof of provenance. For all you know, the Amazon hi-res tracks that you've listened to have been taken from a different master source to TIDAL's and/or even just upsampled from standard CD res.but the ULTRA HD high res stream on amazon even though sounds very good does not sound as good as tidal masters equivalent.I think the MQA coding is making the difference bit more detail siblance around acoustic instruments etc.
Not personally, though I don't dispute that it may produce a subtly different sound via the leaky minimum phase filter used by the MQA renderer stage in MQA supporting DACS, that some prefer - akin to liking the effect you got from the old stereo wide setting on 80s ghetto blasters.I take it you are not a massive believer in MQA then.
I like Tidal MQA but HiRes is technically better as MQA is a lossy format. To many peoples ears they say HiRes is better, but others say they can't tell the difference or it's content dependant, so it's not clear cut. Also they may not all use the same source master as already mentioned and some may just upscale and call (and charge) it HiRes which is criminal. Whilst you think you may be comparing like for like sources, in reality you are unlikely to know. I have a couple of standalone BlueOS streamers and a NAD HiFi amp with BluOS built in and love BluOs, MQA & HiRes it. In my mind from not too scientific listening, Tidal MQA sounds better than CD (local or streamed), but HiRes (local or streamed from Qobuz) sounds better again. Thing is not all is controlled in the production of the HiRes and some things like MQA may sound a bit louder, may also not help, although this extra loudness may be deliberate to make people think it sounds better, bit like FM vs DAB, in my car DAB is always louder...I like MQA have heard some good recordings in it.But a little over hyped not all recordings sound excellent in it.A lot do though.Thanks.
The other thing that may influence MQA comparisons with lossless CD res and hi-res is the audible distortion caused by the digital watermark added by some record labels (such as those owned by the Universal Music Group) to the music they supply to streaming services such as TIDAL:I like Tidal MQA but HiRes is technically better as MQA is a lossy format. To many peoples ears they say HiRes is better, but others say they can't tell the difference or it's content dependant, so it's not clear cut. Also they may not all use the same source master as already mentioned and some may just upscale and call (and charge) it HiRes which is criminal. Whilst you think you may be comparing like for like sources, in reality you are unlikely to know. I have a couple of standalone BlueOS streamers and a NAD HiFi amp with BluOS built in and love BluOs, MQA & HiRes it. In my mind from not too scientific listening, Tidal MQA sounds better than CD (local or streamed), but HiRes (local or streamed from Qobuz) sounds better again. Thing is not all is controlled in the production of the HiRes and some things like MQA may sound a bit louder, may also not help, although this extra loudness may be deliberate to make people think it sounds better, bit like FM vs DAB, in my car DAB is always louder...
Although I have everything wired, I do find my router or switches or a bit of rouge kit can from time to time slow my network down so a reboot of the offending kit can solve my issue. My problem is finding the rogue bit of kit!!!!I'm enjoying it overall. Great sound via my Node 2i, but I have experienced some drop outs when playing hi-res material.
I'm sure it isn't a problem with the Node 2i which has been rock-solid since I have had it. It shouldn't be my network as I stream hi-res to the Node 2i from my NAS all the time, and it shouldn't be my incoming broadband connection as it is 200mbps and I'm not using anything else. Everything wired directly to the router.
I guess I'll just have to see if it improves. The integration with BluOS isn't quite as good as I had been hoping, but turning Autofill on makes up for the fact that I can't automatically add a whole album at once.
Can you access your own Amazon playlists on HEOS yet?Quality very good, I have streamed it direct to my Marantz amp using HEOS app, get fully quality. Will look at BluIOS devices
Can you access your own Amazon playlists on HEOS yet?
Apparently this is up to Amazon to implement and not Denon. According to Denon anyway and they have no time frame.Can view playlist but not your own, hope they change this
Will it play the tracks at the correct frequency [44.1, 96, 192 KHz] based on the actual song or will it do what it has been doing on all Windows, Mac OS, iOS systems which is to falsely upscale everything?