Streaming Hi-Res Audio At No Extra Cost? Yes Please

In the era of digital music, sound quality has often been overlooked in favour of convenience. Tidal Masters could be a best-of-both-worlds solution.

In the tech industry, convenience and sound quality don’t always see eye to eye – as shown by accessible and affordable streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music making average sound quality popular again.

‘Premium’ services such as Tidal and Qobuz have offered CD-quality streams, but the best-of-both-worlds aspiration surely lies with hi-res audio streaming.

It has been two years since we first got wind of Tidal working with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology to deliver hi-res audio streaming, and more than a year since we first heard the promising consequence at CES 2016.

Changes in Tidal’s administration delayed its arrival, but at CES 2017 Tidal launched ‘Tidal Masters’: hi-res MQA streams, available to subscribers to its £20 per month HiFi package.

What is it?

You’ve probably heard of Tidal, a music streaming service that’s separated itself from mainstream moguls Spotify and Apple Music by offering CD-quality streams at a premium subscription price.

MQA, launched by Meridian in 2014 but now a separate company, is a codec technology that packages studio quality music files into a size that’s easier to stream and download, without needing huge amounts of bandwidth and avoiding the sonic sacrifices of compression.

Tidal says MQA allows it to deliver songs exactly how they were recorded in the studio – regardless of resolution size.

How can you get it?

As well as a Tidal HiFi membership, you’ll need to download the Tidal desktop app for PC or Mac. While Tidal also has a web player and iOS and Android app versions, Tidal Masters isn’t yet available on those platforms.