Popular Post austinpop Posted April 6, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted April 6, 2018 The purpose of this thread is to create a compendium of classical albums on Tidal that are encoded as MQA (Tidal Master) that we collectively consider gems. What's a gem? Anything that we would feel compelled to recommend for whatever reason - sound quality, performance quality, or any other noteworthy feature. As most of you who have gone on this quest have found out, the collection of MQA-encoded classical albums on Tidal is rather sparse. Couple that with the atrocious search feature in Tidal (or Tidal-communicating apps like Roon), it is hard to find whatever content there is. My hope for this thread is to generate a repository to benefit all of us looking for "good" MQA classical content on Tidal. Since MQA is a fraught topic, let me, as OP, set some ground rules. This is not an MQA is good vs. evil thread. There are plenty of ongoing threads on CA to quarrel to your heart's content. Any attempts to take the discussion in that direction will be discouraged. You don't need an MQA DAC to make a recommendation. All are welcome. But recommendations should be limited to albums that are Tidal Master You absolutely do not need to compare the MQA-decoded version with any other version, although if you have multiple versions, by all means give your impressions. Please apply your own critical standards before making a recommendation. Remember, we want to curate the recommendations here to only the really good stuff. So, think to yourself - is this a recording that excites me enough to recommend to a friend? If yes, please post here and tell us! Please limit recommendations to the broad western classical genre. This is only to keep the thread's focus. This includes, but is not limited to orchestral, symphonic, choral, concertos, chamber music, etc. In addition, please tell us your location (darn Tidal regional constraints sometimes limit MQA albums by region) what aspect of the album you're recommending - i.e. the sound quality, the recording quality, the performance, the singing, the soloist, whatever. With that, here we go. In my next post, I'll kick it off with some of my gems. BacHolz and Mark Dirac 1 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
Popular Post austinpop Posted April 6, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 6, 2018 All of these recommendations are from Tidal in the US. Reason for recommendation: everything! Excellent recording, SQ, and a sparkling, spirited performance that is quintessentially Gustavo! Another one that has it all. The circa 1977 recording quality is astonishing. Excellent everything. Listen to the track Elephants on a system with good bass, and you'll find yourself giggling. Not the greatest recording or SQ, but what a performance! Glorious SQ, and beautiful performance of the Sibelius. The Walton is new to me, and I like it too. I'm picky about Mahler conductors, but Dudamel and his Simón Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela really won me over with this performance. Excellent sonics, and the orchestra's playing is inspired and exquisite. Mozart piano concertos and Uchida are synonymous, and these new recordings of her also conducting the Cleveland Orchestra sound fabulous. As for the playing - it's Uchida. 'Nuff said. opus101, agladstone and miguelito 3 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 They look to be the same album, but neither is marked M here in the USA. It'll be interesting to see if @Norton sees otherwise in the UK. I've noticed this before, and it seems to be a clue when an album is region-limited. There'll be 2 albums, but neither will be marked MQA. Very annoying. My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 2 hours ago, Norton said: The best Ma Vlast I've heard so far (Tidal 83066082 in UK). Superb SQ and a conductor and orchestra who clearly own this piece. I own very many recordings of Elgar 1 and 2, but these standout to me both for superb SQ and performances: 77610506: 77695915: The Smetana is inaccessible in the US. The 2 Elgar's are indeed visible here. My experience with Elgar is limited to the Cello Concerto, Enigma Variations, and Pomp & Circumstance. The Symphonies are still an Enigma! Added both to my listen queue. My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 13 hours ago, Daverz said: So what happens when you can see the MQA album, but you don't get the [M] in your region? Is the MQA played back unfolded in "compatibility" mode, or is the true 16/44 PCM file? If the former, it would seem that one could accidentally end up play the lossy unfolded MQA. If the album is region limited, you will just get a regular 16/44.1 stream. One might ask - if limiting the region, why not suppress the limited version, rather than show duplicates? I haven't studied this deeply, but I have noticed that labels often precede the MQA encoding step with a remaster, so perhaps the duplicate is the remastered version, without the MQA encoding. As to what happens with an MQA-encoded album, it depends on your playback HW and SW. MQA tracks are encoded at either 24/44.1 or 24/48. For non-MQA DACs, playing back on non-MQA software (pretty much everything except the Tidal Win/Mac desktop apps and Audirvana 4+): your DAC sees a 24/44.1 or 24/48 stream With MQA-enabled players like Tidal app and A+ 3, the SW does the first unfold, so your DAC typically sees 24/88.2 or 24/96, except in the cases where the original master was at 44.1 or 48, in which case there is no unfold. With MQA DACs, of course, you get the full unfold and MQA filtering. My Audio Setup Link to comment
Popular Post austinpop Posted April 7, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 7, 2018 15 hours ago, Daverz said: So my search strategy is to go to Presto and look for new Warner releases: https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/new-and-future-releases?date_range=Last+90+Days&search_query=warner&size=10&view=large&page=4 Here's my search strategy: Consult a crowd-sourced master list. There have been several, but at this time, this appears to be the most comprehensive: The most complete list of MQA albums so far found on Tidal. Search the csv file in the first post. Locate albums by URL in the form https://listen.tidal.com/album/XXXXXXXX Locate the album on the Tidal web app in a browser (I use Chrome) Add to Favorites. Switch over to my playback software (Roon). Locate the album in Tidal favorites, and Add to Library Rinse and repeat Another way - when I'm looking for specific pieces like, say, Trout Quintet - I'll search in the Tidal web app, and look for the M in the search results. So far, I've found the list in bullet 1 above pretty comprehensive. With all that said, the number of MQA classical albums, and the ability to search is abysmal. agladstone, w4ik and jhwalker 1 2 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 5 hours ago, Daverz said: Dave - are you in the US? If so, not sure where you found it in MQA. There are 2 listings here, but neither are MQA. https://tidal.com/album/32966322 https://tidal.com/album/74351532 Just like @Norton found in the UK. My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 8, 2018 Author Share Posted April 8, 2018 8 hours ago, Norton said: My Classical MQA of the Evening: A high octane performance of possibly the most OTT of all romantic symphonies. Love it. Agree. Excellent find! My Audio Setup Link to comment
Popular Post austinpop Posted April 8, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 8, 2018 https://tidal.com/album/77695697 in the USA. Another wonderful Dvorak. While perhaps not at the performance level of the du Pré or the Rostropovich, this is an outstanding recording with lovely SQ. opus101 and agladstone 2 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 A very decent Trout. My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 11, 2018 Author Share Posted April 11, 2018 On 4/6/2018 at 7:22 PM, Daverz said: Anderzewski plays Mozart PC 25 & 27. Beautiful playing. https://tidal.com/album/82500042 Just listened to this. Agree. Another great recording. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I still prefer Uchida, but this is right up there. opus101 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 11, 2018 Author Share Posted April 11, 2018 17 hours ago, Daverz said: You must be pretty young, because my sentimental favorites would be Fleisher and Gilels. Young at heart, at least! Here's another excellent gem. I checked out the Sinfonia Concertante. My go to is still the Perlman/Zuckerman, but this is a fresh performance with excellent SQ. agladstone 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted April 11, 2018 Author Share Posted April 11, 2018 Another couple worthy of mention: My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted May 23, 2018 Author Share Posted May 23, 2018 3 hours ago, RJeff said: Every one of the great Everest Stereo albums listed below is on Tidal in MQA. Those of you who read Audio Magazine in the 80s might remember Bert Whyte's reminiscences of the recording sessions. (I learned enough about studio technique to impress the hell out of an old girlfriend who was a recording engineer.)http://evereststereo.com/ When were these recordings made? I'll certainly give some a listen. My Audio Setup Link to comment
Popular Post austinpop Posted May 23, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 23, 2018 Thank you guys for exposing this treasure trove of Everest tape transfers! I tend to favor modern recordings, but the couple I sampled so far (Sibelius 5/Finlandia and Scheherazade) have incredible SQ for a circa-1959 recording. As for finding them, kudos to Roon 1.5. I just searched for "Everest tapes" and it pulled up the relevant list. After that, the "MQA" watermark on the album thumbnail was the last crumb to follow. I added all the interesting ones to my library and will be savoring them over the next few days/weeks. rodrigaj, agladstone and RJeff 2 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted May 23, 2018 Author Share Posted May 23, 2018 This is only the first screenful. And some I did not add to my library, as they're not my cup of tea. My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted May 23, 2018 Author Share Posted May 23, 2018 2 minutes ago, rodrigaj said: @austinpop Thanks for the Everest Tapes search trick and...you don't need Roon to find all of these Everest albums. Just type "Everest Tapes" in the search function of the Tidal Application and they all come up. Agreed. I just happen to use Roon. My Audio Setup Link to comment
Popular Post austinpop Posted May 24, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 24, 2018 34 minutes ago, Daverz said: FTFY. That was the Golden Age of Stereo. Agree to disagree? They're good - for their age. But the best modern recordings - like the BIS Vanska Sibelius cycle, for example - leave these recordings in the dust. Mark Dirac, Hugo9000 and rando 3 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted May 25, 2018 Author Share Posted May 25, 2018 I spent a very pleasant few hours sampling the treasure trove of Everest albums on Tidal in MQA. Thanks again to @RJeff for bringing these to our attention. I "grazed" about a dozen albums, and I completely agree that recording quality varies from album to album. I still stand by my assertions that these recordings, while outstanding, cannot escape the technical limits of the time. For me, this is most evident on crescendos. Perhaps it's because I favor orchestral music, but it's on the crescendos (or should I say crushendos) that these old recordings show their limitations. To be fair, I find the best of the Everest tapes on MQA to be head and shoulders above the much vaunted, but supremely disappointing (to me) Mercury Living Presence reissues on SACD. Of the dozen albums I tried yesterday, here are a few standouts for SQ. Outstanding Excellent Daverz 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted May 25, 2018 Author Share Posted May 25, 2018 12 minutes ago, Norton said: Funnily enough, I find the few MLP I’ve tried in MQA to be uniformly disappointing with a very obvious “squashed” character to the sound. I much prefer the CD box sets. But I can only dream of owning most of the MLP SACDs. Apart from a couple of titles, it looks like the opportunity to get them at a normal price passed long ago. Some really expensive examples on Amazon, although I can’t work out who would actually buy them. Of course, if you don’t want yours, happy to take them off your hands for the cost of shipping..... The SACDs aren't any better... My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted May 26, 2018 Author Share Posted May 26, 2018 48 minutes ago, wdw said: Dear All, just discovered this thread and it appears to be treasure trove......will be adding many of these to my Library. My thanks, Warren Hi Warren, enjoy! And please do add to the trove if you encounter something new. My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 An excellent Mahler 4th: I talk about it in this post: My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted June 30, 2018 Author Share Posted June 30, 2018 1 hour ago, agladstone said: This is a general Tidal Classical MQA recommendation, I find all of the Tidal MQA albums from the label 2L to be outstanding, including their “sampler” titled “2L: The Nordic Sound”. I’ll have to go through my Saved Favorites list in my Aurender Conductor to try and link or list to the specific albums later. The only classical 2L album that I found amazing was this one: Some of the others, at least on the 2L testbench (http://www.2l.no/hires/), like the Mozart, the Britten, the Vivaldi, and the Haydn, seem overly bright to me. I would love other recommendations of good 2L recordings on Tidal MQA. opus101 1 My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 Here’s an exciting one, newly released: Not it only is this one an excellent performance, up to MTT/SFS high standards, it’s also exciting if it suggests more SFS Media recordings are coming? Like perhaps the Mahler cycle? Keep your eyes out for more, please. My Audio Setup Link to comment
austinpop Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 Agree, but I use Roon, and I don’t see an obvious way to get the links. Will try to find it in future. My Audio Setup Link to comment
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