Tidal's iOS App Gains Masters Quality Audio Support

Wow. Didn’t even know Tidal was still going. I guess it will as long as idiots keep falling for phrases like ‘Master Quality Authenticated’. What does that even mean? Lol. What utter rubbish.

AFLAC is definitely rated for 24 bit, and may be rated for 48. AFLAC is Apples lossless sound format.

It’s ALAC not AFLAC
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Can Bluetooth headphones handle this or does Bluetooth make this improvement redundant (I have Sony WH-H900)?

No, you need a wired connection and a compatible DAC. Quite amazingly, while iPhones up to the 6S have a built-in decoder capable only to decode up to 16-bit, 48kHz, the $9 Lightning to jack adapter has a 24-bit, 192kHz CirrusLogic decoder. A good review of compatible hardware here:
https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/info/hi-fi/les-cingles-de-la-hi-fi/choisissez-votre-dac-ou-votre179124

Wow. Didn’t even know Tidal was still going. I guess it will as long as idiots keep falling for phrases like ‘Master Quality Authenticated’. What does that even mean? Lol. What utter rubbish.

It means 96 kHz / 24 bit sound. Totally overkill for 99% of headphones out there, but not meaningless.

And you still won’t notice a difference with your Bluetooth earbuds. It’s all placebo.

I definitely notice when connected to my Dragonfly & Studio monitors. The "master quality" not so much to be honest, thats more for making remixes and the like, but Hi-Fi/lossless even at 16/44.1 definitely.

Duh I wouldn't notice when recompressed to 16/44.1 ~256kbps aac (or even worse SBC) for bluetooth. The audience these features are geared towards are generally knowledgeable about how to utilize the quality, as they sought it out for their equipment.

I really wish apple would add at least a hi-fi option (16/44.1 ALAC) to Apple Music, or at very least the iTunes Store, especially considering AirPlay 2 supports it. I'm so tired of trying to find it on various random websites like Beatport or 7digital or bandcamp, all with very incomplete libraries and weird tagging schemes, and having to local sync everything as iCloud Music Library compresses down to 256.

My iPhone + iFi xDSD ('https://ifi-audio.com/products/xdsd/') are currently throwing MQA to my Sennheiser HD 820 and it sounds amazing!
I've been waiting for this since I signed up for Tidal HiFi last year. Hooray!

And you still won’t notice a difference with your Bluetooth earbuds. It’s all placebo.

This looks excellent. I know there are some good external DAC available for iPhones.

Samsung UHQ headphones stream 24bit 96khz but I think its proprietary for Samsung phones. I use HD650's through the s10+ headphone Jack personally.

Playing some DSD 256 tonight through the S10+ built in sound chip. Some great soundtracks available now on high definition FLAC as well. Love good hires audio on decent headphones. When Samsung bought AKG parent company Harman they seem to have a new focus on audio quality :D

I didn’t know iOS could output 24bit audio?

The standard iOS Music app can handle rates up to, and including, 24/48.

No, you need a wired connection and a compatible DAC. Quite amazingly, while iPhones up to the 6S have a built-in decoder capable only to decode up to 16-bit, 48kHz, the $9 Lightning to jack adapter has a 24-bit, 192kHz CirrusLogic decoder.

Yeah, the DAC in the Apple Lightning to 3.5mm is pretty incredible for its size and price. I prefer my xDSD but the Apple adapter is arguable better than the dual AK4490ENs in my FiiO M9. The M9's balanced output is better, though.

I keep hoping Apple will rock the mobile audio industry by making the iPod Touch into an industry-leading DAP again even though I know this will never happen. :oops:

I really wish apple would add at least a hi-fi option (16/44.1 ALAC) to Apple Music, or at very least the iTunes Store, especially considering AirPlay 2 supports it. I'm so tired of trying to find it on various random websites like Beatport or 7digital or bandcamp, all with very incomplete libraries and weird tagging schemes, and having to local sync everything as iCloud Music Library compresses down to 256.

Right? This is the main reason I refuse to use Apple Music. Tidal HiFi is great but I'm looking at Qobuz for HiRes purchases. I suspect we'll see movement from Apple on HiRes within the next year or two but who knows.

Tried this out yesterday with my Chord Mojo, Oppo PM1 and iPhone XS Max - have to says the Masters tracks sounded awesome!

Given the outlay for the kit it’s a lot of money to get that little bit extra, but worth it to some.