Tidal today added support for its Tidal Masters Quality Authenticated audio tier on iOS devices, bringing master quality music to iOS devices for the first time.

Master audio was previously available on Android, but hasn't been available to iPhone and iPad listeners.

tidalmasters
Tidal's highest studio quality audio option is limited to certain tracks (Tidal says there are 150,000 of them) and you'll only hear higher fidelity audio if you're using appropriate hardware, aka, a wired connection. Full release notes for the new Tidal update are below:

- HiFi users can now access over 150,000 master-quality tracks - audio as flawless as it sounded in the mastering suite.
- CarPlay improvements
- Minor bug fixes

Tidal master quality songs are available to those who subscribe to its Tidal HiFi service, which is priced at $19.99 per month. Tidal does offer a 60-day free trial for new subscribers.

A full list of albums that feature master quality recordings is available on Tidal's website.

Tag: Tidal

Top Rated Comments

fumi2014 Avatar
fumi2014
51 months ago
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.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kyjaotkb Avatar
kyjaotkb
51 months ago
AFLAC is definitely rated for 24 bit, and may be rated for 48. AFLAC is Apples lossless sound format.
It’s ALAC not AFLAC
[doublepost=1552343032][/doublepost]
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
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oneMadRssn Avatar
oneMadRssn
51 months ago
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.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kalafalas Avatar
kalafalas
51 months ago
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.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
boodle Avatar
boodle
51 months ago
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!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
dannyyankou
51 months ago
And you still won’t notice a difference with your Bluetooth earbuds. It’s all placebo.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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