Tidal announced that the coveted ‘Master’ quality audio — supposedly as good as hearing it live — is now available on iOS devices.
The streaming service added Master quality to its Android app at CES in January, and now Apple users can listen to the crystal clear audio too.
The company is using the Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) encoder to fold down the size of its studio-quality music files, so they’re streamable over the internet. MQA calls this Process ‘Music Origami.’ MQA files deliver full sound frequencies instead of the 10 percent MP3 files support according to MQA.
Only Tidal Hi-Fi subscribers can take advantage of this top-of-the-line quality option, and then only for certain songs and albums. Tidal has partnered with the big three music labels, Warner, Sony and Universal, as well as Merlin, which represent some independent artists, to support MQA.
Now that Tidal has brought iOS into the Master Quality fold, users can listen to the high-quality files across Tidal’s Android, desktop and iOS apps.
Tidal’s standard ‘HiFi’ audio option is a 16-bit/44.1 kHz, while Master quality generally has a sound resolution of around 24-bit/96 kHz
Users may also need to make sure their audio settings are set to support Master quality and not limited to standard HiFi.
Source: MQA
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