Tidal Adds Dolby Atmos Music

[humprof]

Sorry if I confused anyone...so easy explanation...

MQA and ATMOS are two separate and distinct formats and they are for totally different things. So in other words, one has nothing to do with the other.

MQA is Master Quality Authenticated for stereo only (at least at the moment). MQA is also a lossy codec and requires a special, in many cases, a standalone DAC, which not all AVR's have. MQA is supposed to be the highest quality recording, taken from the master tapes, and in order to preserve DRM, Tidal uses MQA to provide a high res stereo format for streaming music.

Here is a good article to understand more about MQA: MQA audio: What is it? How can you get it?

I was confused mainly because Tidal sort of implies (or maybe I wrongly inferred) that in order to get Atmos content, I needed to set audio streaming quality to "Master."

 

[EricKalet]

I was confused mainly because Tidal sort of implies (or maybe I wrongly inferred) that in order to get Atmos content, I needed to set audio streaming quality to "Master."

No, you need either HiFi or Master, any other tier of service that Tidal offers will not provide Atmos.

 

[beerking]

Prince and the Revolution
When Doves Cry

James Brown
Super Bad

This one is panning around my nodding head, like it's going out of fashion!!

Oh, just all those on the Soul Classics!!

At this rate, I can see myself forking out for this service.

How to faithfully record these tracks though...

 

[Goona]

Prince and the Revolution
When Doves Cry

James Brown
Super Bad

This one is panning around my nodding head, like it's going out of fashion!!

Oh, just all those on the Soul Classics!!

At this rate, I can see myself forking out for this service.

How to faithfully record these tracks though...

This is what it sounds like When Doves Cry. Temptations and the Jackson 5 are good

 

[MrSmithers]

There are so many really good Dolby Atmos tracks available in Tidal. One artist who doesnt disappoint is Beck.
His 'Amazon Original' Up All Night, Paisley Park Sessions track, is one of the best I've heard so far.

Think we will need a separate thread to rate these Tidal Atmos tracks...unless we get hit by a Tidal Wave!!

For anyone hesitating and has the set up to hear this streaming service from Tidal, can I just say, that after listening to a wide variety of Atmos tracks, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Just started a new thread - Listening to Now (In Dolby Atmos)

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/listening-to-now-in-dolby-atmos.28410/

 

[humprof]

All right...I think I'm uniquely affected by this, since I appear to be the only one who chose the "Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote" route. (Tidal refers to this on its list of compatible devices as "Fire TV Stick 2016," apparently because that's the year this "second-generation" Fire Stick was released.) But I'm gonna run it down anyway, just to clear my head.

After my initial woes, I reached out to Amazon phone support (the nice young man working out of his home on the other side of the world wasn't really able to help), Tidal email and chat support (they both promise to get back to me within 3 days, honest!), and Amazon chat support. Amazon chat is the only place I got anything resembling a useful response. In the course of our chat, the agent sent the information I gave her to an "engineer," and relayed this message after hearing back from that person:

"it seems that the device you have right now is not compatible, since is a 2nd Gen, you'll need a 3rd Gen Fire TV Stick that has the OS 6.2.7.1 update available."​

So I guess this means Tidal erroneously listed this device--and any other device that doesn't run OS 6.2.7.1 or higher--as being Atmos capable. Am I a sucker (or a doormat) if I send it back and plonk down my fifty bucks for the 4K version?

 

[Goona]

try this one out
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/listening-to-now-in-dolby-atmos.28410

 

[César]

I've tried playing a Tidal Masters playlist from HEOS and all I could get was Flac 16/44 in my AVR. The way I saw it works is that once you start playing the music, it is streamed directly to the AVR via its wi-fi or ethernet interface (you can even switch your phone off and have full control from the AVR)

There's no bit rate limitation with HEOS, I can play flac 96/24 files stored in my phone. I will try with different formats and resolutions tomorrow.

 

[raml]

All right...I think I'm uniquely affected by this, since I appear to be the only one who chose the "Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote" route. (Tidal refers to this on its list of compatible devices as "Fire TV Stick 2016," apparently because that's the year this "second-generation" Fire Stick was released.) But I'm gonna run it down anyway, just to clear my head.

After my initial woes, I reached out to Amazon phone support (the nice young man working out of his home on the other side of the world wasn't really able to help), Tidal email and chat support (they both promise to get back to me within 3 days, honest!), and Amazon chat support. Amazon chat is the only place I got anything resembling a useful response. In the course of our chat, the agent sent the information I gave her to an "engineer," and relayed this message after hearing back from that person:

"it seems that the device you have right now is not compatible, since is a 2nd Gen, you'll need a 3rd Gen Fire TV Stick that has the OS 6.2.7.1 update available."​

So I guess this means Tidal erroneously listed this device--and any other device that doesn't run OS 6.2.7.1 or higher--as being Atmos capable. Am I a sucker (or a doormat) if I send it back and plonk down my fifty bucks for the 4K version?

If you want more options choose an ShieldTV eg. A stable version of kodi.

 

[GOS]

"it seems that the device you have right now is not compatible, since is a 2nd Gen, you'll need a 3rd Gen Fire TV Stick that has the OS 6.2.7.1 update available."

How do we know which generation we have? At least on Amazon, I don't see anywhere in the description if it's 2nd or 3rd. That said, the one that it seems they have only says the remote is 2nd generation. Nothing about the stick itself.

 

[LennonCobain]

How do we know which generation we have? At least on Amazon, I don't see anywhere in the description if it's 2nd or 3rd. That said, the one that it seems they have only says the remote is 2nd generation. Nothing about the stick itself.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201640900

 

[dabl]

Tidal only does 44/16 unless you upgrade to "Master" which you'll be able to access MQA stuff, but of course, for MQA you need the DAC that can handle MQA. This was why I quit Tidal a little over a year ago to go to Qobuz. However with Tidal having Atmos, I'm back

It's worth adding that "Master" quality gets you the Tidal material available in 24bit 88, 92 and 192khz independent of the MQA stream.

 

[humprof]

How do we know which generation we have? At least on Amazon, I don't see anywhere in the description if it's 2nd or 3rd. That said, the one that it seems they have only says the remote is 2nd generation. Nothing about the stick itself.

Right. Part of the problem is that Tidal and Amazon aren't using the same nomenclature--and maybe that's part of what led to Tidal's erroneous list of compatible devices. What Tidal calls "Fire TV Stick 2016," Amazon calls "Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote" (which was first introduced in 2016). Whichever name it goes by, it's second-generation Fire TV, and now Amazon seems to have confirmed that a 2d-gen device just won't transmit an Atmos signal.

Given the experience that other folks here have had with the Fire TV Stick 4K, I'm concluding that any Fire TV device listed below running OS 6.2.7.1 or higher will work. Fingers crossed.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201497590&tag=forumyield-20

 

[GOS]

Right. Part of the problem is that Tidal and Amazon aren't using the same nomenclature--and maybe that's part of what led to Tidal's erroneous list of compatible devices. What Tidal calls "Fire TV Stick 2016," Amazon calls "Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote" (which was first introduced in 2016). Whichever name it goes by, it's second-generation Fire TV, and now Amazon seems to have confirmed that a 2d-gen device just won't transmit an Atmos signal.

Given the experience that other folks here have had with the Fire TV Stick 4K, I'm concluding that any Fire TV device listed below running OS 6.2.7.1 or higher will work. Fingers crossed.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201497590&tag=forumyield-20

OK, I'm back to work, so aren't able to read much forum stuff. Has everyone who was having Fire Stick issues, been able to get the new update that seems to be floating around?

 

[skherbeck]

I'm going to keep highlighting exceptional tracks:
RUFUS..featuring Chaka Khan
I'm telling you something good!!

RUFUS in Atmos...sheer joy

It would cool if people in the know could compare the quad and Atmos versions of songs... For instance, I wonder if the Atmos mix of this song is a completely new mix or some sort of "repurposing" of the quad mix? (I have no idea... I havn't heard either mix, lol!)

 

[sjcorne]

(I have no idea... I havn't heard either mix, lol!)

I seem to recall someone mentioning upthread (@MrSmithers ?) that the new Atmos version of "Tell Me Something Good" has the lead vocal in the rears, which is definitely not the case on the quad. The entire Rags To Rufus album has an incredible quad mix - it's one of my favorite matrix-encoded quad LPs.

 

[edisonbaggins]

The Beck track is hella sick.

 

[blitztorte]

There have been a few ATMOS tracks mentioned that aren’t in the ATMOS playlists. For example, how do you find Rocket Man? I have found about 5 entries of that Elton song doing various searches but can’t locate the ATMOS version. What is the trick? Thanks!

 

[Krmt]

There have been a few ATMOS tracks mentioned that aren’t in the ATMOS playlists. For example, how do you find Rocket Man? I have found about 5 entries of that Elton song doing various searches but can’t locate the ATMOS version. What is the trick? Thanks!

I found Rocket man with just a lucky guess that I tried as there was indication that not all the available tracks are listed in the Atmos playlists/tracklist. Rocket man atmos mix was anyway highlighted earlier in several of the Greg Penny interviews. The individual Atmos tracks have so far seemed to be under EP and singles listing for each artist in Tidal. So in this case searched Elton John and browsed Rocket Man from the singles list.

 

[Eggplant]

It would cool if people in the know could compare the quad and Atmos versions of songs... For instance, I wonder if the Atmos mix of this song is a completely new mix or some sort of "repurposing" of the quad mix? (I have no idea... I havn't heard either mix, lol!)

I have done this in my thread.

None of the Atmos tracks are repurposed quad or even 5.1.

The Rufus track is nice in Atmos but I still prefer the quad mix.
Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, OTOH, is transformed definitively in Atmos. Without that mix, you essentially haven't really heard the track.