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Can anyone suggest albums for me to compare on Tidal? Albums you know are from the same source? Maybe some jazz? I know about the free downloads on the
2L Test Bench page, but for now this needs to all happen on Tidal here.
Check out James Taylor's album "Gorilla" - track Angry Blues. The regular HIFI sounds somewhat brasher,
messier, somewhat blurred - images are quite flat and indistinct in both shape and position within the sound field.
The Masters/MQA version is more natural, higher resolution-sounding, with
much more believable imaging, much better space and position within the recording...and it not only sounds
more detailed but sweeter/more natural,coherent,refined and is for me easier to enjoy.
To sum up, MQA sounds higher resolution, more natural and once appreciated makes
me seek out the MQA version against the regular FLAC. Well done conventional hires albums are (probably)
roughly about as musical to me as Tidal software-decoded MQA.
....this is pretty much my experience with most if not all of the Masters recordings that I've heard (again,
played through Tidal software-decoding, now in Audirvana Plus 3).