The latest update to the network operating system (to version 4.2.6) has disabled support for the MQA format, which means that when transmitting streams using Tidal Connect technology, the FLAC lossless compression format will be used.
The company does not explain what caused this decision, but it can be assumed that it considered the considerable licensing fees for using MQA irrational, especially since this format has no real qualitative advantages over FLAC.
This may also be due to the fact that the Tidal streaming service itself is gradually switching to FLAC, in any case, this particular codec has become a priority since December 12, 2023 – you can choose to stream in MQA (for those tracks that are available in both formats), but it will offer free FLAC by default.
