Qobuz + TIDAL. Am I nuts?

TIDAL US still has more of the content I listen to than Qobuz US, but Qobuz isn’t yet out of beta and has more accessible Hi-Res Audio than TIDAL (HR FLAC vs HR MQA). I already subscribe to TIDAL HiFI/Master and am about to pull the trigger on an annual Qobuz Sublime+ subscription.

During my Qobuz trial, I’ve purchased over $100 of Hi-Res Audio albums that I didn’t even know were available in Hi-Res, and I figure if I purchase anywhere near that rate over the next year, Sublime will almost pay for itself in dollars saved on purchases.

So $45/month or $500 annually for much overlapping content, HR streaming through a Meridian Explorer2, discounted purchase power and incredible choices in Roon.

Stupid? Smart? Or just plain crazy?

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Smart!
I subscribe to both, and wouldn’t be without either.
They both have their strengths, and in a lot of places their respective catalogues don’t overlap.
So yes, BOTH IMO :sunglasses:

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Same have both plus Spotify for on the go. Really crazy. Until one of them satisfies my whole needs it will stay this way.

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It definitely puts you in the upper bracket for discretionary spending. I hope that answers you diplomatically :smile:

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I added Qobuz couldn’t find a load of my content and stopped it. Roon radio has replaced the only role Spotify was playing so another service dropped.
Library plus Tidal, more content than I could ever listen to.

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I have both right now, with a plan to assess Qobuz in about 6 months - to see what I have added.

I have not found that Qobuz has as many titles that I’m interested in as Tidal, but if Qobuz only finds me 5 albums per month, it will still have been worth it.

I spend $25/month on adapters and cables, easy. This is actual music.

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I don’t think you’re crazy… these services are different, they have different strengths (and weaknesses). I started with a Tidal, then added the Qobuz beta (USA) offering. Then I dropped Tidal and was Qobuz only… there’s still stuff missing and I’m thinking of going back to running both, at least for a while.

It’s a first world problem and an embarrassment of riches for sure.

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I had Tidal, switched to Qobuz. Would consider going back to Tidal if I could filter out MQA. Don’t care about hi-res. Like that Qobuz has “buy now” in their app, though.

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You can filter out Tidal MQA in roon using a focus in album view and then bookmark it. And in regular search in roon you can see what version it is. Even the Tidal iPhone app now lets you know if it’s a Master version or not.

If created a Tidal MQA focus so I could look to see if Qobuz had a matching hires version of the same albums that didn’t get picked up from Soundliz transfer. But could easily change focus to exclude MQA format.

My plan is to eventually drop Tidal once Qobuz library grows a bit more. If this seems like its taking longer than a few months might drop Qobuz for a while and then check in 6 months or so to see if any improvement.

I prefer the hires versions over MQA at home and straight out of the iPhone, find the Qobuz app has better sound for some reason. I might get one of those camera adapters so I can use with my ifi micro dsd and get hires on the go.

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Hard to justify right now with Qobuz’s limited / beta content library. I paid the $25 for this month, but I’m planning on dropping Qobuz and revisiting it once they’re out of ‘beta’ and start filling out their library.

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Yes, but it doesn’t filter out MQA on roon radio, or searches. Not really a big deal. I just don’t use Tidal any more. Problem solved.

No problem with people who like MQA. Maybe roon should have a filter to only show MQA on radio and searches.

All three here too. Gotta go where the music is!

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I have trials on both and will certainly drop one.
Qobuz seems to currently be a subset of tidal but does have hi Rez vs mqa.

Qobuz is interesting if I think I will buy a bunch of downloads but I will buy the physical HiRez disc if that is an option and then rip.

The mobile app is important to me as I enjoy in the car. I have been using Tidal app the most with Mixes For You and playing top tracks by artist. I need to spend more time with Qobuz as I’m leaning towards keeping just Tidal due to mobile app and more albums and lower cost.

I will continue to buy titles to supplement

I am going to keep both for the next 6 months or so. Part of my issue isn’t with either. It’s with Roon.

I would like to choose which service is at the top of Versions. It would also be great to choose a favorite or defaul service. So if in Discover when making a selection the default would be your service of choice at the highest resolution.

Less clicking, more listening!

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Also keeping both. I was able to get the veterans discount for Tidal Hifi, made the decision even easier. Of course I’m nuts. I also plan to keep Spottily (best for Alexa for my grandkids) and Google Music (YouTube Premium) can’t have commercials on my Youtube.

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I am also using both. However, I have gotten Qobuz to confirm a bug where some releases are listed as HiRes on the streaming that are only available HiRes on the store

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I gave Qobuz a go because I wanted to take a look and confirm what I already knew to be true, which was that it offered me nothing above that of Tidal for the genres I was interested in. I was right and I am finding a decent percentage of my searches bring up more options in Tidal than Qobuz. I even looked at a classical composer (in the interest of research) and got more hits on Tidal for a Debussy composition than Qobuz. So for me they aren’t there yet, but I’ll give them an extended run.

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Very diplomatic! :smile:
It’s taken a long time to get here (almost retired). :wink:

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Thanks for all the answers, everyone. Very useful.

The multiplicity of streaming services, music choices and where they’re used is mind-blowing. 3 of my 5 kids use Spotify on Android phones. The other two and my wife and I use Apple Music on iPhones while we are away from home. We use Roon at home. I stream Tidal MQA on my laptop and listen to Hi-Res FLAC on a HiBy R3 when traveling.

Even though the kids manage their own libraries and playlists, keeping up with mine across Roon, Tidal and Apple Music is a chore. So adding another service means adding more curation duties. But the possibility of streaming HR FLACs and having more variety of HR content on my R3 and at home is what makes Qobuz so tempting.

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It’s nice to have both, but for most people it would be a major splurge.