Guten tag Uwe,
To some, the term “new music” does not always mean “new” in the sense that is has been recently released. I’ve discovered great “new” music (to me) which was released before I was born 
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That’s how I see it, too.
I love the 50s. (Year of birth 1957) and also selected hits, film music, the quieter pieces…
After WW2 Swing and Ballroom was not so hip, but harmonies against the big war wounds.
After Rock’nRoll I later dived into Blues/Rock of the 70s. This is where I enjoyed music most intensely before I started working.
Of course, I managed to continue to follow music in the 80’s and 90’s and in the new millennium, music has not really become worse, although I find it much harder to turn to hip-hop.
Now I’m no longer working and I can really enjoy and devote myself more intensively to jazz, classical music and other genres.
But I think it’s important to have an open ear in all directions and some people lead me on with their recommendations here. That may also be very fresh albums and music styles.
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May be Qobuz is disqualified by the fact that it is a rationeded product?
Is Qobuz divides the world into better and worse countries - countries worthy of Qobuz and countries unworthy of using it?
Really glad to hear this, I’d love them to compete because their unique features like the editorial stuff, album picks and sublime tier is fantastic.
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Sorry to be clear I’m not suggesting Tidal is unique in their suggestions, Spotify and Apple music do the exact same thing but crucially Qobuz doesn’t and for me (not true of others on this forum) Roon isn’t there yet with Valence.
For me, new music is both newly recorded and new to me. Tidal in my experience is better than the competition and I think their UI is in general better (layout and style).
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my assumption, and would love to know if i’m wrong, is that a FLAC 44/16 or 44/24 master is the same source file on both (all?) streaming services. why would they alter the base file? as for MQA, which i avoid like the plague, maybe i’m wrong, but there was too much expose on their process and files for me to feel good about it, i just skip those versions and go to plain FLAC, which, again, i assume is the same on both services (i sub to both for the library depth, will likely drop one at some point)…
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I have both and use both every day. I have no preferences. To my ears, they both sound the same, period. Mostly use Qobuz at home with Roon and TIDAL while driving or running. That way if somebody is using Roon at home I don’t get disconnected from either TIDAL or Qobuz while driving/running. But still TIDAL is also active in my Roon system.
… would be interesting to know - after all, if they use the same source/mastering on 44.1/16 - why would they sound different? Hi Res vs MQA in the other hand I understand…
I used to prefer Qobuz, and then by accident, a few years ago I found myself playing the Tidal version of a Redbook album and was surprised that it sounded clearer than it’s Qobuz twin (I assume the masters are more likely the same for much of what I listen to). Now, I can accept that in some systems that might even sound ‘bright’, and in others, perhaps mine, the smoothness of Qobuz sounds a bit ‘dull’. YMMV. But my experiences do align with What Hifi, and Rolling Stone etc, who perhaps are less affected by anti-Tidal sentiments.
But in a world of where people spend large amounts of money on streamers, let alone audiophile network switches, I presume there may be factors in the streaming process that have an impact on the end result. So, it’s probably best to try each one for yourself? What might also be interesting is for those that can access each in different settings, with the same equipment, check if their preferences are sustained…but that is one big rabbit hole…
I also happen to like MQA, and with Sony having released most of their catalogue now in MQA, I only use Qobuz for the small classical labels, who admittedly produce very high quality recordings which I enjoy.
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if everyone does it this way, more money will be paid out to classical artists on Qobuz and not shared with hip-hop on Tidal
I guess if I paid for the downloads of what I stream, they would do even better.
(A bit, off topic, but if you do have a local copy of an album, plus a streaming option, which do you tend to play?..I know downloads can sound better, but I almost have a habit now of choosing the streaming version. That is one odd habit.)
I still dream of a world where even old inactive artists still get their pension from us because we stream their songs. But in the classical and niche, no one can live on that.
So Qobuz is doing everything right.
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I use Qobuz streaming services and I also have several albums purchased from Qobuz. When playing one of these albums, the local version takes priority.
Simple. I use Qobuz because it has an excellent selection of music, and I am more inclined to trust it to deliver genuine Hi-Res and genuine CD quality when it says so. I don’t trust Tidal because of its tie up with MQA. I don’t want to be forced to buy one of a very few DACs to decode MQA, I don’t believe some of the the claims MQA make, and as MQA was sold as a way for a streaming service to have a single inventory I am suspicious that what Tidal offer as CD quality is already compromised by MQA, so is actually less than CD quality. I may well be wrong or over cautious, but I just feel more confident with Qobuz. No smoke and mirrors.
Some of these arguments could be resolved by capturing the exact data that Qobuz and Tidal stream and comparing them to a rip of the cd or a download from the record companies website. Does anyone have the competence to do that?
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I always play the local album because Roon doesn’t save “hearts” at an album level. When an album has been removed from Tidal or Qobuz in the past, I have to re add and copy the hearts over. With local files I don’t need to do that. If Roon changes that, I’d stream it.
At 22 minutes they start looking at comparing the files from Qobuz and Tidal.
Written piece:
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One thing I would really like from both Tidal and Qobuz is a list of what has been removed and when. It is immensely frustrating to want to play a certain album, only to find it is not there. I accept that some of my choices are quirky/niche, and I would happily pay for a download or physical disc. But I have no idea if or when an album might be gone.
Right enough they are comparing the frequency content of the files, but what I had in mind was a bit for bit comparison. Does either Qobuz or Tidal deliver exactly the same bits as the CD or download? This would uncover issues such as watermarking too.
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One trick I use for albums that disappear in TIDAL is to put the song that I like from that album into a playlist. Then, over time, you’ll see some songs greyed out. The full song information is still available so I can get the album name and order a used CD or buy the song/album from, for example, the Qobuz Store.
Sure, it’s not a notification as such but the greyed out songs stand out clearly in the playlist so makes then very easy to find.
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Ah gotcha, no I haven’t seen something like that.