Qobuz vs Tidal compared

Funnily enough there is an app that does this for Apple Music, I agree that it would be good but I’d rather Roon store an album in the core database so that even if files are removed (from Tidal or Qobuz), the album remains in my library. That would achieve what you are trying to do and keep the metadata that is created by users (hearts, tags and custom info) too.

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I use both Tidal and Qobuz as do many of the members who have posted above but with a little twist. The twist is that while for Qobuz I have the Studio Premier plan ($150/year), which offers full high resolution flac streaming (24bit/192kHz), for Tidal I only have the Tidal Premium (Family $15/month), which only offers lossy streams at 320Kbps.

The reasons I only have the lower tier Tidal plan is first the price, which is much higher than the Qobuz plan, and second the only way to get high resolution with Tidal is by using MQA and I don’t own any MQA enabled DACs.

A few other comments:

I don’t notice much difference between the two services with respect to selection, however Tidal does have more of popular music and hip hop slant while Qobuz seems to have a slightly better jazz selection.

Tidal does have way, way, way better playlists than Qobuz and this is important since Tidal is my go to music service when not using Roon aka when not at home. And when I’m not at home that usually means that I am using Bluetooth somewhere in the playback chain, e.g. iPhone to Bluetooth headphones or tablet to Bluetooth speaker, so lossless playback is not necessary since Bluetooth is lossy. Plus the bandwidth for streaming lossy Tidal is much lower than the bandwidth for lossless Qobuz (although this can be changed in the Qobuz app). For flaky cellular and/or WiFi (like in most hotels) the lower bandwidth is important.

When I go out for a long walk I stream a Tidal playlist on my phone along a set of Bluetooth headphones (Drop Panda, which sound great!) There are almost never any dropouts or other connection issues, the same cannot be said when I try to use Qobuz.

And finally I even listen to some music from Tidal, streamed at 320Kbps, via Roon when at home and my ears have yet to start bleeding :grin: In other words, the music sounds pretty good, even though it is a lossy stream.

So if you have a MQA capable DAC then get Tidal, if not get Qobuz. Both services are very good and very similar.

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I’m thinking of making the jump from TIDAL to Qobuz, mainly because Roon’s Daily Mix feature has helped highlight just how much on TIDAL is still low-quality AAC. I’m constantly disappointed by the little orange light as I’m paying for the highest tier plan.

I guess some older imports from the WiMP days are yet to make the transition to FLAC (or MQA) and I feel that some of what I listen to is very unlikely to be re-encoded.

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The Daily Mix items I see are nearly 100% MQA. I’m sure that what you’re shown depends on your own library selections and past listening choices. Because I tend to listen almost exclusively to MQA Masters, the choices in Daily MIxes (a feature I love) also turn out to be MQAs.

I have Qobuz and I haven’t listened to Tidal, but I doubt there’s much difference in sound quality. I chose Qobuz because it is one of the highest paying music services. I think the artists deserve more for their product. I also don’t like the idea of MQA. In terms of sound quality, it’s a solution looking for a problem. The only thing it accomplishes is to line the pockets of MQA stock holders.

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You’re entitled to your opinions. I think artists deserve more too (although you have to take care in judging how much they receive from streaming services, since the payment process is convoluted and not just the advertised price per stream). You may find that Square, the new majority owner of Tidal, do more for artist revenues than any of the other services when Square finally develop their business model. MQA is both better sounding and much better for cutting down wasted storage and streaming costs. There are good reasons for it.

I own MQA full decoding capable DAC and I am very happy with overall SQ when playing MQA files through TIDAL.
It is sad to notice that speaking of Qobuz could be OFFTOPIC for 91% of the planet Earth countries’ residents.

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A familiar response; I would argue, as do many others, that it can lead to superior sound, for which no apology is needed.

I also hope you are paying for downloads, as that will help artists much more.

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Yes but .005 per stream from 200,000 users is dwarfed by .002 per stream by 200,000,000 (spotify) users.

Not saying those are the numbers, but just for example. Besides, streaming payouts don’t work that way. It’s too complicated for a regional indie band to figure out (or make any money) and involves collusion between labels and streamers and probably some corruption. Just like the good ol’ days of payola.

Anyway, agree about MQA. Just another finger in a diminishing pie for delivering… what? Clever fee extraction is the only “value” they add.

So, yes, that’s why I use Qobuz.

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Qobuz on a live stream actually clarified this point, they actually said that those payout numbers are high because they are a smaller service and in reality there isn’t much difference between services as the labels set the rates. I don’t know much about this, just highlighting that it may not be as simple as we think.

Edit: Found the stream, 38 minutes.

They did on the other hand, say that downloads are way better for artists and that’s why they are so keen on incentivesing them. On multiple streams they have said that even if you don’t plan on using the files, it’s an excellent way of supporting the artist.

From a blog (Soundcharts.com) that covers many of these streaming industry topics:

https://soundcharts.com/blog/music-streaming-rates-payouts

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Note: A high payout rate is a sign of a low usage rate

Niche music art providers feel more comfortable here!

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I was a fan of Tidal from the beginning, recommending them to everyone for several years, but then had a terrible experience with them (more below). I would never go back to them.
Qobuz is better in every way, for me, and I have found more of the kind of music I like than I would on Tidal (jazz, bluegrass, classical, world, etc.).
Qobuz: -lets you purchase music directly, hi-res, at a reasonable price. I still like this option to support the artists and add to my personal library
-generally has hi-res versions of many, many tracks, 192/24, 96/24 etc. I did not get this many high res tracks in Tidal.
-is significantly less expensive (for high-res version): $15 rather than $20/mo.

I agree their app isn’t great and they don’t have many playlists. I’m OK with that, as I usually use Roon anyway.

My terrible experience with Tidal: someone stole my account, somehow figured out my password and reset it so I could no longer use it. They apparently don’t verify password resets with email, or something. It should have been solveable by a chat or phone call, or an email. I tried all of those (actually Tidal doesn’t seem to have a phone option) and tried many solutions and chats, and never got a person, just bots and circuitous responses. It all came down to: I couldn’t do anything to restore my account access without logging into my account. As simple as that. So after a month I gave up and tried to cancel and that was also impossible, with my credit card continuing to be billed. I finally had to have the credit card company block them, and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I’ve never seen worse customer support at any company. I feel guilty for having recommended them for so many years.

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Do you guys feel that Qobuz downloads sound any different to the stream?

The content is the same, but i prefer playing back my downloads from local storage. I’m not saying this is always the case, but for me…

Qobuz caches streamed content locally, so if what you say is true the second time you stream an album it should sound better because it will be being played from the cache. Have you noticed this?

No, haven’t reflected over this, and i assume the cache is being purged upon each new start, whatever track. But i agree, there shouldn’t be a difference… :slight_smile:

The cache is only used when you play from the Qobuz app itself, Roon doesn’t use it. But Qobuz does not purge the cache unless you tell it to, or it needs the space. You can verify that by looking at your offline library. And indeed the offline library in Qobuz gives you another way of checking whether streams really do sound different from the same file played back locally.

This is from last year and the initial tests involve only one track across multiple streaming platforms so it might not conclusive, but I think it’s still relevant. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/tidal-vs-deezer-vs-qobuz-vs-spotify-vs-apple-music.12062/

Good stuff. Excellent. I’d be even more convinced if someone smarter than me could do a bit for bit comparison between streamed, downloaded and ripped files.