Qobuz vs Tidal compared

By “disappearing”, @garye means that the record labels have a habit of reviewing their licensing of albums to the streaming services. This may lead to an album license being revoked, either globally or in one or more geographic regions. In these cases, the streaming service must remove the album from their catalogue…

3 Likes

Sounds like the European version of my approach: Qobuz vs Tidal compared - #44 by Ralph_Pantuso :+1:

Geoff, I understand. thanks for your insight.

I agree with most other posts on SQ. To my ears Qobuz sounds better.
No other reasons.

I had subscriptions for both.

Tested with several different streamers and DAC combinations. The outcome was always in advantage for Qobuz. So I cancelled Tidal.

2 Likes

Qobuz does not have limits on how many tracks can be playlisted, but they do on how many you add to your library. The problem is, they do not tell you anywhere what that number is. My first Qobuz account was suddenly and without warning closed by them because I added too many tracks to my library, and per Sebastian, that might damage their servers. And I still have no idea what that magic number is. As a result, I almost never add Qobuz tracks to my library (I was forced to set up a new account. They “could not” reinstate the first one.)

I have a NAD c658 on which I can stream both from Tidal MQA or Qobuz HR. Using the same song encoded from both services differently, I can notice: Tidal sound is more clear and precise, Qobuz has some obvious noise. So, for me, considering sound quality, I prefer MQA anytime!

Lumin U1 mini
Antelope Audio Amari
Marantz PM 7005
QAcoustic 3050

It’s funny how doggedly each faction fights for the supposedly better ears here. Everyone hears differently and the equipment also makes a difference. It reminds me of the battle between Apple and Spotify :wink:

Everyone can take what he likes and who tests both comes to a very personal judgment about the sound. We don’t need another 1,000 references to other people’s ears here. Only your own are important for the choice!

2 Likes

well… that`s a first :slight_smile: Suppose it all comes down to equipment and personal taste. Surprising enough there is any difference at all - at least when playing 44.1/16 tracks…

as long as the conversion from digital to analog has not yet taken place, the same coding from the same master can certainly not change anything, but after that one gets warm ears where it feels too cold for the other and one believes this technology makes it better, the other sees another company technically leading…

But if the comparison is between Tidal Masters (MQA) and the equivalent on Qobuz, the coding is not the same (even at 44.1). It isn’t possible to discuss this without discussing the technical difference, which has been forbidden by the moderators who think this is off topic.

Further, Qobuz and Tidal likely differ in their handling of LUFS. I don’t know their current practices but hope to find them out in the near future. There are standards being formulated now that may finally equalize what different streaming services do regarding loudness normalization.

1 Like

I’m thinking about picking up a subscription to one of these. Do Roon features differ when using one or the other (i.e. does Valence work better with Tidal as opposed to Qobuz or vice-versa)?

Here you can give two correct answers:

If you love traditional search and find and personal curation of selected genres on expert level, you will get the best recommendation system free of algorithms at Qobuz.

Those who rely on new technologies and better machine-based recommendation systems go with Tidal.

Roon has consciously opened up to both sides in its concepts.

There, too, the discussion will remain about which is better.

Some say too uniform machine in the direction of the filter bubble, others say too inappropriate for personal taste if the machine is not allowed to help.

Having recently switched from TIDAL to Qobuz I can say with a good degree of confidence that Qobuz is better for extreme metal.

:metal:

2 Likes

There is currently a major back with the integration of Tidal - breaking even completely Roon.

Neil Young.

I used to use Tidal and was very happy.

Then noticed on certain Roon playlists I was getting no Neil Young tracks except for those on his live Weld album.

Weld was the only Flac file ripped from CD on my NUC and the others had been taken off Tidal because of the Artist’s opinion.

This meant I had to get all my Vinyl Neil Young Albums out, buy a decent turntable, buy ripping software etc etc or cancel Tidal and swop to Qobuz or pay for both.

On my budget the last and first options are a no go, so went with Qobuz and now am very happy, as I was, to be honest, with Tidal.

At least the Artist got a say as he was in the financial position (I gather) that he didn’t need the streaming company’s.

I couldn’t tell the difference between Tidal or Qobuz on music quality on my budget system running NAD M10 with Dirac set up with my ears. I am a 50 year old ex Press Toolmaker who used to attend Motörhead concerts though so the ears took a pounding in my younger days :wink::rofl:

4 Likes

I currently still have both providers, as my annual subscription with Qobuz is still running. In terms of quality, I think both are very good. The playlists that Tidal suggests are more in line with my musical taste. I like the Tidal APP better in everyday life. Unfortunately, Tidal does not have an annual subscription and the monthly fees are already very high (HiFi subscription).

NAD M10 budget system?To the very rich maybe. What has this audiophile world come to :rofl:

6 Likes

Good reasons to choose tidal I reckon - no Neil Young!

7 Likes

i subscribe to both, and have had both for years, dating back to WiMP and before Qobuz officially launched in the US. I’ve spent a fair amount of time comparing sound quality between the two, initially in the squeezebox ecosystem, now in roon, and further with the more widespread adoption of MQA. I’ve also compared both, and MQA to my own rips, which are mostly AIFF files (ripped years ago for use in iTunes).

my impressions have been pretty consistent:

Qobuz 16 bit sounds better than Tidal 16 bit (non-MQA)

Qobuz 24 bit sounds better that Qobuz 16 bit.

Local files in AIFF sound better than Qobuz 24 bit.

Tidal MQA sounds better than AIFF.

tl;dr: Tidal<Qobuz<Qobuz HiRes<AIFF<MQA

Caveat! when i speak of MQA, i speak of the full hardware decode. if your experience with MQA is limited to the partial unfold in Roon, as good as that can be, you have not heard what MQA is capable of.

3 Likes

… so AIFF is better than FLAC? MQA beats them all?