So I have have a Tidal HiFi subscription and a Quboz premier trial. Love using Roon radio to take over after I finish a album. So my DAC(Oppo 105) does not process MQA. So under the two examples:
Also I noticed using Roon radio , ~75 of the files played are from Quboz. Is that just a coincidence?
The Roon software does the first MQA “unfold” from 48 to 96. That’s all you get without a fully compatible MQA DAC. Your DAC will play 24/192 files from Qobuz. I suggest you switch to Qobuz if you’re not going to purchase an MQA DAC That is, unless Qobuz doesn’t have the music you like to stream.
@Jim_F. Thanks. Pretty much what I was thinking. I do like the mixes on Tidal. But, if I’m constantly getting better quality with Quboz. I might down grade the Tidal from HiFi family to premium, and just get a individual Quboz premier for myself, as long as Roon consistently picks the better files from Quboz.
I will probably drop Tidal, although I have two MQA DAC’s, and keep Qobuz. Don’t need both and Qobuz is only $12.50 per month paid annually.
Yea. But just weaned my family off Apple Music. Need a family plan for my kids.
I’ve got both services right now. I’d like to trim it down to just one, preferably Qobuz. Tidal has had a somewhat better selection of music that I like. But I’m now very closely watching what is on Tidal that I can’t get on Qobuz. I really don’t want to miss good new music, but I’m not crazy about paying what amounts to ~15 albums worth of music a year for that protection.
Most new music recommendations come via Roon, either from features or what people recommend. So it’s easy to keep track of Qobuz’s capabilities.
I should also add that I can’t hear a difference between MQA and 24-bit music from Qobuz.
Everytime I want to add an album to Roon, I click on Versions and add the highest resolution from both Tidal and Qobuz. I have all my albums from both services, 600 from each.
Why duplicates?
Why not? I listen to both to compare. My Oppo 203 does 24/192 but not MQA, so I usually use Qobuz there. My Meridian Prime does MQA and 24/192, so I use both there. Also, if I drop one service or the other, my music will still be there.
Also, I can use free SongShift to send my albums from Tidal or Qobuz to Apple Music, but don’t need to send both.
Does Roon pick Tidal MQA over over Qobuz 24/192? I don’t have Qobuz to experiment.
For me, I pick the one I want to hear. Once it finishes and plays Roon Radio, I don’t pay any attention to which it picks, so IDK. If I like it and want to add it as an album, I click on versions and add the highest resolution from both Tidal and Qobuz. If I don’t want to add it, then it doesn’t matter to me which it picks. I always listen to full albums, so I’m not bouncing around from song to song.
I just tested to see where Roon Radio goes to pick songs. If I’m playing a Tidal album, it picks from Tidal. If I’m playing a Qobuz album, it picks from Qobuz. It picks a similiar artist with no regard for MQA or resolution. That’s based on a very small sample size. I don’t know that it always works that way.
Is there a way to prevent Roon from playing any MQA files and stick to “normal” versions of a given recording?
MQA is normal if you use Tidal. If you don’t want MQA, use Qobuz.
Thanks for the clarification. What about setting a preference to Qobuz for a given recording and only using Tidal as a fallback option?
If you have two of the same album in your library, you can set which is the primary.
Ok, but this is a manual user action per album, right? I was thinking something more like a global option.
Yes, manual. I don’t know if there is a global setting or not. I’ve never seen one if there is. It might automatically choose the first one you download as primary, IDK, but you can change it. I don’t really worry about it because I always choose which I want to listen to.
