I have used Tidal and Roon for years but Tidal is giving a “no longer available” message on a lot of the music I want. I suspect it is due to MQA integration. So, if not Tidal, then which streaming service? My own research indicated Qobuz but I have two issues:
Issue 1: I got Qobuz years before it was available in the US but they had some pretty obnoxious technical problems and rather than talking to me or trying to address the problems, they just cut me off and stopped answering my email. With its introduction into the US, I have seen numerous complaints about Qobuz’ Customer “support” and am hesitant to re-enter their supportless environment.
Issue 2: When I tried to find out about Qobuz recently, they have a very draconian cookie policy that makes me uncomfortable.
I’ve been with Roon since the outset and that won’t change. However, I’m kinda of stuck between Qobuz being the logical next step and dealing with Qobuz’ privacy arrogance and service deficit.
Suggestions would be welcome. Thanks in advance.
Mike
If you are in a country/region where Qobuz is available, go for it. In the US the price is less than Tidal, the catalog has caught up to Tidal, and it has been 99.9% reliable for me since I deactivated Tidal several months ago.
The only downside is that the Qobuz mobile app is missing a lot of features compared to Tidal. If you only/mostly use it at home with Roon you are good to go.
I used to be a Tidal subscriber as well as a long term Qobuz subscriber but overall preferred Qobuz.
I decided to retry Tidal with the latest Roon 1.8 update and the hype about refreshed look and feel.
I was shocked to find that everything above CD quality apparently is only available as an MQA file - even for labels such as DG which do not involve themselves with this nonsense. My renewed Tidal subscription will be shortlived!
Tidal at no time has ever had PCM high res. They have MQA high res. If you want both PCM above CD level and Roon, your option is still only Qobuz, as it’s been all along.
3 Likes
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
7
Ditched Tidal as soon as Qobuz was at beta stage for testers in the USA.
Never looked back…
3 Likes
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
9
Can’t go as far as to say " I hate Tidal"
I just prefer Qobuz and I only need one of them as it’s rare that the music I tend to listen to is not on both service’s.
As far as the mobile app not too bothered as I use SiriusXM in the cars, my own phone library (256gb sdcard) and laptop when traveling.
I thought that when Tidal advertised higher than CD resolution option, the MQA files would be restricted to those companies that had committed to this - most notably Warner and that music from the other labels would be PCM. I did not realise that all “higher than CD resolution files” (sic) would be MQA whatever the supplying label.