Tidal, Qobuz or both?

I have been with Roon and Tidal (Master subscription) since summer 2018 when I purchased a Nucleus and KEF LS50W. Apart from the searches being really irritating on Tidal (via Roon) and coming up with many more albums of artists/bands depending on how I do the search, I have been happy with my subscription to both. Having friends using Qobuz and the love of it on this forum, when Roon 1.6 came out I immediately purchased a Qobuz Studio yearly subscription. I was expecting that the Qobuz catalogue would be superior to the Tidal one (my main musical genre is jazz). Last night I spent many hours searching for all my favourite jazz artists/bands and found that more than 90% of albums are on both on Tidal AND Qobuz and at the same audio quality. So (a) have I just wasted a year’s subscription to Qobuz? (b) should I stick with both? © when the Tidal subscription runs out not renew it and stay with Qobuz? or (d) when the Qobuz subscription runs out not renew it and stay with Tidal? Answers on postcard to …
P.S. Please don’t all reply (a) Yes.

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I have both (tidal on a college discount for a few more years thanks to my daughter :slight_smile:

I prefer tidals catalog (qobuz is around 75% right now, may improve in us). I prefer Tidals apps and playlists. I like qobuz hires vs mqa and like to be able buy hires from qobuz.

If one went away I wouldn’t die lol but like the overlap to fill in some gaps. Trying out qobuz mobile app on a trip right now and it is terrible… no Android auto support yet

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Thanks. Makes me feel a little better. As a staunch adopter of the Apple ecosystem I don’t have any Android issues having switched, albeit belatedly, to Macs in 1990 although stuck with Windoze at work (NHS/University).

Why not 1 month trial with Qobuz to have a go?

I have just taken on a month’s trial with Qobuz, having used Tidal in conjunction with Roon.
Not had a chance to use mobile app yet, and am an Apple user, so no worries about android support.

Initial thoughts comparing the two are that yes, I prefer the hi-res sound vs MQA from Tidal.
Will spend next few weeks comparing further and then look at whether I keep both, stick with Tidal, or make the switch to Qobuz. At the moment, if I’m honest, I really haven’t a clue which way to go

That’s what I was going to do, then Qobuz popped up a dialogue box stating that my month’s trial had expired. I must have tried it ages ago and forgotten at that time I had a free trial. :disappointed:

Bad news man :sunglasses: Anyhow, maybe Qobuz suits you better. Time will tell…

Last night I was really trying to find out if Qobuz’s jazz catalogue was more extensive than Tidal’s (it wasn’t). But I did a few A-B comparisons on some albums and I agree that to my ears I preferred the Qobuz quality. It may be that my brain was making me feel that way in compensation for buying the Qobuz subscription, and I was playing the tracks though an iMac and 1st generation H-K Soundsticks (but it was the same for both Qobuz and Tidal). I’m looking forward to replacing the Soundsticks with KEF LSX speakers in the near future (fortunately my wife doesn’t read this forum).

The biggest catalogue differences is with classical - much wider with Qobuz (It’s not really my thing)I found jazz very similar offering from both.
I had a perception that Tidal was much more RnB, US based music. The front page always seems that way, but digging deeper, I may have slightly misjudged. It could be because I don’t play RnB, and it is learning my tastes better perhaps?

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As this forum has numerous posts on the imminent demise of Tidal then if they prove to be true, the decision will have been made for me.

If Tidal crashes, and that is speculative at best, Qobuz is still out there. I have Tidal Hi-Fi by the month, and am doing Qobuz trial (16 bit CD quality). I’ll use both for a couple of months and then decide.

Currently have both, Tidal has been my primary service for home use and has been since it launched in the UK, currently using free trial again for Qobuz aftr just having 3 free months of Sublime +. Also have spotify too for those albums the other two just dont have. Juries out as to wether I keep Qobuz or not. I am not ditching Tidal as it covers more of the music I listen to but I like the fact Qobuz offers other things to Tidal.

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The time of biggest purchases for me was the 90’s as Roon so eloquently shows up.

2 CDs a month would have been the same price as a Tidal AND Qobuz subscription. I think I’ll go for both for a while, I’ve already come across some albums missing from one or the other service.

The graph also shows that most of my recent collection is streamed rather than bought (blueish colour)

.sjb

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Same for me but mostly Vinyl then. Looking back I don’t know where I got the money as I didn’t earn a whole lot back then. I would be buying 4-6 LPS a week. I think I add more in a day from Tidal sometimes now.

I tried both, but stick with tidal…

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I had Qobuz beta and opted for Yearly Studio with Roon integration.

I also like the sound better of the high res Qobuz to Tidal MQA even through Audioquest DAC.

Qobuz has a broader classical collection and points me so far to a more conservative jazz sound.
I also like Tidal’s jazz focus which incorporates cross over with Hip Hop, R&B, the new English jazz artists.
So both have their benefits to me beyond the library with pointing me to new artists, sounds
Hopefully Roon Radio will do the same.

So far I am happy to have both.

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I currently have Tidal but have become interested in Qobuz now for obvious reasons. The thing is I use Tidal on my Android phone and on my Windows computer at work because Roon isn’t available. So if anyone can comment about the actual Qobuz app and program compared to Tidal that would be greatly appreciated.

I took a look at the Qobuz download store and found many of my favorite Tidal albums were not available. Are there albums available for streaming through Qobuz that aren’t available in their store or do they just have less of the music I like?

… so, after all the discussions concerning Qobuz integration and Q being available in Roon for a week I’m curious… who will stay with Tidal, who will jump to Qobuz and who will subscribe to both?

I‘m really torn but at the moment I have a tendency towards Tidal for the wider and deeper music catalogue (especially with less commercial independent and alternative stuff)… also 44.1/16 FLACs sound identical from both services to me.

Qobuz has the advantage of high res - but I don’t know ifbI really need to subscribe as I can just buy the occasional album if I want…

still have not made a final decision though…

Using both right now. Will take a couple of months to decide.

Not loosing Tidal too.many albums not available. Keeping both for the short term as I found a lot.of albums that are full flac but only aac on Tidal. So currently it swings both ways. Not sure how long I’ll keep both as I also have Spotify for on the move listening and discovery.