Tidal vs Qobuz - what's the difference?

Audio Gear Talk Music Services
5

I was subscribed to TIDAL, but bought the occasional download from Qobuz. Now that Qobuz integration is there, I have switched because:

  1. The Qobuz content is comparable to that of TIDAL for the music (predominantly classical) I am interested in.
  2. I see (hear) no advantage of MQA over HiRes recordings (I don’t think I do)
  3. The additional cost of Qobuz Sublime (€300 p.a.) over TIDAL HiFi (€240 p.a.) is offset by savings on the reduced prices of download purchases.
  4. Qobuz offers digital booklets with many of the albums (particularly newer ones) in the catalogue. TIDAL (currently) does not.

One caveat about (2) - I am currently on a internet connection that varies between 9 and 20 Mbps, depending on network congestion. Qobuz state that you should have a 20 Mbps connection for stable Hi-Res streaming, and indeed I’m finding that Hi-Res streaming is a bit of a gamble. That was never the case for MQA streaming, so MQA delivered a better streaming experience in my case. However, we should be switching to a fibre-optic network connection later this year once the cables have been laid in the neighbourhood, so I’ll continue with Qobuz.

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