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Has anybody tried Qobuz Streaming service?

Hi and thanks for reading!

Has anybody tried Qobuz and compared it to TIDAL? I read that Qobuz streams 24/196 files which may be higher than even TIDAL Master quality?? If you have made the switch to Qobuz, was it easy to integrate into your streaming system?

I look forward to hearing from people who have tried Qobuz and either loved it or disliked it compared to TIDAL.

grm
grm
ahofer
225 posts
 
Archimago has a MQA test here:  

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/07/internet-blind-test-mqa-core-decoding.html
ejr1953
895 posts
 
I had the Qobuz Windows app installed on a powerful Dell machine, and found it only functioned about 20% of the time, when it did, I enjoyed its selection of classical music and though I think the sound quality of MQA from Tidal vs. hi-res from Qobuz was a "toss up", some masters sounded fuller in MQA, some sounded "clearer" in hi-res, the app was so frustrating I cancelled my Qobuz account.

I recently purchased a Roon Nucleus Plus server, got my Roon core moved from the Dell to it, and signed up for Qobuz using it to stream, all frustration with Qobuz is "history".

I still would say the sound quality of Tidal MQA vs. Qobuz hi-res is a "toss up", both sound awesome.  I decided not to choose, subscribed to both services, now that my Nucleus streams without problems.
mlsstl
1,378 posts
 
I'm enjoying Qobuz through my Vortexbox/LMS music server, routed through a Squeezebox Touch into a Bel Canto DAC. No problems with skipping, pausing or delays. Sound quality is excellent. I plan on sticking with the service
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,055 posts
 
I am enjoying Qobuz as well and would like to share some search tips. You can filter your search by Hi-Res, new releases, and more.  When you type your search, include the following hashtags in the search bar to filter your results, 


- #HiRes to filter to only Hi-Res files 
- #NewRelease to filter to only new releases from the past month (even if they were not featured on the discover page) 

- #ComposerOnly to filter the query to composer only 
- #Award to filter to releases with an award (Qobuz Award or Press Award)

- #MultiChannel to filter releases in 5.1 surround sound (we have about 300 albums available in 5.1)


Enjoy!
mikelavigne
2,142 posts
 

I have Qobuz and Tidal and overall prefer the sonics of Qobuz. and likely slightly prefer my files to Qobuz. I listen to lots of hirez files (I have about 17 terabytes of files). Tidal is still pretty good but I can see dropping Tidal as a possibility. time will tell.

my dac is the MSB Select II, fed by the SGM Extreme server. my dac does do MQA, which I do like mostly on Tidal, but my files are consistently better than MQA, as is Qobuz.

I have a few enhancements to my network which have made positive differences in the overall performance.

I use an MSB product called the Pro USB, which lowers noise between my server and dac. it is a box the USB plugs into which converts it to fibre then plugs that fibre directly into a fibre SFP module on the MSB dac. the Pro USB is proprietary to the latest versions of MSB dacs which are modular so can accept the proper input module.

I use fibre SFP module plugged directly into my server and then 50 feet of fibre to my network to lower noise. this really lowers the noise of the streaming and files I play from my NAS on my network.

my server uses PCIe storage with the controllers directly into the CPU which allows for improved performance compared to local SATA SSD storage or my NAS; I am expanding those PCIe drives on my server from 2 tb to 32 tb and will transfer all my files to my server.

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