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Tidal vs Quobuz

Yes I realize the Qobuz is misspelled in the title but I can’t figure out how to update it.  Relax.  
I’ve been a die hard advocate of MqA and Tidal for the last few years. All of my source, preamp, and dac purchased had the prerequisite that they must be MqA compatible. Today, I tried Qobuz for the first time and I’m blown away by the selection of 24bit 96khz files compared to Tidal.
Here’s an example: Was very excited that the band Tool FINALLY added their collection to streaming services. All of the albums on Tidal are CD quality. So I was going to purchase them in higher fidelity on HD Tracks, but learned that Qobuz had them at the highest fidelity. Couldn’t believe it. Same with many other artists/albums I love.

Now is there an improvement in sound quality? No not really. Is the Qobux UX any better? No, in fact it’s slower. But do I get the best quality content for the same price? Yes. Will I subscribe to both? Yes.
System:

Lumin D2 -> Parasound P6 -> Elac Navis ARF 51’s. Fully balanced set up (Nordost) with AQ power cables.
helloitsben
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,418 posts
 
The SQ of Qobuz is very good. I noticed it when I had free trials to both Qobuz and Tidal (was not using MQA). Hirez releases sound excellent, but I usually prefer CD quality to upsampled 16/44.1 tracks.

And btw, Tool Fear Inoculum was released on Qobuz in Hirez the same time as the CD. Outstanding sound quality!!


dadork
635 posts
 
I had both and dropped Tidal. Only one album I haven't been able to find on Qobuz that Tidal has so far and it's a few dollars less. 
russellrcncom
326 posts
 
dadork:  disagree with your assessment re.  Qobuz.  Not only do I constantly find that albums are missing  sometimes I can't find anything from a particular artist.  To be fair, I experienced a similar problem with Tidal although less so.
toro3's avatar
toro3
515 posts
 
I’ve used Spotify, Deezer, Amazon HD, and Tidal over the years. For the past month I’ve been comparing sound quality and selection between Qubuz and Tidal through an MQA capable streamer. Given all the praise for Qubuz’s sound quality on this forum I thought I would be adding this service. Still experimenting, but here’s been my experience:

1. When transferring a playlist of 240 songs through Soundiiz from Tidal to Qubuz, roughly 30 songs couldn’t be found on Qubuz. The same playlist was transferred in its entirety from Spotify to Tidal. With this said, music consisted of some pretty deep and eclectic tracks.

2. Qubuz’s greatest feature for me has been the ability to look up an artist’s label, as well explore Qubuz community members playlist - Tidal does not have either of these features.

3. Tidal Connect, like Spotify Connect, really is a game changer for me. The ability to stay within the Tidal app to control my streamer (volume, create playlists, discover new artists) vs using the streamer’s user interface (limited related artist data) is not only convenient, but much more enjoyable. Tidal Connect is also much more responsive than using Airplay, which seems to have a lag when skipping songs, music selection, and volume control through Quboz. And for me, Tidal Connect sounds “cleaner” than Airplay through Quboz due to, what I can best communicate, interpretation of a lower noise floor.

Streamer: NAD C 658 using BlueOS
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