Can we talk about Qobuz for a minute

If you're using the Bluesound app to select your music then Qobuz will be identical to using Tidal operationally.  There is a lot of overlap in their catalogs but they are not identical.  I prefer the sound quality of Qobuz, particularly of their hi-res catalog and I'm not a fan of MQA which Tidal uses.  I switched from Tidal to Qobuz a couple of years ago.  Pricing is very similar.

QoBuz offers high-res streaming that includes 24/96 and 24/192 albums. Another option is to type #hires in your search tab for a listing of hi-res albums.

QoBuz offers 1,540 playlists. You can type jazz, for example, find a playlist you like and make it a favorite.

QoBuz’s catalog is very good but, obviously, does not contain everything. I can always find an album I like. I switched from Tidal to QoBuz because of their hi-res selection. QoBuz Customer Support is excellent. I usually get an answer in 24 hours. BTW, my source is the Aurender N20 Music Server.

QoBuz web site info:

“More than 70 million tracks available for unlimited playback, of which 185,000 albums are in Hi-Res with Studio Premier and Studio Sublime

Human recommendations from our team of experts

Access to millions of digital booklets and extra information on our musical content”

My listening notes comparing Qobuz to Tidal:

Round 2, Qobuz vs Tidal: So far Qobuz is clearly better than Tidal even listening through pretty cheap desktop passive speakers. Tidal sounds very two dimensional and flat in its sound quality but with some harshness in the high frequencies. I’ll listen a bit more to Tidal, but so far I’m not impressed at all. Spotify Premium even seems to sound better than Tidal.

Some additional thoughts about Tidal after listening on higher quality equipment. I think they have applied some equalization to boost the bass and treble. In the process, I think side effects of doing this is to take out some of the presence of voices and instruments and add an artificial quality to voices and instruments.. Qobuz sounds a LOT better. Spotify Premium also sounds better. To my ears at least. (Disclaimer: Your results may vary). I’m currently listening to a track that is a MQA file on Tidal vs a CD quality file on Qobuz. The CD quality file on Qobuz sounds a LOT fuller and more natural.

Not a big fan of hip hop, but decided to listen to something that is squarely in Tidal’s area of focus. I listened to ’The Box’ by Roddy Ricch which is a MQA file on Tidal and CD quality on Qobuz. Same results. The Qobuz file sounds fuller and has more presence. Almost sounds like two different recordings when listening on Qobuz vs Tidal.

My subjective impressions of the musicality and sound quality of the major HD streaming services:
1. Qobuz
2. Primephonic
3. Spotify Premium (320 kbps Ogg Vorbis which is not lossless)
4. IDAGIO
5. Amazon HD
6 Tidal