Can we talk about Qobuz for a minute



    I use to use Spotify until i heard Tidal, and now with my Parasound Integrated amp having a pretty nice dac onboard im bypassing my Bluesound Node2’s internal dac and it sounds great.

    Is Qobuz just like Tidal as to song selections and ease of use. I haven’t check pricing either.

    Is there a reason some really like Qobuz sound better, without it turning into a blood bath Lol, thanx guys

    
kgveteran
I have both Tidal and Qobuz.  

Qobuz has more albums to choose from (especially classical), but I do not notice much of a difference in sound quality. Since I use Roon, I have the ability to choose between various versions of streamed and/or saved music files.

When MQA first hit the market a few years ago, I was very impressed with their new concept - especially their claim to authenticate master files. As you know, HR could just be a 44.1 standard red book CD with a fancy name. Unfortunately, Tidal does not fully support classical so there is a limited MQA library.

If I had to choose one - it would be Qobuz. The premium version and paid annually. 

I listen to mainly classical, so I find the selection and quality of Qobuz to be excellent. Every day there are new albums added.

Here's the downside of streaming, we don't choose which version of an album release is available by each service. This mainly applies to rock. The album release may be the original flat transfer or a remaster. It could be a remaster which improved the recording, or it could be a remaster with heavy compression made during the years of the Loudness Wars. 
Many artists like the Stones or Zeppelin may have 3 or 4 different remasters, I know this because I was duped into buying the latest greatest CD version of these bands multiple times.

This is where physical media beats streaming, having the choice to hear an album of the highest SQ.

Full disclosure; I leave my system set up for streaming.


MQA filles are smaller than Qubuz full HiRes. Tidal is very good if you Wifi or cellular speed is not fast or on the road. To me Tidal SQ is already as close as CD but if your home setting is HiRes, I will go Qobuz.
One thing streaming is missing IMO is the option to choose between different 'masterings'. This is an advantage physical media currently retains.
The streaming services are at the mercy of the record label or artist as to which albums they receive.