I have both. Tidal since 2014 and Qobuz since November. That being said, if I had to choose one over the other, I’d pick Qobuz. (1) to my ears feel that the SQ is just a smidge better. (2) Have nothing against MQA, but all things being equal, prefer ability to stream and play hi res files in native fashion. (3) At $150 a year, Qobuz is a little bit more cost effective.
Can’t really go wrong with either pick, and Roon supports both of them.
I believe they both offer free trials. I prefer the sound of Qobuz hi res over Tidal, but I’m sure there’s others who feel the opposite. Also, a lot will depend on your listening tastes and which service has the best selection for your tastes.
They're essentially neck and neck. I choose Qobuz because I like the warmer frequency balance and its pretty good selection of classical music but your mileage may vary. Try 'em both. Putting it another way, I'm glad Qobuz exists, but if it didn't I'd be living happily with Tidal.
I had both Tidal and Qobuz and eventually switched to Qobuz only. I like their hi-res content and other options.
I find the sound quality on the Qobuz 24/96 and 24/192 coded albums excellent and better sounding than Tidal’s MQA coded albums. You can aways search for #hi-res and it displays the hi-res albums. Or, search on #hi-res jazz.
The Qobuz catalog does not contain everything I want but I can always find something similar. I recently discovered Qobuz playlists and they are excellent. On my Aurender N10, I go to Qobuz, playlist and search for classical, jazz, blues, etc. Once I find something I like, I can make it a favorite playlist so I can easily find it the next time. Qobuz also easily lets you build you own playlists.
Qobuz has tabs for new releases, media picks, Qobuz picks, etc. and these help me find albums I am interested in. Qobuz offers other selection options for finding albums. They have a music genre list that is very helpful.
Qobuz Customer Support has been excellent for me. I email them and they usually respond within 24 hours.
I was happy with the sound of both services. I found that large file size as far as the cost of my internet did not matter using Qobuz. My subscription with ATT is only 25 mbps and it works fine on HiRes. Also, I felt that Qobuz did a much better job of providing Artist info and discography, which I really enjoy.
I've got both and slightly prefer qobuz SQ but if I had to pick one, I'd go with tidal because most of the music I like is available. I listen mostly to jazz, folk, classic rock, alt pop, electronica. Very little classical, country, rap.
i really like Qobuz... I had Tidal and it was OK . i use Qobuz everywhere, on my phone, PC, Vault 2i , Samsung Tab... at home. work, in car.... best $15 I spend on anything .....
Like many, have had both but Qobuz wins on sound, support and their constant improvement approach interfacing with users. They maintain a forum on the former audiophilestyle.com site.
The value is is great and if you want to own music, their pricing is very reasonable, another nice benefit. You own the download forever.
Another vote for Qobuz. I have zero use for MQA. Using Roon to decode MQA, I have preference for PCM. When I had both, Tidal definitely had a bigger library but Qobuz keeps adding and I’m not sure Tidal maintains that one advantage.
Interesting. I have both and had never listened carefully to compare. There is a difference with Redbook. To me Qobuz is a bit euphonic and heavy sounding. I like Qobuz at low volumes but Tidal is cleaner at higher spl. I go back and forth on MQA, my DAC does not do it, Roon does the first unfold. It adds presence but does not always sound good. I would choose Tidal for the content and sound if I had to choose one.
anzaanimalclinic -- It's interesting that you chose Tidal over Qobuz using exactly the same criteria by which I chose Qobuz, except with a different conclusion. Let freedom ring! On the other hand, maybe we can blame it on our different stereo rigs. As for MQA, my Mytek Brooklyn Bridge has full-on support for the feature but I still prefer Qobuz. It doesn't hurt that I'm a classical junkie and the Q gives me more of it.
It seems (almost?) nobody here likes MQA. There is no requirement to use MQA with Tidal and I don’t but still get good sound. Many here list the positives of using Qobuz and if their selection of rock and blues matched Tidal’s, or if my preference were for classical, then I would be using them too.
edcyn- I agree the gear can make the difference. I just made 3 changes today and that changed my preference of Tidal or Qobuz. First I added a Chord English Electric 8switch between my Etherregen and the wall. The 8Switch was a huge change all positive. Added a lot of weight, focus and richness. With Qobuz the euphonics were gone just a much more textured sound, Tidal in comparison sounded a bit thin. Using Roon for comparison the music on my library did not have the same new richness and weight as Tidal or Qobuz. I moved the 8Switch between my SOtM sNH-10G and Innuos Server and I have the same effect now with my library. My Roon core is on an Antipodes Core on the SOtM sNH-10G. I have files on both the Innuos and Antipodes but the Innuos is just a bit better. The 3rd change was replacing the ethernet connection between the Etherregen and sNH-10G with Optical fiber. Definitely an uptic in clarity and smoothness. With the current set up I prefer Qobuz. The 8switch changed my preference. If I did not hear the difference I would be happy with Tidal but knowing that Qobuz sounds better it would be my choice if I had to make one.
Hi, I didn't want to start a new thread as I found this. I had 3 months of cheap Tidal, but since it expires tomorrow I wanted to check out Qobuz. I transferred my "test track" playlist from Tidal to Qobuz and started listening. I hear an immediate improvement in detail, bass clarity, separation. How can this be? I thought these services are "bit perfect". I use a Lumin D1 DAC which can do MQA as well, and I have upsampling to DSD turned on. For MQA upsampling doesn't work though, however, my test tracks are mostly non-mqa anyway. I previously noticed an improvement with Tidal from no upsampling. But now I'm amazed at how good qobuz sounds on the same songs. I'm really surprised. Are these services using the same "original" sources? Why is there a change in quality? Does it have to do with integration between the Lumin and the particular service? Or am I hearing things?:)
@arthur1260 you are either hearing things or something is not set up equally between the two streaming services. I speak from experience as I made the same mistake. I've since corrected my mistake (reset Roon completely) and started fresh and made absolute certain I was comparing the same masters. Comparing both streaming services this weekend, I find they are extremely close in SQ. I run fiber optical to my house and an opticalRendu streamer. So noise is pretty non-existent for streaming. I agree with some comments here that Qobuz is a tad (and I mean a TAD) warmer. But Tidal does not sound thin in any way. That probably has to do with one's gear/setup. In my setup, Tidal has plenty of bass and is slightly more neutral. It also has a bit more treble extension. Most noticeable on ride cymbal 'pings' within the soundstage. Qobuz has slightly more bass presence but this translates into it being a bit too much when I really turn things up. The treble is also very slightly subdued. Those same ride cymbal pings lose much of their attack and sound further away/muffled. Soundstage/imaging is a tough one to call and seems to depend on the track compared. Overall, they are very close but you will probably prefer one over the other based on system chemistry. Tidal wins out in my system but I am going to sub to Qobuz because it's close enough to me to save $7.50/month. It should be noted that neither service can compete with home network (NAS) files but Tidal's sound signature is closer to them than Qobuz..
Looked into the Best Buy savings. Must be a My Best Buy member, which I already am. Appears to be half off Tidal HiFi Music ($10/mo), but it appears the reduced price is only for the first year, so it might not be worth reestablishing a new Tidal account for only one year of savings. Certainly sounds like it would be worth it for someone just starting out with Tidal.
@mitch2 Its $99 for the first year and then $119 for renewals, which is lower than direct Tidal pricing. And you don't need to create a new account. I was already a Tidal subscriber and when it was time for renewal, I bought through BB. They send you a digital code. With this code email Tidal support and they convert your Tidal subscription to BB pricing.
Thank you @rajivhifi I must be paying by the month since I don’t ever remember them asking for a renewal anytime over the past several years. I will look into it more closely.
Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know the technical reason why one sounds different than the other? It’s a bit weird to me, are the streaming services altering the original files in any way?
@arthur1260 -- Not that I know anything, but I'd bet the honchos at Tidal, Qobuz and the other streaming companies have slightly different tastes as to what sounds good. Putting it another way, I bet they do futz with the files. It could also be simply because they employ different streaming software/hardware. In any case, it's pretty plain the two streaming companies have different musical tastes. Viva la difference!
So, I recently tried and subscribed to Qobuz. I can easily stump it with what I thought should have been titles in the Qobuz library. But there is a lot of there there. The one HUGE, GLARING OMISSION, however is the lack of a radio-style option available on just about every other free or paid streaming service in the world. I mean, WTF? The user playlists are just okay, but it takes a while to find one I want to hear. I will stick with Qobuz, because it is still a good value proposition, but seriously, they need a random or radio function. I find that such functions are the best way to discover new music.
If you like to play your music directly from FLAC files and buy high definition tracks at a great price, Qobuz will be for you. If you want to try streaming music in MQA format and discover new hip-hop songs every day, Tidal would be a good choice.
In my opinion, both have their strengths and weaknesses, but the winner really depends on the user's preferences and the songs they play. I'm a big fan of Tidal MQA and will often use Tidal Music Downloader to download my favorite Tidal music locally without the costly subscription fee.
I have gone through probably 4-5 rounds of comparisons. Each time find Qobuz is better. Tidal is muddier for me. In fact, I’m trying Tidal again right now with Roon, cancelled my Tidal within a day and just disabled Tidal in Roon because for some reason Roon seems to pick Tidal over Qobuz.
I always choose Qobuz over Tidal in Roon if possible. I maintain a Tidal subscription for redundancy; occasionally Qobuz will not have a track or album but Tidal will. I downgraded my Tidal plan to the base option as it now has redbook quality. Happy to do that as I do not trust nor want MQA, and it saves me money. A big advantage of Qobuz is that all hi-res files are packaged in FLAC.
Even Spotify Premium sounds better to me than Tidal even with a proper MQA unfold.
My subjective impressions of the musicality and sound quality of the major HD streaming services: (as of November 2020)
1. Qobuz
2. Primephonic
3. Spotify Premium (320 kbps Ogg Vorbis which is not lossless)
4. IDAGIO
5. Amazon HD
6 Tidal
I agree with @thielisteand play music using both of those services, plus my ripped/stored CD files (flac) through Mojo Audio's DejaVu streamer/server. Roon controls whatever I play and I find the sound quality between the three sources mostly indistinguishable through my system during normal listening.
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