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Qobuz vs Tidal

First off in the last 3 weeks, I have lost 90% of my vision so if there are mistakes please understand.  I am building my last house and will be moving in in late August.  I have ordered a fantastic two channel system, and I have a separate theater room.   The 2 channel system consists of Canary Audio Grand Reference Two Mono Amps, Canary C1800 Pre-amp, Lumin X1 Dac/Streamer, and an Inakustic 3500P power conditioner and Viking Accoustic Grande Voix horn speakers.  My theater room will include a 5.2.2 set up of Tekton Double impact in wall speakers.   My music source is a Lumin X-1 with a 4tb Synology NAS filled with over 10,000 titles.  In my last system I used Tidal to complement my digital library.  I am looking for either Qobuz or Tidal  for my new system.  I am looking for people who have both or have used both.  Which do you prefer and why?   If you have only used one please don't reply.  I need your help as I can no longer research the way I would like.  All your replies will be voice activated so that is how I am getting your information.  Ease of use will be critical due to my sight restrictions.  Thanks for your help.
willgolf
hgeifman
2,225 posts
 

I had BOTH Tidal and QoBuz for about 4 months 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 much better sounding than Tidal’s MQA coded albums. You can always 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. I email them and they usually respond within 24 hours.  You can also request they add your favorite albums to their catalog.  I hope this helps.   

 


rocray's avatar
rocray
1,448 posts
 
 It seems a lot of folks have tried both,and let their ears decide. I would highly suggest a streaming shootout. Keep the one that sounds better to you. 
jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
curious to hear others comment on JUST the SOUND QUALITY difference they hear between the two (in their respective highest quality streams of course)

i know what i hear... just want to check against others’ experience

pls also list what your streaming device is

thx
edcyn
1,876 posts
 
jjss -- I use a Mytek Brooklyn Bridge Streaming DAC connected to a PrimaLuna integrated amp. The Mytek BB is set to volume bypass mode.

In terms of the sound quality between Tidal and Qobuz, it's easiest to resort to the cliche and call Tidal more transistory and Qobuz more tubey. Tidal is slightly cooler in tonal balance. There is more bass and treble, and a little less midrange. Images are smaller and more precisely placed from left to right than via Qobuz. Qobuz, by contrast, is warmer and more midrangey in tonal balance. It renders better front-to-back depth than Tidal. Acoustic music, in particular classical vocals, sounds less like recordings and more like real life. Both do a fine job making vocalists understandable.
calvinandhobbes
307 posts
 
In terms of sound quality, Qobuz sounds better hands down to my ears. This is listening via not a particularly high quality digital source (iPhone 6S/Audioquest Jitterbug/Audioquest Dragonfly Red DAC). Qobuz even sounds better through the crappy tiny speakers built into an old external computer monitor. These are my listening notes comparing the two along with comparison to other streaming services.

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. Qobuz sounds clearer with more presence (more 3-dimensional?).

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 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

Summary: I’m finding Qobuz to sound both more realistic and more engaging on all types of music. Jazz, Rock, Classical, even Rap/hip-hop.
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