STREAMING - QOBUZ VS TIDAL AND ROON'S PREFERENCES
I am 100% digital using Roon. I play from my extensive hard drive, Qobuz and Tidal. I love to find new music using Roon Radio or Roon suggestions. Here is my issue: I generally find Qobuz to sound better on my system. I do not have final unfold of MQA on my Tambaqui DAC; yet ROON always defaults to a Tidal version.
So I will search 'versions' and select the highest resolution of a Qobuz version.
Can Roon be set to default to Qobuz vs defaulting to a Tidal version?
Do others agree that Qobuz sounds better?
@jeffseight I was lucky that Sense came out just before my Roon subscription was set to renew. I had no reservation choosing Sense's improved SQ over Roon's vast library and search functions. And yes Qobuz is better than Tidal by enough I cancelled my Tidal subscription. |
I have been using Tidal HiFi ($19.99 plan) for years now and recently got a new 2 channel system and wanted to try something different because I wasn't blown away by the sound with Tidal. I now have a Prima Luna Evo 400 integrated amp and GoldenEar Triton One.R speakers. My source is a Bluesound Node streaming over WiFi and then through Music Fidelity MX-DAC (lovely sounding and affordable btw). I have always been suspicious of MQA because I could never hear a difference with it on or off and don't understand the unfolding process. I am blown away by the difference Qobuz makes ($12.99 plan). The soundstage opened up and the mid-bass and bass is much stronger. I had to dial back the subwoofer sections of my tower speakers because the bottom end was so much stronger. I think the sound is more balanced now and it sounds stunning. As far as the interface I think they both leave something to be desired. I would love to see more options for sorting songs within favorites and playlists. Also I found that all of my music library was licensed to stream with Qobuz when many songs no longer were with Tidal. My 2 cents. Thanks, James. |
Until around 2 months ago I was using a modded Node N130 as a Roon endpoint, streaming Qobuz and Tidal. I moved to an Innuos Zen Mini Mkiii, tried that as a Roon Core - it seemed hellbent on downsampling almost everything I played (my DAC is capable if 24/192). I took my Zen out of Roon Core mode, and tried Sense - all I'll say is I cancelled my Roon subscription pretty quickly. I also cancelled Tidal; I was never really interested in MQA, and for me, Tidal just sounds a little flatter than Qobuz, comparing the same tracks from each platform |
