Shootout: Roon versus Plex, Qobuz versus Tidal: Who Won?

@mikelavigne I have 2 Roon ready devices now the Cambridge Evo 150 which has been a revelation in my main system and the new MXN10 in another.

My understanding from what I read is Roon certifies devices that are “Roon Ready” which probably involves meeting certain performance criteria one would think but I have no doubt each case of vendor Roon integration might vary with some heads and tails above others perhaps still on the grand scale of things.

Great post. I’ll add my experience/experiment from 2 years ago. So, things may have changed.

I subscribed to Tidal. When Qobuz became widely available, I subscribed to it, too. A few months in, I decided to listen to the same music on both services. I checked to be sure it was the same resolution, etc. On my system, Qobuz consistently sounded better than Tidal. While there were tracks on Tidal I enjoyed that were not available on Qobuz, I dropped it anyway as there was more than enough overlap.

I feel it’s relevant to note that I also dropped Roon because Qobuz through my streamers native operating system was clearly superior to listening to the same track through Roon, even though I had an optimized Mac mini running core and my streamer is a certified Roon endpoint.  YMMV. 

Streaming is wonderful and the quality of sound I now achieve on my system rivals my local files. I’ve spent a lot of effort to get there, but now enjoy exceptional sound, variety and convenience.  But the underpinnings of all of this are complex. None of us should be surprised that almost everything has an impact on the end result. 40 years ago, digital promised perfect sound forever.  Turns out it is as variable as analog is.  But, the rewards are worth it.

I subscribe to Spotify and Qobuz. Spotify for whole house system; family convenience (playlists, deep catalog) and Qobuz for the ol' two channel setup. I tried Tidal but Qobuz just sounded closer to my vinyl rig, which I prefer to any digital source (so far anyway, still chasing that binary dragon!). Roon didn't provide any benefit that I could discern, and it paused/hiccuped/crashed regularly enough to make me ditch it after a couple of months. No matter which choice anyone makes, it's pretty cool when you consider how many different options there are for enjoying music - truly a golden age (I say the same about the current state of television).

I agree with the OP that it's pretty much a wash as far as sound quality is concerned with Tidal and Qobuz. I stayed with Tidal since its cheaper for me. Being retired military, I get a discount and only pay $11.99/Month compared to $12.99/month for Qobuz. Also, I hear Tidal has more titles available.

Another vote for Qobuz as being the overall superior choice, for me anyway. I did a lot of comparisons with the same track same sample and bitrate between Qobuz and Tidal and found Qobuz more consistently matched CDs and local FLACs.

That said, I don’t think Tidal/MQA sounds bad. In fact it sounds great, and sometimes MQA versions of songs sound better. I still have both but in all honesty 99% of my listening is Qobuz if I had to add it all up. For casual listening at the gym, car, etc, I usually default to Spotify.