Tidal or Qobuz

Sad to say but if you really value library content and HiRes you need both…

@zlone 

Only way to find out is fire up a trial on both services and exploritate.  Then sign up for monthly if you need more time.  then cancel the weakling.  

I have both.  The only time I use the Tidal app is through CarPlay in the car.  In the house, I use Roon and Tidal, Qobuz, and my ripped CD collection for whole house stereo to wireless speakers throughout my house.  In my listenng room, I use Innous Sense with Tidal, Qobuz, and my ripped CD collection.  In general, I find Qobuz sounds much better.

I keep Tidal for several reasons (1) I get a veteran's discount, (2) I have a family plan, and (3) Tidal provides genre specific playlist based on my playlists and the music I play (60's, 70's, and 80's soul/R&B, contemporary jazz, and soft rock).  Qobuz provides playlists, but the genres are mixed together, which makes no sense to me.

In my listening room, I did A/B testing using Innous Sense against Qobuz HiRes tracks and Tidal MQA tracks of the same music.  Qobuz sounded much smoother - MQA didn't sound bad, Qobuz just sounded better.  I also did A/B testing using Innous Sense and Qobuz HiRes via my Innous streamer against Roon and Tidal MQA via the Bridge II card in my PS Audio DSD DAC.  Asside from sounding noticably better, Qobuz sounded quite a bit louder and richer.

I cancelled Tidal after using Qobuz and Tidal for about a year. Slightly better SQ but also the MQA nonsense was a turnoff. 

I'm going to try out Amazon HD thanks to this thread. 

Does anyone know where their respective servers are?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the difference of opinion relates more to data sped and loss and corruption getting  to where the listener is located than anything.  This is not necessarily geographic thing, but the greater the distance (typically) the more times the data switches hands before it gets where it is going.

If everything is working right, that won’t make a difference, but there is always something wrong somewhere.