Tidal or Qobuz

I find Qobuz much better SQ on my reference system, very highly resolving with lots of digital bells and whistles, e.g., network switches, fanless silent mini with optimized settings, LPS, great DAC, balanced cables, big tube amp with lots of headroom, and  99dB speakers. Qobuz Interface however SUX.

Amazon HD good enough on my other four rigs, great interface, great recommendation logarithm, new releases drop quicker, more “fun.” I actually look at  Amazon on my phone to select content to pick on Qobuz! Qobuz bigger deeper soundstage, more stereo separation, depth, and detail. 
 

Haven’t tried Tidal, but based on thread sounds like Qobuz better SQ, pun intended.

davetheoilguy

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

Streaming services such as Qobuz are using TCP/IP protocol, so the signal is bit-perfect to the user's modem or router and on to the streamer's cache. As for speed, you need very little even for hi-res audio - 20 Mpbs is way more than enough.

I have both TIdal and Qobuz. Tidal for years with the "master" account. I kept seeing videos and people saying Qobuz sounds better, so a year ago I also signed up for Qobuz. In my experience, Qobuz is the CLEAR winner (as far as sound quality goes). I still do experiments and confirm this by playing the same song back to back- one on Tidal and next on Qobuz. Tidal has nicer features and a bigger catalog, but 90% of what I listen to is on Qobuz. I'm afraid Tidal's subscription days are numbered since I use it less and less. 

Have had Tidal for years, got Qobuz also when Neil left Tidal, he has been back on Tidal but I kept Qobuz never thought about cancelling until now. Anyway, they both sound good, I feel Tidal sounds better for most recordings on my very revealing system. 

Lumen T2 Steamer/Mac Amps 275 X 2 in parallel/Mac Pre C2600/Klipsch Forte III's 

Amazon is the company people love to hate, but the simple fact is Amazon executes really well. Their delivery service is now bigger than FedEx or UPS, and they have addressed much of their employee issues with improved working conditions, better pay and benefits, most notably daycare and education. 

All that said, their streaming service is an equal competitor to Qobuz and Tidalin both selection and SQ. Not saying it is better or worse, but certainly you can't discuss the others without including Amazon.