Qobuz vs Tidal

I definitely do not hear a consistent difference between the two services. Some songs sound A LITTLE better on Tidal and some sound A LITTLE better on Qobuz. But the functionality and ai are way better on Tidal. If I was going to cut one it would be Qobuz- and lately I've been close to pulling the trigger. 

Thank you everyone for all your insightful responses to this post.  I knew from the outset that this post would be somewhat controversial.   However, in my room, played back through my audio system, to my ears, I can hear a noticeable difference in the sound characteristics between Tidal and Qobuz.  Both Tidal and Qobuz both sound fabulous.  And I can perfectly understand how a person could prefer one over the other, both equally, or go back and forth between the two.  Still, to my ears, it's as if the two streaming services seem to have their own signature sounds (similar but slightly different).  I can very easily tell the difference between the two in my room.  To my ears, and to my own personal preference, Qobuz seems to have a quieter, blacker, background than Tidal, allowing for a deeper and a more dimensional soundstage, and greater separation of the instruments within the soundstage.  That's why I hear a slightly more refined stream presentation coming from Qobuz over Tidal.   I've noticed this difference across the board on every album I play.  I'm just lovin it!!!.   Happy listening.                   

I've preferred Qobuz for years but have kept Tidal for diversity. Recently, while trying out a new dac/streamer I decided to check out other services: Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer. I am surprised to find that I'm preferring Deezer. This is after a week of listening.. I'll see how this shakes out over time.

I used to have both services. I found Qobuz to consistently sound better than Tidal so I only have Qobuz today.  i was also using these services through a streamer with it’s own app (in my case at the time Auralic Lightning DS). Using either service is seamless through the streamer app - meaning that the software deficiencies mentioned above were not an issue for me. 

I would also note that Roon is not particularly transparent. I used to be a subscriber but dropped it when I compared streams from Roon with the same using the native app Lightning DS. It wasn’t close. So, it’s possible that  the differences between Tidal and Qobuz for some are being masked by Roon for those using that platform. Of course, Roon’s  interface is the best out there, but it may be negatively impacting the sound for some. 

But there’s another issue - and that’s what artists actually receive from various platforms. Tidal and Qobuz are vastly better than the others. But in this case, Qobuz wins again. A quick search will show that Qobuz treats artists the best of all the major platforms. 

@mgrif104 

I've been using the magnificent Room Nucleus Plus in my audio system for about four years now, and I get superb detail and transparency.  I know, there's always something better.  However, the Roon Nucleus Plus won me over for it's combination of superb sound quality, and it's simply phenomenal user interface.  Happy listening.