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.
Qobuz vs Tidal
Just sharing my recent experience. I'll be brief. I've been a dedicated music streamer for the past 4 years and have enjoyed it immensely. I always had both Tidal and Qobuz at my disposal, but because Tidal had a more extensive music catalog, sound quality comparable to Qobuz, and seemed more user friendly, I decided to make Tidal my Roon default (most all of my music library was Tidal). All was well and sounding great. Yes, I was fully aware of the fact that Qobuz was widely recognized as the "audiophile's" choice over Tidal, but when I occasionally did "brief" comparisons between the two, I thought the differences in sound quality were negligible, so I left things as they were. Well, after all this time, just the other day, while watching high end audio show video footage on youtube, I noticed that all of the exhibitors who were streaming their music were using Qobuz, as opposed to Tidal. This observation prompted me to really want go back, take my time, and see for myself which streaming service really did sound best to my ears. After hours of back and forth comparisons, I have to say, Qobuz came out on top. What I noticed was that Qobuz sounded slightly more focused, more refined, more natural and real-to-life. I was convinced!!! I believe that switching to Qobuz from Tidal actually succeeded in elevating the overall sound quality of my listening experience a notch. I immediately began the process of converting my entire music library from Tidal over to Qobuz. Happy listening.
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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.
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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. |
I have both and I generally prefer Qobuz, but I suspect in a properly conducted blind test I wouldn’t be able to consistently tell a difference and I suspect that’s true for most, but each to their own As someone noted, I’ve read that Q treats the artist better and that’s a big plus. I also saw that Qobuz recently released a video indicating that it’s connect feature is in beta testing so hopefully that’s finally coming. I think both offer an incredible service for the money and most folks would be happy with either |
@kennymacc +! Great point on Roon Nucleus plus which i never tried and which certainly should be optimized to run Roon without any loss in transparency. While my gear was Roon certified, it certainly had a deleterious effect on the sound vs the native app. I likened it to how MSFT Windows must run on all PCs regardless of hardware configuration and companion software. It works, but the performance isn’t always equivalent. The native operating system and music management system could address the memory cache and buffers of that machine whereas Roon was not so optimized. I’ve heard great things about the Roon Nucleus system and assume it’s fully competitive with other streamers anywhere near its price range. For those using something other than a nucleus, an audition may be warranted to see if there’s a negative impact. I do miss that interface. To that point, Auralic’s Lightning DS (LDS) is very good and I enjoy using it quite a bit in system 2, but it’s not Roon. And my T+A in system 1 has a streaming client built along with a network audio adapter (NAA) so I use their native app. Its UI is rudimentary in comparison but sounds fabulous. And to that point, I find that Qobuz streams sound the same as files I ripped from a CD as FLAC and stored on a NAS, assuming they’re the same provenance (i.e. not a remaster). In sum, I can’t believe how good streaming from Qobuz can be. It’s been a while since I’ve done a comparison with Tidal - I’m guessing the same would be true there. As audiophiles, who of us would have imagined twenty years ago how good we’d have it today? Best,
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