qobuz better sound quality than Tidal?

[jayukguy147]

Just wondering?

Ive been using Tidal Master for years, but someone mentioned qobuz was better, on another forum

Thanks

 

[matthewpianist]

I've just switched from Tidal to Qobuz. There's no real discernible difference in sound quality, but I find the Qobuz UI puts me in touch with more of the music I'm interested in.

 

[Al ears]

Qobuz regularly comes out on top of group tests in other publications but that's measured overall not just on sound quality.

 

[Vincent Kars]

The technical difference is that Tidal use MQA for its hi-res. MQA is lossy compression.
Qobuz uses lossless.
Technically Qubuz is better, if it is also audible is another question.

 

[nopiano]

I think the same as I wrote a few days ago here…

What-HiFi Best music streaming services

If you look at the What-HiFi Best music streaming services over the years you notice that Tidal is a consistent winner. In 2022 with one star more than Qobuz. The main reason being: The only other issue is that, while Qobuz claims to have more hi-res tracks than rivals, Tidal’s hi-res streams...

forums.whathifi.com

 

[Al ears]

I think the same as I wrote a few days ago here…

What-HiFi Best music streaming services

If you look at the What-HiFi Best music streaming services over the years you notice that Tidal is a consistent winner. In 2022 with one star more than Qobuz. The main reason being: The only other issue is that, while Qobuz claims to have more hi-res tracks than rivals, Tidal’s hi-res streams...

forums.whathifi.com

Yes, the question seems a bit repetitive....

 

[Al ears]

The technical difference is that Tidal use MQA for its hi-res. MQA is lossy compression.
Qobuz uses lossless.
Technically Qubuz is better, if it is also audible is another question.

although MQA is lossy do we know what is the resolution of the actual stream received?

 

[jetblack9090]

sorry for the lack of capitalization and punctuation but I feel that I'm well poised to offer my opinion as to the sound quality difference between the two services.

number one and it's a big thing for me is quboz simply sounds more natural,whereas with tidal I can't help but get the feeling that somebody hit the loudness button.

like for example let's think of a song and I'm going to choose Roadhouse blues by the doors, using my audio quest DAC if I play them both back to back just switching as quickly as I can and slower as well, I can't help but get the feeling that with quboz what I'm hearing is exactly the way it sounds on vinyl. meaning that it's the way that it was recorded for example, on tidal I can't help but get the feeling that and we're talking with the MQA disengaged, that the sound is deliberately spread out soundstage wise and you get this sense of like I said somebody hit the loudness button.

of course it's not only that, for me another thing is MQA, I was listening to James Taylor and a lot of his albums are available on tidal in mqa. well I'm listening to the song something in the way she moves, and on quboz what I'm hearing is, and we're talking about high res 192/24. but anyway what I'm hearing is high quality music, basically the song as I've always known it however better with more detail and more transparency and a better sense that you can feel the space of the recording. which when we're doing what it is that we do as high-fi enthusiasts is exactly what a lot of people are after myself included, basically the idea of hearing a familiar recording and having it move you in a new way. however when I listen to the same song on tidal which is available in MQA by the way, I can't help but get the feeling that what I'm hearing isnt necessarily the same as the high res version but what I'm hearing more is the same basic recording but presented in a new way.

while those two examples might seem similar or in fact the same thing, in my opinion I don't think they are, at least not the way I'm hearing it. think of it like a a painting now imagine that painting is hanging in your living room which is lowly lit by light.quboz Hi Rez to me is like adding a couple extra lamps pointed directly at the painting, you can see more detail you can see the colors more vividly and you get an overall better sense of what the artist intended. now with tidal imagine the painting is being seen with added lights but they're colored, you don't really see any more extra detail or color or anything that wasn't already there but you're seeing the same dimly lit painting in a slightly different way. I don't know I guess if that makes sense.

like I said at the beginning for me and my money quboz simply sounds better, sounds more natural and has better tonal qualities that I enjoy in music and as a lot of people comment on here it shows me more of the music that I want to listen to and that I enjoy listening to.

 

[Lawrie1976]

Just wondering?

Ive been using Tidal Master for years, but someone mentioned qobuz was better, on another forum

Thanks

I did a blind AB test with Tidal and Qobuz last month. In fact, I got my daughter involved as a second pair of ears. We identified Quboz over Tidal 8/10 times as the better sounding. Not scientific but wanted to share.

 

[martinus]

I have used them both. I was not able to hear any diiferences. But it could be me; my ears are 55 years old. Dealbreaker for me is Tidal Connect..

 

[robdmarsh]

Don't use either, both too expensive. What do you golden ears people think of Amazon HD?

 

[Witterings]

Don't use either, both too expensive. What do you golden ears people think of Amazon HD?

Interested to hear what others thoughts are on this as well.

 

[robdmarsh]

For me Amazon HD sounds plenty good enough to be honest. Don't know why but the golden ear brigade all seem to have Qobuz or Tidal

 

[nopiano]

For me Amazon HD sounds plenty good enough to be honest. Don't know why but the golden ear brigade all seem to have Qobuz or Tidal

I’d try it if it worked natively on my Linn streamer, but it doesn’t. And neither does Apple Music. However, Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal and Airable are available though.

 

[Witterings]

I’d try it if it worked natively on my Linn streamer, but it doesn’t. And neither does Apple Music. Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal and Airable are though.

Grab yourself a WiiM Mini streamer for £90 and you may end up selling the Linn streamer as it does pretty much the same thing as well as Apple music

 

[robdmarsh]

The British audiophile thinks it's worth spending £2600 on a streamer, the Auralic aries something or other and then spending a whole lot more on a DAC. Presumably, when you've parted with your 5 grand, everything will sound blooming marvelous.
Merry Christmas!

 

[nopiano]

Grab yourself a WiiM Mini streamer for £90 and you may end up selling the Linn streamer as it does pretty much the same thing as well as Apple music

I do get the point, and I’ve just splashed £244 on a spanking new Tascam CD player, so I get the value of ‘value’ as well as most. It has the same transport as two £2-3k brands.

TBF my Linn has balanced inputs, a phono stage, pre-outs to my power amp, and an excellent streaming platform, so it’s much more than just a streamer/DAC.

 

[manicm]

Also depends on which country you live in. Qobuz is currently not available to me, though a VPN could fix that. So Tidal it is, and it costs the same as Spotify. In HiFi mode it sounds really good, so I'm not really bothered about the format. Full hires uses too much bandwidth anyway.

A novelty benefit of Tidal also is its app on my LG C1 TV recognised Dolby Atmos capability, so if I decide to get an Atmos soundbar or AV system I can dabble if I so wish.

 

[Lexxie]

number one and it's a big thing for me is quboz simply sounds more natural,whereas with tidal I can't help but get the feeling that somebody hit the loudness button.

TIDAL MOBILE
Settings > Playback > Loudness Normalization

TIDAL DESKTOP
Settings > Streaming > Loudness Normalization

If you turn it off, you may find it doesn't sound like the Loudness button is on.

Probably it shouldn't default as on but, who knows, maybe a poll found the average users preferred it.

 

[Lexxie]

Don't use either, both too expensive. What do you golden ears people think of Amazon HD?

Interested to hear what others thoughts are on this as well.

It's good. At equal 16bit/44.1Hz HD playback, has a Nano-slight more homogeneity of tonality in the lower freqs when compared to say, to Tidal. But I can't 100% be sure if something else in the playback chain is the cause. On the plus side, even the 16/44 HD is a nice clean hi-res digital sound, relatively speaking. Other plusses: I like that they do 24bit high sample rates too for Ultra-HD, and a bigger catalogue than Tidal. And search doesn't F*** up with one misspelled letter, like Tidal.

However I like Tidal for:
(1) not being a ginormous trillion dollar octopus taking over the world, and making me feel guilty for feeding the apocalyptic beast,
(2) paying artists a considerable amount more per playback
(3) less homogeneity of tonality in the bass (even though that might be some other cause in my playback chain? )

 

[robdmarsh]

I'm going to stick up for Amazon the little guy!

Err... no, seriously, you've got me thinking that's pretty s**t if Amazon are the worst for remunerating artists. They've got a pretty big roster of new artists on their platform and they certainly promote them to me as I'm into new alternative and indie in a big way! (I'm a pretty hip fifty something )

 

[robdmarsh]

And search doesn't F*** up with one misspelled letter, like Tidal.

Lol, this can also be a problem on Amazon. Try looking up Hayley Heynderickx without knowing how to spell it properly! Her made up surname is a bit of choke but as a talent she is phenonmenal!

 

[newworld]

TIDAL MOBILE
Settings > Playback > Loudness Normalization

TIDAL DESKTOP
Settings > Streaming > Loudness Normalization

If you turn it off, you may find it doesn't sound like the Loudness button is on.

Probably it shouldn't default as on but, who knows, maybe a poll found the average users preferred it.

Jesus, I didn't even know these existed. Gotta try when I get home.