Qobuz or Tidal

Roby

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So the question is provably asked already but still

to be clear I am talking about the studio an hi res membership

I tried both now I have the feeling I will choose for qobuz because hase more hi res of the music I listen an the dynamics sound better in my system

but stil hesitate caus of a few software problems I encountered during my test days

any ideas your preference an of course why
 

Leon Martin

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I’ve had Qobuz for around three months now and recently took up the Tidal 4months for £4 offer simply because Tidal have a few tracks that Qobuz hasn’t. I’ve never had any problems with the Qobuz app - I don’t use the desktop app. Both sound the same to me but I’ll probably stick with Qobuz once the Tidal offer runs out simply because I can get the full hi res files without needing a MQA decoder.
 

Willsmusic

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I think it has to come down to personal choice, but for me Qobuz wins on sound and I do get tired of the Tidal home page as it doesn’t reflect the music I like.
 
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Roby

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I think it has to come down to personal choice, but for me Qobuz wins on sound and I do get tired of the Tidal home page as it doesn’t reflect the music I like.


Exactly the feeling I have.

I sound in my system hase more rest an detail but as it suppose to be the same quality I was just thinking I might just get crazy trying to achieve the best sound.

An my home page is after 2 weeks more accurate to my music taste than after 6M Tidal

My chose is for 80% made but I should have asked this differently an say maybe what could be the advantage of Tidal Compared to Qobuz
 

knaithrover

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I've tried Qobuz and Tidal side by side and can't tell the difference, both sound as good as the other. I've been a Tidal user for a few years now but would have gone over to Q if it had been a significant upgrade. Both are miles better than Spotify.
 

Hawkmoon

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I've tried Qobuz and Tidal side by side and can't tell the difference, both sound as good as the other. I've been a Tidal user for a few years now but would have gone over to Q if it had been a significant upgrade. Both are miles better than Spotify.
Don't want to stir any arguments up, but I have tried Tidal Masters vs Amazon HD ultra recordings and going through my Node 2i, which is MQA compliant, I have to say I tend to prefer Amazon UHD versus Tidal Master recordings. Interestingly, for regular CD quality material I lean towards preferring Tidal ! I haven't tried Qobuz
 

knaithrover

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Don't want to stir any arguments up, but I have tried Tidal Masters vs Amazon HD ultra recordings and going through my Node 2i, which is MQA compliant, I have to say I tend to prefer Amazon UHD versus Tidal Master recordings. Interestingly, for regular CD quality material I lean towards preferring Tidal ! I haven't tried Qobuz

No arguments from me, interesting hear your view on Amazon
 

abacus

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I have tried all of them (From low to high resolution) and Qobuz I found to have a dire interface, limited catalogue, (For what I look for) limited gapless support and a price that is way over the top.

Amazon had a great sound quality, excellent pricing, but limited catalogue, limited gapless playback and the usual chronic Amazon interface.

Tidals only problems are price (Should be £14.99 not £19.99) and the master series are way over processed and artificial sounding if you don’t have an MQA decoder. (Stick with the Hi-Fi setting unless you have MQA) An ideal pricing structure would be £9.99 for premium, £14.99 for Hi-Fi and £19.99 for masters.

BTW. When it comes to catalogue, interface design and use then Spotify is still the tops (Tidal comes close) so if they came out with a reasonably priced Hi-Fi tier they would leave the competition behind. (Quality wise Apple comes top of the compressed formats and is not too far behind Spotify on catalogue and design)

Bill
 
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Hawkmoon

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I have tried all of them (From low to high resolution) and Qobuz I found to have a dire interface, limited catalogue, (For what I look for) limited gapless support and a price that is way over the top.

Amazon had a great sound quality, excellent pricing, but limited catalogue, limited gapless playback and the usual chronic Amazon interface.

Tidals only problems are price (Should be £14.99 not £19.99) and the master series are way over processed and artificial sounding if you don’t have an MQA decoder. (Stick with the Hi-Fi setting unless you have MQA) An ideal pricing structure would be £9.99 for premium, £14.99 for Hi-Fi and £19.99 for masters.

BTW. When it comes to catalogue, interface design and use then Spotify is still the tops (Tidal comes close) so if they came out with a reasonably priced Hi-Fi tier they would leave the competition behind. (Quality wise Apple comes top of the compressed formats and is not too far behind Spotify on catalogue and design)

Bill
I think a lot of us would jump all over Spotify if they started to offer CD and/or CD+ quality streaming, but sadly they show no interest in doing so and apparently trialled it a couple of years ago and gave up on the idea.
 

Niallivm

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After trialling Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon and Deezer I’ve signed up with Qobuz for a year.
On my equipment (my components cost £100s rather than £1000s) they all sounded better than my Apple Music benchmark but the high res of Qobuz on my Mac with Meridian DAC and B&W headphones is the best sound quality I’ve ever heard and their HR catalogue is huge.
Discovery-wise I don’t share Tidal’s passion for hip hop and it’s Search is laughably bad considering the inflated price. Qobuz’s intelligent “Qobuzisseme” editorial and hand-picked Panoramas are great for exploring jazz, classical and other less mainstream worlds. None of that MQA nonsense and if I add in the trial 30 days I’m paying £149 for 13 months - that’s £11.46 month, which is good value.
My family still prefers Apple but I’m enjoying my music more now with Qobuz. WHF’s enthusiasm for Tidal doesn’t match my personal experience with the higher quality streaming services.
 

Blacksabbath25

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I watched a YouTube video between Tidal and Spotify and they tested the wave Form signal and on a blind test and you can not tell the difference between Tidal Hifi and Spotify Premium .
The fact Spotify has a much bigger library and its cheaper for the subscription each month with no Rap based front page that Tidal has .
 

Niallivm

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I watched a YouTube video between Tidal and Spotify and they tested the wave Form signal and on a blind test and you can not tell the difference between Tidal Hifi and Spotify Premium .
The fact Spotify has a much bigger library and its cheaper for the subscription each month with no Rap based front page that Tidal has .
I’m not surprised there was no difference from Spotify asTidal HiFi is the misnamed 320k service from Tidal - the higher res service is Tidal Masters
 

abacus

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Tidal Premium is the compressed version, Hi-Fi is Uncompressed CD Quality & Masters is MQA, (Which is pointless if you do not have an MQA decoder) they have also started doing Atmos music, but it only seems to work on Apple products at the moment.

You can tell the difference between Spotify Premium and Tidal Hi-Fi if you have a high quality speaker system or headphones (Just measuring the waveform and ignoring the noise, distortion and dynamic range is not a true test) but it is not as big a difference as you might think.

Bill
 
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Blacksabbath25

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Tidal Premium is the compressed version, Hi-Fi is Uncompressed CD Quality & Masters is MQA, (Which is pointless if you do not have an MQA decoder) they have also started doing Atmos music, but it only seems to work on Apple products at the moment.

You can tell the difference between Spotify Premium and Tidal Hi-Fi if you have a high quality speaker system or headphones (Just measuring the waveform and ignoring the noise, distortion and dynamic range is not a true test) but it is not as big a difference as you might think.

Bill
People make a lot of fuss about MQA which it isn't really taking off or Atmos its just clever marketing confusing people believing they have better and when it comes down to it its just different ways of compressing files .
Cd lossless is the way to go but nothing out there will improve this or make a recording better then it left the studio .
could you really tell in a blind test which is better Spotify or Tidal Hi-fi and i have a good setup
 

Niallivm

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Tidal Premium is the compressed version, Hi-Fi is Uncompressed CD Quality & Masters is MQA
Happy to be corrected on this one. Very confusing though - how is something at the bottom of Tidal's product list called 'Premium'? I guess it's the hi-fi equivalent of trying to market 'small' condoms...
 

Colben

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After trialling Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon and Deezer I’ve signed up with Qobuz for a year.
On my equipment (my components cost £100s rather than £1000s) they all sounded better than my Apple Music benchmark but the high res of Qobuz on my Mac with Meridian DAC and B&W headphones is the best sound quality I’ve ever heard and their HR catalogue is huge.
Discovery-wise I don’t share Tidal’s passion for hip hop and it’s Search is laughably bad considering the inflated price. Qobuz’s intelligent “Qobuzisseme” editorial and hand-picked Panoramas are great for exploring jazz, classical and other less mainstream worlds. None of that MQA nonsense and if I add in the trial 30 days I’m paying £149 for 13 months - that’s £11.46 month, which is good value.
My family still prefers Apple but I’m enjoying my music more now with Qobuz. WHF’s enthusiasm for Tidal doesn’t match my personal experience with the higher quality streaming services.
My problem as a classical fan is that these supposedly High Quality streams sound fantastic, but unfortunately they are all ruined because they don’t offer gapless.
I’ve tried them all, I would love to keep one of them, but I return to Apple.
classical music NEEDS gapless, Apple has offered it for years, so what is the problem.
fantastic sound is no use if you don’t offer gapless.
 

Niallivm

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It depends on your equipment. True, the Qobuz web player doesn’t provide gapless but you can get gapless playback with the macOS and mobile Qobuz apps (iOS and Android devices).
I get gapless Qobuz playback on my Sonos speakers, too. I’ve just tested it with the medley on Abbey Road and it’s as you would want.
 
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StratDoc

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I’m not surprised there was no difference from Spotify asTidal HiFi is the misnamed 320k service from Tidal - the higher res service is Tidal Masters

What is the streaming quality of Tidal HiFi? I don't have a master decoder dac but can tell a difference between Tidal HiFi and my spotify premium account.
 

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