Qobuz or Tidal?

[Timcognito]

Waiting for Qobuz Connect. Now using lifetime Roon, Qobuz, and BluOS and 1000 Cds on NAS. Also often use Qubuz app directly on Samsung tablet with dongle dac and wired headphones, but android app is clunky. Roon works great integrating all platforms. BluOS lacks functions of Roon and Qobuz app but great for muti-room with intuitive and simple multi platform dashboard. May dump Bluesound for WiiM if Roon is added. Will never use Tidal because of MQA attempted coup of music industry even though Tidal functionality trumps Qubuz (from what read). As a jazz, world, R&B, techno/dance listener Qobuz selection and music playback quality are excellent.

 

[MRC01]

One fact not yet mentioned: Qobuz is the only streaming service that streams lossless full resolution in a browser over FLAC. No other service has that - they require use of their proprietary apps to stream full quality. Qobuz has those apps too, but you aren't required to use them. This is of value to Linux users like me. Also, USB Audio Player Pro can stream Qobuz in full quality.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Overall I like the sound of Qobuz over Tidal. It sounds better with most the music I enjoy. It's consistently better on an AB track comparison too. I am comparing Qobuz against Amazon HD now. It's amazing how much cleaner the Qobuz tracks are on my system than Amazon HD. You really need to compare the services on your own setup to see if you can tell a difference. Everyones taste varies.

How did you check that there is a difference? Did you analyze the tracks waveforms?

 

[norcalscott]

One fact not yet mentioned: Qobuz is the only streaming service that streams lossless full resolution in a browser over FLAC. No other service has that - they require use of their proprietary apps to stream full quality. Qobuz has those apps too, but you aren't required to use them. This is of value to Linux users like me. Also, USB Audio Player Pro can stream Qobuz in full quality.

Question for you, since I have not tried Qobuz - is this limited to Redbook quality or can they go higher using their browser player?

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Question for you, since I have not tried Qobuz - is this limited to Redbook quality or can they go higher using their browser player?

They go to 192/48 . .. not that you would hear a difference.

 

[norcalscott]

They go to 192/48 . .. not that you would hear a difference.

Agreed - that is interesting as I had thought the reason Tidal and others (including things like Plex) only go to 44.1/16 (in the browser) was due to a limitation in browser playback capability. I've actually tried in the past to confirm that but have not been able to find a definitive answer for Chrome anyway.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Agreed - that is interesting as I had thought the reason Tidal and others (including things like Plex) only go to 44.1/16 (in the browser) was due to a limitation in browser playback capability. I've actually tried in the past to confirm that but have not been able to find a definitive answer for Chrome anyway.

Oops. Sorry I just realized you asked for browser player. Somehow I overlooked this. Please cross check my statement above.

 

[NiagaraPete]

Overall I like the sound of Qobuz over Tidal. It sounds better with most the music I enjoy. It's consistently better on an AB track comparison too. I am comparing Qobuz against Amazon HD now. It's amazing how much cleaner the Qobuz tracks are on my system than Amazon HD. You really need to compare the services on your own setup to see if you can tell a difference. Everyones taste varies.

I don’t see how any of this is possible with matched volume. Taste for features, none of these services sound any different.

 

[MRC01]

Question for you, since I have not tried Qobuz - is this limited to Redbook quality or can they go higher using their browser player?

They go to 192/48 . .. not that you would hear a difference.

Agreed - that is interesting as I had thought the reason Tidal and others (including things like Plex) only go to 44.1/16 (in the browser) was due to a limitation in browser playback capability. I've actually tried in the past to confirm that but have not been able to find a definitive answer for Chrome anyway.

Yep, they stream in the browser via FLAC whatever the recording's native rate is, same as you'd get in the app.
The problem is, some browsers (like Chrome) resample everything and you can't control that.
Other browsers (like Firefox) play the audio in its native format without resampling.

PS: my point is that Qobuz delivers audio lossless FLAC at full resolution to a browser, sample rates from 44.1 to 192, whatever the music owners provide to them. Just the bit perfect bits - no resampling or other processing madness. No other music streaming service does this. But Qobuz can't control what your browser does with it, so you need to ensure your browser & system can handle it appropriately.

 

[PatentLawyer]

Qobuz works well for me, but it really needs an Apple TV app IMHO.

 

[Timcognito]

Question for you, since I have not tried Qobuz - is this limited to Redbook quality or can they go higher using their browser player?

Of the 30 latest releases on Qobuz, 25 are "HR" Hi Res and 5 are "CD" redbook, their lowest resolution. $15/mo with my wife who has her own account access and favorites, playlists etc, so $10-me +$5-her called "Duo Account" by Qobuz.

 

[MRC01]

Yeah, Qobuz used to be a lot more expensive but they lowered their prices and are much more competitive now.
And their support is also responsive and knowledgable.

 

[norcalscott]

Yep, they stream in the browser via FLAC whatever the recording's native rate is, same as you'd get in the app.
The problem is, some browsers (like Chrome) resample everything and you can't control that.
Other browsers (like Firefox) play the audio in its native format without resampling.

PS: my point is that Qobuz delivers audio lossless FLAC at full resolution to a browser, sample rates from 44.1 to 192, whatever the music owners provide to them. Just the bit perfect bits - no resampling or other processing madness. No other music streaming service does this. But Qobuz can't control what your browser does with it, so you need to ensure your browser & system can handle it appropriately.

I did not know that about Firefox not down sampling. My experience with this was using an old Toshiba Chromebook's USB connected to a Topping E30 and could not get anything beyond 44.1 even from my Plex server (even though this actually sounded good). I've since switched to a RasPi running Volumio so all is good there.

 

[MRC01]

I did not know that about Firefox not down sampling. ...

Yep, just one item on the list of reasons not to use Chrome

 

[ELberto]

Having tried most of them I am convinced there is no one service perfect for all my use cases. So I now use a mix of amazon HD on desktop and tidal on mobile. Leaving aside the slightly shady mqa angle, I do like tidal overall.

Week 2 of Amazon now. The interface could improve a bit but so far the selection and suggestions are pretty good for me. Sq-wise once I changed it to wasapi exclusive it's as good as Qobuz or Tidal as far as I can tell. Qobuz failed the customer support category for me. Took them 10 days to reply to my issue (one and only playlist disappeared) and their reply was re-asking all the questions I'd answered in the original support request. They claimed they'd never heard of anyone having their playlist disappear. Seems unlikely since a simple google query shows numerous similar complaints.

 

[Jimbob54]

Week 2 of Amazon now. The interface could improve a bit but so far the selection and suggestions are pretty good for me. Sq-wise once I changed it to wasapi exclusive it's as good as Qobuz or Tidal as far as I can tell. Qobuz failed the customer support category for me. Took them 10 days to reply to my issue (one and only playlist disappeared) and their reply was re-asking all the questions I'd answered in the original support request. They claimed they'd never heard of anyone having their playlist disappear. Seems unlikely since a simple google query shows numerous similar complaints.

I didn't think you could use wasapi exclusive mode with amazon app? It's got an "exclusive" mode but it doesn't allow sample rate changes and everything still goes through the windows mixer. Unless there has been a recent change.

EDIT- I am muddying the water here- exclusive mode does work and enhancements/ volume controls get disabled- but it doesnt allow automatic sample rate switching so everything gets resampled to whatever the DAC is set to in windows- so its not bit-perfect.

Amazon Music HD up scales everything. So...?

The AM FireStick app may display correct sampling rate for the track under "Currently Playing at" but the actual output is always fixed at 24/192 regardless (when Ultra HD is enabled under Audio Quality, in the app settings). This is true even for SD (lossy codec) tracks. Check it if you DAC/AVR...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Turambar]

So recent as yesterday night...

 

[tiramisu]

I don't like the idea of MQA. Lossy compression sold as lossless without anything backing it bugs me. I like the idea of flac. Open, lossless.
Tidal pays the musicians the best. I like that. I haven't really committed to any service but I would like to. Still an open debate in my mind as to who to give my money.

 

[Jimbob54]

I don't like the idea of MQA. Lossy compression sold as lossless without anything backing it bugs me. I like the idea of flac. Open, lossless.
Tidal pays the musicians the best. I like that. I haven't really committed to any service but I would like to. Still an open debate in my mind as to who to give my money.

The one that ticks the most boxes for what you want from a streaming service. Price is no longer a meaningful differentiator and neither is quality really so its about user interface/ experience, quality of recommendations and whether the various apps/ connections fit into your system as you require.

 

[Moderate Dionysianism]

Other browsers (like Firefox) play the audio in its native format without resampling.

How does Firefox bypass the Windows audio mixer? Is there an ASIO/WASAPI output option? Never seen it.