Qobuz or Tidal?

[ErVikingo]

I added Qobuz today (I use Amazon HD) have not found anything I listen to in higher rate than what I had on Amazon. Still experimenting but seems that the recommendations are not as good as Amazon.

I have not seen the light.

 

[luft262]

I tried both. I prefer Qobuz. The sound quality on both is great, but MQA is bullshit and I also prefer the human made playlists and articles of Qobuz over the algorithms of Tidal.

 

[ErVikingo]

I tried both. I prefer Qobuz. The sound quality on both is great, but MQA is bullshit and I also prefer the human made playlists and articles of Qobuz over the algorithms of Tidal.

MQA sounds like BS to me also, why additional processing/filtering? My DAC does MQA decoding (unfolding) but I don't think I'll ever use it.

I tried various tracks I know very well on the following chain:

- CD (MOFI) Theta Transport to Theta Gen V Pro DAC
- CD (MOFI) to Sony ES moded CD inboard DAC
- CD (MOFI) to Sony ES moded CD as transport to Theta DAC, to Topping DAC, to Lexicon onboard DAC
- CD (MOFI) to Sony ES SACD (DVD DVD A player) as transport to Theta DAC, to Topping DAC, to Lexicon onboard DAC
- Amazon HD to Wiim Pro to Theta DAC, to Topping DAC to Lexicon DAC
- Qobuz HD to Wiim Pro to Theta DAC, to Topping DAC to Lexicon DAC

Not surprised that the Topping is better than my old Theta. Amazon HD does not sound as good as using my transports and physical media. However, Qobuz is superior to all.

Is it that they have more modern mixes? It does have higher sampling rate.

So far I think Qobuz its worth it; however the recommendations from Amazon (IMHO) are more complete.

It would help if Qobuz would allow for searching by sub-genre. In my case, i like Prog and I have to sift through all Rock to find prog.

 

[jae]

I noticed Qobuz was finally available in Canada as of a few months ago. Aside from the price, am I better off signing up from Canada or Australia? I remember hearing that in general for most of these services, the Canadian catalogues tend to be wider than the US ones.

 

[Joramun]

I have Deezer premium (hi res) and it's been pretty good for me.

 

[Sal1950]

Being a multich enthusiast myself, Apple leads the way by far.
Even taking into account IMO their user interface stinks. LOL

 

[Graham849]

Archimago has some thoughts

Qobuz now in Canada. Finally, Roon integration and a taste of lossless multichannel streaming. Thoughts on the future of audio streaming.

A blog for audiophiles about more objective topics. Measurements of audio gear. Reasonable, realistic, no snakeoil assessment of sound, and equipment.

archimago.blogspot.com

 

[MRC01]

Archimago has some thoughts

Qobuz now in Canada. Finally, Roon integration and a taste of lossless multichannel streaming. Thoughts on the future of audio streaming.

A blog for audiophiles about more objective topics. Measurements of audio gear. Reasonable, realistic, no snakeoil assessment of sound, and equipment.

archimago.blogspot.com

Well written as always. One thing I will add is that Qobuz does have some binaural recordings. One I found recently is Tallis' Spem in Aulium:

Qobuz

Listen to your music in high quality

play.qobuz.com

 

[d6jg]

I tried Tidal and Deezer but Qobuz is receiving my monthly payment instead of Spotify and has done for probably two to three years now. I’m an LMS user and the Qobuz integration is pretty good these days so my use of the Qobuz app itself is limited to a weekly visit on Fridays to look at new releases.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Is Tidal still using MQA?

 

[Turambar]

Yes, there are still plenty of MQA tracks.

Tidal has created two tiers: HIGH, that means CD resolution, and MAX.

Inside MAX, there are again two tiers: FLAC where there are all tracks that are 24 bits, and MQA, where we have the remaining MQA tracks.

 

[Sal1950]

Is Tidal still using MQA

MQA's last gasp. LOL