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Tidal vs Qobuz experience

martin900

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Hi guys,
I've been A-B comparing some music material from Qobuz Studio Premier and Tidal HiFi and both sound clearly different.
No upsampling, no MQA - just pure FLAC from the same CD's.
I wonder if anyone has tried comparing both through Roon and what your experiences are?
 
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martin900

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Correct, hovewer many are still plain 16/44.1 and I selected albums that were only that, no higher bitrates or MQA/"Masters" or "Deluxe editions".
I will refrain from sharing my experiences just yet, otherwise it might skew others's experiences if they'll explicitely listen for differences I'll mention.
If you have the chance - give both a listen and let me know.
 
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BDWoody

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Correct, hovewer many are still plain 16/44.1 and I selected albums that were only that, no higher bitrates or MQA/"Masters" or "Deluxe editions".
I will refrain from sharing my experiences just yet, otherwise it might skew others's experiences if they'll explicitely listen for differences I'll mention.
If you have the chance - give both a listen and let me know.

Can you give a couple of specific examples? Not of what and where in the songs, but a couple of actual songs or CD's?
 
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martin900

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I will post a few albums. I am sure they're not MQA, you can see the signal path from the source in Roon.

+
- Eric Clapton - Unplugged (Deluxe Edition) 16/44.1
- Faithless - Reverence 16/44.1
- Loreena Mckenitt - Nights from the Alhambra 16/44.1
- Clannad - Landmarks 16/44.1
- Nils Lofgren - Acoustic Live 16/44.1
Schermafbeelding 2020-11-21 213104.png


I've only used headphones and LDAC enabled Hifiman Ananda BT to eliminate room acoustics.
 
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mSpot

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You should double check that. Pretty much everything on Tidal is changing to MQA.
Most of what I listen to on Tidal is not available in MQA. For the MQA albums, there are usually dual releases (MQA and non-MQA).

Tidal does not create MQA albums — they are provided by the record labels. Some record labels have signed on to MQA but most have not, including some major labels (Sony, Decca, etc).
 
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Taddpole

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I preferred the quboz app, the selection of music, that it didn't push music you don't like at you constantly, and marginally the sound, but I didn't level them so that's invalid. I don't use Roon.

Despite this I kept tidal so far as it's much cheaper for me.
 

ahofer

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I use both. In Roon, at least, Qobuz has this bug where some albums are marked "Unavailable". Very annoying. They say they are aware of it and fixing it. They may have - I haven't seen it in the last few days.


Also, I have found in the past that Qobuz does somewhat better with classical, and Tidal with Jazz. They seem to be converging though. For instance, until last year, none of Joey Alexander's albums were on Qobuz.

I have never tried to listen to the same recording on both services in A-B style, but I've never noticed a sound difference in regular listening.
 

Glasvegas

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I recall reading somewhere that even if you stream an MQA track on Tidal, if you select HiFi in the Streaming options of the app (instead of Master), Tidal will just stream the standard CD version of the track.

Maybe someone else can confirm.
 

Beershaun

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Sure. Tidal has 4 streaming quality levels available depending on your payment plan.
Normal, High, Hifi, Master.
Their definitions are according to the settings section of the app:
normal - reduced data usage for slower connections.
high-best compromise between data usage and sound quality
hifi-lossless CD quality
Master - authenticated files from mastering process. Studio quality.

So Hifi=lossless CD quality non-MQA.
 

KeenObserver

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Anything Warner is going to be MQA. Not sure if others are starting.
CD is going to be MQA CD.
 
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KeenObserver

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Forbes announced a short time back that Warner was adding millions of MQA tracks to Tidal.
 

KeenObserver

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Tidal does not create MQA albums — they are provided by the record labels. Some record labels have signed on to MQA but most have not, including some major labels (Sony, Decca, etc).

Sony is a shareholder in MQA.
 

Chrispy

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I didn't keep either Tidal or Qobuz after the trials. Sound quality was fine with both, but did prefer the non Jayz presence on Qobuz as well as I liked the interface better. I wouldn't use Tidal just because of MQA, don't want that nonsense.
 

amirm

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CD is going to be MQA CD.
Oh? Where did you see that? I only saw an announcement for 29 titles in Japan only. And premium priced to boot. Nothing about mass migration to regular CD.
 
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