Tidal VS. Qobuz (US)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by StateOfTheArt, Jan 4, 2019.

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  1. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    You're very welcome.

    After learning a bit more, MQA first unfold will give you up to 24/96.

    However, the second unfold is 32/384 bit if the track is mastered that way.

    I admit some MQA does sound good to me, but I think its my own bias and my brain being tricked into the relief of "oh its bit-perfect because the little light tells me so!!"

    Foobar is bit perfect, JRiver, Jplay, Audirvana, Roon, etc. Many ways both free and paid to get there. MQA, lets call it what it is, an encoder and decoder that makes money for suits.
     
    Encore, Mike-48, RolandG and 2 others like this.
  2. serendipitydawg

    serendipitydawg Dag nabbit!

    Location:
    Berkshire UK
    I didn't vote. I have been a Tidal subscriber for a little over 4 years and despite the various frustrations (I'll not bore you with details) I am going to stick with them, more because I am familiar with the UI than out of fanboy loyalty.

    Roon coming to Quobuz ? Just optimistic rumours IMHO.
     
  3. DHamilton

    DHamilton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    So in other words, I could save money by just listening to my cds and cancelling Tidal after the 3 month trial is over? I don't currently have a pc/laptop to utilize the unfold features or a special hi-def player besides my stereo and phone...
     
  4. Fruff76

    Fruff76 L100 Classic - Fan Club President

    Tidal! It sounds great through my Cambridge Audio and it’s only $11/month for higher resolution with a military discount. I don’t think any other streaming service offers that.

    Great selection too.
     
    audiomixer likes this.
  5. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Yes but unless you have a huge collection you loose selection and portable convenience if that matters to you. Also in order for MQA to work you need to use the MQA labeled file on Tidal which the Hi-Fi tier defaults to showing when a title is available in MQA although the non-MQA version is also available you now have to search for the album title for it to show up and be able to listen to it. I dislike MQA by the way and people should read up on it /listen to it before deciding to support it or not. That Tidal even offers MQA is one of a few things I currently really dislike about Tidal.
     
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  6. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    It is a lossy format that we have to pay to hear the lossless version, after we paid for it.. why isn't there more of an absolute outcry? I understand if it's streaming and Tidal bought the MQA format and it was an exclusive thing for their service, but to not stop there and say - but wait, you can have better quality if you buy this, this, and this. Totally taking advantage of people, and the market. They take us for suckers.

    If your system isn't very good, and you will know it, don't bother chasing the MQA unfold. Likely you won't hear a difference. I hear a slight difference, but it's EQ, I hear EQ filters.
     
  7. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
  8. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    That is pretty bad. Like you don't have enough cash flow? You need to steal it? Consider me cancelled.
     
  9. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    Official press release, qobuz was integrated in room with this newest update! Time to drop tidal. :righton:
     
    btltez likes this.
  10. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
  11. KenJ

    KenJ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Flower Mound, TX
    I use Roon and added Tidal trial so I can use the Roon Radio feature. Qobuz is closed beta and my late request has not be accepted

    The tidal mqa tracks are not always my favorites vs apo, mfsl etc. I have a lot of ripped sacds in Roon

    I want one of the services to activate roon radio which mostly plays songs off my local library.

    I use streaming for mobility and will swap Apple Music for one of the high Rez.

    So Tidal for now. Will test Q when available.

    Are these steamer hi Rez different than hdtracks?
     
  12. Mike-48

    Mike-48 A shadow of my former self

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    I just started using Qobuz and love it! I used Tidal, but every time I did, its terrible cataloging and search (esp. for classical) made me angry. Qobuz is far better, both in those functions and other metadata provided, like full information and booklets on many albums; and composers for classical pieces.

    I also am happy to stream Hi Res files, not be saddled with the hocus-pocus of MQA. (<rant>It's sad: the same reviewers who give short shrift to user-controllable DSP are sold on MQA, an uncontrollable, proprietary, lossy DSP scheme incompatible with DSP by the user.</rant>)

    Wow! I can even set the Qobuz home page to display the genres that I am interested in (not the one Jay-Z wants to sell me).

    Though I don't use Roon, I'm happy to see that it now interfaces with Qobuz.

    I have had solid streaming at up to 192/24 in my home systems. I've only tried 44.1 on my phone. I'm sold.
     
  13. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    I know right? It is truly a great day to be one of us audiophiles. I ran the stream through MusicScope just to check if in fact it is 24/192 - you betcha it is. I run 24/192 home, 16/44.1 on the road.
     
    Mike-48 likes this.
  14. Patrick Cleasby

    Patrick Cleasby Hi-Res idiot

    Location:
    London, UK
    [QUOTE="Roon coming to Quobuz ? Just optimistic rumours IMHO.[/QUOTE]

    Not so optimistic after all then? ;-)
     
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  15. Gabe Walters

    Gabe Walters Forum Resident

    I was just accepted into the Qobuz beta and I really like it--I just wish it wasn't $24.99 per month for the hi-res option.
     
    OldSoul and StateOfTheArt like this.
  16. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    It's worth it if you listen to Jazz and Classical - if you listen to rock. 16/44.1 is more than enough. Lowers the noise floor.
     
  17. Gabe Walters

    Gabe Walters Forum Resident

    These days, I’m almost exclusively listening to jazz. But $24.99 adds $10/mo to the family music streaming budget; though Apple Music is lossy, it’s good enough on the go, and their $14.99 plan lets other household users in on the fun.

    I hope Qobuz lowers the pricing to stay competitive and/or adds family licenses into the deal.
     
    Kristofa likes this.
  18. btltez

    btltez Forum Resident

    Location:
    I'm From Detroit
    just got accepted into the beta gonna give it a go.
     
  19. Gabe Walters

    Gabe Walters Forum Resident

    Assuming one is not particular about renting your music versus owning a copy of it, I will add that Qobuz pretty much renders HDTracks obsolete.
     
    SBurke and audiomixer like this.
  20. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    Looking at Qobuz from a jazz POV, I just got into the Qobuz beta, and I gotta say, on a first quick use, the interface seems great, the sound seems really good, but the jazz library is woefully inadequate if you're like me and you have interest in contemporary jazz or jazz of the last 30 years, compared to what's available on Spotify or Tidal. Yeah, there are things that Qobuz has that Tidal doesn't -- Tidal surprisingly has few of the Soul Note/Black Saint albums of Muhal Richard Abrams or Oliver Lake, Qobuz has more of them -- but with Qobuz there's almost nothing of major contemporary figures like Mary Halvorson or Kris Davis or recent music from someone like Dave Douglas; a major recent release from Fred Hersch, a live trio date from 1997, is on Tidal but not Qobuz. Seems like the service doesn't have deals with many of the labels, some artist owned, putting out a lot of the most important contemporary like Firehouse 12, Clean Feed, Greenleaf, Tzadik (I was listening to the Wadada Leo Smith Kabell Years box set on Tidal last week, not an option on Qobuz), Hat Hut, etc.

    I know Qobuz's marketing team is telling beta testers not to judge the service by it's currently available American library, because the company is still completing carriage deals. Fine. But, at the end of my freebie test period, if the library isn't substantially expanded in my area of interest, I won't re-up, because I'm still going to have to keep a Tidal subscription to get access to a lot of the music Qobuz doesn't have. Quobuz won't be a sufficient substitute for Tidal for me.
     
  21. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    You're definitely entitled to your opinion. However, I would suggest contacting Qobuz, and expressing your concern with their library. It seems to be a common complaint, which I understand. But I would imagine, it'll be improving over time. I never have found a better library than Google Play Music, but that is only 320kbps. Good for on the road, but serious critical listening? No - I appreciate having access to essentially all of the OJC and classic jazz stuff at my fingertips. If you are into pretty eclectic stuff, are you surprised they don't have it? I mean, its still in beta, like you said. I would write, see what they say, and if you don't supplement with Roon, continue with what you have.
     
  22. ClassicalCD

    ClassicalCD Make audio great again

    Location:
    Bogotá, Colombia
    This is my experience regarding classical and even hard rock. Lots of releases missing from Qobuz but available on Tidal. If only the latter would fix the damn issue of tracks being out of order on multi-disc classical releases!! And of course add genuine high-definition audio.
     
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  23. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    I'm surprised because the competiton competiton -- both Tidal and Spotify -- does have it. So yeah it may not be the top of market mainstream, but it's otherwise available elsewhere and cheaper. For me, as I'm beta testing, I'm deciding whether or not I'm going to become a paying customer and the choice for me will be: do I pay for Tidal or do I pay for Qobuz? The primary factor in that choice will be available library. Having the uncompressed high res files vs the compressed high res is nice, but it's of limited marginal value because I can only stream it to my wifi speakers via chromecast in no more than 16/44.1 I see that Qobuz is working on DNLA, so maybe there's a future solution for high res over wifi, but Qobuz isn't there yet. So for me the choice with be snazzy easier to use interface and uncompressed high res when I'm plugged into my DAC in my listening room but not so much of the music I want to hear for a 25 percent higher price vs much more of the music I want to hear and compressed hi-res when I'm plugged intonmy DAC in my music room. From what I've seen so far Qobuz is not the caliber of service I was hoping it would be. I'd pay the premium price for something better than Tidal.
     
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  24. StateOfTheArt

    StateOfTheArt Beatle Know-it-all Thread Starter

    Location:
    Greenville, SC
    You know you can use an Optical cable with chromecast and it will output 24/96? use that into your DAC = streamer :)
     
  25. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    Getting it wired isn't the problem. When I sit down in my listening room and plug in with USB to a DAC, that's one way I listen and I won't need to use Chromecast. That's the chief way I listen actually. And I'll just plug in, laptop to DAC. But ocassionally I'm looking to stream music from my laptop to some Riva wifi speakers outside on the porch or in my kitchen and living room. I can only do that from qobuz using the chromecast protocol -- I'm not talking about Google hardware. That doesn't support hi res. DNLA would. And I suppose some wifi speaker companies other then Riva have some other hi res arrangement with Qobuz maybe. But for me, I'm stuck with 16/44.1 when I want to wifi stream, and I can get that for 20 percent less a month with a bigger music library. Streaming services to me are for convenience listening and new music listening. So the factors I'm looking for are high quality sound with total convenience, and lots of the new music I'm interested in.

    I should note, I don’t use Roon. I don’t rip CDs or download digital files unless I have to. In listen to my CDs on CD and my LPs on a record player. Streaming services are interesting to me for access to new music and for ease of use when I want to do some more casual listening.
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2019
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