Comparing Qobuz and Tidal, what are your experiences?

**Kuoppis** · May 23, 2021, 06:22 AM

Some time ago I found out that I somehow like the sound of the Qobuz streaming service. So, I decided to switch from Tidal to Qobuz after nearly a decade with the former.

A couple of other things also suit my preferences with the Qobuz business model. One thing was that there are genuine high-res versions of lots of albums I listen to. Another thing is that with a Sublime annual subscription I have the option to buy DL versions of albums at a reduced price. This is indeed what I regularly do if I particularly like something.

So, for some time I ran both services in parallel, but then recently decided to discontinue using Tidal altogether. Doing this I transferred my library from Tidal to Qobuz, and also culled albums I had put in the library but never come back to. There were a couple of interesting things I found out:

1) Not all material is equally available on both services. Switching from Tidal to Qobuz there were 5-10 albums out of >6K I did not find on the latter. I bought (or already had) CDs or DL versions of those. But I presume it would have been the same the other way around.

2) I also found that there is significantly more true high-res material on Qobuz than Tidal
- a lots of classic jazz albums are available in 192K in Qobuz, while the pendant in Tidal is only 44.1K
- in terms of high-res, often the Tidal version is 44.1/16 MQA, while in Qobuz there is at least a 44.1/24 version available, or even an 88K, 96K or 192K alternative
- if there is a ‘high-res’ version in Tidal, it typically is a MQA variant of what’s available in FLAC from Qobuz, e.g. MQA 96K vs. 96K FLAC
- I also noticed that a significant amount of albums I have added in Tidal over the years were downgraded to AAC - I have never personally added any AAC album to my library

Any similar observations by others?

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**wklie** · May 23, 2021, 06:43 AM

2c. Tidal only has MQA for Hi-Res. It does not offer non-MQA Hi-Res.
2d. If you still have a Tidal subscription, try seaching for the album name again and re-add it.

**Kuoppis** · May 23, 2021, 06:50 AM

Originally Posted by wklie

2c. Tidal only has MQA for Hi-Res. It does not offer non-MQA Hi-Res.
2d. If you still have a Tidal subscription, try seaching for the album name again and re-add it.

Yes, that’s what I figured, i.e. Tidal only does MQA files for hi-res. Not the regular FLAC hi-res format.

I did indeed not re-search for the same files in Tidal when replacing them with Qobuz files. It is possible that there might be other Tidal versions as well. I just found it interesting that versions in my library had changed after adding them.

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**nicoff** · May 23, 2021, 09:42 AM

I went through a Tidal to Qobuz switch about a year ago.
I used Soundiiz to transfer from one to the other. My experience in terms of number of albums that transferred properly was not as good as yours. I ended up adding many albums manually.

In the past week and in anticipation of Spotify starting to provide CD quality albums, I have transferred my Qobuz library to Spotify. In this case, there were a lot of albums (almost all classical) that did not transfer automatically. I was able to add them manually though.

One lesson that I learned: if you are a Roon user, playlists created within Roon cannot be automatically transferred outside of Roon. Therefore, you are better off creating your playlists within your preferred music service (Qobuz or Tidal if a Roon user) and access those playlists using Roon. I personally decided to make Spotify my go-to service to create all my playlists. That’s because I believe that Spotify will be around for a very long time but I cannot be certain of how Qobuz will fare now that the big players will be offering CD-quality music.

**chops** · May 23, 2021, 11:25 AM

I've been with Tidal ever since it became available, up unit a month ago when I finally had enough of their BS and ditched them. They force their MQA garbage on you no matter what. Even their new "non-MQA" tier STILL has MQA in it, just down-sampled. So as usual, they are lying to you left and right like they always have been.

I have also been with Qobuz ever since they became available. After getting Qobuz and comparing it directly to Tidal, it was crystal clear that Qobuz sounds better than Tidal. Better sound in all aspects, but especially in the upper registers, where Qobuz is ultra clean and refined sounding, Tidal has an etched, gritty top end by comparison. And these results have been confirmed on several different systems as well as my headphone rig.

Not to mention Qobuz is less expensive that Tidal.

Do yourself a favor and forget about Tidal and their forceful BS and go with Qobuz. Heck, you're better off with even Amazon, Apple and/or Spotify when they come out with lossless than wasting money on Tidal.

**gadawg** · May 23, 2021, 11:29 AM

Since I don't have an MQA DAC and no intentions of buying one soon I am Qobuz all the way.

George

**Kuoppis** · May 23, 2021, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by nicoff

I went through a Tidal to Qobuz switch about a year ago.
I used Soundiiz to transfer from one to the other. My experience in terms of number of albums that transferred properly was not as good as yours. I ended up adding many albums manually.

In the past week and in anticipation of Spotify starting to provide CD quality albums, I have transferred my Qobuz library to Spotify. In this case, there were a lot of albums (almost all classical) that did not transfer automatically. I was able to add them manually though.

One lesson that I learned: if you are a Roon user, playlists created within Roon cannot be automatically transferred outside of Roon. Therefore, you are better off creating your playlists within your preferred music service (Qobuz or Tidal if a Roon user) and access those playlists using Roon. I personally decided to make Spotify my go-to service to create all my playlists. That’s because I believe that Spotify will be around for a very long time but I cannot be certain of how Qobuz will fare now that the big players will be offering CD-quality music.

I’m happy to stay with one of smaller guys to begin with, as there already is too much consolidation in the industry. Also, Qobuz has a very nice high-res offering.

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**Kuoppis** · May 23, 2021, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by chops

I've been with Tidal ever since it became available, up unit a month ago when I finally had enough of their BS and ditched them. They force their MQA garbage on you no matter what. Even their new "non-MQA" tier STILL has MQA in it, just down-sampled. So as usual, they are lying to you left and right like they always have been.

I have also been with Qobuz ever since they became available. After getting Qobuz and comparing it directly to Tidal, it was crystal clear that Qobuz sounds better than Tidal. Better sound in all aspects, but especially in the upper registers, where Qobuz is ultra clean and refined sounding, Tidal has an etched, gritty top end by comparison. And these results have been confirmed on several different systems as well as my headphone rig.

Not to mention Qobuz is less expensive that Tidal.

Do yourself a favor and forget about Tidal and their forceful BS and go with Qobuz. Heck, you're better off with even Amazon, Apple and/or Spotify when they come out with lossless than wasting money on Tidal.

While I do not have very strong views about the topic, I agree that Qobuz high frequencies sound nicer.

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**Kuoppis** · May 23, 2021, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by gadawg

Since I don't have an MQA DAC and no intentions of buying one soon I am Qobuz all the way.

George

I do have an MQA capable DAC, but I switched nevertheless

Comparing Qobuz and Tidal, what are your experiences?

.

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**nicoff** · May 23, 2021, 12:09 PM

Originally Posted by Kuoppis

I’m happy to stay with one of smaller guys to begin with, as there already is too much consolidation in the industry. Also, Qobuz has a very nice high-res offering.

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For now, I am keeping both Qobuz and Spotify.
I use Roon so I want a music service that works well with Roon and for that is Qobuz.
I use Spotify to explore new music and to share music with friends. For sharing music, nothing beats Spotify IMO.

**Alpinist** · May 23, 2021, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by Kuoppis

I do have an MQA capable DAC, but I switched nevertheless

.

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I also do and I’m considering doing the same.

Ken

**MPW** · May 23, 2021, 12:18 PM

I have both Qobuz and Tidal, but I’m not sure why anymore. I almost always listen to Qobuz. Only thing holding me back is Tidal’s library is a bit more extensive and I occasionally run into music that is not in Qobuz’s library.

**Kuoppis** · May 23, 2021, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by MPW

I have both Qobuz and Tidal, but I’m not sure why anymore. I almost always listen to Qobuz. Only thing holding me back is Tidal’s library is a bit more extensive and I occasionally run into music that is not in Qobuz’s library.

Similar observation. Have heard though, that Qobuz classical catalogue is more extensive.

But I’m pretty much a rock, pop, jazz guy, so that does not help much

.

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**chops** · May 23, 2021, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by Kuoppis

Similar observation. Have heard though, that Qobuz classical catalogue is more extensive.

But I’m pretty much a rock, pop, jazz guy, so that does not help much

.

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Qobuz's jazz catalogue is also more robust from what I have seen. One of the nicest things about Qobuz, it ISN"T plagued with rap and hip-hop every week like Tidal.

**Hear Here** · May 23, 2021, 01:57 PM

Sound-wise, I found little difference but I prefer the genuine hi-res that Qobuz offers over Tidal's MQA offering and of course MQA is only available if you have compatible equipment.

I preferfed Tidal's Search results in that "Albums" are genuine albums whereas Qobuz will offer single or 2 track recordings as albums - which they clearly aren't!

There's one artist I really like who has 2 or 3 albums on Tidal but nothing on Qobuz - Ruelle. A Qobuz search offers 4 results of single tracks where Ruelle features, but none of her albums are found.

I switched to Qobuz when they reduced their sub!

Peter

**chops** · May 23, 2021, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by Hear Here

and of course MQA is only available if you have compatible equipment.

Peter

MQA is not "only available" if you have compatible equipment. That's only true for the full unfold. Whether or not you want it or like it, just about everything on Tidal is MQA encoded, which means that everything you listen to is MQA. Granted, without supporting gear, you only get the first unfold of MQA, but you're STILL listening to MQA material regardless.

This has been proven already to hold true for their new Hifi Plus which is supposed to be completely MQA free, which it's not. All they are doing is down-sampling the MQA material, but it's STILL MQA.

**nicoff** · May 23, 2021, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by chops

Qobuz's jazz catalogue is also more robust from what I have seen. One of the nicest things about Qobuz, it ISN"T plagued with rap and hip-hop every week like Tidal.

Tidal is no longer owned by Jay-Z. Investment bankers are the new owners of Tidal. But I expect that the new owners will continue to market to the young folks. That’s where the money is and that means rap and hip-hop. Money talks.

**eziggy** · May 24, 2021, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by nicoff

Tidal is no longer owned by Jay-Z. Investment bankers are the new owners of Tidal. But I expect that the new owners will continue to market to the young folks. That’s where the money is and that means rap and hip-hop. Money talks.

I totally missed this. Looks like Jack Dorsey / Square bought majority ownership in Tidal. JayZ seems to be running it still along with other Square initiatives. Tidal has really been struggling financially. Apple going lossless isn't going to help them much for new users, though Tidal has some well regarded curating content. Seems like there is some synergy since Tidal roots are in hip hop and Square's Cash is heavily using hip hop influencers to drive growth.

Interestingly enough I was listening to both Tidal and Qobuz on my Mac via AirPod Pros (just for a quick listen to block out distractions) and I could hear a pretty big difference. Qobuz is more refined, blacker background, fuller and crisp. Possibly related to having no dedicated hardware MQA decode involved, though I hear similar with my 2ch system with native MQA support. I was surprised it was so easy to hear with the AirPods (at least for me). If I was to find a comparison, it's like adding in a high end power distributor and cables to a system with a noisy power line. Brightness disappears and the instruments/vocals pop out of blacker background. I can see how some people may like Tidal since it does give a bigger sense of sound stage.

**Mr Peabody** · May 24, 2021, 12:09 PM

I need to try Qobuz, I am just a procrastinator. And, I have heard others mention Qobuz lacks some in Rock and other areas of the library that I'd listen to.

I am surprised you found AAC from Tidal, I thought everything was FLAC, any way those tracks may have been converted by your system? AAC is an Apple thing, seems odd Tidal would have that encoded.

What does Qobuz do to make you aware of new releases or help with finding new music?

Tidal shows a hand full of new releases and makes playlists. However, my playlists nd up being mostly stuff I've played or in my favorites and Tidal's new releases seem to be biased, even Jazzz and World music have releases that are Hip Hop influenced. Also, it seems there should be way more new releases in a week than what Tidal shows. Maybe there's a fee for that.

**eziggy** · May 24, 2021, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

I need to try Qobuz, I am just a procrastinator. And, I have heard others mention Qobuz lacks some in Rock and other areas of the library that I'd listen to.

I am surprised you found AAC from Tidal, I thought everything was FLAC, any way those tracks may have been converted by your system? AAC is an Apple thing, seems odd Tidal would have that encoded.

What does Qobuz do to make you aware of new releases or help with finding new music?

Tidal shows a hand full of new releases and makes playlists. However, my playlists nd up being mostly stuff I've played or in my favorites and Tidal's new releases seem to be biased, even Jazzz and World music have releases that are Hip Hop influenced. Also, it seems there should be way more new releases in a week than what Tidal shows. Maybe there's a fee for that.

The source is still FLAC, not AAC, though MQA is where they have they have their Master quality.

To be honest, I am still figure out the newer Qobuz interface. I took a break from Qobuz and recently came back to it and things seem to have changed a bit. They have full view based on new releases and you can filter based on genre.

**wklie** · May 24, 2021, 12:31 PM

I believe AAC in post #19 refers to the AAC in post #1. It is generally better than MP3 at the same bitrate. A form of AAC is actually used in digital TV broadcast in some countries. Its use is not restricted to Apple. (Unlike ALAC, I do not see a good reason to use it outside Apple ecosystem.)

AAC is indeed available from Tidal under one of the following conditions:
1. You (accidentally) got a lossy (Premium) instead of the lossless (HiFi) subscription from Tidal. I have seen this a few times. I blame this on marketing. "Premium" actually means "worst".
2. You set Tidal quality to something below HiFi
3. The album you chose is really not available in lossless quality. However, Tidal often has duplicate versions of the same album. You should try them all, to reiterate my point 2d in post #2.

**Kuoppis** · May 24, 2021, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by wklie

I believe AAC in post #19 refers to the AAC in post #1. It is generally better than MP3 at the same bitrate. A form of AAC is actually used in digital TV broadcast in some countries. Its use is not restricted to Apple. (Unlike ALAC, I do not see a good reason to use it outside Apple ecosystem.)

AAC is indeed available from Tidal under one of the following conditions:
1. You (accidentally) got a lossy (Premium) instead of the lossless (HiFi) subscription from Tidal. I have seen this a few times. I blame this on marketing. "Premium" actually means "worst".
2. You set Tidal quality to something below HiFi
3. The album you chose is really not available in lossless quality. However, Tidal often has duplicate versions of the same album. You should try them all, to reiterate my point 2d in post #2.

Peter, I do not any issue with Tidal per se, just happened to switch to Qobuz because I like it better.

What I find interesting though:
- I never added any AAC albums into my catalogue
- I have always had a Hifi subscription, never anything else
- when making the switch, I noticed that some albums I had added as FLAC afterwards were changed to AAC

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**eziggy** · May 24, 2021, 01:11 PM

Thanks Peter, missed that part of the first post. Now that it is has been mentioned, I did notice it on a few AAC and low resolution tracks on Tidal a while ago but didn't think much of it at the time.

Kuoppis, I have noticed most of what you have mentioned. I find Qobuz just has the benefits you mentioned over Tidal, I will most likely do the same by phasing out Tidal at some point myself.

On a side note, I am not sure if people have noticed, but running Tidal on AppleTV has been a hit or miss (mostly miss). One of the biggest issues I have is when I open up the app to play music for my kids, the first thing you see are album and music video thumbnails that are NOT kid friendly. Our kids are still too young to realize, but I have to eventually phase out that app as well.

**wklie** · May 25, 2021, 12:40 AM

I'm not surprised that a previously added album had the quality changed by the service. Regional license restrictions change all the time. Anything can happen.

Many people found albums disappearing (can happen on any streaming service), so you may consider to purchase albums really important to you, even if you have a streaming subscription. That's the point of Sublime+.

**Jim Smith** · May 25, 2021, 06:47 AM

Would I replace David Solomon's musical & audio tastes for those of anyone at Tidal?

Not likely...

I know he's not the top man in charge of Qobuz, but he makes a hugely favorable impact with/on Qobuz.

IMO...

**eziggy** · May 26, 2021, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

What does Qobuz do to make you aware of new releases or help with finding new music?

I don't see a way to get recommendations on Qobuz's own app. Also their genres miss categories completely. For example, I like listening to almost all types of music. One genre that is missing completely is techno/dance DJ's like Armin Van Buuren and others. You click on new releases, filter by electronic/dance, yet hit only shows electronic. Search for his name, click on Artist, and you see albums release days ago.

Does anyone know if Qobuz offers "Recommended" albums/playlists? I tried an old account I had a while ago. I recall going through the old process of picking the genres I liked and had created numerous playlists with liked songs, yet it shows the same new albums/playlists as a brand new account.

**Hear Here** · May 26, 2021, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by eziggy

I don't see a way to get recommendations on Qobuz's own app. Also their genres miss categories completely. For example, I like listening to almost all types of music. One genre that is missing completely is techno/dance DJ's like Armin Van Buuren and others. You click on new releases, filter by electronic/dance, yet hit only shows electronic. Search for his name, click on Artist, and you see albums release days ago.

Does anyone know if Qobuz offers "Recommended" albums/playlists? I tried an old account I had a while ago. I recall going through the old process of picking the genres I liked and had created numerous playlists with liked songs, yet it shows the same new albums/playlists as a brand new account.

This is a capture of part of the Qobuz home screen when chosen through the BluOS app

I've not found much use for these options - I tend to add favourite Artists and Albums to their Favourites folders, or I use Search to find what I want. Sadly I've not yet found an equivalent of Roon's feature where a few of your own chosen tracks can be followed by their choice of what they think you may like based on your own list. This would be useful.

**nicoff** · May 26, 2021, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by Hear Here

This is a capture of part of the Qobuz home screen when chosen through the BluOS app

I've not found much use for these options - I tend to add favourite Artists and Albums to their Favourites folders, or I use Search to find what I want. Sadly I've not yet found an equivalent of Roon's feature where a few of your own chosen tracks can be followed by their choice of what they think you may like based on your own list. This would be useful.

Are you saying that if playing music in Roon from your local library (as opposed to your Qobuz library) you only get recommendations from your local library?

**Hear Here** · May 27, 2021, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by nicoff

Are you saying that if playing music in Roon from your local library (as opposed to your Qobuz library) you only get recommendations from your local library?

No. I thought my description was clear. The screenshot shows (in response to ezzigy's post) what is offered by Qobuz if you use the BluOS app (Bluesound / NAD) instead of Qobuz's own app. Recommendations and New Releases are listed, which is what he was asking about.

I used Roon only for a couple of weeks, but found it over-complicated. I did like (as I mentioned) its ability to offer a continuation of one's own playlist with other tracks it thinks you may like. Sometimes this was good, but on a couple of occasions, the Roon choice included many tracks with offensive language despite my own choices being innocuous. Peter

**TheOctopus** · May 27, 2021, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by Kuoppis

Some time ago I found out that I somehow like the sound of the Qobuz streaming service. So, I decided to switch from Tidal to Qobuz after nearly a decade with the former.

A couple of other things also suit my preferences with the Qobuz business model. One thing was that there are genuine high-res versions of lots of albums I listen to. Another thing is that with a Sublime annual subscription I have the option to buy DL versions of albums at a reduced price. This is indeed what I regularly do if I particularly like something.

So, for some time I ran both services in parallel, but then recently decided to discontinue using Tidal altogether. Doing this I transferred my library from Tidal to Qobuz, and also culled albums I had put in the library but never come back to. There were a couple of interesting things I found out:

1) Not all material is equally available on both services. Switching from Tidal to Qobuz there were 5-10 albums out of >6K I did not find on the latter. I bought (or already had) CDs or DL versions of those. But I presume it would have been the same the other way around.

2) I also found that there is significantly more true high-res material on Qobuz than Tidal
- a lots of classic jazz albums are available in 192K in Qobuz, while the pendant in Tidal is only 44.1K
- in terms of high-res, often the Tidal version is 44.1/16 MQA, while in Qobuz there is at least a 44.1/24 version available, or even an 88K, 96K or 192K alternative
- if there is a ‘high-res’ version in Tidal, it typically is a MQA variant of what’s available in FLAC from Qobuz, e.g. MQA 96K vs. 96K FLAC
- I also noticed that a significant amount of albums I have added in Tidal over the years were downgraded to AAC - I have never personally added any AAC album to my library

Any similar observations by others?

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In one word..... "Agreed"

I ran Tidal for some years and then added Qobuz as it became available to us. No more Tidal for me...

**TIPP** · May 28, 2021, 01:34 PM

I can't stand MQA which is proven to be a joke. However, Qobuz just isn't there yet with the selection of some of the local bands I follow. Whether it's Florida bands near me or out of state so I stay with Tidal. I'm really hoping that Qobuz improves then I'll bail on Tidal. Although, the Tidal discount from Best Buy is appealing.

Thread: Comparing Qobuz and Tidal, what are your experiences?