Qobuz And Tidal vs Spotify

Spotify sounds good. If your sitting and critically listening, play files stored on your hard drive. Even files saved to offline streaming on Qubuz sound better than active streaming
 
Amazon HD will be streaming MCH via Sony 360 and Dolby Atmos, both object based, so pretty intriguing for classical/acoustic VR music lover like myself.
YMMV.
 
I have been using Tidal for a while and recently did a trial of Qobuz. I was actually really surprised of how different they sounded. I can't say which one sound better, it really depends on the song. On Tidal, with both MQA and FLAC, it is a tad more open and brighter. With Qobuz the sound is tighter and with a darker background. It reminded me going from stock power cable to a higher end power solution. The background is darker and the sound fuller easier to hear instruments. Any one else experience this? I tried listening to both on my Lumin T2 and the built-in DAC/streamer of the Vitus RI-101 and had similar results.
 
I have been a Tidal subscriber for a couple years now. I was over to a friend's house today for some listening, he has Tidal as well, uses Roon and just subscribed to Qobuz for a trial. So we spent some time comparing the sound of same tracks on Tidal vs Qobuz. I have read varying opinions so didn't know what to expect.

He has Roon upsample everything to 256 DSD. But his DAC does not decode MQA. So when comparing high res Tidal to Qobuz, Q would have a slight advantage since Roon wouldn't convert a MQA track to DSD.

Botttomline, I was surprised to hear Qobuz was noticeably better on all comparisons on my friend's system. The 44.1k tracks would have been head to head. To my ears Qobuz somehow had more focus and detail. When I say detail, like bass lines better defined, overall like quieter background, because sound just seemed clearer, better focused. I wouldn't say the difference was night & day but it was noticeable to me and so much so I am going to check for a trial to see how it works on my Aurender.
 
I thought Roon being the output source would negate and differences. That you had to open Tidal and Qobuz as native players to hear the difference. The big difference for me when I used Roon was to set the server as the slave and use another computer on the network as the master.

I ditched Roon and now use Qobuz and HQ Player as applications.

I am more curious about Amazon premium player as a new source of material. But I fear its rap, crap and top 40. Kids music.
 
I certainly prefer Qobuz from my devices, however I will jump to Spotify on my iphone from time to time!
 
My friend's system is complex, I' not sure how everything is set, for some reason though there was a detectable difference between Tidal and Qobuz. His music files and probably Roon are on a computer, he has an Aries G2 in the chain. He did have HQ on his computer but I'm not sure how or if he still has it engaged.

Kingrex said:
I thought Roon being the output source would negate and differences. That you had to open Tidal and Qobuz as native players to hear the difference. The big difference for me when I used Roon was to set the server as the slave and use another computer on the network as the master.

I ditched Roon and now use Qobuz and HQ Player as applications.

I am more curious about Amazon premium player as a new source of material. But I fear its rap, crap and top 40. Kids music.
Click to expand...
 
Its been a long time since I spoke Roon. I was not clear. I don't doubt you heard something.
If he has HQ0layet, as I did, HQ is the output that shapes the music. Roon is just a player that handles the files and gives them to HQ Player to be sent to the DAC.

Even configured as such, I heard a notable difference when one computer was the Roon core and the other was the server. I therefore don't doubt the shades of color between Tidal and Qobuz still come through.
 
To my ears and in my system, Qobuz sounds better than Tidal - hands down. I had a full year to compare them.

With the LUMIN T2 to preamp setup (no external DAC), I also discovered that I prefer the sound of TIDAL redbook files upsampled to DSD over the MQA “Masters” versions of the same tracks in just about every case.
 
JCS123 said:
To my ears and in my system, Qobuz sounds better than Tidal - hands down. I had a full year to compare them.
Click to expand...

I agree about Qobuz offering superior SQ.
Interestingly, comparing Tidal to Qobuz (on pre-classical orchestral music) the difference in favour of Qobuz was immediately apparent subjectively.
Maybe it was due to Tidal's mqa remastering, which is lossy?
 
We had Tidal. Then we tried Qobuz. Dumped Tidal and kept Qobuz. There wasn’t any competition on SQ. This was all using our Aurenders (N100H and ACS10).

While everyone’s experience may not be the same, the present rankings seem clear to us:

1. Qobuz
2. Tidal

PS: A friend of ours is trying Primephonic for classical music. No feedback yet ...
 
Dumped Tidal for Qobuz after a month's overlap with the two. Qobuz SQ is slightly better and their UI is way better. I still have AmazonHD as I am mooching a slot an a friend's family plan. :) Haven't done any comparisons yet.
 
Qobuz over Tidal but I still have both for now. Whether one prefers Qobuz or Tidal can easily be the genre of music they listen to most or the balance of their system’

Qobuz is a more laid back presentation that sounds smoother and more analog but can be lackluster compared to Tidal. No wonder as it was geared for Classical and Jazz although offers everything these days.

Tidal can and does sound more dynamic and forward but some will strongly prefer that. I don’t think anyone cares about analog smoothness listening to Rap, Pop, R&B, EDM, or even most Rock, etc.. The extra spark is a benefit.


Between Roon, Tidal, Qobuz native Windows Apps, the difference between Tidal and Qobuz persists but both sound very good. Roon sounds excellent over the RAAT protocol (over the network), less so listening from the USB out the PC than Qobuz/Tidal.

Desktop listening, Audirvana hands down. Easily beats Roon and Tidal/Qobuz desktop apps. Superb SQ for anyone driving a USB dac for headphones but the UPnP protocol for networked devices is not up to Roon RAAT SQ.
 
After using Qobuz and Tidal, i ended up with Qobuz only because it is cheaper and does not require me to have a MQA-capable DAC.

Spotify is the way to go if one wants to share music with others. Also, Spotify makes it easier to discover new music.

For the monthly subscription cost of Tidal, I get to have both Qobuz and Spotify.
 
Personally, I prefer Tidal for the amount of content they have over Qobuz. Sonically, I can't tell a difference.

Best Buy has Tidal deals that are hard to ignore
 
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