Qobuz.

I’m in the Qobuz beta now. Observations so far:

- I *love* Hi-Res audio enough to probably stick with Qobuz over Tidal, despite:

-The lack of an Apple TV app
-Many many missing albums, not just in hi-res, but missing completely, by smaller indie artists I like. Have a lot of this on CD though, so maybe not too big a deal.
-Cannot even get the Desktop app to mount.

The bass on the hi-res files tickles my eardrums - this is listening with standard issue apple earbuds and an iPhone. I go back to CD-quality and it sounds weak. I am so happy that artists/labels have gone and produced hi-res versions of songs and albums. Some I have enjoyed so far are Neil Young (of course, but I also subscribe to his NeilYoungArchive), Wilco, Marshmello w/Bastille, the 1975, Grateful Dead.

bye bye $14-25 high resolution downloads from HDTracks

I plan to switch from Tidal to Qobuz soon (I don't understand why anyone prefers MQA over true hi-rez). If I sign up for the top tier Qobuz service, what is the typical price range if I want to buy an album?

Here’s an honest review from someone with an MQA DAC.  I’m currently using an Aurender A10 (which I purchased in order to stream MQA tidal files).  I would like to believe that I have decent equipment that could showcase the potential differences (McIntosh preamp, 601 monoblocks, and Amati Futura speakers).  I’ve been A/B’ing the Tidal MQA files against the comparable Hi-Res files and will say that they are very close to identical for me.  Here’s what it boils down to:

Tidal - $5 cheaper/month, even though MQA is lossy - it sounds identical (to me) to the uncompressed Hi-res files from Qobuz.  The downside is that you have to have an MQA DAC to get the full potential from MQA.  

Qobuz - The biggest plus for Qobuz is that you do NOT need a specific DAC to recognize the potential of Hi-Res and It sounds ohhhh so sweet! Did I mention that they have Springsteen in Hi-Res?  I’ve been quite impressed with their Hi-Res catalog. 

If you have an MQA DAC, you will be just fine with Tidal.  If not, I would recommend Qobuz.  When all is said and done I will probably stay with  Qobuz due to the fact that I prefer their Hi-Res catalog and like the fact that I can purchase the music from them as well.

Just started my trial today.  Compared to the last time I perused Tidal, there seems to be a lot more Classical available, not to mention better organized 

beetlemania I just clicked on a random album in the Quobuz store Mini Mansions.....A Guy Walks Into a Bar and the CD version $12.99 hi-rez $14.99 but hi-rez with the sublime streaming package $7.49. Quite a nice savings! The Sublime Tier is $299.99 per year. It's basically the same monthly rate at the Studio tier $24.99/month but you pay upfront.