Qobuz or Apple Music?

I have an Apple One subscription for it's other benefits, but it gives access to Apple Music.  I subscribe to Qobuz for the last 3 years.  Very happy with the service.  I use the Apple Music sub. when I need some background music or need to find something my daughter want to stream, but isn't available on Qobuz.  It's a real pleasure to stream Qobuz.  Yes it sounds better, but it also let's me buy files at a reasonable price.  Great combination and versatile capabilities.

QoBuz streamed through an Innuos using their Sense app. Gets my highest recommendation.  Only disadvantage with QoBuz is slightly smaller selection, but you might have to go a lifetime to discover it!

As others have pointed out, you can’t get Apple Music on any streaming devices, except maybe the Sonos Port (which is limited to 24/48). In that regard, there are few streaming environments where you can directly compare Apple Lossless and Qobuz. I guess you can stream it from a computer or iPad to your system, but some would argue those methods to be inferior to a dedicated streamer.

I stream Tidal and Qobuz on my home systems, but also have access to Apple Music through my cell phone plan. Through headphones (AQ Nighthawks or Grado 325e and either AQ Dragonfly or iFi DACs) I really cannot discern much of a sound quality difference between all three. But, I admit, I don’t really spend any time doing back-to-back comparisons. I have tried Apple Music via Airplay to my main system. Although Airplay is limited to 16/44, my initial impression is that Airplay didn’t sound as good as my CD player or dedicated streamer. But, again, I haven’t spent a lot of time doing comparisons. I tried it a few times and thought "meh."

That said, I actually like the Apple Music app much better than those of Tidal or Qobuz. I tend to listen to albums versus playlists or individual songs, and Apple does a much better job of categorizing your saved albums.

Don’t mistake iTunes with Apple lossless. The latter is a very good streaming service—on par with Tidal on my system at half the price. But to the question…

In case your system sounds like mine… I A/B tested Apple lossless vs Qobuz for 2 hours last night. I played the same songs on my Audition playlist on both streaming services. 1) Was there a difference? 95% of the time, yes. 2) What were the differences? Qobuz was clearer (very apparent in the bass) and provided a much deeper, expansive, 3-dimensional sound stage. For about the same price, Qobuz was the clear winner. My system is iPad > RME adi 2 > pass labs 250.8 > B & W 803 d3 + 2 Rel s/510s

HTH.

@mlsstl wrote:

Besides sound quality, I really like Qobuz's new music feature which is updated every Friday. You can look at all new music that's been recently released or limit it by genre. I've come across some great finds using this. And, they also have a "best sellers" category along with some nicely curated playlists.  Qobuz is great for exploring new music.

I agree; I have made this a weekly Friday ritual to check out all the new releases, add the most interesting ones as favorites and then spend the weekend getting introduced to new music and artists I've not heard before, some of whom I add to my favorites as well.

Likewise with The Weekly Q compilation, which has introduced me to quite a few new favorite albums and artists.

Qobuz is the best for me, with by far the best sound quality I've ever heard from a streaming service, and once they get their version of "spotify-connect" technology rolled out, they will be even better and easier to use!

This post was typed while listening to Volume 6 of An Anthology of Chinese Traditional and Folk Music: A Collection of Music Played on the Guqin.  This one happens to be "only" 44.1/16 resolution, but it's very well recorded in most cases.

https://open.qobuz.com/album/m468wxzw2pbvb

Quite a stretch from my old classic rock and indie rock origins, but a vast and eclectic service like Qobuz exposes me to so much diverse music, it's really mind-blowing in the best way!

Do we have an option for dedicated reference Network Streamer supporting Apple Music out there !? R those two streaming services even comparable!? I use both. Qobuz for main system and Apple Music for mobile listening. I would give up Apple Music, but kids and my wife got used to it and want to keep it. 

Paradym shift.

 When I first got a steamer which sounded as good as my other sources I typically did what I have done for the last fifty years… searched my memory for an album on the streaming service and play it. Ocationally it was not there… but often there were more albums by the same artist.

Over a relatively short time I switched from listening to the music I had already purchased (I own 4,000 albums)… to exploring new music.

Streaming has hundreds of times more music than I own or know about. Now I explore mostly… albums in the back of Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, recommended on Audiogon, Qobuz recommendations… new music added. I’ll check them out… new releases (many new high Rez releases of older jazz and classical as well as new new of every category. Occationally there will be an album I own that is not there… so what? (to me) I move on, if I listen to a dozen new albums a day I will still die long before catching up.

So, to me, with a different medium comes a whole different paradigm. Most of my life I was forced to listen to the same stuff over and over because purchase was the only way to fill my life with the music I like. My on-line library… must be 8K albums and growing daily. I probably listen to an old favorite of mine once a week.

Bummer. Thanks for the follow-up just the same, @andrake.

Soundiiz followup. It doesn't do Amazon but for playlists. Not songs, albums or artists to anywhere else. Too bad.....

I use Qobuz but I've noticed lately that if I'm looking for more songs from a particular artist, Qobuz will have a few but Spotify has a lot more than they do usually. I've also noticed that when I like something on radio streaming and I look for it on Qobuz, it might not be there but on Spotify it will usually be there. In my opinion, Spotify has a better setup on the start page also. I haven't tried Apple music or Amazon so can't say about them. Qobuz does sound good though and I'm not recommended one over the other but just saying what I have noticed.

Thanks Cleeds. At least it says it will do it. I'll give it a try.

I have Amazon but wanted to try Qobuz. Because I have about 5000 tunes in my Amazon database, I was looking for a way to transfer most if lucky to Qobuz. Neither Qobuz or I could find a way to do so. If anyone has a way to do so, I'd love to switch.

This is a recurring question with the usual answers. Qobuz got me off Tidal for good (hated MQA and other features). Still have an enormous Apple Music library of less challenging recordings which I can also play via Qobuz for SQ comparison. 

@treynolds155 I am unaware of any method to stream 192/24 wirelessly from your Apple device into a DAC. Tether your iDevice or Mac to your DAC via USB for sure, but not possible without a wired connection. Happy to be corrected.

I stream Tidal and Qobuz through Roon on a dedicated Mac Mini —> USB —> MSB DAC —> Whammerdyne SET amp —> Spatial X5 speakers. With this setup Tidal and Qobuz are VERY close, but I decided to consolidate my library to Qobuz. Wouldn’t you know, about 15% of my library was available on Tidal only. So for yucks I checked Apple music, which is part of my Apple One subscription, and voila - all of the albums missing from Qobuz were available on Apple. So now my project is to compare Qobuz vs Apple Music lossless/hi res. If Apple has all of the music I want and the SQ is comparable to Qobuz, I can ditch Roon, Tidal and Qobuz and save several hundred $$ a year.

I agree with everyone.  Tidal,  Qubuz,  radio paradise.  They all sound great. 

Bluesound probably has the best user friendly app. Can be used with NAD devices as well. .

I find that tidal has the best ability to create and discover new music. They also do videos which are great. 

@m_j_s Curious, how is it not convenient? That should be handled seamlessly between your streamer and dac...no?

It’s certainly not convenient to get the 24/192 lossless into your amp though.

Now that Apple Music is doing 24/192 lossless, it’s much much better.  Having said that, I’ll have to give Qobuz another try.

Different day, same results, most prefer Qobuz. I will repeat that Q on $12.99  plan sounds flat to me, no depth. Tidal on $9.99 plan has so much more depth, not even close. Also a little wider soundstage. So I had both and dumped Q. Can't talk of their upper plans since I am limited to streaming on android via wifi setting. So whatever works best in your application is my answer. You can get nearly free trials with both.

Tidal allows my family to enjoy music even though are not audiophiles. I am still in battle of Qobuz and why I cannot get hires without skipping or pauses.

I love Qobuz...  started streaming with Tidal... after a few months I dropped them in favor of Qobuz.   Sounds great , good interface 

My girlfriend has Apple Music, it's not bad but I've never listened to it on my system.  Only in our cars.    I am not a big fan of Apple to begin with so.....

Had Tidal initially, some years ago now, then Qobuz, after some difficulty subscribing in Australia. Have also tried Apple Music, Highresaudio, Spotify and Amazon, but dropped them all. Tidal not quite as good as Qobuz quality wise. Apple doesn’t have the same high definition capability without tethered USB, Qobuz very reliable and great quality, very good range of albums now. Qobuz for me.

Started with Tidal and very happy with my switch to Qobuz. I'm even starting to see 24/192 recordings pop up. I also think Qobuz has a slight sound quality advantage.

And not to sound like a snob, but Qobuz feels like I'm at the adult table compared to Tidal who seems more geared towards rap and explicit music, perhaps that's changed.

Either way I'd go with Qobuz or Tidal for now, pretty much every streamer will support them. You can use Soundiiz to transfer your favorites between the two. 

Neither.

Dumped Tidal for Qobuz and never looked back!

That's not close.  Q quality blows Apple away.  That said, in the past I used Apple but currently stream Qobuz premium, Tidal premium and Amazon HD in a head to head to head comparison.  Have to agree that generally Qobuz is best but sometimes Tidal rises up.  

I usually use Itunes, but after all these comments would like to try Qobuz. 

Completely agree with all the pro-Qobuz comments.

Neither! I prefer tidal because of the SQ and what's available.

F.A.M.

Besides sound quality, I really like Qobuz's new music feature which is updated every Friday. You can look at all new music that's been recently released or limit it by genre. I've come across some great finds using this. And, they also have a "best sellers" category along with some nicely curated playlists.  Qobuz is great for exploring new music.

Even standard 16/44.1 standard rez Qobuz files sound better than hi-rez Amazon Music files.

Qobuz hands down. It has what is commonly regarded as the best sound and over 1/2 million high resolution albums (Tidal: HR 50K albums as of a few months ago). 
 

‘’There are only two generally accepted contenders: Qobuz and Tidal. I had Tidal for a year… sorry I did not switch sooner.

I use Qobuz and Tidal. I had used Itunes (Apple) to organize my music for a very long time in the distant past but found it frustrating. I don’t think I could explore Apple music for this reason. Music streaming is done with Bluesound Node and Bluesound Vault. I like the Bluesound user interface and the apps/software they use and their partnerships. I also like Tidal MQA files.

Qobuz, currently the best streaming experience. The differences in SQ are much more pronounced in a high resolution system.