Qobuz vs Airplay

@ghdprentice Your comments about Apple Music are dated by years. I respect you  a lot but on this one your comments are not quite accurate. Off more than a couple of degrees.

I’m not sure I’d discount Apple Music. They do provide hi-res but not wireless to dac for you need a cable such as AudioQuest DragonFly. Apple does not put out inferior products. Steaming companies see that and are incorporating Apple in their products. That being said I’m sticking with Qubuz and Tidal. Just do not want to spend the time and money to analyze differences. If any, differences are not going to be by wide margin. Apple Music has the largest collection of tracks. Steve Jobs went to the record companies and told them about his idea of streaming individual songs. They “strongly” did not like the idea. Jobs being the visionary won out. Yes, he was thinking of portable devices but that was years ago. Apple is not going to let the HIFI industry by pass them. We can thank Jobs for where we are at today in regards to streaming. I’m a hard core Apple fan. Phones, IPads, watch and Mac and of course Apple Music.

@mahler123, look at your Apple iPhone or iPad, whichever one you're using for comparisons. Under settings, there are 3-4 levels of sound quality.. You will see the quality and various data transmission methods - cellular, 5G, WiFi, and hardwired to DAC. Hi-Res Lossless 24-bit/192kHz is not by default. When you did your comparisons, what were your settings?  If you used defaults, you're not alone, including me, in simply turning on the phone and starting to play without checking its settings. 

You can not use AirPlay with Hi-Res files. Apple Music requires a couple of extra steps to access Hi-Res. 

As stated earlier,  I use Qubuz and Tidal for my systems. 

I listen to Tidal in the car with AirPlay. Just have not set up Qubuz yet. 

You know at the end of the day it all sounds good. My baseline is driving in the middle of the California desert with my VW stock radio and enjoying a weak signal of country music. I spend most of my time enjoying the music than being a critical listener. You can call me a lowlife audiophile with this attitude and thats okay. My time on this planet is limited so I gotta spend it wisely. My systems are balanced with vinyl, cd and streaming so comparing is on equal footing. Do compare but not often. As I said before I use you Qubuz, Tidal and Apple Music.

Just a reminder Apple Music needs to be tweaked to get to Hi-Res Lossless 24-bit/192kHz. ApplePlay and Bluetooth will not get you there. Need cabling to DAC

**It’s the bad recordings, poor engineering, gross compression and in the case of vinyl bad pressings that get to me. That I may not tolerate. My system will highlight the bad in seconds. Needs to be a compelling reason to continue.  Like Robert Johnson and older Louis Armstrong recordings.

No one at Qobuz or any of them. Do you mean from the source of the tracks?

Apple Music highest res is 24-bit/192Hz. 

@ericrhodes Yes yes. Run run into...........darkness