Qobuz vs Tidal

@ronboco 

 Roon manages all my music albums/files/library under one roof, including Tidal, Qobuz, and all my ripped CDs.  When I choose a particular album to play, I can also look to see a list of all the "versions" of that album that are available to choose from, which will  include all of the above.  My Roon default is Tidal, which means, until I change that, every time I add an album to my library, it is automatically added as a Tidal album.  All I had to do to convert all my Tidal albums to Qobuz was to simply: choose an album, go down the list of "versions" options,  choose the Qobuz version as my  primary album, and it will automatically replace the Tidal version in my library.  I can switch back and forth anytime I please.  I hope this helps.  Happy listening      

Thank you everyone for all your insightful responses to this post.  I knew from the outset that this post would be somewhat controversial.   However, in my room, played back through my audio system, to my ears, I can hear a noticeable difference in the sound characteristics between Tidal and Qobuz.  Both Tidal and Qobuz both sound fabulous.  And I can perfectly understand how a person could prefer one over the other, both equally, or go back and forth between the two.  Still, to my ears, it's as if the two streaming services seem to have their own signature sounds (similar but slightly different).  I can very easily tell the difference between the two in my room.  To my ears, and to my own personal preference, Qobuz seems to have a quieter, blacker, background than Tidal, allowing for a deeper and a more dimensional soundstage, and greater separation of the instruments within the soundstage.  That's why I hear a slightly more refined stream presentation coming from Qobuz over Tidal.   I've noticed this difference across the board on every album I play.  I'm just lovin it!!!.   Happy listening.                   

@mgrif104 

I've been using the magnificent Room Nucleus Plus in my audio system for about four years now, and I get superb detail and transparency.  I know, there's always something better.  However, the Roon Nucleus Plus won me over for it's combination of superb sound quality, and it's simply phenomenal user interface.  Happy listening.        

@mgrif104

Thank you. My Roon Nucleus Plus has been replaced by a newer model. I don’t know how much more improved the new model is over the old one. I’m sure they’ve further refined the interface to a certain degree. I know the new model offers more features than the old one. Nonetheless, I so enjoy the Nucleus Plus, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.   Also, I’ll continue using Tidal, as it offers a larger catalog of music in it’s library than Qobuz.  I just feel that when it comes to audiophile caliber music streaming, Qobuz is the ultimate.  All in all, I haven’t been this thrilled with, or had this much fun with my high end audio listening experience in over 30 years in the hobby. Happy listening.

@kerrbh

Although my preference between the two would be Qobuz, as I believe it more consistently digs just a little bit deeper into the music than Tidal does, I still use and thoroughly enjoy Tidal when a particular album isn’t available on Qobuz. Also, I’ve never done a bling listening test, as I do about 95% of my music listening with my eyes open, which I prefer to do when evaluating and comparing. But I get where you’re coming from. Happy listening.

@stray_cat 

Same here!!!  Although I had both Qobuz and Tidal, most all my Roon album library collection was Tidal, because I assumed they both sounded too similar to make that much of a difference.  Until one day I decided to really take time out to compare one against the other.  That's when I realized way most all high end audio show exhibitors, reviewers, and audiophiles prefer the sound quality to Qobuz over Tidal.  I've  converted all my Roon albums to Qobuz.  With Tidal, I always got that eerie feeling when listing to music that something was missing from the music.  But that all went away once I switched to Qobuz.  I stream my music exclusively, so my new found discovery of Qobuz is like a musical dream come true.  Happy listening.