I have been a long time Tidal user. I’ve had my membership since 2016 and I’ve kept it mainly because I use a Sonnet Pasithia dac and it has the ability to decode and render MQA content. I figured, no brainer it’s a match made in heaven. Roon does the same, however, every time I do a comparison between the two, I really can’t tell the difference
Last week I received a free month trial for Qobuz. Feeling inquisitive I took advantage of it. I stream through Roon and added the free trial so I could compare, For the first five days I poked around to see how the user interface compares, and it always felt very basic, which I suppose isn’t a bad thing. At least the UI seems strait forward. admittedly, I do need more time with it to give it a fair assessment. For those of you not familiar with Roon, if you navigate to an album, there will be an image of the album cover. Looking at my current playlist page shows the image of Jethro Tull’s Original Masters playing Locomotive Breath 44.1k 16 bit. Below that, there is a synopsis, about the album and band. To the right of that there’s basic track info, length of time, type, rating, release date and format. If the format showed as MQA, then you knew you were streaming Tidal. Below that there is an icon for album version, tag it and all versions of the album appear below center screen. Tidal is the first listing, displaying MQA 44.1k 16bit. play this version and it sounds pretty good. Soundstage is wide and fairly deep. Everything has space and is well placed. The bass is tight and fast, yet plays fairly deep. Switching over to Qobuz and the first thing I noticed was the base was deeper, even faster. It has a lightness but, goes deeper and has more harmonics to it. Sounds more like a real base guitar in the room.
The next thing that came apparent, was the presentation became smoother. Not that it was mellow or rolled off, it’s more that I can play it louder on Qobuz, it sounds cleaner more, refined. Since I can play it louder the music sounds more dense, while not taking away detail. I’m getting more micro detail on Q, instruments have more texture and their notes hang in the air longer. I also compared Mark Knopfler Darling Pretty from Golden Hart 2021 remastered: Tidal MQA 44.1k, 16 vs Qobuz 2021 remastered 44.1k, 16 bit... Same conclusion. Then I listened to Seeker by Hiromi from her Alive album, Same comparison, same outcome. The Tidal version sounded pretty good, but the Qobuz version made me feel like I was at the club. The music had a more, you are there feel to it. Even if the UI doesn’t turn out to be as good, the difference in SQ definitely makes up for it. I’m randomly streaming music via Q and I haven’t been disappointed yet. From what I’m hearing on my system, I’m definitely making the switch. Besides, Roon pretty much handles the UI anyway.
