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STREAMING - QOBUZ VS TIDAL AND ROON'S PREFERENCES

I am 100% digital using Roon.  I play from my extensive hard drive, Qobuz and Tidal.  I love to find new music using Roon Radio or Roon suggestions.  Here is my issue:  I generally find Qobuz to sound better on my system.  I do not have final unfold of MQA on my Tambaqui DAC; yet ROON always defaults to a Tidal version.

So I will search 'versions' and select the highest resolution of a Qobuz version.

Can Roon be set to default to Qobuz vs defaulting to a Tidal version?

Do others agree that Qobuz sounds better?

fastfreight

Showing 4 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,435 posts
 

Yes, Qobuz sounds better and had about 500,000 high resolution albums a few months ago, while Tidal had only around 50,000.

 

My dealer recommended I switch from Tidal to Qobuz for nearly a year before I tried Qobuz… the comparison was over in a day. Only Qobuz now.

 

ghdprentice
6,435 posts
 

@moonwatcher

I have made direct comparisons between red book CD, the same Qobuz recording, files located locally… exact same sound quality… however Qobuz is frequently better because the have 1/2 million high Rez albums. My DAC is my CD player… and my preamp allows volume leveling between sources.

 

Having said that… the streamer and DAC make the biggest difference in the sound you get. My system is very good, so I can hear subtitle differences in sources. But of course if you are not changing your equipment, tyou are going to get the best sound from Qobuz.

ghdprentice
6,435 posts
 

@moonwatcher 

 

😊👍

ghdprentice
6,435 posts
 

I have had Tidal and Qobuz… with streamers that unfolded MQA and not. To me what this revealed was that the quality of the streamer is of the highest importance. When you have a true audiophile streamer it will produce sound quality equal or better than red book CD and analog… MQA can sound good, red book can sound good… higher resolution and analog can sound good or great. 
 

There is a point with really great equipment that it all sounds pretty great… then one versus the other is splitting the difference between really really good and really good.

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