STREAMING - QOBUZ VS TIDAL AND ROON'S PREFERENCES

Amen anza!

Arriving at a verdict is simple. Try Tidal and Qobuz on your system and compare. Both have free trials. there’s no need for others opinions, like mine, which is that Qobuz works better on my system. Enjoy comparing and then listening!

I have been using Tidal HiFi ($19.99 plan) for years now and recently got a new 2 channel system and wanted to try something different because I wasn't blown away by the sound with Tidal.  I now have a Prima Luna Evo 400 integrated amp and GoldenEar Triton One.R speakers.  My source is a Bluesound Node streaming over WiFi and then through Music Fidelity MX-DAC (lovely sounding and affordable btw).  I have always been suspicious of MQA because I could never hear a difference with it on or off and don't understand the unfolding process.  I am blown away by the difference Qobuz makes ($12.99 plan).  The soundstage opened up and the mid-bass and bass is much stronger.  I had to dial back the subwoofer sections of my tower speakers because the bottom end was so much stronger.  I think the sound is more balanced now and it sounds stunning.  As far as the interface I think they both leave something to be desired.  I would love to see more options for sorting songs within favorites and playlists.  Also I found that all of my music library was licensed to stream with Qobuz when many songs no longer were with Tidal.  

My 2 cents.  Thanks, James. 

Until around 2 months ago I was using a modded Node N130 as a Roon endpoint, streaming Qobuz and Tidal. I moved to an Innuos Zen Mini Mkiii, tried that as a Roon Core - it seemed hellbent on downsampling almost everything I played (my DAC is capable if 24/192).

I took my Zen out of Roon Core mode, and tried Sense - all I'll say is I cancelled my Roon subscription pretty quickly. I also cancelled Tidal; I was never really interested in MQA, and for me, Tidal just sounds a little flatter than Qobuz, comparing the same tracks from each platform

Been playing with Spotify and Qobuz. SQ on Qobuz is better, but one of the things I enjoy most about streaming is putting in the name of a favorite artist and listening through a playlist of similar artists, many that I’ve never heard of. A great way to discover new music. For example, on Spotify I’ll put in Jacky Terrason, then select Jacky Terrason Radio. I get a great playlist of similar style jazz. That’s how I discovered Hiromi and Snorre Kirk.

Is it possible to do something similar on Qobuz? I’m not interested in playlists all from the same artist. Rather from lots of artists of similar type.