No clear winner. As tvad said, get a trial of each and decide for yourself. I’ll leave the whole MQA argument to the others.
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My short and sweet description (or opinion if you wish) of Tidal vs Qobuz rests on a couple of things. Tidal seems to be focused on a younger audience. Think hip-hop, pop, rap, etc. It's owned by Jay-Z. Qobuz seems to appeal to a more mature (OK older) audience, with an emphasis on classical, jazz, classic rock, etc. Their catalogs overlap a lot, although I think Tidal has an overall larger selection. Tidal uses MQA for "hi-res" files, which requires special software AND hardware to do the full "unfold" of the file (this they MQA capable DACs). Qobuz on the other hand simply provides a lot of high resolution files (mostly 24/96 to 24/192) that play through any DAC capable of playing hi-res files, which most can. I keep Tidal because sometimes there are things that I want to listen to that aren't available on Qobuz, but that seems to happen less and less. If I was forced to only keep one, it would be Qobuz for sure. |
Just finishing a month on Amazon HD for free. Not crazy about the interface but some very good sounding stuff. I'm a prime member so it would be $13/month if I subscribe. That said, I'm ending the trial and will be trying Qobuz next. Both of these reviews taught me something: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzSjm7FsWbM www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka7-iJSL4B8 |
When I finally pulled the trigger and got a DAC/Streamer set-up (complete with MQA), I simultaneously purchased trial memberships with both Tidal and Qobuz. I figured I'd ditch the service I didn't like as much. Qobuz not only gave me better signal quality, they offered more classical. It was actually kind of humorous when I let Tidal know they lost the competition. I think they cut off my service within 30 seconds. Bam! BTW, being a classical lover I also subscribe to Primephonic. Their service is a hair less idiot-proof than Qobuz (I'm totally ham-handed with anything tech), but their signal quality comes within inches of Qobuz, and their selection of classical music is the proverbial trip to heaven. |