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Tidal vs Quobuz

Yes I realize the Qobuz is misspelled in the title but I can’t figure out how to update it.  Relax.  
I’ve been a die hard advocate of MqA and Tidal for the last few years. All of my source, preamp, and dac purchased had the prerequisite that they must be MqA compatible. Today, I tried Qobuz for the first time and I’m blown away by the selection of 24bit 96khz files compared to Tidal.
Here’s an example: Was very excited that the band Tool FINALLY added their collection to streaming services. All of the albums on Tidal are CD quality. So I was going to purchase them in higher fidelity on HD Tracks, but learned that Qobuz had them at the highest fidelity. Couldn’t believe it. Same with many other artists/albums I love.

Now is there an improvement in sound quality? No not really. Is the Qobux UX any better? No, in fact it’s slower. But do I get the best quality content for the same price? Yes. Will I subscribe to both? Yes.
System:

Lumin D2 -> Parasound P6 -> Elac Navis ARF 51’s. Fully balanced set up (Nordost) with AQ power cables.
helloitsben

Showing 3 responses by lalitk

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,785 posts
 
Dumped Tidal a year ago....for me Qobuz catalog and SQ easily trumps Tidal. You can keep both for now but once you get used to Qobuz high quality streaming you will drop Tidal at some point :-)
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,785 posts
 
@dwhess,

You have a very nice system. Your N803 receiver is very capable of letting you discern the uptick in SQ between Spotify and Tidal / Deezer. I would encourage you to do trial run with Tidal or Deezer and see if you hear appreciable uptick in SQ. Spotify being the oldest platform has a very vast library so you may give up on some content by choosing Tidal or Deezer.

Personally if my system is this good, I would choose streaming quality over content. There is a appreciable difference in streaming quality as Spotify max out at 320 kbps vs Tidal / Deezer at 1,411 kbps bit rate.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,785 posts
 
@geargrinder,

Great post! @audioguy85 reminds me of people that typically resist change. They are perfectly happy with spinning their collection of media over and over instead of exploring new music. They take pride in being ‘collector’ of the physical media. We can educate all we can but we know how they are programmed :-) They feel no need to stream music with thousands of records and hundreds of cd’s to choose from all in the same room within their reach.

Ever since I started streaming, I must have saved thousands of dollars by being very selective in my media purchases. I still buy LP’s and SACD’s that are truly collectible but by being selective it’s much more manageable and equally enjoyable. The streaming quality is now jaw-dropping great and often makes me wonder why buy LP’s or CD’s anymore :-)
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