Tidal MQA vs Qobuz hi-res

HI guys,

After reading the thread, let me bring in my experience.
1. Streaming is a very hard form of listening to music, for there are many more factors involved than with other traditional ways. I'll not discuss them here, but a more than decent streamer is required. I tried many options and decided for smallgreencomputers.com equipment, not only for cost but above all for they offer much better equipment than many famous brands. I spent a lot of money with such trials, because, as someone said above, we don't find many options to try from local stores. So, even returning equipment add cost because of shipments. 

2. Tidal X Qobuz. I believe that Qobuz sounds better than Tidal (not huge difference, but there is a difference). However, Qobuz has less albums available than Tidal (I'm talking from classical music perspective). So far I'm sticking with Tidal for that reason. Sometimes, even CDs I have in my collection are not available with both of them. Solution I'm thinking: save my unavailable music in an external HD and move to Qobuz for better sound quality.

Enjoy your music!

I don't hear a huge difference between hi-res files on Qobuz and MQA files on Tidal.  I'm of the mind that the original recording process and mastering are more important than if the file is high-res.  I have some hi-res files that sound amazing.  Santana Abraxas dsf files for example.  But then again, if you play a good vinyl copy of Abraxas on a good vinyl rig ... it's also a big "wow!"   

A FLAC file of well recorded, produced, and mastered music is much more enjoyable to me than a hi-res file that is none of those things.  There's a lot of mediocre quality music that's labeled as hi-res that's nothing more than a lipstick wearing pig.

I don't like being forced to buy new equipment to listen to MQA.  I don't care for all the "unfolding" going on and I like that Qobuz is more affordable and caters more to my musical tastes - classic rock, jazz, and electronic. 

All that being said, I have subscriptions to both Qobuz and Tidal as there are sometimes things I'd like to hear that aren't available on Qobuz.  However, I find myself switching over to Tidal much less often than in the past.

I'm going to start using Amazon HD..

I’m brand new to streaming. Just got Tidal and Node2i 4 days ago, and i’m in the "comparing to CDs & LPs" phase. I’m noticing a few things. The albums on Tidal are sometimes EXACTLY the same as the CD. But sometimes they are the same master, but a couple dB louder, and thus more compressed/limited. I have 3 CDs of one album that are 3 different masterings (1985,2001,2009). Tidal has the 2001 & 2009 masters available. The 2001 sounds exactly the same, but Tidal’s version of the 2009 master is about 2 dB louder than the 2009 CD.
As for MQA, it seems like the highs are a bit soft and squishy sounding. I was expecting better sounding transients from MQA, but they sound less exciting instead.
I have heard several 70-80’s rock tracks that are simply crushed. I pull out my old vinyl to A/B with Tidal, and sometimes it’s better, and sometimes it’s worse, but the new versions are always more compressed. MQA isn’t worth a damn to me if the dynamics have been squashed.

rosevarte, smallgreencomputers.com isn't responding for me. typo?