[GoldenSound]

These flac tracks on Tidal, are they actually original masters or just transcoded MQA. I'd guess it would be hard to source original masters so quickly considering that all their high res was MQA.

There's still some which is MQA but they are going through and swapping them back.

A large chunk of stuff has already been restored to lossless

 

[Erick Muller]

There's still some which is MQA but they are going through and swapping them back.

A large chunk of stuff has already been restored to lossless

I have a question that's semi-related to MQA and lossless but this is on Roon.

I have noticed recently when I'm playing music through Roon that's been sourced from Tidal, regardless if on tidal it's a flac or mqa file that's been streamed, on Roon it says on the audio chain that is playing back an MQA file, are you aware if Roon is doing anything about this issue given that you're also a Roon user?

 

[GoldenSound]

I have a question that's semi-related to MQA and lossless but this is on Roon.

I have noticed recently when I'm playing music through Roon that's been sourced from Tidal, regardless if on tidal it's a flac or mqa file that's been streamed, on Roon it says on the audio chain that is playing back an MQA file, are you aware if Roon is doing anything about this issue given that you're also a Roon user?

This is unfortunately Tidal's doing.
For any track where a MQA copy was available, there was no way to stream lossless. Choosing hi-fi (or if you didn't have the MQA tier subscription) just resulted in it streaming an MQA file but with some flagging removed so most DACs won't recognise it as MQA, however Roon would often still detect it https://goldensound.audio/2021/11/29/tidal-hifi-is-not-lossless/

This is changing now and Tidal is restoring lossless content but it'll take a while for all of it to finish. Also Tidal only very recently finally updated some stuff on their backend which would allow Roon to use the new MAX stuff, so hopefully that gets sorted soon (roon is taking a bit of a while to get that sorted)

 

[Erick Muller]

This is unfortunately Tidal's doing.
For any track where a MQA copy was available, there was no way to stream lossless. Choosing hi-fi (or if you didn't have the MQA tier subscription) just resulted in it streaming an MQA file but with some flagging removed so most DACs won't recognise it as MQA, however Roon would often still detect it https://goldensound.audio/2021/11/29/tidal-hifi-is-not-lossless/

This is changing now and Tidal is restoring lossless content but it'll take a while for all of it to finish. Also Tidal only very recently finally updated some stuff on their backend which would allow Roon to use the new MAX stuff, so hopefully that gets sorted soon (roon is taking a bit of a while to get that sorted)

Thx Mr. Golden!

 

[osdu]

I concur Qobuz sounds softer and certainly sounds more pleasant (than Tidal) across all of my 3 setups at home. First I thought this could be because it’s lower fidelity due to dynamic range stretching/revealing more “imperfections” - less dynamic range can often sound more pleasing, but I hesitate there because I could also hear longer note decay and timbre in the Qobuz streams. I personally only listen via upnp renderers so compare Qobuz and tidal using the same software, (mconnect) but even in my AirPods Pros from native iOS apps, Qobuz sounds warmer and less edgy than tidal. I have to say that Qobuz is truly better.

 

[osdu]

This is unfortunately Tidal's doing.
For any track where a MQA copy was available, there was no way to stream lossless. Choosing hi-fi (or if you didn't have the MQA tier subscription) just resulted in it streaming an MQA file but with some flagging removed so most DACs won't recognise it as MQA, however Roon would often still detect it https://goldensound.audio/2021/11/29/tidal-hifi-is-not-lossless/

This is changing now and Tidal is restoring lossless content but it'll take a while for all of it to finish. Also Tidal only very recently finally updated some stuff on their backend which would allow Roon to use the new MAX stuff, so hopefully that gets sorted soon (roon is taking a bit of a while to get that sorted)

Goldensound, can you explain why so many of us here prefer the sound of Qobuz to tidal? I find it’s the same story even listening to their new flac files in mconnect and their respective native iOS apps. Also my second question is why’d you let them off the hook after exposing them on your original channel?

I refer to a more recent video you made where you decided to recommend tidal over Qobuz and I’m a bit disappointed because their flac files sound equally worse - possibly worse because at least mqa had some sort of apodising filter to take the edge off…

You recommended tidal based on the assumption that their songs are flac now, but it’s February 2024 and I still see their site littered with mqa, but that’s not my point actually. I am a bit annoyed that I just resubscribed to them and can hear that tidal flac files sound worse than Qobuz flac files. Let’s not get into the bits are bits stuff that lowfi owners will sing and dance in their class d echo chambers and accuse me of golden ears, because after reading a bunch of other posts here we know there is more to this than file format and which app we’re using. I also think it’s not the master recording…

 

[GoldenSound]

Goldensound, can you explain why so many of us here prefer the sound of Qobuz to tidal?

Could be a few things.

1) Firstly ensure that you're using a bitperfect output on both. It's not enabled by default in Tidal and you have to click 'more settings' to see that toggle.

2) Volume normalization may be on, Tidal enables it by default. This will cause Tidal to attenuate many tracks according to replaygain info, and as a result if a track is say 1-2dB quieter on tidal, people will perceive this as inferior in most cases.
If both the above are sorted though, then both services are providing absolutely identical data to your DAC in most cases (some tracks have watermarking or other mastering differences but most are the same on both services) and so the answer would likely just be placebo.

Also my second question is why’d you let them off the hook after exposing them on your original channel?

Two reasons:

1) My issue was never directly with Tidal themselves, but MQA. The video exposed many false claims and misleading aspects in regards to MQA, but for all I know Tidal themselves were also swindled and didn't actually know about these problems at first.

2) Manufacturers/Service Providers improving their products in response to community feedback (or backlash) is a good thing.
When I call out problems in a review, the best thing that could happen would be for the manufacturer to fix them. That's what Tidal has done, sure it's taken a while but they're moving away from MQA, restoring lossless content, adding hires content, as I see it they're making drastic improvements to their product. If a manufacturer who previously made great products starts going downhill I'll call that out, but if a manufacturer improves their products and becomes a viable or excellent option I'll flag that too.

(Aside from certain more serious ethical concerns of course, there ARE some companies I will never endorse regardless of how good their products may be)

 

[Flognuts]

No difference.
Possibly different variations of the master but same quality.
I prefer Tidal cause its UI is better.

 

[bixby]

Leaving MQA out of the convo, Qobuz sounded better to me via PC apps and mobile Android than Tidal. However, some glitches with Qobuz in operation were noticed vs Tidal. And when it comes to breadth of the artists and tracks, Tidal came out quite a bit ahead.

What did I hear? Qobuz was a bit more open sounding and gave the feel of being more resolving. This was all with tracks and albums that were lossless and not any higher res formats. I did use Tidal with Roon when I trialed Roon , twice. I still prefer JRiver with Win for my owned ripped library. Roon was a bit less transparent, still good but certainly not worth the insane amount of money they want. FYI, I am not a person who reads all the cool stuff Roon has on a screen while listening to music, nor do I find their discovery any better than Tidal for example. Both are hit and miss at times.

Today, I use Tidal , simply because of the larger library and the family plan and only on mobile. Jriver with my library is quite a bit better sounding. Hope that helps.

 

[boodi]

Besides a better sound quality ( on the mouth of many people not just me and a couple more.. ) , also, I find Qobuz selection for new releases , artist descriptions and magazines more curated, often interesting , grounded clear and more tasteful then the "Pop" Tidal design and mood..
different audience targets likely..

Also, Qobuz seems to aim at more hi/end hifi builder collaborations.

 

[peterinvan]

Besides a better sound quality ( on the mouth of many people not just me and a couple more.. ) , also, I find Qobuz selection for new releases , artist descriptions and magazines more curated, often interesting , grounded clear and more tasteful then the "Pop" Tidal design and mood..
different audience targets likely..

Also, Qobuz seems to aim at more hi/end hifi builder collaborations.

I have spent several years curating my Tidal playlists. At this stage, Suggested New Albums match my preferences quite well.

With the latest Tidal upgrade (Win 11), Norton reported that Tidal was asking to open my camera. I blocked that in my Windows settings. Anyone know what is going on???

 

[spittis]

I have spent several years curating my Tidal playlists. At this stage, Suggested New Albums match my preferences quite well.

With the latest Tidal upgrade (Win 11), Norton reported that Tidal was asking to open my camera. I blocked that in my Windows settings. Anyone know what is going on???

It's nothing new, and shouldn't affect your user experience if you just block it: https://www.reddit.com/r/TIdaL/comments/ln6mc7/security_concern_tidal_is_trying_to_access_your/

It is strange that they still haven't fixed it though, since it does raise privacy concerns and apparently for no reason.

 

[peterinvan]

I got a prompt response from Tidal Support:

Luis Trigueros (TIDAL) Feb 3, 2024, 2:18 PM EST Hi Peter, Thank you for contacting TIDAL Support. We appreciate that you are letting us know about this situation. Regarding the inquiry about the camera, TIDAL requests "media" access to be able to control the output device so you can set "Exclusive Mode" but it does not connect to the camera on the app. Regarding the what you mention about the TIDAL stopping, can you please try the next steps? Log out and log in. Clear Cache: Click on "Help" in the menu while TIDAL is open. Click on "Troubleshooting." Click on "Clear Cache." Reset app data: Click on "Help" in the menu while TIDAL is open. Click on "Troubleshooting." Click on "Reset app data." Uninstall and reinstall.**

 

[KUROKOCCHL]

In my opinion, there has been little difference in sound quality between tidal and qobuz, besides qobuz being slightly louder at the same volume level. Tidal has the far superior UI/Library but the lower cost of Qobuz makes tidal not worth it for me sadly

 

[goodvibes]

I can listen to actual masters of what's on both platforms on some top (costly) home kit to compare and Qobuz is easily the better representation. Try doing one of their downloads (to wav.) and comparing it to the live stream sometime. It may have you rethink what 'bit perfect' actually means. Real time decoding etc has an effect. Of course, this will be relative to quality of the playback chain.