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Qobuz Lossless Streaming Service Thread
Jul 8, 2020 at 8:02 PM Post #1,307 of 2,130
Jul 8, 2020 at 8:59 PM Post #1,309 of 2,130
rkw said:
Tidal recently introduced a $120/year HiFi plan: https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009413257-Best-Buy-FAQ. They even ran a special (now expired) for $100 for the first year. I have both Qobuz and Tidal.
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Cool. I actually like Tidal a lot. Their playlists are pretty good and their Android app (on my DAP) works flawlessly as compared to Qobuz which has lots of issues (with Android - works fine on iOS). The streaming integration into many Audio devices and the Auto-play are really nice touches with Tidal. The reasons why I moved to Qobuz was lower cost and Hi Res streaming without MQA.

The $120 a year though is a killer deal. I may consider coming back to Tidal at some point.
 
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Jul 10, 2020 at 6:07 PM Post #1,310 of 2,130
rkw said:
Tidal recently introduced a $120/year HiFi plan: https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009413257-Best-Buy-FAQ. They even ran a special (now expired) for $100 for the first year. I have both Qobuz and Tidal.
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I saw that and jumped on it (with the extra $20 off even!). Makes Tidal actually a good deal - CD and better for what most people are paying for lossy. Interesting that it's a Best-Buy-only deal.

So anyway, I now have both Tidal and Qobuz. I'm enjoying Tidal's playlists,and while they tend to push hip-hop/urban/pop heavily on the front page, their playlists are surprisingly good in other genres as well. And the personalized ones are much better than what I was getting on Spotify (not to mention Qobuz, who don't offer personalized playlists).

Also, there are subtle differences in the sound quality - Tidal sounds a bit warmer and more analog-like to my ears, while Qobuz tends to be a bit clearer and more analytical.

So at this point, I tend to use Tidal for casual listening and "mainstream" discovery, and Qobuz for more critical listening as well as Classical and World discovery. And I like having both of them because often they have different versions of some albums - different mixes and/or masterings of otherwise identical albums/tracks.

Since at this point I've prepaid for a year of each, I'll have plenty of time to compare over the long haul, and we'll see come next year if I decide to keep both.
 
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Jul 11, 2020 at 12:18 PM Post #1,311 of 2,130
MrNaturalAZ said:
I saw that and jumped on it (with the extra $20 off even!). Makes Tidal actually a good deal - CD and better for what most people are paying for lossy. Interesting that it's a Best-Buy-only deal.

So anyway, I now have both Tidal and Qobuz. I'm enjoying Tidal's playlists,and while they tend to push hip-hop/urban/pop heavily on the front page, they're playlists are surprisingly good in other genres as well. And the personalized ones are much better than what I was getting on Spotify (not to mention Qobuz, who don't offer personalized playlists).

Also, there are subtle differences in the sound quality - Tidal sounds a bit warmer and more analog-like to my ears, while Qobuz tends to be a bit clearer and more analytical.

So at this point, I tend to use Tidal for casual listening and "mainstream" discovery, and Qobuz for more critical listening as well as Classical and World discovery. And I like having both of them because often they have different versions of some albums - different mixes and/or masterings of otherwise identical albums/tracks.

Since at this point I've no prepaid for a year of each, I'll have plenty of time to compare over the long haul, and we'll see come next year if I decide to keep both.
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Agrees with my assessment when I subscribed to both Tidal and Qobuz. Qobuz has been around for years longer than Tidal, so it is surprising that I still have problems with occasional stuttering using Qobuz natively on Windows 10 Pro. No problems at all using Audirvana to stream Qobuz, plus for less than $100 you have the ability to use VST plugins like equalizers. When Qobuz dropped their monthly price I cancelled Tidal and don't miss it. Qobuz has done a lot to fill out their catalog over the past year.
 
Jul 19, 2020 at 9:35 AM Post #1,312 of 2,130
exdmd said:
Qobuz has done a lot to fill out their catalog over the past year.
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I was surprised to find that Qobuz had a couple of smooth jazz tracks that TIDAL didn't have. The Qobuz catalogue is slowly improving.

One thing that Qobuz needs to implement soon is the ability to detect a track that is already in your playlist when you try to add it. With TIDAL you get a warning. Qobuz just lets you add exactly the same track multiple times with no warning. The code change required to check if a track is already in your playlist must be tiny and simple.
 
Jul 19, 2020 at 12:44 PM Post #1,313 of 2,130
Taz777 said:
I was surprised to find that Qobuz had a couple of smooth jazz tracks that TIDAL didn't have. The Qobuz catalogue is slowly improving.

One thing that Qobuz needs to implement soon is the ability to detect a track that is already in your playlist when you try to add it. With TIDAL you get a warning. Qobuz just lets you add exactly the same track multiple times with no warning. The code change required to check if a track is already in your playlist must be tiny and simple.
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+1. I am pretty sure most other services have had this for a very long time. Amazon has their issues but even they warn you if you try to add a duplicate track. Makes me wonder if the developers even used the service or did their homework by testing out the competition before releasing the software.
 
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Aug 21, 2020 at 1:43 PM Post #1,317 of 2,130
clerkpalmer said:
I can't find Qobuz in the Play Store. The link doesn't work. Any ideas? in the US.
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Weird. I just checked and don't see it either. I also checked in the My Apps section of the Play Store since I have it already installed on thia phone and I don't see it there either. Hopefully they are aware of it and fix that soon. The app I have installed seems to work fine. I have been using UAPP instead of the Qobuz Android app these days since I don't need offline playback while I am stuck at home.
 
Aug 21, 2020 at 1:48 PM Post #1,318 of 2,130
TK33 said:
Weird. I just checked and don't see it either. I also checked in the My Apps section of the Play Store since I have it already installed on thia phone and I don't see it there either. Hopefully they are aware of it and fix that soon. The app I have installed seems to work fine. I have been using UAPP instead of the Qobuz Android app these days since I don't need offline playback while I am stuck at home.
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Yeah it works through uapp. Strange.
 
Aug 21, 2020 at 2:13 PM Post #1,319 of 2,130
Interesting. The Qobuz website has a link to the play store, but it's 404.
Apple store link still works.
For a minute I thought maybe Google was taking down all the competition to try to force people into using YouTube Music, but all the others are there. Interestingly, if you search for "Qobuz" the first hit it returns is Tidal, followed by several other music apps, so it certainly recognizes it as a music streaming app. Oh, and as a workaround, BubbleUPnP can play Qobuz, but of course you won't have the native app features. Still, you can play playlists and search for songs and artists.
Screenshot 2020-08-21 at 11.08.18 AM.png

[edit] I just now sent a support request, advising them that the app was missing from Play store, preventing new installations, but that apps already installed still work.
 
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