[TubeStack]

Amazon HD lost me when I realized you can't depend on the stream being Ultra HD and it depends on unknown "network conditions."

Also, they list albums as Ultra HD, even when only one song is at that quality. Many albums are a blend of HD and UHD and often the song I wanted was only HD.

Soundwise, I found it fine when it was working (UHD), but overall I prefer the Tidal sound; whatever colorization Tidal is doing, I like.

I was excited about Amazon HD, but will stick with Tidal and gladly pay more.

Listening with an M11P and AT MSR7b.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I hate scamazon generally and never use them for anything. I have Tidal and I think it's pretty good but there are annoying gaps, many times albums don't have all the songs. I was on Deezer for a while and the sound quality was surprisingly good and they had a lot of stuff missing on Tidal. But their desktop app was a nightmare and their idiot developers couldn't fix it for months so I cancelled. Qobuz is not available here... wondering what other options there are. Spotify is good but without a hifi service I'm not going to pay for it.

 

[snapandslide]

I hate scamazon generally and never use them for anything. I have Tidal and I think it's pretty good but there are annoying gaps, many times albums don't have all the songs. I was on Deezer for a while and the sound quality was surprisingly good and they had a lot of stuff missing on Tidal. But their desktop app was a nightmare and their idiot developers couldn't fix it for months so I cancelled. Qobuz is not available here... wondering what other options there are. Spotify is good but without a hifi service I'm not going to pay for it.

What genres are you normally listening to?

 

[Sellaro]

I hate scamazon generally and never use them for anything. I have Tidal and I think it's pretty good but there are annoying gaps, many times albums don't have all the songs. I was on Deezer for a while and the sound quality was surprisingly good and they had a lot of stuff missing on Tidal. But their desktop app was a nightmare and their idiot developers couldn't fix it for months so I cancelled. Qobuz is not available here... wondering what other options there are. Spotify is good but without a hifi service I'm not going to pay for it.

I am an old Spotify user. There is nothing wrong with the service, except that even at the highest quality option, the sound is still not as good as it could be. I really like the data analysis they do, their suggested playlist (Discover Weekly and Release Radar are particularly interesting and I have discovered *a lot* of good stuff from those lists).

I am trying Qobuz and Tidal now. Qobuz seems to have a better sound, at least to my preferences. Although Tidal is not too different in terms of overall quality, I like Qobuz better. What I miss in both services is the possibility of exploring and discovering new/old music based on my listening profile. Apparently, Tidal has a better performance in terms of suggesting related albums/artists. Qobuz seems to be quite behind on that front.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

What genres are you normally listening to?

Jazz and classic rock mostly. Some small amount of stuff all over the spectrum after that.

I am an old Spotify user. There is nothing wrong with the service, except that even at the highest quality option, the sound is still not as good as it could be. I really like the data analysis they do, their suggested playlist (Discover Weekly and Release Radar are particularly interesting and I have discovered *a lot* of good stuff from those lists).

I am trying Qobuz and Tidal now. Qobuz seems to have a better sound, at least to my preferences. Although Tidal is not too different in terms of overall quality, I like Qobuz better. What I miss in both services is the possibility of exploring and discovering new/old music based on my listening profile. Apparently, Tidal has a better performance in terms of suggesting related albums/artists. Qobuz seems to be quite behind on that front.

I know finding new music is something that's important to a lot of people and from what I read Spotify usually wins on this. I don't use that feature at all to be honest I wish I could turn it off because having all their "suggestions" take over my view is not helpful or interesting to me. I want the best sound quality and best catalog for the music I know. I rarely listen to anything new and if I am interested in something new to me it's almost always from an artist or group I already know rather than something totally new.

BTW I do think an MQA DAC helps get the most out of Tidal but I listened to the desktop app decode of MQA the last few weeks while testing something else and I have to admit it sounds pretty good.

 

[Digeeedad]

Using a Beyerdynamic 1990 Pro headphone, a JDS Labs El AMP II and Atom headphone amp, I listened pretty extensively to Amazon Music HD, Qobuz (with its own player and through Audirvana) and Tidal HiFi / Audirvana. For available library, 1. Amazon Music HD, 2. Tidal HiFi, 3. Qobuz. Just randomly searching for sometimes lesser know albums from 60's through the present, I was more likely to find what I was looking for on Amazon Music HD, with the most "missing" selections with Qobuz. I found Tidal to have a library just a bit behind Amazon Music HD. Comparative sound quality for me was 1. Qobuz/Audirvana, 2. Amazon Music HD and 3. Tidal HiFi/Audirvana. Truthfully the differences in audio quality were not profound, when choosing and playing songs with the same audio specifications. Qobuz/Audirvana, although difficult to describe is, for me, a bit better in audio quality consistently. Player interface/use 1. Amazon Music, 2.Qobuz/Audirvana and Tidal/Audirvana tied. Tidal HiFi was my first cancellation, being the most expensive and having a heavy emphasis on music genres I have little interest in. Currently listening the most to Amazon Music HD, which is not available on the Audirvana player, but Qobuz and Tidal both are. Actually currently liking the Amazon Music HD player more than Audirvana. I'm leaning towards cancelling my Qobuz subscription, as it has more missing albums and costs a bit more monthly than Amazon Music HD. I have to chuckle occasionally, when comparing costs for subscriptions for these 3. I haven't purchased an actual CD for a couple of years but for the cost of one CD, with any of these programs, I can listen to many dozens of albums per month. Beginning streaming has definitely renewed my interest and excitement for music and music equipment. Have to admit that I quite often do feel more than a little guilty, taking advantage of the music streaming world, as it definitely must have resulted in a major loss in earnings for the artists. I guess for the more popular performers, the money is now in concert revenue but COVID-19 has pretty much ground that to a complete halt.

 

[Digeeedad]

I've spent almost a month now, trying to decide between subscriptions to Amazon Music HD or Qobuz streamed through Audirvana. I really should make a decision as to which one to keep because paying for both seems pretty silly. That acknowledged, to me there seems to be a noticeable audio quality difference between them. Amazon Music HD sounds terrific and it's user interface is MUCH better than the often frusting Qobuz/Audirvana. To my ears, Qobuz/Audirvans has a consistently more pleasing audio quality.... slightly better bass response/punch and overall a slight but noticeable "aliveness" and more open/floating/bigger soundstage. Pretty tired comparing the two and more than a little embarrassed admitting that I have spent hours doing so. No doubt whatsoever that Amazon Music HD is much easier and fun to use and has a larger music library, including more 'Ultra HD" offerings. Has anyone else compared Amazon Music HD and Qobuz/Audirvana before making a choice between the two? Your findings? Certainly NOT an expert but do wonder how one service could consistently have a noticeable sound quality advantage. I realize it just comes down to my personal choice but would really appreciate any replies as to your comparative experiences and choice. Thanks!

 

[Digeeedad]

Sorry about the accidental repeat postings...

 

[Bernard23]

The issue with Amazon HD is it cannot be configured to run in exclusive mode, so Windows stack does its upsmapling trick, so you'll hear all of the system sounds over the music. That's a million miles from bit perfect streaming, so for that reason alone I'm throwing it out of the window. Your options are Qobuz, which has a native Wasapi driver to run in exclusive mode setting in the app, or use Tidal streamed through Audirvana. It's not surprising that you're getting inconsistent results between streaming services, it's because your OS is screwing the stream up prior to presenting it to the DAC. It's easy to check, go change the shared output settings in your sound menu to 24/96 and then try playing a "standard" HD track, it won't even if you have the exclusive use boxes ticked!. If A-HD could be configured to run in exclusive mode it would simply stream to your DAC whatever res the tack is (assuming your external DAC has the bit / rate capability of course, but even the cheapest ones will handle 24/96)

 

[Bernard23]

My mistake, you can change the settings in Tidal, I've just found it, but you need to avoid the default output mode, choose either communications or the device and it gives to the advanced options.

 

[Digeeedad]

My mistake, you can change the settings in Tidal, I've just found it, but you need to avoid the default output mode, choose either communications or the device and it gives to the advanced options.

Thanks for the replies Bernard23! Much appreciated.

 

[hAbIrAbI]

I have a question. When you guys compare sound quality do you do volume matching?

Without music matching gain differences in the services can already make a difference in how appealing the music sounds.

 

[CalvinandHobbes2020]

I have a question. When you guys compare sound quality do you do volume matching?

Without music matching gain differences in the services can already make a difference in how appealing the music sounds.

Yes, definitely. Matching volume is a given for me.

 

[TubeStack]

If you're mainly interested in Ultra HD, Amazon sucks. They list a lot of albums as UHD that only have one song at that level.

I just gave it another try, after deciding against it, but the first UHD album I selected only had 2 UHD tracks. It happens to me constantly, not worth it.

 

[CalvinandHobbes2020]

If you're mainly interested in Ultra HD, Amazon sucks. They list a lot of albums as UHD that only have one song at that level.

I just gave it another try, after deciding against it, but the first UHD album I selected only had 2 UHD tracks. It happens to me constantly, not worth it.

Wow, that sounds almost like false advertising or bait-and-switch. That's another reason to support the smaller streaming music providers with more passion for providing a top quality product instead of a main focus on maximizing revenue.