[Daffie]

No I don't think it's your imagination.

Unless you and myself are imagining the same thing.

Now I have a decision to make... Tidal for the bigger catalogue, specially in the EDM genre. Or Qobuz for the nicer sound quality... Decisions, decisions...

 

[Wheel Hoss]

I have had both Tidal and Qobuz at the same time and Qobuz wins the SQ contest IMO.
I prefer Qobuz CD quality to Tidal.

Also Tidals MQA "high rez" sounds identical to me to their regular 16 bit flac. Only using their ?Win 10 app to "unfold"

Qobuz high rez sound the real deal and is worth the $25 a month IF they can improve the US music library.

So at this point I am a former Tidal subscriber

Qobuz works great on my Android 9 phone, I can download real high rez for playbook off line.
CD quality for T-mobiles network streaming seems to be the practical limit, but highrez streaming works great on fast home wifi.

New story

https://www.cnet.com/news/streaming...potify-and-tidal-with-an-audio-quality-focus/

I hear a difference in MQA vs regular Hi-Fi

Some people saying I’m just hearing different mastering. But to my ears I always prefer MQA. For example MQA version of Traveling Wilburies has unreal dynamics through my desktop setup

 

[the finisher]

I hear a difference in MQA vs regular Hi-Fi

Some people saying I’m just hearing different mastering. But to my ears I always prefer MQA. For example MQA version of Traveling Wilburies has unreal dynamics through my desktop setup

I appreciate your experience, and I tried but I just couldn't hear a difference.

Keeping in mind my preferred source is a CD player too Yggy.

no I don't have any special decoding in my gear other than what the computer can do.

However hi-rez flac files on my computer indicate that Qobuz hi-rez is superior.
And also the CD streaming is closer to my CD player as transport through the same chain

You have to keep in mind when I make such statements this is my own personal experience.

And yours is as valid as mine.

 

[Daffie]

Just to be clear here, when I said Tidal sounded more boomy, more heavy on the ears compared to Qobuz I was talking about the Hi-Fi (CD 16/44.1) quality ONLY. So I'm not comparing Tidal's MQA and Qobuz Hi-Res because this is different anyway.

 

[Hippocamp]

When I was testing the two side by side, I ran a rapid switch test -- One desktop streaming player outputting to USB and the other to SPDIF, level matched. Did this for a variety of FLAC (Qobuz) and MQA (Tidal) tracks equated for sample rate up to 192/24.

I couldn't hear any difference (which doesn't mean there isn't a difference, but it made no difference to me)

 

[Wheel Hoss]

I only hear the difference when running through my Focusrite DAC/Amp. I don’t know how complex the decoding is with my Clarett, but I know Focusrite (and Rupert Neeve) have a great reputation in the A-D D-A department. So that could be a factor.

For example, I listened to “Whiskey and You” by Chris Stapleton for comparison. Song is beautifully recorded slow fingerpicking, and the guitar sounded fuller with Tidal MQA vs Spotify highest settings. Was like the difference in running my Sundaras through my phone or through my amp.

Tested with many other songs and the results were similar. But obviously this is NOT scientific data!

 

[the finisher]

Well theoretically I would hope even a lossy high res MQA stream would beat a 320kb mp3 stream.

 

[Daffie]

Well theoretically I would hope even a lossy high res MQA stream would beat a 320kb mp3 stream.

Spotify highest setting is 320 ogg Vorbis, not mp3.

 

[the finisher]

Ok, but like MQA it's not truly a lossless format from my short time reading about it.

I'm sorry my benchmarks are actual CDs/SACDs and flac both CD quality and high resolution.

I only use Qobuz anymore for streaming.

I really don't consider anything else, sorry.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/5/15168340/lossless-audio-music-compression-test-spotify-hi-fi-tidal

https://linustechtips.com/main/topi...-aka-is-spotify-premium-andor-hi-fi-worth-it/

I'll most likely be staying out of this thread as it no longer applies to me.

 

[Daffie]

Ok, but like MQA it's not truly a lossless format from my short time reading about it.

I'm sorry my benchmarks are actual CDs/SACDs and flac both CD quality and high resolution.

I only use Qobuz anymore for streaming.

I really don't consider anything else, sorry.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/5/15168340/lossless-audio-music-compression-test-spotify-hi-fi-tidal

https://linustechtips.com/main/topi...-aka-is-spotify-premium-andor-hi-fi-worth-it/

I'll most likely be staying out of this thread as it no longer applies to me.

Interesting links. Will take some of the blind tests. Yesterday I was comparing sound quality of highest premium Spotify setting with Qobuz CD quality. I used a good headphone (Sennheiser HD 595) but could not really hear a difference. Will do some more testing using your links.

 

[the finisher]

Interesting links. Will take some of the blind tests. Yesterday I was comparing sound quality of highest premium Spotify setting with Qobuz CD quality. I used a good headphone (Sennheiser HD 595) but could not really hear a difference. Will do some more testing using your links.

Yes I would definitely do testing personally on this.

For sure don't let anyone tell you what sounds good or what is supposed to sound good.

I believe you should do this yourself and come to your own conclusions.

You will save money this way and that money can be used to expand your hobby with either more music or or gear or...

Have fun, see you around

 

[JM1979]

I’m hoping that Qobuz becoming available in the US pushes Tidal to finally make MQA available over iOS. It’s crazy that Nugs.Net’s app has mqa on iOS but tidal does not. I thought MQA on iOS might be a hardware issue but clearly that’s not the case.

Or, hopefully Qobuz beefs up their high res catalogue very quickly in order to take some of Tidal’s market share.

I’ll probably start the free Qobuz trial soon to test SQ but the catalogue in its current form would prohibit me from paying for a subscription.

 

[Gibson59]

I’m a long time Tidal user as it was immediately apparent to me the sound quality improvements over Spotify and Apple Music... even just using HiFi.

A few days ago I signed up for the Quboz month-long trial to compare it with Tidal. I’ve been spending time comparing Tidal HiFi to the CD quality Quboz tracks and I also compared Tidal MQA to Quboz Hi-Res.

While tidal HiFi doesn’t sound bad at all, to me Quboz CD quality takes the trophy and rather easily. To me it had more resolution, instruments sound more natural, and the sound is more neutral/balanced which I like. It’s sounds more “Reference” to me. I agree with some posters that said Tidal sounds boomy in comparison. Maybe rather than boomy is just sounds like it has a bit more low mids and bass emphasis and overall a warmer, fuller sound. Kind of like when I listen to LCD headphones (admittedly I’m not a fan of their sound). This actually might be nice with some genres like hip-hop and some jazz tracks, but overall it’s not what I’m going for.

The competition was a bit more even to me when I compared Tidal MQA to Quboz Hi-Res. I’d say overall the character differences I already highlighted between the sound for each provider we’re similar. However Tidal sounded less boomy and clearly had more resolution and realistic instruments than it's HiFi counterpart. For Quboz Hi-Res everything I liked about it was just increased and that’s a very good thing to my ears. I’m definitely a fan.

I’ll be streaming both for a while since Tidal has a bigger library. But if an album or track is on both I’ll be choosing Quboz for now on. I hope Quboz continues to rapidly grow their library!

 

[Daffie]

I’m a long time Tidal user as it was immediately apparent to me the sound quality improvements over Spotify and Apple Music... even just using HiFi.

A few days ago I signed up for the Quboz month-long trial to compare it with Tidal. I’ve been spending time comparing Tidal HiFi to the CD quality Quboz tracks and I also compared Tidal MQA to Quboz Hi-Res.

While tidal HiFi doesn’t sound bad at all, to me Quboz CD quality takes the trophy and rather easily. To me it had more resolution, instruments sound more natural, and the sound is more neutral/balanced which I like. It’s sounds more “Reference” to me. I agree with some posters that said Tidal sounds boomy in comparison. Maybe rather than boomy is just sounds like it has a bit more low mids and bass emphasis and overall a warmer, fuller sound. Kind of like when I listen to LCD headphones (admittedly I’m not a fan of their sound). This actually might be nice with some genres like hip-hop and some jazz tracks, but overall it’s not what I’m going for.

The competition was a bit more even to me when I compared Tidal MQA to Quboz Hi-Res. I’d say overall the character differences I already highlighted between the sound for each provider we’re similar. However Tidal sounded less boomy and clearly had more resolution and realistic instruments than it's HiFi counterpart. For Quboz Hi-Res everything I liked about it was just increased and that’s a very good thing to my ears. I’m definitely a fan.

I’ll be streaming both for a while since Tidal has a bigger library. But if an album or track is on both I’ll be choosing Quboz for now on. I hope Quboz continues to rapidly grow their library!

It is very strange indeed. I noticed the same difference between Tidal and Qobuz Hi-Hi sound. I was the one calling it more boomy.
But on the other hand I have all the trouble in the world hearing any difference between 320 ogg Vorbis Spotify premium and Qobuz Hi-Fi.
I'm confused

 

[peterinvan]

Tidal on Android - latest Tidal upgrade issue:

Anyone else experiencing stuttering and stuck tracks after the latest mobile Android app update?

I am using HiBY R6 Android 6.0.1, Tidal 2.11.4.899.11

Thanks.