Apparently competition is affecting market pricing as Qobuz announces new monthly and subscription rates. I am currently on Tidal and have toyed witht he idea of switching as my Innuos Zenith Mk OS 2.05 is now loaded.
Last year I tried both Tidal and Qobuz and after 3 months dropped Tidal. Sound quality wise in my system, it was a toss up between the two; but I preferred Qobuz, believing it to have slightly better hi-res selections.
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I’d count myself as one. I’ve maintained memberships in both Tidal and Qobuz for almost 2 years now, but I finally switched to annual with Qobuz, and I keep meaning to drop Tidal. I just keep forgetting.
Bottom line for me is with an MQA-capable Node 2i doing the streaming, plugged into both the analog and digital inputs of my SGCD, I can’t say one sounds consistently better than the other, regardless of the type of file, when comparing comparable formats (analog-to-analog, digital-to-digital). It varies with the material, and frankly most of the time it’s a toss-up to my ears. But Qobuz tends to have more of the music I like than Tidal does. If I’m looking for a particular recording, I find Qobuz has it about 90% of the time, while Tidal comes through about 70%. So it’s probably time for it to go, even if there are some artists I love that are only there and not on Qobuz (yet).
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I am also a fan, had both Tidal and Qobuz for a few months and stuck with Qobuz as on my system it had a bit better sound and the music I wanted.
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@Craig_Burgess, regarding music in your experience where does Tidal fall short? A few examples would be helpful.
Same here - had Tidal for a year or two, then got Qobuz and found myself listening to it almost exclusively. Generally sounded better to me. Realized my hard drive was sitting there attached for no reason. Eventually dropped Tidal. Now it is pretty much just Qobuz and vinyl. Don’t have a shiny disc player hooked up.
Arguably HDs and shiny discs may/can sound better, but it usually not so profound as to be worth the effort for me.
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I really love Qobuz. Don’t really see any point to MQA anyway, if you’re streaming at home with a good system why not run the fattest files they make available? Qobuz also seems to have a lot of jazz and classical I wasn’t finding on TIDAL.
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Today’s email from Qobuz with the price change didn’t surprise me.
@weedeewop There are still some albums I like to stream on Tidal I can’t get on Qobuz. Like BJ Thomas the Living Room Sessions great recording with star studded duets. Tidal has an Apple TV App let’s you stream videos and concerts which is an occasional plus. Especially if your reference system is capable. Very rarely Will anything on Tidal not sound better on Qobuz but I have no bridge for 2nd unfold of MQA. I often logout of Tidal listening to Roon Radio just because Qobuz sounds better.
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I had Tidal first then Qobuz when it became available here. I dropped Tidal for a couple of reasons. They kept “losing” selections from my playlists (assuming they quit paying for them) and Qobuz seems to have more of what I like. I have an annual sub to Premier but thinking about trying Sublime for a year mainly to add more music downloads at the lower price. Its hard to believe how much really good music is available at the click of a mouse.
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What surprised me was that the price went down instead of up. $30.
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I have always entertained Qobuz. I’m PC based running jRiver, Spotify and Amazon HD. Anyone out there have Amazon vs Qobuz experience?
I am glad you said that, because I could have sworn I paid a lot more last year. Nice to finally get a discount on something I really enjoy using.
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Do current subscribers get a discount going forward, I wonder?
I had Sublime for the past year and I found I bought a fair amount of albums at really good discounts. Sometimes they have deals as little as $3.99 & $5.99. I bought a Jazz album that was selling for $42 as a double LP and the 192/24 download was like $12. Sometimes the deals do not last long, so grab them when you see them.
Yes, I got an email this morning saying my rate has gone down starting next bill
Good news. Alas, I have not received a similar e-mail. At least not yet.
Thanks.
May be time for me to switch. Tidal was a problem for a time, and then things settled out. Don’t use MQA to full effect and not interested in doing so. Qobuz just makes sense. Now it is a matter of overcoming the barriers to change, the financial incentive just may do it.
I hope Qobuz can remain in business. I am really concerned we’ll ultimately end up with only three choices: Amazon, Apple or Spotify.
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