I would LOVE for you to tackle this question, Jay. Currently using both and each has its ups and downs! Qobuz has been horrible for me when streaming from my car. At home its fine.
i dont think you need a "half million" system to hear qobuz and tidal lol. I like watching your channel, but your constant reminder of how much your system cost is a little too much sometimes
When I had a MQA enabled DAC, I compared Tidal MQA files to the same version bit depth and sample rate (if shown) from Qobuz. Qobuz was the clear winner. Qobuz was slightly better with the same 16/44.1 files as well. With my latest DAC the best sound comes from upsampling the Qobuz files to 4x or 8x DSD using HQ player and sent to a network bridge using Roon to my DAC.
My comment is that you shouldn't have asked if people would like the video. You should have just done it. It was really boring to come and look for a video that would answer my question and find that someone was just asking people if they would like a video that answers the question I want answered.
definitely qobuz, but I wouldn't say by much.. audiofiles are losing there minds over the whole mqa thing.. you don't have to pay for it, and I do wish they would ditch it but at least Tidal respects the artist in terms of paying better for streams and allowing for donations.. not to mention tidal rising gives a helping hand for upcoming artists.. tidal is more then good enough, especially compaired to spotify and apple music
No doubt about it Jay Bring it on ! You need more of this type of input to increase viewer numbers. More creative and practical reports are a MUST to boost ratings and interest.
I like Qobuz better by a little bit but spinning the actual disc in my CD transport is vastly better and vinyl is a whole other level altogether to my ears
Easy. Quobuz is the best quality. For me it’s mostly that tidal boosts the bass and treble a little bit. So when I would change genres I was always having to change the eq. With quobuz it’s solid though out the library. It’s just even.
Well if it's long ago maybe things have changed since then. I find it's a crap shoot. I listen on Qbuz to a file that is 192k and 48 and it sounds awful then another artist recording is 48 and 24 and sounds incredible. I find typically the higher rate recordings tend to sound better overall even though bad ones the lower rate recordings a few gems in there but most do not sound great. It's frustrating you have to listen and save the songs that sound really good. It's amazing more artists do not demand the best product for their music but the masses in general have no clue difference between good and amazing sound.
Both formats are limited to the Quality of the Recording Engineers and subject to Interpretation of their Ears and Limitations of their own Processors/Brains and Level of Education and Training! I was always taught to start by following those in the Industry who have had the Most Successful Careers Learning their Techniques and adding some of my own! All of this being said, that is why HiEnd/HiFi is so Subjective and a matter of Personal Taste! Live Jam Sessions are usually the most fun, but don't always Translate into the Best Recordings! Sadly so many Filtering Techniques, Equalization, Time Delay and Reverb and so on that the Original Soul Sounds of the Musicians get lost or Distorted or Improved! Sorry for the Rant, but this is Truth!
Jay, I would absolutely want you to do a comparison between Qobuz and Tidal. Now my system is only around $175,000 but very natural and revealing. Looks like I’m in the minority but in most instances Tidal sounds better. I never use upsampling. I saw a reviewer on RU-vid who thought MQA was a scam but when he compared the MQA tracks to Qobuz hi res he preferred the MQA. All 16 tracks. As far as those who keep saying CD’S sound better than streaming, I’m not so sure. I have a $16,000 Luxman SACD player and it sounds great. Streaming is very close.
I find your videos interesting. But one thing bothers me. You begin a subject and there’s no following after. Like the Nordost switch: you didn’t posted your impressions on it. Magico S7 vs Focal Maestro: so which one you prefer? Now Qobuz vs Tidal will be probably the same.
It is not true. I have compared 4 versions of same song with delta wave software. CD rip, Qobuz and Deezer matched perfectly bit to bit. Tidal not. 99% Tidal staff is reconverted to MQA needs. And it is no more original recording.
Tidal, Qobuz,... doesn't matter. It is good to search for some new music, but not for hi-end system :) Streaming / files are still behind good CD transports. Maybe this is not day and night difference, but still important.
Yes I would love it but compare Deezer too, I have compared Deezer to Tidal and deezer wins hands down. It is just straight cd quality, no fancy MQA shit.
I have both for over one year now. I prefer Qobuz for the sound quality. For classical, jazz and acoustic music quite a lot better. I prefer the playlists of Qobuz too, much more to my taste. I keep Tidal for the larger choice of artists and cd's, though i find their way of pushing rap, hip-hop, and the like rather annoying. If i had to give up one of the two, i would say goodbye to Tidal for sure...
Maybe it's tangential, but with Qobuz, If I purchase the song or album, hearing the sound from the downloaded item is much better than listening to it streamed. As for the original question, I let Tidal go in favor of Qobuz because of the usual high-end characteristics (definition, natural vocals, rounded imaging, speed).
There is no “level” difference if it’s the same master. There is actually often different versions on the streaming services. I think the most interesting compactions are where they are not the same. For ex a 96/24 on Qobuz and only 44/16 on Tidal.
I don't know if I can get Qobus in Canada ? I stream Tidal in my car a lot and someone commented that Qobus doesn't steam well in a mobile car situation which be negative for me.. But it would be interesting to hear what it sounds like at home. I think a test on a very high end system would very interesting.
I have Spotify, Apple Music, Qobuz and Tidal! Looks like Spotify beast all! It all comes down to the original recording and mastering, up sampling only worsens the things as it adds artifacts which could be way off than original.
I'd rather see, understand the process of how to stream, basics, etc. The cost of the system is irrelevant to me! Being able to have access, to experience the diversity of it, is important to my way of thinking. It smacks of elitism, socio-economic, grandstanding. I'm able to discern the differences of yr demos through my modest, Asian-Pacific sourced system, consistently. The MUSIC, is my concern. The level of the quality is "intellectually" secondary to my enjoyment. 'Honestly.'...but, I'll 'ride along for the fun of it!
If you’re going to do a true demonstration, you should have an MQA DAC unless you’re comparing 16/44.1 Non-MQA tracks. Otherwise you’re not going to have a fair comparison. I would also suggest a using a high-end MQA compatible DAC, so the DAC isn’t your bottleneck in a $500k setup. Bring it on!😁
All I hear from the forums is Qobuz is better! I canceled Tidal after repeated postings of these comparisons, I like Tidals format though and I find it much easier to use. I don't know if I can hear much difference.
Transparent, high resolution and revealing system - I’m leaning towards Qobuz for more “natural” sound. On slightly top end shy/rounded off system Tidal may be the key. These are not blanket statements though it depends on recording and album version (original vs remastered, etc.) For me the value of having both is the music selection - there are albums proprietary to Tidal that either never become available on Qobuz or come up at a later time.
As a DJ & 2 channel HiFi guy … Tidal is the only service that partnered with the software systems we use … so, yea it’s the best we have (it’s the only one we have)
Of course we like to see it. I compared it personally, to me tidal sounds softer than qobuz, it's different from track to track, in terms of quality; in most cases qobuz is better.
Would love to see it Jay. In my system running single mode fiber into the audio room and re-clocking at the audio switch (Uptone ether-regen) levels the playing field quite a bit. Locally ripped files played out of ram still has the upper hand - but this difference is nuanced at best.
Yeah I would actually like to see this! I feel like tidal is a little rolled off and qbuz is a bit more accurate. Maybe i’m crazy and my brain is tripping 🫤
Different tracks can sound better on either service. There is no clear winner for any random track. One might sound better on Tidal and another sound better on Qobuz.
Quboz is uncompresses, whereas Tidal is FLAC, there are different levels of FLAC compression available, it isnt true that its used properly or has no effect. Quboz always sounds better... Amazon Music sounds better than Tidal
Qobuz is much more serious and of quality than the "garbage" that 'Tidal proposes with its MQA ... there is instrumental evidence that Tidal is providing poor audio masters instead of the promised high quality. In any case you should do the test through the official apps and not through ROON, otherwise you are adding a variable to the equation. I am very interested in understanding what you will discover in your awesome setup.
There is a quite big difference between the two. For my personal taste Qobuz sound much better, more clear. I find Tidal to sound a bit bloated and too much pumped in the mid-bass. Both sound much worse than streaming files locally.
I have both when I had my naim streamer it was qobuz but I now have a moon streamer and now being able to compare both as I don't have roon I prefer tidal the music to me just has more space around instruments jazz sound better on qobuz but tidal for the rest
Hi Jay, I feel Tidal & Qobuz are very close and is mostly album dependent on which is better. But, the differences are minimal in my opinion. I do like the Tidal platform better to see top songs and album choices. Would love to hear your impressions.
Hi , Jay that would be really interesting as i ask myself that question , and in my system and setup there is no clear winner between the two....probally because my system isn't at the level you have.
How would you then judge that via a compressed video still on your own system. I think it would be interesting if Jay himself did the testing and presented in a video. But not a A/B recorded video from his system.
@@dieselbrodeur I dont agree on that premis , because then we could all make videos and tell what we independty think i can also make a video and claim what difference i hear. What i think is interesting is that if we can hear the difference through compressed youtube and bad all other stuff , then there is something to gain. But if we have to rely on what Jay thinks , hmm then i have to say there is no need for Jay to make presentations like he do..as he can just tell us what he thinks.
@@FlemmingDP You are missing the point or is not seeing the obvious difference between same equipment different format or streaming service. this is a very subtle difference if any. Compared to different components actually sounding different even via RU-vid and just not as good as it does in Jays room.
I suggest using an LG G7 / G8 or the V series Android phone - they have a great built in DAC and you can power your amp directly. Simply install Apple Music (free for 30 days), download some high resolution music files then play them directly out the headphone jack connected to an RCA terminal at the other end, go directly into your Boulder amp (NO PREAMP) and I predict this will sound better than with any preamplifier!
@@dontcare563 The LG G7/8 phones have ESS Sabre ES9218 build in DAC capable of supporting audio files with up to 32-bit audio at 384 kHz sample rate. A direct wired connection from the phone directly into the amp will sound superior to any streamed audio and if wired directly from the phone to the amp / bypassing any preamp, it will likely sound superior to any preamp. So yes, I am serious about my suggestion. Jay's setup will be able to reveal that a $200 phone can equal or beat streaming high res audio.
@@petertangstrm5242 seems to have better space and imaging with MQA on A/B comparison of the same track & system on the MQA vs Non MQA version. I also have read similar finding on line with people who DONT like or agree with the science or business of MQA. Despite that bias they choose the sound of the MQA version.
