Qobuz Comes to Canada....Finally

[Norty]

Canada is finally getting a choice with the addition of Qobuz.  I currently have Tidal and I find it very good but not a fan of MQA.  I don’t listen to rap which is a strong suite of Tidal.  But do listen to Classic rock, Classical, Jazz and some blues.  Would appreciate any feed back from those of you who have tried both or at least Qobuz.  SQ versus Tidal selection etc.

[David A]

I swapped fromTidal to Qobuz some time ago because I was having trouble with Tidal. I could access it, search for artists or albums and pick what I wanted to play but for some reason my selections just wouldn't play. Sometimes it worked fine, sometimes it didn't, and when Qobuz became available in Australia I swapped to it and it's been working fine.

Comparing Qobuz to Tidal I would say that I think Qobuz gives the best SQ. I think uncompressed high res from Qobuz sounds better than MQA from Tidal if you're using Roon to do the first MQA unfold and just passing that to your Devialet which is what I was doing. I have no idea how the SQ comparison would go if you're passing the MQA stream from Roon to something which can do the full MQA unfold process.

Qobuz has a big selection of music but I think Tidal's selection is bigger. I listen mostly to jazz with some classic rock. There were times with Tidal that I couldn't find something I liked and I can sometimes find something I couldn't find on Tidal on Qobuz but a bit more often I find that I can't find something on Qobuz that I could find on Tidal. Having said that, not being able to find something I'm looking for on Qobuz does not happen very often, the selection on Qobuz is more than large enough to keep me happily supplied with new music and old music I haven't heard in years to make choosing what I want to hear a difficult task.

If you buy music downloads and you choose Qobuz's top tier subscription you can buy high res downloads for less than the cost of CD quality downloads but you only get the cheaper prices on high res downloads. If you buy CD quality downloads you pay the normal price for the download. If you buy a lot of high res downloads then Qobuz's top tier subscription is worth the higher price for the savings you will make buying high res downloads.

I definitely do not miss Tidal.

[Norty]

I swapped fromTidal to  Qobuz some time ago because I was having trouble with Tidal. I could access it, search for artists or albums and pick what I wanted to play but for some reason my selections just wouldn't play. Sometimes it worked fine, sometimes it didn't, and when Qobuz became available in Australia I swapped to it and it's been working fine.

Comparing Qobuz to Tidal I would say that I think Qobuz gives the best SQ. I think uncompressed high res from Qobuz sounds better than MQA from Tidal if you're using Roon to do the first MQA unfold and just passing that to your Devialet which is what I was doing. I have no idea how the SQ comparison would go if you're passing the MQA stream from Roon to something which can do the full MQA unfold process.

Qobuz has a big selection of music but I think Tidal's selection is bigger. I listen mostly to jazz with some classic rock. There were times with Tidal that I couldn't find something I liked and I can sometimes find something I couldn't find on Tidal on Qobuz but a bit more often I find that I can't find something on Qobuz that I could find on Tidal. Having said that, not being able to find something I'm looking for on Qobuz does not happen very often, the selection on Qobuz is more than large enough to keep me happily supplied with new music and old music I haven't heard in years to make choosing what I want to hear a difficult task.

If you buy music downloads and you choose Qobuz's top tier subscription you can buy high res downloads for less than the cost of CD quality downloads but you only get the cheaper prices on high res downloads. If you buy CD quality downloads you pay the normal price for the download. If you buy  a lot of high res downloads then Qobuz's top tier subscription is worth the higher price for the savings you will make buying high res downloads.

I definitely do not miss Tidal.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.  It pretty much mirrors what I have been reading seeing on the comparison on the 2.  But good to get “real world” experience on it and I trust the judgments / opinions in this group.
 
They have a 30-day free trial which I will do, but I am not one to take a free trial if I have no intentions of going forward.  So again, thanks for your comments.

[David A]

I've just read that MQA has gone into receivership but is still trading so that doesn't mean anything for Tidal at the moment but it does suggest that MQA has not succeeded in the way its developers hoped since it's lost its major financial backer.

I don't know what this means for Tidal but the future of MQA is currently looking shaky. If MQA closes shop and Tidal becomes unable to use MQA then they may start offering uncompressed high res material like Qobuz and that could change the comparison of Tidal and Qobuz.

[Norty]

Update:  I made the switch to Qobuz, I do believe that the sound quality is slightly better than Tidal.  I used Soundiiz to transition all music and playlists over and it was the best $5 I ever spent.  Done in about an hour.  Appears I had no loss of music switching from one to the other.

[Damon]

Nice to read that we have Qobuz as an option here, finally. I'm not a Tidal fan either. Any thoughts on the classical and jazz presence on Qobuz in comparison or contrast to Tidal? Or other services, specific focus sources aside.

[Norty]

Nice to read that we have Qobuz as an option here, finally. I'm not a Tidal fan either. Any thoughts on the classical and jazz presence on Qobuz in comparison or contrast to Tidal? Or other services, specific focus sources aside.

I'm probably not the best to reply to your questions as I just started Qobuz.  However, when I converted I did not see that I missed any of my saved titles.  I was happy in that I listened to a Tidal Classical playlist which was saved replayed in Qobuz in Hi Rez.  Sounded great.  I have not checked out any of the other services available as anything I have read indicated that Tidal and Qobuz are the best for SQ.

So far happy with my decision to change.  If I did have second thoughts the 1/2 price offer from Tidal after I closed my account would have been interesting.

[BoyScout]

Maybe it helps:

https://www.headphonesty.com/2023/04/qob..._worth_it0