28-Nov-2014, 16:23
I am new here and thought I would add a few comments and Qobuz vs Tidal.
I have been a subscriber to Qobuz for about 5 months, and just started a free trial with Tidal about 2 weeks ago. There are several things about Qobuz that are important to me that I do not think that Tidal has. Remember, I have only had a few days with Tidal so do not take what I am about to say as absolute fact!
1) Qobuz has gapless playback control whereas Tidal does not seem to. On Qobuz I set the gap at 2 seconds between songs. You can set the gap at 0 seconds and have no gap between songs if you want. Cool!
2) Qobuz works a lot like YouTube in that you automatically build a history of where you have been. I do not see this on Tidal. For me, this is a really nice feature because as I explore new music , and want to go back to some of what I had listened to, I do not have to worry about writing down those groups that most interested me because the historical file of my listening sessions is there until I decide what to do with it (save, delete, add to favorites, etc.)
3) On both Qobuz, and Tidal you see the album art as a small part of the overall page, but on Qobuz when you click the “expand icon” (the one with the 4 arrows) your entire screen becomes the album you are listening to. My laptop dedicated to hi-fi has an HDMI out that I run to my TV. When the entire 60” screen looks like Elton’s “Yellow Brick Road” it’s a really neat alternative to just having the album art, song list, similar artist, etc. Looks like a giant album art picture hanging on your wall.
4) With Qobuz, the very last song/artist that you listened to stays in “queue” no matter how long you go before returning to the site. If the last artist is someone that you want to spend some more time listening you don’t need to try to remember who they were, or write them down because to the next time you go to the site they will be there. Tidal seems to start all over again with a “blank slate” each time. So I don’t think Tidal has this feature.
5) Sound quality seems the same between the two, but Qobuz’s homepage is more alive, and colorful to me.
6) Tidal does boasts HD Music Videos, but I don’t find that necessarily enticing as YouTube, Mullet, Qello, Vevo, etc., all have good HD music videos.
7) I don’t know if Tidal has 24/96, 24/192 downloads like Qobuz. Qobuz recently had a sale of over 300 HD albums for 50% off which when I checked was less expensive than any other site; HDTracks, Hi-REZ, Acoustic Sounds. This sale may have been just for the existing Qobuz subscribers which is a nice bonus to your subscription.
8) At this point in time Tidal is less responsive than Qobuz. With Qobuz I will get a response usually the same day about a concern or question. Right now I have been waiting two days for Tidal to respond to whether they support 32bit Windows OS as I get a “tidalmedia.exe” error when trying to download their app to that computer. My 64bit Windows OS went without a hitch.
For now I am going to keep comparing between the two to see who says and who goes! But so far, I am leaning towards keeping Qobuz.
I have been a subscriber to Qobuz for about 5 months, and just started a free trial with Tidal about 2 weeks ago. There are several things about Qobuz that are important to me that I do not think that Tidal has. Remember, I have only had a few days with Tidal so do not take what I am about to say as absolute fact!
1) Qobuz has gapless playback control whereas Tidal does not seem to. On Qobuz I set the gap at 2 seconds between songs. You can set the gap at 0 seconds and have no gap between songs if you want. Cool!
2) Qobuz works a lot like YouTube in that you automatically build a history of where you have been. I do not see this on Tidal. For me, this is a really nice feature because as I explore new music , and want to go back to some of what I had listened to, I do not have to worry about writing down those groups that most interested me because the historical file of my listening sessions is there until I decide what to do with it (save, delete, add to favorites, etc.)
3) On both Qobuz, and Tidal you see the album art as a small part of the overall page, but on Qobuz when you click the “expand icon” (the one with the 4 arrows) your entire screen becomes the album you are listening to. My laptop dedicated to hi-fi has an HDMI out that I run to my TV. When the entire 60” screen looks like Elton’s “Yellow Brick Road” it’s a really neat alternative to just having the album art, song list, similar artist, etc. Looks like a giant album art picture hanging on your wall.
4) With Qobuz, the very last song/artist that you listened to stays in “queue” no matter how long you go before returning to the site. If the last artist is someone that you want to spend some more time listening you don’t need to try to remember who they were, or write them down because to the next time you go to the site they will be there. Tidal seems to start all over again with a “blank slate” each time. So I don’t think Tidal has this feature.
5) Sound quality seems the same between the two, but Qobuz’s homepage is more alive, and colorful to me.
6) Tidal does boasts HD Music Videos, but I don’t find that necessarily enticing as YouTube, Mullet, Qello, Vevo, etc., all have good HD music videos.
7) I don’t know if Tidal has 24/96, 24/192 downloads like Qobuz. Qobuz recently had a sale of over 300 HD albums for 50% off which when I checked was less expensive than any other site; HDTracks, Hi-REZ, Acoustic Sounds. This sale may have been just for the existing Qobuz subscribers which is a nice bonus to your subscription.
8) At this point in time Tidal is less responsive than Qobuz. With Qobuz I will get a response usually the same day about a concern or question. Right now I have been waiting two days for Tidal to respond to whether they support 32bit Windows OS as I get a “tidalmedia.exe” error when trying to download their app to that computer. My 64bit Windows OS went without a hitch.
For now I am going to keep comparing between the two to see who says and who goes! But so far, I am leaning towards keeping Qobuz.
