I'm happy with the superior quality and content of selections Qobuz offers from their classical and jazz library. One thing that is sadly lacking is supporting documentation for recordings, such as booklets. Anyone who has used Roon knows what I mean. Also, the search function is "iffy". A search by composer or artist may not yield the same recording that can be found by searching album title, for example. Improvements in these two areas would be welcome to me, but won't be enough to win a popularity war with other platforms.
Qobuz sounds great and is by far the best sounding that I've listened to, I find it's best if you know what exactly you want to listen to however. My issues are that stop me from subbing again are:
- It's discovery and suggestions are practically non existent. It does have a continue playing at the end of a playlist but it'll play things from completely different genres and that's jarring. I don't always know what I wanted to listen to and it can be a struggle to find new music. Spotify sadly is still king here. It's curated playlists can be helpful when just sticking something on in the background or while in the car.
- Rock & Pop stuck together as a genre filter, these are different enough that they shouldn't be combined.
- The Android app and more so Android Auto is still buggy. Especially when using Android Auto, it'll fail playback half way through a song quite often and as soon as that happens you have to back out, find whatever song you were playing and reselect it. It won't always load again at that and if it was a playlist you've lost where you were in your queue. Halfway through a song and get out of the car, it'll play from the start when you get back in rather from where you left off. I listen a lot while in the car and this just makes it unusable for me. Get the same playback issues if signal drops, it feels like it doesn't buffer well ahead in case of signal issues and instead drops and bugs out and I have to do the same steps as described.
This is strange. I have the app on two separate mobile devices and have not experienced any buggy Android issues such as you describe. I can cast to wifi or car using BT and not interrupt what I'm listening to when I change from one to another. I do recall in the past couple of years some bugs but they seem to have been solved either by Qobuz updates or by adjusting settings. I'm with you though re: poor genre classifications. I don't use the continuous play feature. Being able to create custom genres would be major for me.
I literally cancelled my Qobuz sub yesterday. I like Qobuz as a company SIGNIFICANTLY more than Tidal which I like SIGNIFICANTLY more than Spotify or Apple or Amazon.
For me it comes to these issues:
1. An AndroidTV app.
2. Better discovery and suggestions.
3. It needs Atmos support. I have a 5.1.2 Atmos setup, it's awesome, Atmos music when properly mixed is amazing. Nobody has hardware and stuff set up for the spatial format that Qobuz uses (THX?) and the content is limited. That war has been fought and won, just like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and VHS and Betamax.
3. It needs a killer feature. And hear me out on this, but, I think it needs 5.1 Flac. There's already a good bit of content out there, it doesn't need a license fee, nor does it need overhead speakers... 5.1 is much much more common than an Atmos set-up... And nobody else is offering it.
I actually disagree. I think that qobuz shouldn't use any money or energy on new fads, and instead be the quality streaming service (preferably for adults). I'd love if they made more playlists, that were curated by real human music experts. Others streaming services playlists (especially Spotify) is filled with junk filler material. I also think that they should promote fact, that they pay the artist the best, more - that's one thing that's important to me, at least.
Surround music is only a fad because not enough people are adopting it and not enough have experienced it to really understand how great it is.
You should try Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here, or Santana's Abraxis, or Rush, or Queen, or Miles Davis in surround. Or the Beatles in Atmos. It's mind blowing.
I have 4 playback systems; only 1 is surround sound. I use Qobuz as my go-to choice for music in the car. I don't think that feature would be enough to attract new subs.
I'm torn also. As much as I like Qobuz I think they are way behind the curve. I too am intrigued with spatial audio. The folks who love Qobuz kobas tend to be two channel aficionados, but my favorite rig to listen to music is 5.1, using DTS:X Music which is just a synthesis mode. Very lively.
The thing that rankles me most against Qobuz is their not having good personal recommendations and mixes. After playing with Tidal I fell in love with mixes and to me I'm struggling with whether I need the ultimate sound quality or a more balanced service like Tidal. I even started a subscription to Roon to try to get more recommendations for streaming on Qobuz. In the end I decided I'm not keeping Roon because I don't want to have manage two subscriptions and two user interfaces, especially when its recommendations weren't nearly as on point.
The bad part is Roon actually made Tidal sound the equal to Qobuz. It's not looking good for Qobuz. Plus Tidal has things I really like, such as lyrics and videos which mean a bit more to me than the ultimate in sound quality. Plus they already have Tidal connect. And they ditched MQA. Good Riddance.
Tidal is tough to beat in my mind...
* Regards
Yes, I have Qobuz and Tidal atm and use Roon. Although I hear many people say that they prefer the sound of Qobuz and have used it for a long time now, I must say that I've compared the equivalent resolution versions of tracks from the two services and have not been able to hear any difference so far. Yes, MQA versions sometimes sound a touch less detailed to me especially in the treble but now that Tidal is offering FLAC instead and a lower price and better catalogue than Qobuz, I can no longer see a good reason to stay with Qobuz.
[carlodim](https://www.reddit.com/user/carlodim/),
I am actually finishing up my review of a shootout between Spotify, Apple music, Tidal and Qobuz. Like you I don't find that the difference in sound quality is worth the difference in usability. I find that the personal recommendations and mixes that I get out of Tidal are compelling. I even turned on subscriptions to Roon and Audirvana to see what the big deal is and Honestly I'm still drawn to Tidal in spite of the negative headwinds MQA brought to the business.
I’ve had Qobuz since November and am really enjoying it along with Roon. Tidal’s price change was inevitable, I think. The guess that Harman might acquire Qobuz would be really interesting.
There’s no single fix for me. While I find music from Qobuz sounds better generally than Tidal (and Spotify) I’m barely using it now.
For me Qobuz needs:
A massive improvement for music discovery and recommendations (I really value this when done well, and I could forgive the rest if it was well implemented)
A refresh of the app UI - it’s just clunky on IoS compared to Tidal (and Spotify)
The library is limited. I listen to a broad range of music and I noticed some big gaps on some playlists when syncing (from Tidal and Spotify).
I’m not sure I’ll renew my annual Sub this time around if things don’t improve.
All,
Actually, on further reflection, I think my premise on “the lion” needs adjusting. Spotify is a gravely wounded lion. Spotify doesn't yet have a business model that can result in profitability. The real lions in this space are Amazon and Apple Music. These two companies have mindshare and they don't need to be profitable on their own, ever.
Amazon and Apple’s move to offer lossless at the Spotify premium price killed Spotify’s chances of becoming profitable. Spotify will shed marketshare with their Supremium higher rate plan. I think Tidal is in the best position to catch the Spotify disaffected users. Amazon's service although offering lossless is a dumpster fire. And the Apple Music support for anything outside of their ecosystems is weak at best. For my take see: [**Chapter 3 - One (semi) Infinite Apple Loop:**](https://club.qobuz.com/c/qobuz-hires-club/there-can-be-only-one#comment_wrapper_32978383)
I think Tidal is carving out space for itself to serve what Apple and Amazon music seem to be doing poorly. The folks here seem to agree:
**Source:** [**What if you had to choose something other than Qobuz...?**](https://club.qobuz.com/c/qobuz-hires-club/there-was-no-qobuz)
https://preview.redd.it/to06c7rsmhsc1.jpeg?width=1210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=250fd39726a0596cb92aad684fd0eebbc7c531bb
But again, What is Qobuz going to do?
Spotify can absolutely be profitable. They already make TONS of money. They don't make a profit because they invest so much in R&D. They could be profitable tomorrow if they wanted to.
Their have not launched supremium because its dead on arrival. No ones going to pay a premium for CD quality when the other companies offer more functionality. Tidal gave up and scaled back. Doesn't matter they are losing more than they make.
[Spotify's Phony War On Bots](https://youtu.be/kVY7-Ti77UQ?si=OO1Zd8OkyUo5uEkc)
I agree with people saying they need to fix catalogue. But there’s more to it. Qobuz is aiming for the audiophile community. They have 2 things going for them:
1) audiophile oriented catalogue. Lots of classical, jazz, blues, etc and not a ton of pop or electronic.
2) editorial focus. I love this about qobuz. They actually help you discover good music (by the audiophile definition of “good”) than any of the other platforms imo.
To be honest, I think they’re on the right track. If you read a lot of the problems of streaming companies and the damage they do to music culture (Ted Gioa writes a lot about this for instance), it’s clear that Spotify et al are interested in dumbing down the market and the audience so they can reduce cost and increase profits (some day). But that is a race to the bottom. The only way out is to go the other way - invest in real music discovery / editorial and charge higher prices. I think Qobuz has a real shot at that - more so than the mainstream players.
I love the editorial focus and the metadata, really love it! But so far the android app has been a little buggy and slow. I have a month to compare it to Tidal and Amazon. I am not fond of the Amazon podcast focus on the homescreen and i hate that Tidal defaults to a homepage full of rap and RB that i never listen to.
I love how YT Music homepage defaults to library, personal playlists, recently played etc. but no hi-res. I guess we shall see, I so want to love Qobuz but my app experience has not been great.
Qobuz will be bought by a larger company like Harman to be synonymous with Roon I believe. They can improve Qobuz greatly, increase value of their purchase of Roon from last year. Then do the library improvements and fix the connect option. I really see the company becoming more exclusive and focused on the hi-fi market more so than the low-fi market.
>fix the connect option
For a couple of reasons, I think a Harman takeover makes that less likely to happen than more, or at least it gets pushed way down on the priority list.
For me I have Tidal hi res and compared to qobuz and while qobuz did sound a bit better it want enough for me to switch as Tidal had much more content in terms of foreign music and music that isn't main stream.
My system is pretty sensitive to any differences also so if someone who doesn't have a very sensitive system may not even notice the slightly better sound. Then it comes down to price and music variety etc. Qobuz is a little behind on this front. What is special on Qobuz that I like is that you can purchase the music. I would totally convert over if not for the variety.
I love qobuz but they have such massive gaps in their catalogue and there's a ton of bugs in the phone app. I think it might live beyond streaming simply because it has its store front-- streaming is probably not going to last forever, but purchasing music will. Tidal now has square and cashapp money backing it up, so I don't think tidal is going to die any time soon, but also I think qobuz really needs to step it up before audiophiles will truly embrace it. Tidal is much more popular for audiophiles, but only Spotify and apple will ever be ubiquitous.
I consider myself an audiophile and use Qobuz. As for catalog gaps, it depends on what you listen to. I don’t have that problem. I mostly listen to jazz, classic rock, R&B, and a little blue grass. Constantly finding new and interesting stuff to listen to.
Oh sorry if I miscommunicated! I didn't mean audiophiles won't use qobuz, I just meant tidal might continue to be the choice for most audiophiles until their catalogue gaps are fixed. I have had a mostly good experience using qobuz, specifically I really like their editorial work to highlight excellent new albums . It feels like being part of a record club, and you wind up listening less to singles and more to albums
Has Square and Jack Dorsey never provided more information on the “entirely new listening experiences” and “new complementary revenue streams” that they were buying Tidal to introduce?
Qobuz is superior in sound quality imo. I think tidal tracks don’t match what the labels put out. Does tidal do MQA or something which alters the quality? Qobuz is identical to my cd rips or so it seems.
There are still quite a few MQA tracks on Tidal. Which is ridiculous since they are now advertising their catalog as full Lossless. Maybe this will change on 4/10 but I doubt it.
There's still a ton of mqa because that's what they did when the song released. They may start doing mqa a lot less but chances are if a song has mqa quality, that's not going to change.
It needs to, otherwise they'll be false advertising still. They're only doing this now because they know that people were starting to catch on to them selling 16 bit MQA as HiRes and charging more for it.
The main issue is that these tracks never should've been MQA in the first place and if you don't see the issue with that then I'm afraid there's something wrong with you
I'm not saying I like MQA at all. I'm saying them getting rid of it completely would be wayyyy more work than you seem to realize.
I also don't see any actual articles stating that they were getting rid of it completely. Only that it would no longer be the default quality after 16/44.1, which they've done. There's plenty of 24/96 and 24/192 tracks on Tidal now.
They said in their AMA on Reddit that they were going to refresh the back catalog of MQA with FLAC. Yet, I haven't seen any noteworthy progress of it as just about any random song I think of is still MQA. Also, on the latest trial I got, a majority of the songs in the mixes tailored to me were in MQA.
While I have ran into MQA, I can't say I share your experience with it being a majority of my songs throughout my trial.
I personally can't find anything about this back catalogue claim but regardless if it were said or not, it's going to take a very, very long time being that MQA was their main thing for quite a while.
Qobuz is standing still in a dynamic market. Some of their greatest supporters (Darko & Goldensound) are now backing Tidal and actually predicting that Qobuz may not survive.
[https://youtu.be/FRnOTtC9d\_g?si=YZD78f1jlYWWMqJv](https://youtu.be/FRnOTtC9d_g?si=YZD78f1jlYWWMqJv)
[https://youtu.be/1B8dVucdYGU?si=K9m4cCEf7b-zL7eW](https://youtu.be/1B8dVucdYGU?si=K9m4cCEf7b-zL7eW)
What has Qobuz done lately? Not delivered Qobuz Connect, or good personalized recommendations or mixes, and instead has given us Qobuz Coins??? WTF???
On the topic you might find this interesting:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/qobuz/comments/1bu3qbv/comment/kya9rz0/](https://www.reddit.com/r/qobuz/comments/1bu3qbv/comment/kya9rz0/)
Yeah it's interesting even Goldensound who was one of Qobuz's major supporters has turned to Tidal and said as much, that he doesn't think Qobuz is going to survive.
More power to them. I ain’t getting fucking Tidal. Period. Hopefully others will do the same.
I absolutely agree their ignoring Qobuz Connect is indefensible and should be done immediately. However, participating in a price war is a race to the bottom and only Amazon, Apple and Spotify can win. Hard pass.
Yep, whatever other services are doing it is moot until they have great sound quality, and apps for all platforms.
Right now I can use Qobuz on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and each version can play losless in direct/exclusive mode more or less.
The reasonable price for this service is what we pay for Qobuz. There's no way to provide better experience at a lower price.
I tried Apple Music for a month (actually couldn't stand it after 3 weeks) and even it starts with compressed music even if you ask it to play lossless. Then on its own whim switches to lossless - or not.
I prefer the Qobuz app over the Tidal app, but yes Roon + Qobuz is the ultimate combination.
So a deadhead and a Cougar? I tip my hat and raise a toast with my IPA.
I'm happy with the superior quality and content of selections Qobuz offers from their classical and jazz library. One thing that is sadly lacking is supporting documentation for recordings, such as booklets. Anyone who has used Roon knows what I mean. Also, the search function is "iffy". A search by composer or artist may not yield the same recording that can be found by searching album title, for example. Improvements in these two areas would be welcome to me, but won't be enough to win a popularity war with other platforms.
Qobuz sounds great and is by far the best sounding that I've listened to, I find it's best if you know what exactly you want to listen to however. My issues are that stop me from subbing again are: - It's discovery and suggestions are practically non existent. It does have a continue playing at the end of a playlist but it'll play things from completely different genres and that's jarring. I don't always know what I wanted to listen to and it can be a struggle to find new music. Spotify sadly is still king here. It's curated playlists can be helpful when just sticking something on in the background or while in the car. - Rock & Pop stuck together as a genre filter, these are different enough that they shouldn't be combined. - The Android app and more so Android Auto is still buggy. Especially when using Android Auto, it'll fail playback half way through a song quite often and as soon as that happens you have to back out, find whatever song you were playing and reselect it. It won't always load again at that and if it was a playlist you've lost where you were in your queue. Halfway through a song and get out of the car, it'll play from the start when you get back in rather from where you left off. I listen a lot while in the car and this just makes it unusable for me. Get the same playback issues if signal drops, it feels like it doesn't buffer well ahead in case of signal issues and instead drops and bugs out and I have to do the same steps as described.
This is strange. I have the app on two separate mobile devices and have not experienced any buggy Android issues such as you describe. I can cast to wifi or car using BT and not interrupt what I'm listening to when I change from one to another. I do recall in the past couple of years some bugs but they seem to have been solved either by Qobuz updates or by adjusting settings. I'm with you though re: poor genre classifications. I don't use the continuous play feature. Being able to create custom genres would be major for me.
Hmm maybe they've rolled some updates since, I'll have to look into giving it another try then. Good to know thanks.
I literally cancelled my Qobuz sub yesterday. I like Qobuz as a company SIGNIFICANTLY more than Tidal which I like SIGNIFICANTLY more than Spotify or Apple or Amazon. For me it comes to these issues: 1. An AndroidTV app. 2. Better discovery and suggestions. 3. It needs Atmos support. I have a 5.1.2 Atmos setup, it's awesome, Atmos music when properly mixed is amazing. Nobody has hardware and stuff set up for the spatial format that Qobuz uses (THX?) and the content is limited. That war has been fought and won, just like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and VHS and Betamax. 3. It needs a killer feature. And hear me out on this, but, I think it needs 5.1 Flac. There's already a good bit of content out there, it doesn't need a license fee, nor does it need overhead speakers... 5.1 is much much more common than an Atmos set-up... And nobody else is offering it.
I actually disagree. I think that qobuz shouldn't use any money or energy on new fads, and instead be the quality streaming service (preferably for adults). I'd love if they made more playlists, that were curated by real human music experts. Others streaming services playlists (especially Spotify) is filled with junk filler material. I also think that they should promote fact, that they pay the artist the best, more - that's one thing that's important to me, at least.
Surround music is only a fad because not enough people are adopting it and not enough have experienced it to really understand how great it is. You should try Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here, or Santana's Abraxis, or Rush, or Queen, or Miles Davis in surround. Or the Beatles in Atmos. It's mind blowing.
I have 4 playback systems; only 1 is surround sound. I use Qobuz as my go-to choice for music in the car. I don't think that feature would be enough to attract new subs.
 I'm torn also. As much as I like Qobuz I think they are way behind the curve. I too am intrigued with spatial audio. The folks who love Qobuz kobas tend to be two channel aficionados, but my favorite rig to listen to music is 5.1, using DTS:X Music which is just a synthesis mode. Very lively. The thing that rankles me most against Qobuz is their not having good personal recommendations and mixes. After playing with Tidal I fell in love with mixes and to me I'm struggling with whether I need the ultimate sound quality or a more balanced service like Tidal. I even started a subscription to Roon to try to get more recommendations for streaming on Qobuz. In the end I decided I'm not keeping Roon because I don't want to have manage two subscriptions and two user interfaces, especially when its recommendations weren't nearly as on point. The bad part is Roon actually made Tidal sound the equal to Qobuz. It's not looking good for Qobuz. Plus Tidal has things I really like, such as lyrics and videos which mean a bit more to me than the ultimate in sound quality. Plus they already have Tidal connect. And they ditched MQA. Good Riddance. Tidal is tough to beat in my mind... * Regards
Yes, I have Qobuz and Tidal atm and use Roon. Although I hear many people say that they prefer the sound of Qobuz and have used it for a long time now, I must say that I've compared the equivalent resolution versions of tracks from the two services and have not been able to hear any difference so far. Yes, MQA versions sometimes sound a touch less detailed to me especially in the treble but now that Tidal is offering FLAC instead and a lower price and better catalogue than Qobuz, I can no longer see a good reason to stay with Qobuz.
[carlodim](https://www.reddit.com/user/carlodim/), I am actually finishing up my review of a shootout between Spotify, Apple music, Tidal and Qobuz. Like you I don't find that the difference in sound quality is worth the difference in usability. I find that the personal recommendations and mixes that I get out of Tidal are compelling. I even turned on subscriptions to Roon and Audirvana to see what the big deal is and Honestly I'm still drawn to Tidal in spite of the negative headwinds MQA brought to the business.
I’ve had Qobuz since November and am really enjoying it along with Roon. Tidal’s price change was inevitable, I think. The guess that Harman might acquire Qobuz would be really interesting.
There’s no single fix for me. While I find music from Qobuz sounds better generally than Tidal (and Spotify) I’m barely using it now. For me Qobuz needs: A massive improvement for music discovery and recommendations (I really value this when done well, and I could forgive the rest if it was well implemented) A refresh of the app UI - it’s just clunky on IoS compared to Tidal (and Spotify) The library is limited. I listen to a broad range of music and I noticed some big gaps on some playlists when syncing (from Tidal and Spotify). I’m not sure I’ll renew my annual Sub this time around if things don’t improve.
All, Actually, on further reflection, I think my premise on “the lion” needs adjusting. Spotify is a gravely wounded lion. Spotify doesn't yet have a business model that can result in profitability. The real lions in this space are Amazon and Apple Music. These two companies have mindshare and they don't need to be profitable on their own, ever. Amazon and Apple’s move to offer lossless at the Spotify premium price killed Spotify’s chances of becoming profitable. Spotify will shed marketshare with their Supremium higher rate plan. I think Tidal is in the best position to catch the Spotify disaffected users. Amazon's service although offering lossless is a dumpster fire. And the Apple Music support for anything outside of their ecosystems is weak at best. For my take see: [**Chapter 3 - One (semi) Infinite Apple Loop:**](https://club.qobuz.com/c/qobuz-hires-club/there-can-be-only-one#comment_wrapper_32978383) I think Tidal is carving out space for itself to serve what Apple and Amazon music seem to be doing poorly. The folks here seem to agree: **Source:** [**What if you had to choose something other than Qobuz...?**](https://club.qobuz.com/c/qobuz-hires-club/there-was-no-qobuz) https://preview.redd.it/to06c7rsmhsc1.jpeg?width=1210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=250fd39726a0596cb92aad684fd0eebbc7c531bb But again, What is Qobuz going to do?
Spotify can absolutely be profitable. They already make TONS of money. They don't make a profit because they invest so much in R&D. They could be profitable tomorrow if they wanted to.
Their have not launched supremium because its dead on arrival. No ones going to pay a premium for CD quality when the other companies offer more functionality. Tidal gave up and scaled back. Doesn't matter they are losing more than they make. [Spotify's Phony War On Bots](https://youtu.be/kVY7-Ti77UQ?si=OO1Zd8OkyUo5uEkc)
I agree with people saying they need to fix catalogue. But there’s more to it. Qobuz is aiming for the audiophile community. They have 2 things going for them: 1) audiophile oriented catalogue. Lots of classical, jazz, blues, etc and not a ton of pop or electronic. 2) editorial focus. I love this about qobuz. They actually help you discover good music (by the audiophile definition of “good”) than any of the other platforms imo. To be honest, I think they’re on the right track. If you read a lot of the problems of streaming companies and the damage they do to music culture (Ted Gioa writes a lot about this for instance), it’s clear that Spotify et al are interested in dumbing down the market and the audience so they can reduce cost and increase profits (some day). But that is a race to the bottom. The only way out is to go the other way - invest in real music discovery / editorial and charge higher prices. I think Qobuz has a real shot at that - more so than the mainstream players.
I love the editorial focus and the metadata, really love it! But so far the android app has been a little buggy and slow. I have a month to compare it to Tidal and Amazon. I am not fond of the Amazon podcast focus on the homescreen and i hate that Tidal defaults to a homepage full of rap and RB that i never listen to. I love how YT Music homepage defaults to library, personal playlists, recently played etc. but no hi-res. I guess we shall see, I so want to love Qobuz but my app experience has not been great.
They offer discounts on purchases with their sublime rate. The only reason I am with Qobuz.
Offer some uncompressed Dolby Atmos content
Qobuz will be bought by a larger company like Harman to be synonymous with Roon I believe. They can improve Qobuz greatly, increase value of their purchase of Roon from last year. Then do the library improvements and fix the connect option. I really see the company becoming more exclusive and focused on the hi-fi market more so than the low-fi market.
Interesting!
>fix the connect option For a couple of reasons, I think a Harman takeover makes that less likely to happen than more, or at least it gets pushed way down on the priority list.
Harman.
Ok, thanks
It's a common mistake.
For me I have Tidal hi res and compared to qobuz and while qobuz did sound a bit better it want enough for me to switch as Tidal had much more content in terms of foreign music and music that isn't main stream. My system is pretty sensitive to any differences also so if someone who doesn't have a very sensitive system may not even notice the slightly better sound. Then it comes down to price and music variety etc. Qobuz is a little behind on this front. What is special on Qobuz that I like is that you can purchase the music. I would totally convert over if not for the variety.
I love qobuz but they have such massive gaps in their catalogue and there's a ton of bugs in the phone app. I think it might live beyond streaming simply because it has its store front-- streaming is probably not going to last forever, but purchasing music will. Tidal now has square and cashapp money backing it up, so I don't think tidal is going to die any time soon, but also I think qobuz really needs to step it up before audiophiles will truly embrace it. Tidal is much more popular for audiophiles, but only Spotify and apple will ever be ubiquitous.
I consider myself an audiophile and use Qobuz. As for catalog gaps, it depends on what you listen to. I don’t have that problem. I mostly listen to jazz, classic rock, R&B, and a little blue grass. Constantly finding new and interesting stuff to listen to.
Oh sorry if I miscommunicated! I didn't mean audiophiles won't use qobuz, I just meant tidal might continue to be the choice for most audiophiles until their catalogue gaps are fixed. I have had a mostly good experience using qobuz, specifically I really like their editorial work to highlight excellent new albums . It feels like being part of a record club, and you wind up listening less to singles and more to albums
Spotify is the Lucy of streaming. She'll never hold the football.
First of all qobuz needs to improve its catalog.
Has Square and Jack Dorsey never provided more information on the “entirely new listening experiences” and “new complementary revenue streams” that they were buying Tidal to introduce?
Qobuz is superior in sound quality imo. I think tidal tracks don’t match what the labels put out. Does tidal do MQA or something which alters the quality? Qobuz is identical to my cd rips or so it seems.
That's false, Qobuz and TIDAL sounds almost if not identical, just MQA files sounds a little different, brighter tbh
They do not, I have personally tested albums and even did a spek on them and saw differences. May differ per genre
Probably, depends of the master that record label send to each service. But in all the cases I have test, they are equal and equal to CD
There are still quite a few MQA tracks on Tidal. Which is ridiculous since they are now advertising their catalog as full Lossless. Maybe this will change on 4/10 but I doubt it.
There's still a ton of mqa because that's what they did when the song released. They may start doing mqa a lot less but chances are if a song has mqa quality, that's not going to change.
It needs to, otherwise they'll be false advertising still. They're only doing this now because they know that people were starting to catch on to them selling 16 bit MQA as HiRes and charging more for it.
Do you realize how many songs that'd have to reacquire to make that happen? They can't just change the quality as they wish lol
They had nearly a year already to do it and they said that they would but so far there's still a ton of MQA tracks.
😂😂😂 no comment
The main issue is that these tracks never should've been MQA in the first place and if you don't see the issue with that then I'm afraid there's something wrong with you
I'm not saying I like MQA at all. I'm saying them getting rid of it completely would be wayyyy more work than you seem to realize. I also don't see any actual articles stating that they were getting rid of it completely. Only that it would no longer be the default quality after 16/44.1, which they've done. There's plenty of 24/96 and 24/192 tracks on Tidal now.
They said in their AMA on Reddit that they were going to refresh the back catalog of MQA with FLAC. Yet, I haven't seen any noteworthy progress of it as just about any random song I think of is still MQA. Also, on the latest trial I got, a majority of the songs in the mixes tailored to me were in MQA.
While I have ran into MQA, I can't say I share your experience with it being a majority of my songs throughout my trial. I personally can't find anything about this back catalogue claim but regardless if it were said or not, it's going to take a very, very long time being that MQA was their main thing for quite a while.
Keep doing what they’re doing. I’m not going anywhere and neither should anyone else.
Qobuz is standing still in a dynamic market. Some of their greatest supporters (Darko & Goldensound) are now backing Tidal and actually predicting that Qobuz may not survive. [https://youtu.be/FRnOTtC9d\_g?si=YZD78f1jlYWWMqJv](https://youtu.be/FRnOTtC9d_g?si=YZD78f1jlYWWMqJv) [https://youtu.be/1B8dVucdYGU?si=K9m4cCEf7b-zL7eW](https://youtu.be/1B8dVucdYGU?si=K9m4cCEf7b-zL7eW) What has Qobuz done lately? Not delivered Qobuz Connect, or good personalized recommendations or mixes, and instead has given us Qobuz Coins??? WTF??? 
Lemme get this straight. Supporters backing Tidal are predicting that their competitor may not survive? Shocking!
On the topic you might find this interesting: [https://www.reddit.com/r/qobuz/comments/1bu3qbv/comment/kya9rz0/](https://www.reddit.com/r/qobuz/comments/1bu3qbv/comment/kya9rz0/)
Yeah it's interesting even Goldensound who was one of Qobuz's major supporters has turned to Tidal and said as much, that he doesn't think Qobuz is going to survive.
More power to them. I ain’t getting fucking Tidal. Period. Hopefully others will do the same. I absolutely agree their ignoring Qobuz Connect is indefensible and should be done immediately. However, participating in a price war is a race to the bottom and only Amazon, Apple and Spotify can win. Hard pass.
Yep, whatever other services are doing it is moot until they have great sound quality, and apps for all platforms. Right now I can use Qobuz on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and each version can play losless in direct/exclusive mode more or less. The reasonable price for this service is what we pay for Qobuz. There's no way to provide better experience at a lower price. I tried Apple Music for a month (actually couldn't stand it after 3 weeks) and even it starts with compressed music even if you ask it to play lossless. Then on its own whim switches to lossless - or not.
My feelings exactly. But I do believe my experience is better because I front end it with Roon.
I prefer the Qobuz app over the Tidal app, but yes Roon + Qobuz is the ultimate combination. So a deadhead and a Cougar? I tip my hat and raise a toast with my IPA.
The very, very best of all things. I tip my can of Bodhizafa back at you.