Tidal or Qobuz - which sounds better

[Calvin & Hobbes]

Some thoughts from my experience listening via a Tidal HiFi trial and a Qobuz Studio Premier trial. I think Tidal have applied some equalization to boost the bass and treble of their music files. In the process, my perception is that the side effects of doing this is to take out some of the presence of voices and instruments and add an artificial quality to voices and instruments. I'm currently listening to a track that is a MQA file on Tidal vs a CD quality file on Qobuz. The CD quality file on Qobuz sounds a LOT fuller, more natural, and provides more detail to voices and instruments (timbre).

 

Not a big fan of hip hop, but decided to listen to something that is squarely in Tidal's area of focus. I listened to 'The Box' by Roddy Ricch which is a MQA file on Tidal and CD quality on Qobuz. Same results. The same track sounds fuller and has more presence on Qobuz than on Tidal. Almost sounds like two different recordings.

 

Qobuz sounds a LOT better than Tidal to me. Spotify Premium also sounds better...to my ears at least. Not to mention that Tidal's music suggestions for me have nothing to do with what I've been listening to.

[Calvin & Hobbes]

My notes on listening to Tidal vs Qobuz:

 

Qobuz vs Tidal: So far Qobuz is clearly better than Tidal even listening through pretty cheap desktop passive speakers. Tidal sounds very two dimensional and flat in its sound quality but with some harshness in the high frequencies. I'll listen a bit more to Tidal, but so far I'm not impressed at all. Spotify Premium even seems to sound better than Tidal. 

 

Some additional thoughts about Tidal after listening on higher quality equipment. I think they have applied some equalization to boost the bass and treble. In the process, I think side effects of doing this is to take out some of the presence of voices and instruments and add an artificial quality to voices and instruments.. Qobuz sounds a LOT better. Spotify Premium also sounds better. To my ears at least. (Disclaimer: Your results may vary). I'm currently listening to a track that is a MQA file on Tidal vs a CD quality file on Qobuz. The CD quality file on Qobuz sounds a LOT fuller and more natural. 

 

Not a big fan of hip hop, but decided to listen to something that is squarely in Tidal's area of focus. I listened to 'The Box' by Roddy Ricch which is a MQA file on Tidal and CD quality on Qobuz. Same results. The Qobuz file sounds fuller and has more presence. Almost sounds like two different recordings when listening on Qobuz vs Tidal.

 

This might cause some controversy, but from a musicality standpoint, I actually like Spotify Premium better than Tidal. I find that Spotify Premium's shortcomings are ones of omission which don't affect listenability while what I'm hearing from Tidal are errors of commission that for me make Tidal grating on my ears pretty quickly.