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Tidal or Qobuz - which sounds better


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AFAIK/AFAIConcerned: I think it depends on the recording you are listening to and with ROON (if you have it gives a choice of versions to try for both Qobuz and TIDAL plus your embedded library) so can do a/b/c/ comparisons

At times TIDAL sounds ‘better’ especially MQA(just my subjective opinion I am not advocating it and don’t understand ‘watermarks’) other times more often than not Qobuz sounds a lot better especially ANY albums marked HiRes BUT my hundreds of playlists that I transferred from TIDAL to Qobuz via Soundiiz some MQA albums play in HiRes ie 24/88 96 or 192!!?? And sound great.

The game changer is using ROON or better yet Audirvana +3 and that also to my ears improves the SQ more than anything especially A+3-also it depends on your DAC I switch between ME E2 and first generation Gungnir the Schiit at times sounds a lot better than than ME E2- but all of this is totally subjective to one’s ears-ie ‘what ever floats your boat’

On the other hand I have many DVD-A and SACD albums that I USED to listen to via 2005 yamaha dvd dvd-a sacd  cd changer with Outlaw ICBM-1 bass manager that blow away anything you can get streamed especially GD studio albums(dvd-a) and the Stones(sacd) but too much trouble digging them out and putting them back! 

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  • 10 months later...

Happy New Year y'all try this if have both services and both 'players'(A+3.5+ & ROON) and probably any comparable set as mine below then do A/B comparisons.

I have a brand new Schiit Yggdrasil GS an older ME2 and brand new Schiit Ragnarok 2(just the amp so it has 3 RCA inputs).

The ME2 is connected from USB on late 2012 mac mini i7 16GB RAM then out by the RCA  speaker outlet to the amp

The Ygg GS is USB(GEN6USB) out from the Mac then RCA to the amp.

I have hundreds of playlists I originally made on TIDAL and Qobuz plus some from Spotify/Deezer(transferred more or less successfully via sounddiz premium) and my iTunes library 800 cds sacds dvd-a's successfully added by A+3 to the 'legacy itunes library' and to ROON and surprisingly into TIDAL/Qobuz more or less.

So I do A/B comparisons (IF I can keep straight which one I am listening to so i keep a list)

I listen via Sennheiser HD 598's or RS-195's via headphone output on the amp(which is ONE SCHIITLOAD of a headphone amp) or to my new Legacy Audio Studio HD monitors( thanks to my CFO who allowed this 'last rodeo'/system) after ALLOWING her to spend some of my retirement deferred comp to do 2 bathrooms a kitchen and repaint and refurnish a dining and livingroom!!

I agree with both  @AudioDoctor and @bobflood hard to tell which sounds 'better' at times Qobuz wins hands down and TIDAL really just sounds  too loud especially MQA  BUT with A+3.5+ both sound even better and in ROON almost as good(but its interface metadata and RADIO really influence how it sounds to me in it's new version)

Finally the kicker is I unretired a Yamaha cd dvd-a sacd changer optical out to the Schiit DAC RCA out to the amp AND a Harman/Kardon HDCD changer RCA out to the amp(great for the Dead's recordings) and compare discs to streaming music---THEY(discs) win hands down(but not enough to give up the ease of streaming) but who wants to find the discs take them out load the changers and then take them out and put them away??

bobbmd

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  • 4 weeks later...

@Tinnitus Andronicus & @Calvin & Hobbes Agree with both of you but am keeping both because for me they sort of back each other up for the hundreds of playlists/favorites, 10's of thousands of tracks etc I have on both and because if one doesn't have something the other does and each has its own unique qualities and faults. That said both ROON and A+3.5+ sound better when playing either one of the 2 services BUT... and this is a big 'but'(and I don't have one FYI)--- CD's DVD-A's SACD's played through my 2 changers are far more superior than anything but who wants to dig those discs out then put them away(I just keep my Dead discs around to play through the HDCD changer and my combo changer for SACD and DVD-A)??? They all go through my same system either USB to the DAC or optical to DAC and one changer directly into my amp. Alas it's all subjective and all sounds *Schiitily* good to me.

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  • 2 months later...

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