Anyone not switching from Tidal to Qobuz?

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23 hours ago, crenca said:

Interesting feedback.  My plan was to move away from Tidal to Qobuz because of MQA, though having my wife on the family plan was going to make that difficult.  Now that Qobuz is an MQA streaming partner (even if unofficially), I am not sure what I am going to do when Qobuz comes off beta.  I will certainly subscribe for a few months at least for a compare...

 

If by "MQA streaming partner (even if unofficially)" you mean they got stuck with some 16/44.1 albums in MQA CD format because 2L won't provide those any other way, then I wouldn't worry about it. The Hi-Res versions of those same 2L albums will show up on Qobuz soon, after some kind of distributor licensing transition is sorted out.

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On 2/15/2019 at 9:33 AM, Samuel T Cogley said:

If someone has information on the prevalence of UMG audible watermarking on Qobuz vs. Tidal (i.e., Qobuz has less or none), I'll drop my Tidal subscription right now.  Otherwise, what's the point?  The material will sound just as awful on Qobuz.

 

I've seen reports that UMG albums on Qobuz do not have watermarks.

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19 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

That's very good news!  Can you point me to any additional information?

 

Here's the most recent report I've seen comparing UMG albums for watermarking on the two services:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/qobuz-lossless-streaming-service-thread.856101/page-26#post-14752580

 

And here's a comparison of an album from another label:
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/55468-tidal-or-qobuz-which-sounds-better/?tab=comments#comment-923891
 

 

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4 minutes ago, andrewmg said:

I've had Tidal for a few years now, and just recently added Qobuz, spurred by its US debut and Roon integration. 

 

So far as SQ and ease of use in Roon is concerned, the two are identical. But there are two other reasons why, for me at least, Tidal wins out:

 

First, its US catalogue is vastly superior to Qobuz's for indie rock and obscure rock issues from the late 1960s and 1970s. It really isn't a contest--almost none of the dozen or so albums that I liked most from last year are on Qobuz--e.g., Ty Segall, Oh Sees, etc. And, so far, there have been zero albums that I couldn't find on Tidal that were available on Qobuz. (Spotify has a better catalogue still, but no lossless and no Roon integration.)

 

Second, I use Tidal's Mac app at the office, and it really outshines Qobuz's in terms of speed, ease of use, and possibly SQ--Qobuz's app is glitchy and doesn't support taking control of a sound output. (Listening to some Big Star the other day, I was shocked by how much fuller it sounded through Tidal, to the point that I could only wonder whether I was listening to different version--the apps do not make it easy to figure this out.) The Qobuz app does look better, though, and doesn't bury reviews and other information. But, for listening, for now, Tidal reigns. 

 

Qobuz USA is in beta. Qobuz reps have repeatedly posted here that they are working on expanding the catalog, and on upgrades to the desktop apps. Meanwhile, I find what Qobuz does have to be superior in sound and presentation.

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21 minutes ago, daverich4 said:

 

I’m under the impression that they’re out of Beta in the US?

 

If you'll look at the ad at the top of this page or go to the Qobuz US website, you'll see the word "beta" next to the logo. What ended was the closed beta. 
 

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13 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

A quote that I remember from the heyday of spammers: "Sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice".

 

I'm aware that 2L apparently gave them all MQA versions of their catalog.  No idea what happened there.  But I still haven't found any watermarked material on Qobuz.  If incompetence is the reason, I'll take it!

The question of why there may be no watermarked material on Qobuz is sort of like a Rorschach test: in the absence of information, we're just making stuff up and basing it heavily on our own personalities. But as you say, regardless of the reason, I'll take it!

 

Re 2L, to save you wading through about 15 pages in another thread, here's my understanding:

2L delivered albums to Qobuz in "MQA CD" format, which they also call "MQA16 in WAV 16-44". Those albums play through the Qobuz app at 16/44.1 resolution. The Audirvana app also plays them at 16/44.1, not detecting and decoding them due to the way they are tagged in metadata.

It was a surprise to Qobuz management and everyone else when, after Roon integration, Roon began detecting those as MQA albums via a deeper scan, and then decoding them. Learning of this via user posts here on AS, the Qobuz folks investigated. After determining that 2L will not offer those albums in Redbook 16/44.1, they asked the label to more clearly tag each track as MQA.

Also, there are no 24-bit Hi-Res tracks from 2L on Qobuz, but 2L management has stated that those will be available on Qobuz for download (not streaming, as I understand it) after a temporary third-party distribution business transition.