QoBuz High Res vs Tidal MQA

[shadowlight]

Jim,
I get couple of screen of albums but I am not 100% sure it they are all "acoustic blues".  What happens if you search for specific album/artist?  I am assuming you are not finding album that way either. 

[ejk]

Just signed up today. Theres pluses and minuses. Search feature in Tidal is better, I can type in "acoustic blues" and get what I actually ask for. Cant search genre in Qobuz unless I am doing something wrong. In fact I can hardly find any blues. The HiRes is nice but there is some stuff in Tidal that is not on Qobuz,

I can search genre in my blue sound node app on my phone haven't tried it directly from the Qobuz site

[jimbones]

My Lumin has Qobuz already on it and I search for a genre and it really doesn't know what to do. In Tidal I get shitloads of albums. I can search for Chicago Blues, Delta Blues, acoustic blues etc.

[ejk]

My Lumin has Qobuz already on it and I search for a genre and it really doesn't know what to do. In Tidal I get shitloads of albums. I can search for Chicago Blues, Delta Blues, acoustic blues etc.

Then I guess there's no reason to switch

[jimbones]

I am only doing the trial to assess SQ. I didn't realize the search feature wasn't so great. I have to live with it awhile.....

[Jack]

I've had a Tidal account for almost two and a half years and Qobuz for over a year and the SQ difference is usually not subtle.  As to the search feature I just went into the desktop app for both services and got pretty much the same result for both.  Specifically as to the "Blues" topic I searched both for Acoustic Blue, Electric Blues, Delta Blues, Mississippi Blues and Chicago Blues.  On both the albums you get back from your search have to have your Blues "qualifier" phrase in either the group or album title.  If any further refinement is possible that is probably the function of the specific Streamer app.  As to the content differences other than Tidal's heavy leaning towards the Hip Hop genre what is available otherwise will only when all the US rights agreements are signed and the final product could include more or less selections in each category than what is available in the EU market.  I personally always go to Qobuz first to find what I want and for one will be glad for the price reduction I will get with the pricing converting from Pounds to Dollars. 

On the subject of Blues artists and recordings, since the days following the demise of Chess Records many Blues artists have left the US for Europe to live, record and perform.  Many like the late Luther Allison only came back on rare occasions.  This is still true today with dedicated blues labels like Ruf Records in Germany and many young blues artists from all areas still go there to hone their performing and recording skills.  I as the result have found many an American and European blues artist on Qobuz that is not represented at all on Tidal.

[tmazz]

Jim I have to agree with Jack. I think the search issues you are having have more to do with the Lumin software that is interfacing with Qobuz than with the Qobuz service itself.

The search functionality within the Bluesound software has much to be desired in with both Qobuz and Tidal. With both services I tend to do my searching within the PC apps form each service and then save results to my favorites and and use the list to play from via the Node. Not the best solution, but it gets me by for now. Hopefully over time thie software will get better.

I am wondering if running both services through Roon would make them more user friendly. Can anybody out there shed some light on that idea?

[Jack]

If the Tidal search is made involving Roon and Lumin as opposed to just the Qobuz desktop app that may well account for the additional sorting that is being done.  Comparing apples to apples the results were the same.  My Lumin's not connected at the moment so I can't try it using the Lumin app and didn't bother trying it with Lightning DS or MControl HD.

Neither service has the similar artist flexibility as Pandora or even Spotify but the sound quality trumps that to me.

[jimbones]

Thats fine I can only tell you what I am seeing from my end. Im no expert on this, I only can tell you my observations. For some reason it looks like Lumin did a better job with Tidal than Qobuz. I thought it was a Tidal and Qobuz API on my Lumin. Roon may be the answer, all i have to do is cough up another 500 bucks. lol it's only money 

[JBNY]

I think the search features are largely a matter of how well they (roon, lumin etc) integrates with the streaming service. They all have to write search functions to work with the API's given to them, some do a better job than others. Most of the streaming services do a poor job when you input vague terms lie "Acoustic Blues" and much better jobs when you just search by Artist names. The best service for finding music for me is Napster (formally Rhapsody), they do not stream at anywhere near 16/44 (they top out at 320kbs) but they do allow you to browse by genre and they will give you the most popular albums and songs in even the most obscure genres. 

Thanks for the comparison on the Tidal vs Qobuz, I look forward to roon integration for Qobuz hopefully by the end of the year, and then I will check it out. I think Tidal already sound just about the same as a CD for streaming, it sounds like QoBuz has better masters that they are using for their hires music so that will be a welcome surprise.

[jimbones]

The reason I do vague searches is because I want to learn about the musicians in specific genres that I might like.

[wushuliu]

I've had a few hours time to compare Tidal to Qobuz (thank you shadowlight!). My main listening rig is packed away, so I am using a heavily modded ES9038Pro DAC and Sennheiser 599s from my PC. To my ears the two streamers most definitely do *not* sound the same. It's not a difference of masters/source as the presentation is consistent regardless of music. In fact I'd liken the comparison to certain types of DACs. Tidal leans neutral/cool whereas Qobuz is neutral/warm. Qobuz for sure comes across as more 'analog'. That said I'm not really which I like better. Tidal seems to have really engaging clarity in upper mids and treble without being harsh, whereas with Qobuz I am hearing slightly more prominent lower mids or conversely, a slight rolloff in high frequencies. Dare I say a little 'tubey'? If I was to guess with my gear which is the most 'neutral', it would be Qobuz. If I had my speakers setup for demo-ing I'd know for sure, but that won't happen anytime soon.

The reference to a 'house sound' seems accurate to me. I'd be curious to know why that is. Maybe the Qobuz team will shed some light and provide some transparency where Tidal and others have not.

But my biggest worry for Qobuz is the catalog. They do not have as many titles as Tidal. Tidal may *seem* hip-hop centric as far as marketing but they also have, for example, a massive discography for the classic rock band Heart. Qobuz does not, including one of my favorite albums. Tidal also has a massive collection of Yes titles, including original cd releases, not just recent remasters. Qobuz does not (however, Qobuz does have the Steven Wilson remixes which is pretty f'in cool). Lastly, I am a  fan of classical Indian music, e.g. Ravi Shankar/sitar, etc, and Tidal has a huge catalog of one of my favorite musicians whereas as Qobuz just has a few titles. That's a big deal for me. I would have thought Qobuz would have been the winner in that regard.

Hopefully, Qobuz will expand their catalog dramatically once they are officially in the U.S.. They have the potential to win over the majority of the audiophile market. Great sound quality.

w 

[tmazz]

W, great first post. Well thought out and informative. I look forward to hearing more from you in the future. I heard similar thing between the two service and will also be interested in seeing what the Qobuz US library ends up looking like. I wonder if some of the differences right now are driven by what is popular in the US vs the EU. Hopefully the Us version will launch soon and we will all know. There were all kinds of news articles on the net saying it would launch at Rocky Mtn, but that never happened and no news as to why or when the launch was moved to. Perhaps we will get some insight in two weeks at Capital Audio Fest.