As I might be spending quite a LOT of time at home over the next month (or more aargh!) - Is there any definitive view of Tidal vs. Quboz here? I’m happy with Tidal but now that Quboz features in the app i’m open to change before I get too entrenched with Tidal which i’ve only used for 6 months or so. As we’re all no doubt going to be bored out of our minds for the next month or so i’m planning on going on a major musical safari and building playlists so looking to back the right horse.
I find the Tidal interface to be perfectly fine to be honest so primarily interested in SQ differences … Not sure that a lot of the stuff i listen to is Hi Res so not sure that that would be a major reason to switch
They all have free trials, so you can try Qobuz for yourself. I’ve had a Tidal sub since the day Naim first added Tidal integration to their streamers, but I cancelled it today to jump to Qobuz. I prefer it for sound quality, and now that they’ve dropped the price it’s definitely the way forward for me.
You can switch back at any time, so it’s no big deal if you change your mind.
I prefer Qobuz for the sound quality and the playlists are more to my taste. Plus Tidal seems to be aimed at a much younger demographic audience where as Qobuz is a streaming service for grown ups IMO.
I think you just have to do the Qobuz trial and compare.
I’ve used Qobuz for several years and think it’s great, but have also done a cheap Tidal trial - Tidal is also very good but the music ‘on show’ in terms of new release etc is not really my kind of stuff.
There are several albums I’ve streamed both on Tidal and Qobuz, and I generally prefer Qobuz sound quality, sometimes by quite some way, though I’d have to admit that it’s not always the case and a few Tidal versions have sounded more pleasing.
Give Qobuz a whirl, you’ll either find it better or not.
I tried Tidal with free trial, while also doing free trial of Qobuz. Qobuz has better sound quality and better choice given my musical preferences (primarily classical and jazz). I have used Qobuz for well over a year and am more than satisfied.
I have both and haven’t used Tidal for months.
I only listen to HR, downloads or Qobuz, occasionally Core ripped CDs.
Qobuz is a no brainer now with update 3.4 and its native integration of highest SQ.
Goodbye Tidal, goodbye Roon and thank you. It has been fun.
Using both at the moment. I had taken advantage of the 1 year subscription for Tidal 12 months for the usual price of 10 months. Certainly like the 24 bit streaming on Qobuz.Still can’t organize favorites in any way that makes sense though but expect that it will come soon.likely stick with Qobuz only after Tidal subscription complete.
When will the Naim App allow access to the original album booklets pdf’s instead of the so poor Rovi pages? Is it a Naim App developer issue or a Qobuz configuration question?
A short trial of Qobuz was enough to persuade me to cancel Tidal. I agree with the comments of others about sound quality and feeling more at home with Qobuz’s musical focus. Even if one brought into the MQA thing it was often very difficult to be sure what file one was using on Tidal. If there’s a high res file on Qobuz it’s obvious. I also prefer Qobuz’s off line app and the simplicity with which one can decide what resolution to download. The latter’s meant I’ve finally abandoned iTunes on the iphone.
I recently switched from Tidal to Qobuz. I probably only have a proper music sesh 2-3x per month (pre coronavirus isolation), and felt I wasn’t getting value from Tidal hifi. I also didn’t find their platform helped me find much new music. And I grew to hate their iOS app, which on the rare occasions I needed to make use of Downloaded content, would have lost it all). So as soon as Qobuz went native on Naim, their pricing combined with their reputation was a big attraction.
I’m a bit used to the Frenchness of Qobuz because I endured Deezer hifi for a while. I previously switched from Deezer > Tidal because at the time I was streaming Deezer via a Sonos Connect, and the interface kept serving up weird French music I had no interest in.
Then I changed my entire system and stuck with Tidal because it was natively supported on Naim. But I never felt the platform and I were a great fit. I don’t think Tidal Rising has ever served me a gem.
It’s early days with Qobuz, but I’ve no sense of loss from ditching Tidal. They’re pretty close in my experiences so far.
Hi Chag,
I also had the same question concerning album booklets and contacted Naim support. Here is their response:
"Hi, thank you for your e-mail. Currently you are correct it is not possible to access the booklets. This is something we are looking to address in a later update. Currently there is no time scale as to when this feature will be available. "
So… guess we just have to be patient. In the meantime, and as a workaround, I open both the Naim app and the Qobuz app on my iPad. After selecting an album in the Naim app and playback starts on my Nova, I toggle over to the Qobuz app, find the same album, and open the album screen. If the booklet is available I open it and enjoy the read. Not a great solution, but better than nothing.
Alternatively, the Audirvana App supports playback on my Nova, integrates Qobuz and provides access to album booklets as available. Something you might want to check out.
Hi GOlson;
Thank you for sharing. I indeed do the same thing and open the Qobuz App when I want to check the Booklet or even go to their website when I want to check what press awards an album has received.
Cheers.
Thanks guys for all of your replies! I’ll try the trial version of Quboz and give it a whirl. Interestingly though i was chatting to my dealer yesterday and he said that Tidal’s catalogue was probably more up my street (electronica, house, hiphop etc.) but that Quboz had the edge with Jazz / Classical … i shall explore and see if that stacks up!