Qobuz or Tidal?

I have Qobuz and Bandcamp for buying downloads.

I got the Cure deluxe cd with the blu ray disc. I ripped the audio using MakeMKV to decrypt the disc which creates a folder on your hard drive, then DVD Audio Extractor to extract the audio files as flac. All very simple to do. On Windows at any rate, no idea what youā€™d need on a Mac. I did post in the Cure album thread that I find the 24/96 flac files from the blu ray sound better than whatā€™s on Qobuz so it is worth doing if you can. In my opinion of course.

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When I said ā€˜failedā€™ I really meant ā€˜couldnā€™t be botheredā€™!
Iā€™m a bit of a nerd when it comes to these things so I always need the correct track listings and artwork and it was simply going to take me too long so I think I have given up.
Hence the enquiry about hi res streaming.
Thanks for you thoughts - much appreciated.

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DBpoweramp makes it pretty easy ā€¦.

Easy, yes, but time consuming. Even if dbPoweramp can rip a CD in an average of 6 minutes, thatā€™s 10 per hour so 2000 CDs will take 200 hours to rip. Even 4 hours a day spent ripping will take over 7 weeks to get through!

Fair point :grinning:

I found Tidal Max and Qobuz comparable for similar masters, though as cloud streamers they both it appears adopt slightly different LUFS processing levels which can subtly affect the audio as presented by the Streamer/DAC.

However I have found Tidal Connect slightly preferable overall compared to Tidal Max and Qobuz - so that is what I tend to use now.

This is with NDX2 feeding a DAVE DAC

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Ive tried a back to back comparison between Tidal and qobuz at least three times and have concluded each time that the latter sounds better.

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Pretty much what I did. Innuos made it easy but you can either treat it as a tedious task or an opportunity to remind yourself of what you have.

I did rip 2,000+ cds (to a Unitiserve) but rarely use it now.

Iā€™ve only got a Mu-so so sound variance is not an important consideration between the two.

Availability of music (jazz, in my case) is similar and in some cases identical.

However I much prefer the way Tidal is organised, especially for music Iā€™ve favourited.

Ripped CDā€™s are the best for CD quality music, I subscribe to both Tidal and Qobuz. I have a lifetime Roon membership, and seem to be having issues tonight logging on to either streaming service using Roon? Any one else with similar issues?

Have had both, Qobuz for longer and simply prefer it not least for the fact that I want to support this innovative French outfit rather than the big service supported/partially controlled by big artists.

In an ideal world Iā€™d have both but cost cutting made me ditch Tidal as I was barely using it, same for Roon. We also have Apple Music Family mainly for the youngsters.

The Qobuz desktop app is also fantastic IMHO, and their downloader app for purchases has matured into a very good one.

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I ripped my cdā€™s to a Synology nas using MinimServer without any issues and playback is excellent.
I also stream via Qobuz now for about 4 years after being with Tidal. Would not change back as Qobuzā€™s sq is far better and the app is excellent.

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Qobuz since the 13 March 2014ā€¦ where did that decade go?
Have been very happy with them, and its one of the few things that has got a lot cheaper over timeā€¦

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Thank you all very much for your thoughts ā€¦ even if this was a similar thread to a previous one I did look, honestly), itā€™s amazing how much information people are willing to contribute.
One final question if I may.
Am I right in saying that Tidal no longer offers a purchase option?
Thanks again
cg

Thanks SC
If I were to dip my toe in this BR pool with minimal investment (say a couple of hundred quid) presumably it would connect to NDX2 using a digital input.
The options according to Naim are:
Digital inputs :
2 x optical TOSLink (up to 24bit/96kHz)
1 x coaxial RCA (up to 24bit/192kHz, DoP 64Fs)
1 x coaxial BNC (up to 24bit 192kHz, DoP 64Fs)
I guess the easiest and best quality combination would be the 1 x coaxial RCA (up to 24bit/192kHz, DoP 64Fs) but I may well be missing something - which would you suggest I use please?
(This is only going to be used as 2 channels - not surround sound of any type)
Thanks
cg

Yes, personally I would go the Co-ax route (as you point out you get the extra resolution), as to whether RCA vs BNC itā€™s mostly down to preference and obviously what the units have ā€“ one thing I have seen mentioned often is to avoid the cheap BNC adapters that are available (and Naim even supply!), so ideally decide and stick to a cable that is terminated with the particular typeā€¦

If the BD player output is setup correctly, your NDX2 will be acting as the DAC and the theory goes that the player (transport) then has very little influence on the resulting audioā€¦Itā€™s a debate it seems!
Thereā€™s actually a somewhat relevant thread re CD > DAC on the forum presently, may be of interest:

May be worth a page to @Richard.Dane as he has knowledge and tested various scenarios re TOS and Co-ax etcā€¦

Re BD players, not sureā€¦I guess the choice is somewhat dictated by your chosen digital output preference and whether the player has it or notā€¦Thereā€™s slim pickings these days re ā€˜audiophileā€™ BD playersā€¦plenty of lower end players, though not all have digital output other than HDMIā€¦You can never go wrong with a Sony, though Iā€™m not sure what the current model range is at presentā€¦I would have suggested something like a Panasonic UB820 (if you could stretch to it) as itā€™s fairly regarded for audio output, but it only has TOS output, no Co-ax (though does have analogue 7.1 RCA, though not much use to you!)ā€¦

SC

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Good question as they definitely used to do so - from memory, maybe only up to CD quality when they were still using MQA for hi-res.

The Qobuz Sublime discounts on his-res (not CD quality) purchases are very attractive hence why I use that subscription tier.

How much better are they than the CD equivalents (if at all) is a whole other debate, but when hi-res purchases with Qobuz are often cheaper than CD quality, plus you could choose to download in CD quality if you buy hi-res you have several options with Qobuz. Maybe Tidal does too?

Tidal does not have a purchase option. You can download for offline listening but you donā€™t own the music and if you stop the subscription you will lose the music.

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Thanks
It does seem that the cheapest BR players only have HDMI output and although there are HDMI to Co-ax converters, by the time all that is added up incl cables, itā€™s probably better value to spend a bit more on a player with Co-ax output.
Iā€™ll have a look but Sony seem to have this arrangement on more players than most.
Iā€™ll enjoy the research.
Thanks
cg

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