I’ve yet not found a single album lacking going from Tidal to Qobus. Could you list say 10 albums?
Btw, What Hifi might be one of the most biased magz out there. I never trust what they write…
3 Likes
I have all releases on CDs and vinyl, but serves to illustrate that it is still possible to stumble onto pretty large unexpected gaps
1 Like
Although I don’t have a full Qobuz streaming subscription, I do have a Qobuz login (courtesy of the fact that I occasionally purchase downloads from them) that allows me to log into Qobuz via Roon. In this way I can see album versions available from Qobuz via Roon, although I can’t play them.
I suppose it is possible that I don’t see the full Qobuz catalogue via Roon, but I doubt it. My everyday musical tastes have changed somewhat since I subscribed to Roon, and I listen to a lot of music these days that I would have previously classified as ‘obscure’. Maybe this accounts for the gaps?
Here are a few examples:
Eric Tingstadt - ‘Electric Spirit’ (Some of his other albums are available on Qobuz)
Vestbo Trio - ‘Gentleman’ (they have 4 albums on Tidal, none of which appear to be on Qobuz)
Cowboy Junkies - ‘Ghosts’
Keb’ Mo’ - ‘Live - That Hot Pink Blues Album’
Ronnie Earle & the Broadcasters - ‘The Luckiest Man’ (I have a few of their albums in my Roon library and none of them appear to be on Qobuz)
Delbert McClinton - ‘Room to Breathe’ (some but not all of his albums are available on Qobuz)
Beth Hart/Joe Bonamassa - ‘Don’t Explain’
The Cate Brothers - ‘Radioland’
Imelda May - ’ Life Love Flesh Blood’ & the extended version of ‘Tribal’
Susan Tedeschi - ‘Just won’t burn’ or ‘Wait for me’
Amythyst Kiah & her Chest of Glass - ‘Amythyst Kiah & her Chest of Glass’
Jesse Colin Young - ‘Song for Juli’ (many of his albums appear to be missing from Qobuz).
This list is not extensive or structured in any way, but I have tried to make it reasonably eclectic and include some fairly mainstream examples as well as the more obscure.
1 Like
Are you sure? That sounds unlikely; be interested in your source. Databases are not the easiest things to ‘dump’
Roon COO Danny Dulai, (at)Danny, on the Roon forum:
Integration of Amazon Music High Resolution - #336 by danny - Feature Requests - Roon Labs Community) [Oct '19]
We’ve had discussions with Amazon Music about an integration but they haven’t agreed to anything. Roon’s streaming service integrations require more than an API, which is what most services provide. We need daily catalog database dumps from partner services, and providing them requires some resources to implement and maintain.
(according to some other post, this is also the reason why new releases on Qobuz don’t appear immediately in Roon)
1 Like
Thank you for that source - interesting -
It makes me curious on how exchange occurs - perhaps a private high capacity interface providing the database deltas.
That’s what I think as well.
Edit: Probably also one of the reasons that a Roon Core is required. If it could be done by the streaming service’s remote API (and with sufficient performance), one would think an app could make the calls directly
I rejected Tidal due to its limited Frank Zappa offering. Quobuz has over 200 FZ albums. I have not found any significant gap yet.
The thing about reissues in Hi Res nobody mentions is that the albums are remastered as well so you are not comparing the same mixes.
You are also buying their cataloguing systems and album info. which should be major points of differentiation but Naim ignores this and sources its own data but not very well.
Also the AI varies. Spotify was very intrusive and its suggestions never relevant. QB’s AI does not impose itself and the new releases it suggests to me each week are often interesting. And its not American, hooray.
“Artist” needs to distinguish between conductor, composer, celebrity soloist etc. and the genre filter needs to work on the QB app as well as the pc.
How many people pay for 2 subscriptions? There is an almost total overlap so that seems mad. So far I have not had to access my own music library but just stream from QB.
The Naim app seems predicated on people having several sources but if you only have one eg QB you shouldnt need Naims app. And adding Roon so you have 3 different programs involved gives further complications and expense.
However you do as QB doesnt seem to Chromecast to Naim for reasons QB have yet to identify
1 Like
I wouldn’t pay for two subscriptions any more. At one point I had Spotify and Apple music, when I had only in car and phone based streaming options. Since buying a domestic streamer I settled on Tidal and cancelled the others. Tidal has Android Auto support so that worked out. I might try Qobuz at some point, but not in addition to Tidal, and likely only after adding a streamer to my main system. Tidal is doing fine on my UQ1 - which does TV duties too, and means my Iotas aren’t really optimally placed to benefit from any improvement in SQ. Any gaps in Tidal’s catalogue I’ll fill with a CD or vinyl. Lucky to have all three options available I guess 
Well in addition to needing the Naim app for initial setup, if you have a compatible Naim amp you can benefit from the system automation feature letting you switch inputs and control the volume from the Naim app.
A lot of Roon’s slick functionality relies on how they do the metadata management across sources and translate between (e.g.) what Amazon means by ‘world folk’ and what Tidal means by ‘world folk’ - hard to do reliably on the fly via APIs. Without that ongoing effort a lot of the searching and linkage just wouldn’t work as well. Sometimes it’s easier to do if you have your own copy of the data…
I do wonder how much of the Roon subscriptions go on that metadata effort - its quite a differentiator so it probably makes good business sense, and might well act as a bit of the poison pill for takeovers. If the founders want to sell at any point though…
Focus Moving Waves was not on Qobuz last time I checked.
It is now.
As a diversion, didn’t want to start a new thread.
Do any forum members know whether all the music listed on Qobuz to purchase (download) is mirrored in the streaming service?
I currently have both Tidal and Qobuz 
(plus Apple Music for the family) On my setup, I do experience a slightly fuller sound from the Qobuz Hi-Res versions than I do with the Tidal 16/44.1 but that’s to be expected I guess. I would say the upside to Qobuz is the Hi-Res collection - if your favorite music is available in Hi-Res, then Qobuz is definitely worth exploring. If not, I haven’t been able to detect any differences, in timing or otherwise between Tidal and Qobuz, despite what the WhatHIFI review says. Of course MQA is immaterial, given Im on a Uniti Nova.
The other plus side of Tidal which Qobuz doesn’t have is Artist and Track Radio. In my (very subjective and humble) opinion, the Tidal Radio is way better than Roon Radio.
Both good services in their own right and I continue to worry about how they will survive given the big boys are stepping into the HiFi space. I do hope they continue to get enough traction in the marketplace and I’m doing my smallish bit by subscribing to both 
4 Likes
When Qobuz came with direct Naim integration I switched over to Qobuz. As I am avid buyer on Qobuz I benefit from the discount level. And it’s of course also due to integration easier to pre-test albums etc.
I am not a heavy streaming user as even mobile I like to play from my local storage 1.2TB.
However if the discount option wouldn’t exist I would most probably switch back. I found sound quality on standard cd level better (at that time high res wasn’t yet offered) and the collection was more complete and valuable for my needs.
1 Like
After a long time I decided to try Qobuz. I like the platform (if I don’t consider how unstable it is, I get many seconds skipped and even a long buffer won’t help. I often hear clicks too), but soundwise, I find Tidal better.
Qobuz gives a bit more enphasis to the middle range in my opinion, Tidal sounds a bit cleaner.
Is it only me to have this perception?
However Tidal seems to apply a sound equalization according to some reviews, indeed I found differences comparing flac files to streamed tracks. Did anybody experience that?
I think Quobuz sounds marginally better. I’ve been back and forth with Tidal for a month or so now (full MQA dac). Quobuz app is dreadful though and neither is any good for music discovery.
I’ve also been running Lossless Apple Music for the last week or so and I couldn’t swear the difference isn’t placebo. I think that both tidal and quobuz’s business model is in trouble if Apple open up AirPlay to 24/96 or higher and Spotify follow suit…
1 Like
Qobuz has a fuller more satisfying sound to my ears, even though at my age they’re made largely of cloth. The clincher for me is that as well as sounding better Qobuz is available for a one off £149 p.a. as opposed to £19.99 a month for Tidal. I’m happy to save £90 and not have a monthly payment going out.
1 Like
@KiwiMarra Why does Qobuz sound better for you? How would you compare it to Tidal?
I agree both platforms aren’t great for music discovery in the end.
@HouseholdNaim Qobuz has a fuller sound to me as well. Fair point about the price, I can’t argue with that.