Tidal Max vs. Qobuz -- pro's and con's in 2024?

There’s been some chatter here about Tidal Max since Naim added support for it, but I’ve not seen a thead dedicated to comparing these two services. (If there is one Im sure @Richard.Dane can delete or merge.)

I’ve been a Qobuz subscriber for a couple of years ago, and in my musical listening experience it’s sounded as good to me as streaming from my in-home server (Roon Nucleus). I’ve been happy with Qobuz and thus use it at home for ‘critical listening’ as well as in my car and whilst traveling.

I’m interested in hearing peoples’ perceptions of the two services. . . . and will take any ‘X sounds better than Y’ reports with a grain of salt as such can be due to different versions and psycho-acoustic bias as much as technology, and I know of no technology-based reasons that one should sound better than the other (but if they exist I’m sure I’ll learn of them here).

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If you want to support artists then Qobuz pays them more.

Source https://www.lalal dot ai/blog/how-much-streaming-services-pay-artists-in-2024/

replace “dot” with a “.” and remove spaces.

:small_blue_diamond:Qobuz: $0.022 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:Napster: $0.019 - $0.021 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:Tidal: $0.013 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:Deezer: $0.0064 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:Apple Music: $0.0056 - $0.0078 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:Spotify: $0.00437 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:Amazon Music: $0.00402 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:SoundCloud: $0.0025 - $0.004 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:YouTube Music: $0.0007 - $0.0012 per stream

:small_blue_diamond:Pandora: $0.00069 per stream

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Perhaps sign up for a free trial on Tidal and judge for yourself?

I ran a 30 day Qobuz trial recently and found that for my tastes there was more hi-res content which also sounded better than Tidal High. However, I wasn’t really comparing like with like, and the trial expired just as the new firmware came in for Tidal Max, so I wasn’t able to compare hi-res content. I have currently stayed with Tidal and will see how I like the new firmware. So far I like it.

It’s not really as straightforward as that, this can vary from country to country, what licensing setup you have and the distributor you use.

To the OPs query, I have recently ceased Qobuz and transferred back to Tidal. My primary reason was I preferred the sound from Tidal Connect on my Naim NDX2, over regular Tidal Max or Qobuz.
On Tidal I prefer the curation and discovery services, and playlist suggestions on what you choose to listen to… it intelligently splits into lists such as EDM, orchestral classical, English folk, electronic (my current examples)
Tidal Connect also allows you to publish and consume playlists to Tidal members… which is fantastic, it brings a human element to it all.
My only criticism of Tidal is that it’s still too US centric by default, such as the regular Tidal themed playlists. The idea of US folk is a world away from British folk and English folk for example… but Tidal Connect can be ‘trained’ to get over that.

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Probably not but when it comes to assessment of payments to artists Qobuz consistently comes top. Paying a fair amount for music ensures we have new music. At the moment, only the dinosaur acts and a few big current acts make enough money from streaming. Qobuz whilst paying more, still doesn’t pay enough.

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yep - I am certainly not a dinosaur - more a small tadpole - and I get very little from streaming, downloads however pay rather well. Qobuz does offer downloads, along with Apple and some others.
If you like the track, EP or album, I heartily recommend you get the physical if available, or purchase the download and put in your NAS… that is the best way to support real world musicians

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Qobuz like Bandcamp has increased my vinyl buying. In the past, I would hear a song and think I liked it but wonder about getting the LP, I can now listen to it and will then buy it if I like it enough, there is lots of great new music out there if you go looking for it. The only downside is that I am about to run out of rack space for new LPs.

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And I forgot to say above, Tidal’s classical music library is very poor compared to Qobuz… that is an irritating downside. I tend to use my NAS for quite a lot of classical now

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It also depends on whether you just want to stream or whether you want to purchase downloads. I like Qobuz for the ability to buy a download if I really like something. Tidal doesn’t give you that option

I’m on Tidal. Sound wise, Qobuz has a spot in greater quality for my taste, especially in separation of different instruments and sounds. But.

Until the long time pending Qobuz Connect comes out, I cannot control my MuSo 2nd gen from my Windows client (I can do with Tidal). While there is less high-res in Tidal, there is a slightly larger catalogue for genres I do listen to, and are not Jazz or Classical. Curated and automatic playlists as well as discovery ones are fitting my tastes better than Qobuz. Works natively with Mercedes, and has monthly payments at same cost as yearly subscriptions on Qobuz, for peace of mind if I want to switch tomorrow.

Ultimately, for habits around Album / predefined Library I’d recommend Qobuz. You know what you want, you get it at best with native device app. For casual listeners that likes to explore genres but like high quality, and want to use one single app, Tidal is more fitting.

My 2 cents.

But you can buy from Qobuz even if not subscribing a streaming plan, as far as I know.

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Absolutely you can… my Qobuz download account is active, but I have finished my streaming subscription. It costs nothing to keep your download account active, and your downloads are there to re download should you need.

True but if you have a Sublime subscription for streaming, you save money on Hi Def downloads. They are then cheaper than the CD quality version (or at least the ones I have bought have been).

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I have no issue finding a huge classical offering from Tidal. Sometimes I have to search a little off field but they are usually there when I look. And very up to date too.

Hmm… many releases just are not on Tidal, but are on Qobuz and Apple Music. Tidal seems to have a lot of classical compilations and more generic style classical recordings… and less popular composers seem to be less well presented. Roon seems to confirm this as well. Glad you are finding what you want.

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Hopefully most, but no longer all for many.

I ditched Tidal in favour of Qobuz a while ago. It wasn’t transparent but you used to be able purchase lossy or CD quality downloads from Tidal, has that changed?

It’s tough to beat the Sublime subscription for me and I’ve purchased over 1K albums since subscribing to Qobuz. I prefer the SQ of Qobuz to Tidal but haven’t tried Tidal Max. I also preferred the CX of Qobuz to Tidal esp with regard to finding hi res files. I expect Tidal has made some changes since I last subscribed and I’m sure it’s improved now but I have no compelling reason to switch.

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It’s tempting to give Tidal another go, but as my Qobuz Sublime sub renewed a couple of weeks ago I can wait.

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So you can just log in to Qobuz, unsubscribe thus cancelling your subscription’ and monthly charge but you can still log in to Qobuz and download previous purchases and make new ones?

Sorry if I’m being a bit dim……

ATB, J