Tidal v. Qobuz?

[luvdunhill]

Do both options have the same experience when used via Roon? Specifically, metadata, album art, etc.?

[Kerry]

I'm doing a trial on Qobuz just to see the difference.

From Roon they look pretty much the same.  Metadata, etc. is identical.  You can click on Tidal or Qobuz on the left side menu of Roon and they highlight different songs, but that's the only difference I noticed.

PS  Also, the catalogs are slightly different

Edited May 16, 2021 by Kerry

[JoaMat]

One thing that differs is that Qobus for some albums have a link to PDF album booklet, which I like. Else I haven’t thought much of differences between them.

[eggil]

If a lot of your listening is Classical, Idagio is great. Only CD quality though, so not for golden ears 😜.

I use it and Apple music and perfectly content.

[mikeymad]

So this may not be worthy of a thread resurrection, but I am wondering about any other experiences. 

I have been using, and happy with, TIDAL for around a year or so now. But now that I am using the Elon internets I have started to have issues with buffering. 

Apparently, from my research, TIDAL does not buffer that much data when streaming. I have dropouts with both my phone app and the windows app - I have not directly compared it to the browser version, I stopped using that a while ago.

Anyway with Startlink the internet is either on or off, and living amongst the trees causes it to drop more often that I would like. 

Example (line at the top is good):

So, my internet does not really slow down, it is binary, it just turns off.

What does this mean Mikey, and get to the question?

I am curious about Qobuz and if there is any experience about how much data it buffers to handle these types of outages. TIDAL can handle a few seconds but a 6-10 second drop, like the right hand side of the graph, nope it will stop the song, and sometimes freeze the app. Causing me to kill the app in the task manager, and say bad words. 

 

I would have no issues with switching to Qobuz, but only if it would have a better experience (i.e more data buffering). 

 

But any thoughts, experience, ideas would be appreciated. 

 

I already put the dish on a 33 foot pole, that helped get a lot more stable connection.  (ignore the DIY setup - just temp solution for testing)

[Grahame]

Download to cache locally, and play "offline" ? 

https://www.tidabie.com/guide/listen-to-tidal-offline.html#:~:text=Tap on My Collection.,tracks you want to download.  

Radio Paradise App let's you cache listening blocks.

Or how about local media, like those vinyl hipsters?

[robm321]

Qobuz has a setting where you can choose how much buffering you want. I'm surprised Tidal doesn't have that?

[mikeymad]

16 minutes ago, Grahame said:

Download to cache locally, and play "offline" ? 

https://www.tidabie.com/guide/listen-to-tidal-offline.html#:~:text=Tap on My Collection.,tracks you want to download.  

Radio Paradise App let's you cache listening blocks.

Or how about local media, like those vinyl hipsters?

Thanks G - The download would work for phone (just a bit less spontaneity) - but not for windows app unfortunately. I do serious listening more on the laptop than on the phone. I connect to real headphones. 

 

3 minutes ago, robm321 said:

Qobuz has a setting where you can choose how much buffering you want. I'm surprised Tidal doesn't have that?

Hmmm that would be nice. I might have to explore Qobuz more. Seems that there is an app for windows as well. 

I could try a Qobuz trial to see if that will work for me. I would pretty much max out any buffer that they would offer.  Time to search for a 90 day trial code.. :}

 

[Grahame]

Use phone as source with USB DAC, and "proper" amp / headphones ?

[mikeymad]

I did try that when I first got the iFi Audio Micro iDSD Signature Finale Portable Headphone Amp and DAC.

It worked, just not as convenient if I am also trying to use the phone for anything else for an extended period of time, or not fully charged. I thought I remember it not sounding as good as my laptop out, but would need to do a direct test.

But a free Qobuz trial wouldn't hurt as well to test all the variables. 

thx again

[Grahame]

Run the Android app, (on your laptop, rather than on your phone) on Windows? (Who makes non feature equivalent apps 🤬 ) 

/https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-run-android-apps-on-windows-11-3048569/

[mikeymad]

ha, TIDAL apparently.... 

[Torpedo]

I moved from Tidal to Qobuz like 5 years ago, no regrets. My reason was mainly the MQA fraud, I wanted lossless not a downconversion of "high resolution" lossy MQA. Whatever, to the point. I use Audirvana on a Mac which allows you to preset the buffer that you want to use before the music starts. I didn't have any issues neither with Tidal nor with Qobuz. Older Audirvana versions can be found. If you're a Windows user it's possible that Foobar or other audio programs that can handle online purveyors did the trick for you.

The other option is using the pre-download feature, as Grahame suggested.

[blessingx]

If you haven’t given Qobuz a try, I’d definitely recommend a go. It’s my favorite for overall catalog organization and discoverability. That said I believe the Head-Case solution would be a personal relay satellite you could control. 

[Dusty Chalk]

Thanks for reminding me.  My Tidal use has dropped way off, because it doesn't Scrobble on the mobile app, and I do love to Scrobble.  I should probably just temporarily cancel.  EDIT:  I downgraded.

Spotify allows you to download on the Windows app, FYI.  I should see about MacOS...

And yes, there are several features that are on the mobile app that are not on the desktop, and Scrobbling on the desktop and not on the app.

[mikeymad]

Thanks again. 

I do think I will give Qobuz a try, to see if their buffer can bridge the gaps in my downtime. I did see lots of reports of them sounding good, and lots of hate for TiDAL MQA debacle.

[Iron_Dreamer]

Let me know if you don't find a Qobuz code, I have contacts there I could reach out to and ask for one for you.

That said, I've found Qobuz to be not terribly reliable from a buffering standpoint, at trade shows, where even with an uninterrupted internet connection, our systems will often just get stuck "spinning" while waiting for more data, despite maxing out their buffer settings. Offline tracks have been the only reliable solution.

[mikeymad]

Thanks Peter, that is good to know. A trade show use case is a great test for what I experience. I would think that a 30 second buffer would be enough, but I like the fact that both the mobile and desktop versions of the app can buffer and download, if needed. 

I have not found a reliable code yet, so 'yes' I would be interested, but not critical. I am getting close to signing up. Please and thank you.

 

I downloaded Qobuz on my devices, and setup an account, but I have been just playing with settings and interface so far. 

Also checking content. 

Looking at 'new release' from TIDAL and Qobuz for Classical and Jazz to start with.

There is a good amount of overlap, but definitely some missing items on each side. 

Some of it is when it was released and when it was added. Some things show up with additional scrolling. No deal breakers here - (other than maybe Laufey=Jazz) 

If this does not work out - next step - personal satellite. 

[dsavitsk]

I haven't tried it, but there's a tool for moving from Tidal to qobuz

https://soundiiz.com/tutorial/tidal-to-qobuz

[blessingx]

How do the listed genres currently compare? Qobuz for instance had a separate Bluegrass category. I don't remember what Tidal did, but Apple Music just tosses everything under [Bro-]Country.  

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by blessingx

[mikeymad]

Thanks, I did see that in the FAQ - they seem to directly recommend it. 

I thought about starting from scratch - but I have around 500 albums in my queue, so I will probably transfer. I don't really use playlists. I am an old school hip young person, I listen to albums.

 

For Ric - Qobuz has fewer genres - but a lot of the TIDAL ones I don't really use. Neither have Bluegrass at this point.

Qobuz:

 

TIDAL:

[MexicanDragon]

Why hasn't anyone linked to a ROON thread?

[mikeymad]

I'll bite, why would they?

🤷‍♂️

[mikeymad]

So, I have been doing some testing for a little bit.

I signed up for the 30 day trial with the annual plan for Qobuz. And I have to say at this point I will not be renewing TIDAL in Feb.  Almost everything that I am experiencing - I am liking. 

Down to little things like being able to choose the Audio output mode. With the Wasapi (Exclusive) mode to bypass the windows processing.  And actually showing the bitrates - confirmed by the iFi bit rate colors. 

I transfered my collections over from TIDAL -- probably shouldn't have - my queue is over 600 albums to listen to.  And it lost the order in which they were added in TIDAL. 

The interface on the phone, tablet and windows app are all good. With some additional features to sort and subselect my album lists will help me out. I already discovered a few things in my album list that I forgot about in the TIDAL list. 

But the biggest feature being the music buffering. I maxed it out at 30 seconds and it also seems to do some additional imports of upcoming tracks to keep the music playing. And the payer shows how much it has buffered against the current playback position. I know that it seems like a little thing, but when you didn't have it before, it is nice to see.  Now with the Elon internets there still can be dropouts that are longer than its buffering, but it only happened once when there was a pause in the Qobuz playback. I was doing a lot of back to back listening comparisons with TIDAL and it dropped out 4 times in the same time frame. So I am at least 3x less frustrated. If I do find it to be an ongoing issue with Qobuz, I do have the option to download the tracks on all my devices. 

The only downside that I have seen so far is that not all that I want to listen to is in the Qobuz catalog. I know that both services have similar title counts, but they are different catalogs for sure. Out of my 600 or so albums in my queue there were more than a dozen that Qobuz didn't have. Now I am sure there are titles that are on Qobuz and not in the other, but it was noticeable. Not the biggest deal, but when Mikey wants to listen to something - he wants to listen to it!!! 

[robm321]

Qobuz was always the answer. You just had to find out for yourself.

It's not the most extensive catalog, but stuff is added weekly.

Doing the math: 600 albums, albums are ~ 1 hour each, so, 600 hours, factor in, wanting to listen to albums more than once, poop, eat, existential ponderings, cooking, eating, drinking, carry the 1, and you will get to the 12 albums it doesn't have when you are ~ 70 years old, and they will probably add them by then. 

Summary: Qobuz was always the answer. 

Edited January 19 by robm321