Good points, I may have to check it out!
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I have had Tidal Hi-Fi/Masters for several years and have been happy with it. Though I am currently trying Qobuz (free trial) and I have to say that I am in agreement regarding Qobuz sounding better then Tidal. The catalog is less than Tidal though hopefully that will catch up. I think what I am going to do is cancel Spotify (as I have that as well) and keep both Tidal and Qobuz.
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I went through about a month and a half of having both Tidal and Qobuz simultaneously. At the end, I ended up cancelling Tidal and sticking with Qobuz. Their library has been constantly growing, and I appreciate the consistently high quality of the Masters they carry. Generally if I plug any of their Masters into the loudness war website, they come up with consistently good DR levels.
On the side, I reactivated Spotify mainly to fill in gaps in my music library (particularly Indian Film music, which I listen to a lot).
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Are they running any special offers? I am on a short vacation from working starting tomorrow and I think I want to give them a shot over the next week and compare to amazon music HD?
What is the special? I was looking today and didnāt find one?
Hi @MRHifiReviews,
I know you asked Hansel the question regarding Qobuz, I just did the standard 30 day free trial and if you keep it itās 14.99 a month. As I did not see any other āspecial offersā either.
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14.99 is the special, I believe it used to be $20
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@mshenay
Thank you for the clarification.
@MRHifiReviews will appreciate this clarification as well.
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There was a special I believe in November where it was 12.99 for the first new 100,000 subscribers matching Amazon Music HD pricing but that either ended or they must have hit that 100,000 mark.
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Oh whoa what! 12.99 ok thatās boss.
Still Iām happy to pay 15!
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Iām going to download it and give it a test run and compare a/b to amazon to see what I think.
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Qobuz was( or is offering ) $15 a month if you subscribe before January 31st and for the first 100,000 members only.
Usually Qobuz is the more expensive of the three more popular HighRes services ( Tidal, AmazonHD and the former), regular price is about $21 or $22 a month at least at the moment I did the trial, this last September.
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I already know what youāll think about that A-B test!!! Is pretty clear and audible !!
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Does qobuz have multiple users on same account? With my tidal plan, my wife and father have their own accounts and they love it.
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Looks like one device at a timeā¦ just started doing A B testing vs Amazon music HD
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So I am curious what your thoughts are on this, I am A B testing Qobuz vs Amazon Music HD both streaming, Amazon Music HD claiming 192kz Ultra HD playback Grateful Dead āFriend of the Devilā off the American Beauty album and Qobuz is saying only 96kz possible, both of course 24bit, my initial impression is that Qobuz has a slightly noticeable higher volume level than Amazon Music HD. I am listening on 6XX with iFI XDSD as I am not at my desk. Can you confirm your experience?
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I just A B listened back and forth between the two streaming services Qobuz and AmazonMusicHD again āMotherboardā Daft Punk random access memories very little if any audible difference to me on a different set of headphones now 550XII with no NC on, I had to switch to closed back to not disturb anyone. Also listened to Sam Smith āHimā A B. Each service has different claimed or displayed quality levels this time Qobuz displaying better but audibly hard to distinguish. It will be interesting to do this at my desk with a more powerful amplifier and Dac as well as different headphones. So far other than a slight volume difference on one album I am not noticing a huge difference in quality between the two services on the the two sets of headphones I have tested. Both sound great.
Also interesting,
Amazon offers Amazon Unlimited Music HD prepaid for a year at $129 or $10.75 cost per month if prepaid per year and an amazon Prime member.
Qobuz offers a yearly subscription if prepaid for a year at $150 per year or $12.50 cost per month if prepaid per year for a limited time only through January 31st or the first 100,000 subscribers.
Tidal offers a $19.99 a month subscription price or $239.88 per year cost. I couldnāt find a yearly buy option but did find an article stating they sent out invites recently to existing customers to lock them in for $200 for the next year, still making them the most costly service.
Selection and availability wise each service claims something different with Amazon Music and Tidal both claiming Over 50 million tracks and a Qobuz claiming over 40 millionā¦
To add a little more info to this topic I reached out to Qobuz about their pricing model for a little more detail this was their response:
ā Hi,
Thanks for contacting Qobuz support. Iām happy to help. Iām happy to hear you are interested in our service. Prices are subject to change without notice.
One thing to keep in mind. Qobuz cannot offer prorated refunds on our annual plans. Please make sure that Qobuz is right for you before purchasing your upgrade.
Does this help? Donāt hesitate to let us know if you run into any further issues.ā
I have enjoyed listening to it so far although audibly I havenāt heard much difference between it and Amazon UltraHD tracks. I am however on my portable set up and not on my highest detail retrieving headphones/amp. A proper AB test at my desk will likely give me the answer I am searching for.
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This discussion did a very good comparison
Tidal vs quobuz
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Yup been following that one!
If you are in the US right now and serious about sound quality streaming the best deal is Qobuz at $14.99 a month. The lack of exclusive mode is audible on Amazon Music HD. Qobuz is more stable on Mac than Win 10 and depending on your computer you may notice occasional hiccups on playback using the Qobuz app on Windows.
You can eliminate the problem if you have it with Audirvana for $75. Roon also. Tidal is more stable on Windows right now than Qobuz but that might change this year, and Qobuz has been improving their catalog so fast I no longer need both Qobuz and Tidal.
Something Qobuz does that the competition does not is actually have customer service. The US product manager responds to questions and complaints on a thread at the Audiophile Style forum.
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