Streaming: Which Platform?

[camverton]

I used to use Qobuz via a node 2i but gave up with it because it kept dropping out. On changing to Tidal No more dropouts and I prefer the way music presented on the Node 2i app. Any difference in sound is too close to call to my ears.

 

[Paul_Riordan]

I agree. But I’ve only lost streaming access to a Qobuz album a couple of times, which is certainly irritating, but then I could always pay to download it if I wanted to. Same if I stop subscribing. But streaming lets me explore and enjoy so much music. Also I feel it is kind of right to pay for each listen, albeit a paltry amount, rather than go for a one off purchase. Be honest, how many cds have you bought that you’re never going to listen to again? And how many others will be part of your life till you pop your clogs? Why should they both cost the same?

I understand your points and like you I also use the streaming services to try new music (and then if I like it enough and think I'll listen to it multiple times I buy a download). Yes there are many CDs and downloads that I have listened to only once but it's great to rediscover in my collection several years later). I also understand the model of paying per listen but from what I understand the artist gets alot more of the money from the download than they ever would from me streaming. So in that context it costs me more money to download than to stream but the artists needs to be rewarded for their work. Sadly it is a reflection of the times that many people do not value music - streaming will get more expensive at some point if writing new music is to be a sustainable industry.

 

[Rosewind]

I have just taken out a 3-month free Spotify subscription to see what lossy music sounds like when it is not presented as "better than lossless" lossy MQA. I am waiting for Spotify HIFI if it ever materialises ...

I use streaming to discover new music.

Spotify have an impressive catalogue including even some old Danish (post)punk favorites of mine, like Moral on "Somewhere Outside" and Pære Punk - the first compilations of some Danish punk and post punk released on vinyl. For whatever reason I never got round to buying those two vinyls when they were originally released. Now I'm looking out for nice 1st editions of them on Discogs. I was probably too "sensitive" to listen to most of that music then. Some of it is very basic to put it mildly.

If my finances were a ok for the foreseeable, I would subscribe to both Qobuz and Spotify.

 

[jandl100]

I'm on Spotify now.

I started out my streaming adventure about 5 years ago with Tidal. Then tried Qobuz and Deezer. I found Tidal a bit brighter tonally than the others. Otherwise no difference.

A friend then nagged me into trying Spotify. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's the least bright of the services I have tried, and I find that the major difference.

Tidal ruined themselves for me when a significant % of the classical albums had their track order mixed up. Completely unacceptable.

I've been subbed with Spotify for a couple of years now, but I do have sanity checks every now and then. About 3 months ago I resubscribed to Qobuz and ran it in parallel with Spotify.
After the first few days of enjoying Qobuz's extra album documentation and the ability to search by record label I found I was preferring to listen to Spotify again.
I let the Qobuz sub lapse (I hadn't used it for the last 3 weeks of the month) and stayed with Spotify.

 

[Dave H.]

I'm on Spotify now.

I started out my streaming adventure about 5 years ago with Tidal. Then tried Qobuz and Deezer. I found Tidal a bit brighter tonally than the others. Otherwise no difference.

A friend then nagged me into trying Spotify. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's the least bright of the services I have tried, and I find that the major difference.

Tidal ruined themselves for me when a significant % of the classical albums had their track order mixed up. Completely unacceptable.

I've been subbed with Spotify for a couple of years now, but I do have sanity checks every now and then. About 3 months ago I resubscribed to Qobuz and ran it in parallel with Spotify.
After the first few days of enjoying Qobuz's extra album documentation and the ability to search by record label I found I was preferring to listen to Spotify again.
I let the Qobuz sub lapse (I hadn't used it for the last 3 weeks of the month) and stayed with Spotify.

If you’re finding music played from other services brighter than from Spotify, I’d suggest that that’s most likely down to a quirk of your replay system. There shouldn’t really be that kind of difference between services themselves.

If you’re happy, great, I just mention as something to bear in mind down the line if considering changing things.

 

[jandl100]

I've seen a few folks say that Tidal is 'a bit upfront' or 'edgy' or 'insistent'.
And I know some folks who prefer Tidal's sound to, say, Qobuz. And they generally prefer a brighter presentation.
So I don't think I'm alone in this.

Anyway, if others don't hear it that way, no worries!

 

[Dave H.]

I've seen a few folks say that Tidal is 'a bit upfront' or 'edgy' or 'insistent'.
And I know some folks who prefer Tidal's sound to, say, Qobuz. And they generally prefer a brighter presentation.
So I don't think I'm alone in this.

Anyway, if others don't hear it that way, no worries!

If anything I’ve usually read people saying that Tidal is warmer (only when using MQA streams, so a result of format/decoding, not the service itself on a like-for-like basis).

I have used Tidal and local files, plus airplay etc for some time and Tidal definitely is not brighter at all when used as a ‘built in’ (ie native in the streamer or via Tidal Connect) function for me. Playing the same thing via airplay vs ‘built in’, however, does make things seem somewhat less full bodied in my experience. Hence my comment that the playback chain may be involved if, for example, the comparison was Spotify Connect vs Tidal (or anything else) via airplay. Other variables are also available, obvs.

Hearing things differently is no problem of course, but comments on threads like this can get sometimes stuck in people’s minds as if they were objective evidence, so it seemed appropriate to push back a little.

The fact that I dislike Spotify for the way they pay artists (other services are poor too, but Spotify are the worst IME) is also a factor in wanting to respond, though it has nothing to do with SQ

 

[Hook]

Have Roon, and tried Tidal and Qobuz side by side for a couple of months. Kept Qobuz because it was less expensive, and the catalog was more to my liking. Have not noticed much, if any, difference in sound quality between CD and higher resolutions.

 

[Andrew C!]

Qobuz/Roon user. Tried Tidal, but couldn’t get on with it (it was a while ago). I use Qobuz most of the time offline via downloads on my iPhone 13 256gig using Bluetooth to the In car stereo…

I’ve also used Amazon and Spotify, but am used to Qobuz.