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I've heard that Qobuz offers higher quality high resolution streaming as compared to Tidal. I've only subscribed to Tidal so far as Qobuz isn't available up here. How much better is Qobuz as compared to Tidal. I don't want to get into the unavoidable MQA thing although my two DAC streamers can handle it fully I'd prefer native 24/192 if available. I guess I really haven't much of a choice. BTW my systems are all based on streaming as the sole source.
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Qobuz can be technically superior but the availability of 24/96 and 24/192 hi-res is limited compared to their 'standard' 16/44.1 CD quality. That being said, Tidal also has a great selection of 16/44.1 content. As for MQA, it's mostly smoke and mirrors IMHO so I ignore it.
I wouldn't be too concerned that you're missing out. When/if Qobuz becomes available for you, give it a try. I subscribe to both Qobuz & Tidal it's not like one is far superior to the other in terms of SQ.
" I've heard that Qobuz offers higher quality high resolution streaming as compared to Tidal. I've only subscribed to Tidal so far as Qobuz isn't available up here"
Yes Qobuz is certainly better technically. Tidal only offers 16/44.1 given that you don't want to be involved with MQA. Qobuz streams > 24/192 as FLACS which once decoded are native 24/192 (subject to provenance). However please note that the only 24/192 files available are albums that the record label has released for streaming as 24/192. They are not that common and are mainly of classical repertoire. The most common hi-res format is 24/96 but even these are still outnumbered by 16/44.1 or 24/44.1 files. To put it in perspective Qobuz offers 70,000,000 tracks. That is very roughly about 6,000,000 albums. But only 220,000 albums are hi-res ( circa.4% - still by far the biggest hi-res catalogue out there).
Of course the outcome depends on your choice of music. As a classical music fan I reckon around 50% of my choices on Qobuz are available as hi-res.
However this is all academic because, as you say, Qobuz is not available in your country (yet). Various inmates have used a little subterfuge in the past to get round the geographic limitations by signing up via a VPN. However I understand that Qobuz now checks your credit card to ensure it is issued by a bank in the authorised territory.
"We need less, but better" - Dieter Rams
The last time that I looked at it there was a major problem for audiophiles.
It was then only available via Amazon's own web or downloaded computer players or with Denon/Marantz equipment having HEOS capability.
For those needing to use the Amazon players they were regrettably not equipped with any way of selecting the DAC ( often called "speaker" or " Audio Device" in these circumstances). This means that the incoming stream is automatically routed to the Windows or Apple OS sound mixer so that for e.g. Windows one cannot open a WASAPI or ASIO session. In turn that means that a bit perfect bitstream occurs only by luck when it matches the resolution selected in the mixer. Otherwise it is up or down sampled to the selected rate in the mixer. So to get a perfect bitstream using Amazon HD the user needs to reconfigure the sound mixer every time the streamed file's resolution changes.
Further the selection was not well curated IMO making selection of anything outside of top 40 repertoire not particularly easy compared to e.g. Qobuz.
That was the situation but I do understand that other hardware manufacturers to Denon/Marantz may be coming up with solutions later in the year. For example I believe that dCS may be incorporating it in their Mosaic controller at some point in the future.
"We need less, but better" - Dieter Rams
Thanks for the very informative response. I am really mixed about MQA cause sometimes it sounds great and other times not so much. I have two DAC/Streamers both very good and fully MQA compatible but one in the main system is quite a bit better than the other. I far prefer native resolutions but will have to accept the situation until something changes. Too bad the overall audiophile market is too small to justify true high quality native high resolutions at what would be a reasonable price. I guess there just aren't enough of us?
Edits: 03/04/21
??? Qobuz offers just that, true high quality native high resolution at a reasonable price. $15/mo sounds pretty reasonable to me. And you'll have more hi-res than you'll ever be able to listen to. Some of it is pretty spectacular sounding, most of it is decent quality. There may be a few releases that only went to Tidal as a promotional thing but almost everything new is on both. And if it is MQA on Tidal it'll be hi-res on Qobuz. I had both for a while until I saw how redundant that was.
There are plenty of people out there that want better sound. When people hear music in my house or my car they wonder why theirs doesn't sound as good. I always tell them why and have set up a few people with simple systems that just sound much better, usually just a dac and Qobuz instead of Spotify, except people like the spotify interface much better.
I would love to try Qobuz but I live in Canada. They're not available up here.
That's actually too bad, about Qobuz that is. They'll get there eventually.
" Too bad the overall audiophile market is too small to justify true high quality native high resolutions at what would be a reasonable price. I guess there just aren't enough of us?"
Not only are there not enough audiophiles but even within this cohort there may not be enough that really care about hi-res. Many hold that 16/44.1 is adequate (and properly done it is indeed very good) or are vinyl only collectors. Further outside of classical music and maybe a couple of other minority genres the original recording quality is at an all time low. Given the loudness wars, what is the point of a 24 bit replay system when the dynamic range of the recording itself can be catered for in a 2 bit recording system? For rock/pop they don't even record in proper stereo any more! No wonder many of the general public say "I can't tell the difference".
Further most of those 70,000,000 tracks are legacy repertoire recorded decades ago. They will never be native hi-res.
"We need less, but better" - Dieter Rams
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