Streaming Tidal or Spotify ?

[PHC1]

By the way, I was not in any camp. MQA sounded a bit strange to my ears but I attributed that to recordings and streaming. Once I signed up for Qobuz and actually started comparing Tidal MQA to Qobuz, that is when I looked into the actual MQA process and read what I posted above. My ears said, NO THANK YOU. Now I know why.

[clpetersen]

Originally Posted by audioguy3107

I've never been happy with the sound quality from Spotify....it's mostly Qobuz and some Tidal for me. I've also been very impressed with Tidal's MQA recordings.

- Buck

I've become a fan of Roon, which integrates with Tidal and Qobuz but not Spotify - not clear on the reasons why -
Using Tidal as it offers a family friendly option. Kids were mildly distraught when I told them we were moving away from Spotify. 1st world problems.

[damacman]

Quite an elaborate case against something you've not heard ... on principal. Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself. I've not stated my position on it one way or the other ... irrelevant.

Audio can be more fun when you're not drawing a line in the sand.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by damacman

Quite an elaborate case against something you've not heard ... on principal. Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself. I've not stated my position on it one way or the other ... irrelevant.

Audio can be more fun when you're not drawing a line in the sand.

It was a turnoff right away considering it punishes you for not having an MQA dac with worse sound quality of truncating to 13 bits although trying to convince you are still better off.

[damacman]

That was quite an entertaining retort. And I do mean that sincerely.

Now that we've both had a laugh, report back after you've heard it unfolded.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by damacman

That was quite an entertaining retort. And I do mean that sincerely.

Now that we've both had a laugh, report back after you've heard it unfolded.

Nah, I’m good you go ahead with it.

[PHC1]

Paul McGowan on MQA. https://youtu.be/xl3LDwQ1pVs

[sonduciel]

Some of the choice depends on the database of music, what types of music you like to listen to equipment you use for streaming, etc. Spotify would be a waste of time for me. I think Qoboz is awesome, and way ahead of Tidal. Tidal might be fine if you just listen to rock. The search algorithm for classical music is non-existent. I personally have had no trouble with the Qoboz windows app, which lets me select a firmware driver from my desktop Cambridge DAC, that bypasses Windows sound processing completely, and feeds the signal straight to the DAC. Sound quality is great. In my living room, I use Qoboz and Idagio (which is strictly classical) over a Bluesound Node 2i. The BluOS app is pretty good, though not as good as Roon, but a lot less expensive. I would start with Qoboz.

[kevtn8]

Originally Posted by PHC1

It was a turnoff right away considering it punishes you for not having an MQA dac with worse sound quality of truncating to 13 bits although trying to convince you are still better off.

I couldn't agree more. I briefly had Tidal for almost a year but since I never had a compatible MQA dac I never got the full unfold which I could care less once Qobuz went live. I immediately switched over and the rest is history. To top it off, Qobuz took off nearly 10 bucks off my monthly plan after Amazon launched their music service. It sounds great, has a great collection and is universal with ALL dacs. It will only get better as well.

[eljr]

Originally Posted by clpetersen

Kids were mildly distraught when I told them we were moving away from Spotify.

Do them a favor, the service is inexpensive, let them keep it and you use a different service that makes you happy.

A streaming service can be no different than the clothes one wears. Part of your personal identification. For kids this can be profound.

Peace