APPLE MUSIC, TIDAL or QOBUZ? The MOST POPULAR 'audiophile' streaming service (AS VOTED BY YOU 🫵🏻)
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
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I stream music, but also buy records and CD’s. In fact, I mostly stream music to later decide which albums I buy.
Awesome opportunity to show the 'before' and 'after' of improving the sound in a room. Have fun 👍
My main takeaway from this video is that you have an audience that complains a lot.
Appreciate the work you do and I will always trust your judgment. If you exclude something that I use, I trust it's for a reason. You're the expert, not me.
Keep up the great work!
Given how no one can possibly test and compare all the things at once, I have no idea how some people know so much. 😉
What I find slightly annoying with Tidal that they sometimes change the file for an album to a different, and sometimes worse, mastering. Qobuz by comparison seems to be more transparent as to the origin.
Good point. I also didn’t like when my Neil Young catalogue fell into the abyss without warning (fists shaking at clowns (sic)). But hey, record store in a box - I can’t complain too loud.
It seems to me that Tidal is busy replacing FLAC with MQA. I’ve decided to downgrade my subscription from Hifi + to Hifi as my living room setup doesn’t support MQA.
I used Tidal for more than two years, but when they converted a lot of cd quality music into 44.1 MQA, I switched to Qobuz, I do not like the MQA sound, and oh!, what a difference in sound quality, I LOVE the sound quality of Qobuz!
I use both but jesus is qobuz bad for shuffling a playlist more than 50 songs. It just skips every 20, unlike tidal who actually shuffles it
@@Soggy-Soy-Toy lol
I'm portuguese and was not expecting you to say you moved to Lisbon! Beautiful city, I hope you enjoy the wonderful weather after winter ends
I was with tidal for a few years but switched to Apple Music because I just couldn’t justify the price difference. Biggest shock in changing was that tidal has a favourite tracks concept, but apple still sticks to the iTunes library concept. On Apple Music you have to create a playlist and add tracks in a 2-step process, but in tidal it’s direct to your favourite tracks list and adding albums is separate. Didn’t realize how much I appreciated that.
Tidal through Best Buy is 119$ per year
Tidal for the past 5 years now. Very happy with it
Your shirt has me questioning if my eye prescription needs updating.
Ha ha. Me too!
I’ve tried them all, but the one I kept is Qobuz. In my view they have great sound but most importantly for me also the best catalogue of classical, jazz and world music.
I'm glad to hear that about world music, thanks! I have lots of obscure world CDs that I love and wasn't sure how much world music is on the streaming services. I want more of a selection than Putumayo albums, you know?
Congratulations on your move. That’s quite a shift. Happy to see the Buchardts as I pretty much bought mine because of your comprehensive and life-assessing review (very happy with them).
Currently using Tidal. It may cost more but I really like that it pays out more to artists than other services and I really like the "exclusive mode" where it takes over my dac on the PC and ends up sound 10x better
I also use Tidal and the main reason is that it pays artists the most among all the streaming services. Because in the end music is what it's all about.
If you are willing to buy a year's subscription through Best Buy (if you are in the U.S.) you can get it for a very good price.
Your polls didn't really cover my situation, where I still buy CDs but rip them all and store them on a Roon music server. My listening is then a mixture of my ripped CDs and streaming from Qobuz.
Sure, but you are still BUYING the physical disks and that feeds into sales figures which is what the original 'vinyl outselling CD' vid was about. If I stream most of my entertainment from Netflix while still buying Blu-Ray movies, I have some small stake in whether the industry drops the optical disk completely.
You're still buying cds then...
I have CDs ripped as single FLACs with embedded cue sheets sitting on a home server and sync'd to my phone in batches, plus TIDAL for exploring new-to-me stuff.
To all those saying "But you still buy CDs..." - of course I do, I said that in my original post. The point that everyone seems to be missing is that I buy CDs AND stream Qobuz, and the polls were flawed because they had no option for people that buy physical media and also stream - the available poll choices were only one or the other, but not both.
Well, a comparison of ripping CDs to FLAC and comparing those files to hires from Qobuz? ;)
I recently canceled Tidal since Apple Music was already included in my subscription. I just can't hear the difference, but my wallet feels it.
I cannot tell the difference between the two of them. I also recently tried Qobuz but literally could not hear any difference using my Shanling M6 Ultra and Ananda headphones. I do think it comes down to what you get used to. I already liked the Apple ecosystem and recently did get a plan where the Music is included. Happy listening!
I can definitely hear a difference. Comparing the same tracks back to back on each service there is a difference. Apple music just sounds lifeless and Tidal has a wider soundstage. A lot more air separation around the music. This was evident not just on my main speakers setup but also music from my car stereo.
You're probably using terrible hardware... A very high chance.
@@amxaas4450 😢
I can definitely here the difference using a fiio dac and hi res earbuds and Sony MX5’s via 3.5 mm cable.
New room looks spacious John ! look forward to see what you do with it!
Congrats on the move to Lisbon John. Really want to visit Portugal. I’m sure you’re frantically, swiftly and quickly fixing the room problem :) I know the feeling.
I'm over 60, I always liked listening to music, in my childhood I lived with 45 rpm records in mono mode, in a sound system with a single huge speaker, in my adolescence vinyl was the law, but I used cassette and I even had a Sony TC-377 reel-to-reel recorder. Then came the CD, the MP3 downloads, and today I'm exclusively streaming at the highest audiophile level there is. After a long time I recently listened to music on vinyl and strangely, at least at first, even on a super system it sounded inferior to me.
Greetings from Brazil.
Had Tidal, picked up the DAC, headphones, bought the best physical formats, downloaded the highest quality files and enjoyed the best audio. Then I realized Amazon was already paid for, can listen in the best quality my equipment could handle and there is a lot of music, I listen to, which isn’t available above CD quality. I’m mobile, need to bring the music, stream the music. My downloads are best quality available still enjoy the music regardless of what comes down the service.
I used to be a Tidal subscriber but was alerted to the problems with MQA by GoldenSound's video. I did a trial with Qobuz and to my ears, it sounds much better. More detail, better tone. Tidal subscription cancelled.
I started a free-trial for Tidal HiFi Plus recently…I’m a pretty amateur audiophile (if that) but I feel like I can definitely tell its a step up from other services (I’ve used Apple Music, Amazon and Spotify).
I've just switched from Tidal to Qobuz as the prior wouldn't let me stream MAX quality from my phone to my amp through Chromecast Audio. I can now use the Chromecast's max 24-bit/96khz capacity and it makes an audible difference. Tidal seems to have a better library though.
John, congratulations on the move to Lisbon. I'm glad to see you are back on your channel. Please keep up the good work. Your efforts are extremely appreciated Seems like you are feeling better!
Idk about the linguistics on those polls but more troubling is calling Tidal lossless.
For me, it's Qobuz 🙋🏼♀️ after having been for some time at TIDAL
But here we are talking about high quality, if we are just talking about music in general the biggest streaming service is still UA-cam in my opinion, the vast majority of people I know who listen to music, do so on UA-cam
before you do any room treatments on the new room.
Try the lyngdorf amp with room perfect just to see how it deals with a really bad room.
You can then try it again after room treatments and see what difference it makes.
Would make an interesting comparison and maybe also try Dirac Live as cross compare.
Welcome to our beautiful country. Despite having over 300 CDs and over 150 vinyl's, nowadays I am only streaming most of the days.
What a proper and polite way to manage your audience responses.
The numbers talk, and the rudeboys are duly relegated.
If Qobuz only had Spotify's interface. I've chosen to use Spotify exclusively just because of the interface. I've bought numerous albums from bands that popped up on my feed. The sound quality is good enough for me. If they ever deploy Spotify Hi-Fi then they will dominate the market based on their user interface alone
Yes I agree, this is a massive oversight from Spotify imo.
Yes 320kbs on good hifi equipment isnt all bad but lossless Hi-Res audio is so much better!
Randy I pay for Qobuz but I have a free account on Spotify that I use to direct me to new music. I can't believe Qobuz doesn't at least have a radio feature.
I have said this for YEARS. Spotify wins largely because their interface - on PC, Mac and Mobile - is vastly superior. It's why I stick with them. I also find more music to my liking on Spotify currently than is available on other services. For me, 16/44.1 is enough - mainly because I have 5000+ CDs, mostly ripped to FLAC. I'd switch to another service for CD-quality streaming over Spotify's 320k in a heartbeat if they had a Spotify-like experience and catalog. Not sure how much I'd be willing to pay over $9.99/month, though.
If play a track off of my pc(cd rip) and then play the exact same track from a streaming service(cd quality),played through the exact same hardware,there are differences in quality,audible ones.The rip is less "grainy",fuller,has a smoother more buttery and dense texture,better bass definition and the sound stage is more defined.I have also noticed that there is the odd distortion in the form of a high frequency "crackling" now and again while streaming...almost like there is instability in the stream.I am sure a bigger buffer,or any buffer at all, would help this no end.
Just to be clear,these differences were not very big but were definitely distracting and also created a listener fatigue situation.
Good to have you back. 🙏 Hope your health is improving💪
a lot of us may not be buying cds or records but we have a large collection of it and still use it regually
It's been years since I've bought a CD. But I do have my whole collection ripped to uncompressed FLAC and loaded to my Roon Core. I have several albums that are not available on streaming services. So they complement the streaming parts nicely.
Interesting comments below about Tidal vs. Qobuz preferences. I just migrated from T to Q. Not only cheaper in NL but also my impressions were that Q streaming in HiRes was superior to anything I have had with Tidal over last 10 years. Not to mention the MQA coding - decoding controversy with Tidal files. Anyway - enjoy your music !!!
I am an audiophile inasmuch as I am obsessive about sound quality. I have ABed Spotify with Tidal and Apple Music and have repeatedly been unable to detect a difference. I would be interested to hear whether others have done this and know what their findings were. I stayed with Spotify for the music discovery and user experience.
Spotify has the best UI for me. Google Music was the best for discovery. Now I use Spotify for stereo tracks and Apple Music for surround sound.
In the end, I have chosen to go back to Spotify. Spotify has a livelier sound that I like, the UI and UX is much better, and the recommendations are unmatched.
For me Spotify is the goto for the reasons you mentioned and where the bulk of listening occurs. Qobuz is fired up if I want to sit back with something in particular and be amazed again at a recording, but I might have to dig to find it. I have all my CD's digitised on a NAS but then Spotify right - its just easier. And honestly its degrees between them for listening quality, not night and day.
I only stream Spotify for new music, and I purchase music on CD or vinyl if I find music I like. Have tried all the streaming services on your list. I don’t like the inconsistency of their sound quality. I think the lack of standards causes the quality issues compared to CD and vinyl.
Tidal- very happy with content, very occasionally use Apple Music. One key thing is listening to the collection in the car.
Since watching this video it has made me reconsider my options. I have been with itunes/apple music for years and never thought considering trying another streaming service. I have since tried Tidal as it was the most popular in these polls. OMG! What a difference in sound quality, so much better than apple music. It doesnt make sense why it sounds better but it just does. Its incredible.
It doesnt
I have been a fan of apple music for years but have given up waiting for bit perfect playback or a streamer with native apple music playback. Since switching to tidal Im enjoying both these features on a Wiim mini which only costed £80. This just increases the sound quality gap even further.
One thing to remember is that Tidal has a Tidal Connect option. This allows me to connect directly to my Blue Sound streaming box. Other services don't offer this.
That’s how I’m streaming. The Tidal app is pretty decent.
Spotify has the same feature too, though not sure if bluesound supports Spotify connect?
@@nd011yes Spotify also offer connect but the sound quality is simply awful - they don’t offer CD quality and maybe never will. Hence I had to move to Tidal.
Hello. I’ve been using tidal for over 12 months because of the audio quality it’s better to my ears than the others, I didn’t like Apple Music because of the loud mastering they do to their audio.
I admittedly mostly stream, but I do buy physical copies ( CD, DVD, SACD, or Bluray) from time to time (about a month) I also sometimes buy hi res downloads… but mostly my music is via Apple Music (Tidal is not a thing in Japan)… I like to listen to hi res and ATMOS tracks and Apple has a fair amount of them now a days..
I find it really interesting that Apple Music is number 2 in the overall poll, I got rid of it because it’s just not as simple to connect up within a hifi system as the others. While I’m not surprised Tidal is the most popular, I’m still shocked people would choose it over Qobuz as it’s twice the price, and from what I’ve experienced, doesn’t have the catalogue for my needs vs Qobuz. I’m a big electronic music guy (along with everything else to a degree), Tidal just had so many gaps in that department.
@@owlatwork ah thanks, I didn’t know that, so this makes even more sense then!
Qobuz is not available in many countries (not even here in Hungary), so I am not surprised by the result.
Deezer HIFi for me. Beats even Tidal's similar service in terms of quality.
Tidal+Roon. Perfect. The Qobuz is not available in my country. (Hungary)
Trying QoBuz today for the first time after being a Spotify subscriber for years. Starting with Vince Guaraldi Trio's - A Charlie Brown Christmas Expanded recording. Bass seems louder according to wife and I on Spotify, but I can hear more individual notes played on the upright bass via QoBuz (CD quality) recording. Will keep experimenting to see if it's worth it. Hi-fi system consists of high efficient KLH Kendall tower speakers, a Marantz 2270 used a pre-amp for a PrimaLuna 36WPC tube amp. DAC is a BlueMe Pro.
yeh, the bass is higher, i felt that too...I came from apple music where the music is generally flat so i felt it more easily.
I tried back to back trials of Qobuz, Tidal and Amazon and found Qobuz to have the best sound quality (and outputs the correct bitrate of the stream) followed by Amazon (though no matter what quality stream it outputs 24bit 192khz so there's some algorithm afoot), then Tidal. I ended up with Amazon as it has a bigger library than Qobuz and had nearly as good sound - Tidal seems unreasonably more expensive. I'm re-evaluating as I've noticed Amazon downgrade quite a bit of high res to cd quality. I do note CD rips saved directly to my iPad actually sound more detailed than 24bit 192khz streamed- so that is my current consideration.
I am changing my TIDAL subscription from Apple Store to TIDAL at a saving of 30%!
FOR MOI
Tidal - best App. Better, more extensive library than Qobuz.
Qobuz - best sound - much better than Apple Music for some reason despite the same file specs.
Apple Music - rapidly becoming redundant due to hi fi incompatibility issues. And if you like niche music genres, the app is a bore to scroll around. Plus it’s unreliable on your phone for creating playlists - spinning wheel of death etc
Agree Qobuz has the best sound but the app is terrible and there is no native ‘connect’ function like Tidal has.
Apple music really only makes sense for people are are integrated into apple’s ecosystem. If you are then its well worth it for the money compared to tidal
I quit streaming (Qobuz) this month and bought a proper cd player (Luxman D-03X) so I could play my cd’s again that were in storage… already had a turntable. Main reason to quit streaming was because i mainly used it to discover new music, but then always would buy the vinyl after that… so why spend 15 or 16 euros a month on that then? Can also discover new music on youtube and then spend the money on more vinyl and now also again cd’s!
Hi John, good luck, acoustically, in your new Portuguese digs.
One factor about streaming platforms can be their availability across borders. For Canadians, Qobuz is officially not available although it rolled out in The States years ago and in New Zealand and Australia. For some reason they have decided, so far, to omit most Canadians from their service.
I enjoy Tidal, and formerly Amazon HD, which was inexpensive and well-integrated into the BlueSound platform I used. Now that I am a Roon user, Tidal is my main go to for streaming.
I buy vinyl as well and enjoy its presentation. Often I listen to music recommended by reviewers, such as yourself or Michael Lavorgna, on Tidal before deciding if I want to purchase the vinyl version, if one is available at a price I can afford.
I also stream for the musical enjoyment and have found some good music from Roon Radio.
Breaking News: Darko moves from the world capital of Techno to the world capital of Fado music.
I'll be back to Techno Central in April.
I think you may have missed a sizeable segment of audiophiles who stream from a music server via hard drive stored files that were either downloaded or ripped from a physical medium.
Fully in agreement. That's what I wondered too. Certainly my preferred option but I thought maybe I was in a minority....
Hi John. Tidal for me. Where is Olaf?
Glad to see you're doing good.
It would be interesting to know why people prefer Tidal. I have used Tidal for 3+ years. I interface through Roon, so no comment about the interface. The Tidal library is also missing work from some seminal electronic music artists. But the tipping point for me was that Tidal pay the artist the most royalties. I occasionally buy work digitally directly from artists I particularly want to support (through Bandcamp etc) but I have to support the streaming service that best supports the artists.
John, you need some house plants, a lava lamp and maybe a few Blacklight posters to jazz up the set, LOL
Good luck in your new adventure in Portugal. I personally use Apple Music, especially after they went mainly lossless across their catalogue, and now it high definition files too. All my music goes via an external DAC to the hifi, or DAC/AMP for portable purposes.
I tried Tidal for MQA studio masters, but honestly I could not hear or feel any difference from hi-def sources that I used before, so cancelled.
Apple Music for me as it works across my iPhone, iPad and MacBook.
I subscribe to stream services to check and decide prior to buying physical formats
I recently started using Qobuz because of the Roon integration. I love Roon and it's power as a multi-room/device music server. Qobuz on my iPhone also seems okay and I've been testing that out with a Audioquest Dragonfly Cobalt with great results, huge improvement particularly for my car audio system.
interesting!
how do you connect the Audioquest to the car? what's the process/cabling/streaming?
That 10% represents a lot more in terms of “times listened to”. I mean the streams are counted each time it is streamed, the fysical music get bought once, but listened to many uncounted times.
If Apple Music had the option for native integration like other platforms do on streamers and not only AirPlay i would be rocking Apple Music instead of Qobuz.
Interesting! I have both Qobuz and Tidal but I use Qobuz 95% of the time. I only use Tidal if there is an album which isn't on Qobuz which isn't often. I like them both and they both sound great but I also find that sometimes Qobuz seems to have a High Res version of some albums and Tidal is just in CD Quality. This doesn't happen often but Qobuz is always my preference. I think it sounds a little better too but that may well be Placebo.
(I have no problems at all with MQA...we won't go there).
Martijn I have a question. I used to use Tidal - I was happy with the quality but hated paying $20 a month for the service so I moved over to Qobuz. I love the Qobuz quality and the price is rough $13 per month which works better for me.
The only thing I don't like about Qobuz is discovering new music. I enjoy finding new songs/artists to listen to and follow. Qobuz doesn't have much in the way of discovery. They just do a weekly "new releases" every Friday and they have several premade playlists which are of questionable quality in my opinion. Luckily there are some other playlists that Qobuz subscribers have created but they are often way down the list and are harder to find. Also on Qobuz there is no "radio" function where you could put in an artist say Bruce Springsteen and then the music service could create an on the fly playlist of songs with that and other similar artists music.
My compromise is to have a free account on Spotify where I pull up the many user created playlists as they are more robust and then add them to Qobuz that way.
What ways have you found to discover new music?
I've just done a side by side comparison between Qobuz and Tidal. Qobuz hi-res songs sounded a lot better than Tidal the majority of the time.
I've used Spotify for years and have always enjoyed its supreme UI and smooth integration with my PS5 and other devices. However, for more critical listening as I've improved my HiFi at home, Spotify's lossy sound is more and more obviously course and grainy. Thus, Spotify is now mostly relegated to listening at work. I've been listening to Qobuz Hi-Res for the last couple of years and truly love the sound. The UI could be better and the mobile app on older phones could be more dependable, but the catalog is amazing and I especially love the pdf booklets and the generally detailed song credits. Apple Music's lossless sounds perfectly good, and if their entire UI could be remade into something more natural and smooth like Spotify's, I'd give them a lot more of my listening time.
I don't care for the slipperiness behind the whole MQA tie-in of Tidal, and I'm really ready to just be done with Spotify; I hate their abysmal artist payouts and I'm no fan of their founder. 👎🏻
@@marshallhughes4514 when it comes to discovering new music. I'm getting many great suggestions by using Roon. It keeps track of what I'm playing, both local files and through Qobuz and Tidal. Its suggestions are usually very much on point.
Wow, John radical moving. Good luck in new home . And success in 2023.
Amazon HD do the thing for me. At te same price that AM but sounds better for my ears
As an old fart, I've been buying CDs since 1984. At this point I have 1200+ cds so I have little need for streaming. I have played with Apple Music, since that's what my daughter uses, and my feeling is that streaming is not for collectors, completionists, or true fans of an artists because there are so many holes in what the services offer. I've asked Apple Music for several bands I love and I've gotten far too many single track options or no track options for me to think streaming could replace my collection. Sure I cheated by not picking major artists, but that's the point. I'm not a "today's hits" listener.
I now do my own streaming with Roon's ARC. No matter where I am, if I have cell or wifi, my entire music collection is available for listening. For a fan/collector nothing could be better. I was unwilling to pay Roon's service fee until the introduction of ARC, but that anywhere, all the time ability made it a no brainer for me and to top it off, it's still cheaper than most streaming services.
Interesting numbers. I still use Apple Music for day to day in car Streaming, but moved away from Tidal to Qobuz due to too many MQA formats in Tidal. using Roon as the main function, and have even spent time re-ripping my CDs to FLAC, as I read somewhere that steaming is still "noisier" than a ripped CD at the same bit rate
I have Apple Music, Deezer, TIDAL but I use Apple Music 99% of time and it's doesn't worth the money because of the 15s bug, songs got missing from time to time, music with Dolby ATMOS are fun but they are all TOO LOW volume comparing to non-ATMOS !! I would love to get back to cassetes, that "saturation" effect was so cool !!!
Strange how the most popular lossless service was actually a Lossy service ... I also stream on Tidal ... But my offline flac files are a clear step above tidal.
Honestly, I pay for youtube premium and plan on switching to using youtube music for my streaming service. Then I'd probably use tidal for cd quality streaming or qobuz for hi res. I'm not paying 20 bucks a month for some of the hi res music on the service to be MQA
I use Tidal due to the fact that it offers a lossless service, has Tidal Connect, and has Roon support. I certainly would consider Qobuz if it had a connect capability. Apple Music would be my preference as their electronic music selection seems better than most. But I am not the biggest fan of Airplay.
Not to get too bogged down in the technicalities, but some would argue that Tidal Masters that have MQA are NOT lossless at all...that MQA adds artifacts to the sound. Is it audible? Some say yes, some say no. YMMV. I have CD quality Tidal Hi-Fi and can only say I like it just fine. It's ease of use with the Tidal Connect app trumps any slightly better sound quality offered by Qobuz. More streaming services need to have those "connect" apps and license them to the streamer manufacturers. If Steve Jobs was still alive, you can bet using Apple Music and getting it into your stereo would be far easier. I guess those in charge now just don't care.
Any UA-cam music fans here? In my experience it has the best discovery algorithms, the largest library and it's free with UA-cam Premium. Downside is it's lossy.
YT Music fan here. I use it to discover obscure 70's jazz fusion albums. Find a lot of good albums but sadly a lot are not available on any higher quality platform.
Yes I’m a fan but I hate how on iPhones it doesn’t have an EQ so I’m moving over to Apple Music slowly. I love that it’s included with YT Premium and i use YT music for dj mixes, live sets and concerts that aren’t on any other music streaming service. Even with Apple Music on board I still use YT music much more
But the search engine is getting… worse
It keeps recommending stuff other than what you’re looking for
I used Apple but switched to Tidal when they lowered the price for HiFi to same as Apple: it's easier to get the lossless stream played back on more devices with Tidal. Apple is a walled garden.
Tidal hif fi is not lossless mqa is used secretly
@@sqcaraudio Whatever, it sounds good though, I'm no bitperfect Taliban. The masters vary wildly anyway and that is a magnitude greater loss than not being bitperfect.
One important thing is Qobuz don't play in all countries, if play is possible in the first. Is a big variable.
I, like many many others, use only FLAC files (none from your pool options).
By the way, MQA is lossy. But Tidal have lossless as well.
I love Apple Music they don’t charge you extra for it and has spatial audio wich is not bad it’s a whole new experience too I enjoy both lossless hifi and spatial audio I use AirPods Pro so when I’m in the go doing work outs I love it when I’m home is when I enjoy my hifi lossless music and love it”about the difference in the lossless music with tidal and Apple Music I think it depends on the equipment you use but it’s also about preference I don’t think is the streaming service it all depends on your headphones and dac too also wire’s
I'm content with Apple music but then I'm heavily in the Apple ecosystem so the tight integration with Apple hardware is for me a big benefit. Probably very little point in using Apple music for people who don't also use Apple hardware.
Congrats John on the new abode and interesting indeed. Sound & format aside, my Tidal interface experience is meh / ok but do it for Roon. If ever a Spotify upgrade would manifest, I’d use it with Roon for endgame streaming. Look forward to the coming room acoustics vid.
I’ve tried most streaming services, Apple, Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon & Deezer. All have their merit. I generally subscribe to two to cover all the bases. Currently I favour Apple Music as I use many items from Apple ecosystem and have for years. Back up currently is Deezer as I got a cheap deal in December. I also buy many Bandcamp downloads too to give to the artists.
I love Qobuz. By far my favourite
same, they also let you buy and keep the music files, and do whatever you like with them.
I love the sound quality that Qobuz. But I hate the UI and the broken search system. So I’m sticking with Tidal until Qobuz fixes their issues
John, I still like your wonderful attitude towards anything Hi-Fi related. Good luck in Lisbon, and hope you continue a great recovery from your eye surgery...............
My preference is actually probably the least fashionable option of all: to purchase (as in, buy to own) digital files, preferably from Bandcamp. But I have been trying out several streaming services lately, and I’m finding that the interface for each app encourages different kinds of listening behavior. For example, I find that with Amazon I usually just have some “station” playing random stuff in the background, whereas with Qobuz I am more likely to select an album and listen to it more intently. I find both Qobuz and Apple more amenable to new music discovery than Amazon. Apple also has the advantage of being controllable by Siri while using Car Play, which is even more important now that car makers are infuriatingly removing more and more physical controls (which is a whole ‘nother rant).
Since Tidal jumped into bed with MQA, I would avoid them like the plague.
Welcome to Lisbon.
I still listen to my FM tuner most. In the UK we are spoiled with the amazing quality and variety of Radio 3. I discover new music there which I will buy on either CD or vinyl.....But then I still love Ivor Cutler and bangin rocks together.
Maybe I'll get round to this new fangled streamin thingy when it starts to sound as good as the rest of my system without costing silly money.
I use Apple Music for streaming, but continue to buy CDs. I use Apple Music for discovery, but I do purchase CDs and some Vinyl for albums that I really want to make sure I have a copy of.
Great video. I am a Tidal subscriber. In the past couple of months Qobuz came available in Canada. Today I decided to try there free one month subscription. Maybe your poll may be a bit different now that Qobuz is available in Canada. I have a lot of playing back and forth with Tidal and Qobuz to see what is better for quality and sound. I have only played with Qobuz for a few hours and I find that the quality is a bit better but the bad is that I imported my playlists from Tidal and Qobuz does not have a lot of my songs available. I have a month to figure out what I will go with.
People streaming music on their iphones takes me back to the '60s listening to my transistor radio or the '80s with my Walkman. I've never listened to music on my iphone so maybe I'm missing out?
I do like Apple Music, having used it for a few years, I moved to Tidal last year as I wanted to retain lossless audio with control from my iPhone, something the wiim mini and Tidal connect could do but apple airplay could not. I’m a lover of Vinyl, but without a doubt streaming music is a great way to “try before you buy”. I was in fact thinking the other week how the streaming boom, kind of killed Music press like the NME, as you no longer need to read a review before you hand over your money, you can try it for yourself in Tidal.
I don't understand. Can't airplay 2 transmit lossless audio from Apple music?
Tidal hifi their is lossy. It uses mqa secretly for major label back catalogue.
Wow be great to see the place take shape John. Hope you are well and I am sure the sun will be good for you.
Yep, I am here for the winter ☀️
I think Roon may be a reason for the results of Tidal and Quboz being the top two of your Patron. Would be interesting to see how many of the respondents use Roon.
I didn't vote as I just came across this video. But I am subbed to both Tidal and Qobuz specifically as I am an avid Roon user myself.
I still buy physical CDs and rip (using E.A.C.) my own FLAC music files for my Plex server to get the best quality. If I cant find the CD then I defer to get it from Bandcamp so I can still get the lossless FLAC files. If I want to convert later to MP3 for non critical playing/xport I can use a converter software
Do you find that bandcamp has all of the music you need?
What device do you use for Plex? My android device, an Nvidia Shield Pro won't send bit perfect audio out via USB. It's a limitation with Android as I understand it.
Those Portuguese tiles look lovely but oooo! Not good for speakers? Looking forward to your video on that. Welcome to your new home!
3:37 So when I buy individual vinyl, CDs and SACDs, that means I buy only the music I like. That is different than subscribing to a streaming service where I buy an all you can eat buffet. Quality is individual purchases and quantity is steaming.
Qobuz is the BEST (24 bit/ 192 kHz)
Super buggy app and terrible UI. Also no ‘connect’ function so inferior for wireless streaming.
I had Qobuz but I think Tidal with FLAC is now the best.
Qobuz have a very limited catalog of music. Tidal with flac is the better option.
this comment is of topic as I am comparing Tidal vs Spotify, but I am curious if anybody else feels it similarly as I do.
I understand that it also depends on what system you listen to it, but my experience is that when I compare Tidal Hifi with Spotify Premium, some songs seem to be better for my listening from Spotify. I can say that I hear some mass/volume in Spotify which I like more, however the Tidal service has clearer highs and lows with more punch, but specific songs I really prefer to hear from Spotify. (Someone, The National, Bjork, Bowie)
Others, like me & Prince Charles Alexander (top music producer...) are even more positive about Spotify: "Spotify did sound different. It had a little bit more kind of mid-range, a little less Hi-Fi-y crystal clear high end, but it had more punch, and I thought musical life in the midrange.” This, plus better interface/connectivity for my particular system, meant I went for Spotify.
Kinda sad that you left Berlin tbh. Don't know why, but it feels that way 🥲
I didn't leave permanently. Will be back in Berlin in April.
Apple Music bought Primephonic last year so I carry AM for the classical and Telarc catalogue, but since I use Roon, most streaming time defaults to Tidal. It would be great if Roon incorporated Apple Music along with Tidal libraries.
Agreed! Roon only caters to Tidal and Qobuz users. If it included Apple Music with its massive collection I would sign up for a "lifetime Roon" in an eyeblink.
You have made quite the move from Berlin to Lisbon! Climate-wise, Lisbon should be a better place to live in especially during the winter months, when it must be awfully cold, damp and dreary in Berlin. I hope the place you're living in now has one of Lisbon's lovely panoramic views. Did you base your move on the recommendations of your doctors, or was it strictly your choice? In any event, I wish you the best of happiness and good health, and I look forward to your next video releases.
If you have a iPhone i would just use apple music due to the tidal hifi format nit working with iphone. And its cheaper then tidal. Regardless you cant get full in lossless over Bluetooth so it really doesnt matter
Wow Lisbon, why the move?
the topic of physical media is in my humble opinion correlate to books you can buy them physically which is a more neuro-invested experience or listen to them as audio books from apps or read them on pdf, in my opinion a nice copy of a beautifully printed copy of a book is memorable and you attach yourself to the content and the object.
Good to see you John. Have fun with the new room! A happy Qobuz user.
Deezer for me :) i like it so far for the hifi music :D
Cd`s also with a 1997 Jvc disc changer :), sounds great still.