So I’ve been a Tidal user for about 2 years now. It was my introduction to Hifi audio at the same time that I got my first pair of descent IEMs, the Fiio FH3 pair with a HELM audio bolt. After quite some time, I tried Apple Music and while it was good, the lack of a good app for windows and the fact that even when you are using Apple Music on MacOS, it doesn’t support exclusive mode so you need to use another software to workaround on this, made it buggy sometimes and wasn’t just good enough for my user experience.

So I came back to Tidal, the audio quality against Apple Music wasn’t not so different, however I was able sometimes to hear some differences between the two of them but tbh, nothing overwhelming. Nevertheless, The fact that I did hear these differences make me want to try the big contender for audio quality, Qobuz.

So I’ve been using Qobuz for about 1 month now, and I’ve been comparing the two of them, listening most of the time in my Moondrop Variations paired with the Fiio BTR5 2021 as a wired DAC (not using it wireless). And while as with Apple Music, I hear differences between the two of them, I started to feel like Qobuz was just a step above Tidal in audio quality most of the time.

I wasn’t sure if I was ready to fully change from Tidal, because the user experience and the app is pretty good across all platforms. This time however, the contender Qobuz did have a descent app for windows and supports exclusive mode at least in all the devices that I use it, I know that the app is just not as good but hey, at the end of the day you just hit play and minimize the window.

And while I wasn’t sure of which to keep, today I made myself up. I was listening to The Count of Tuscany by Dream Theater, and while I’ve been listening to Dream Theater for several years now, today, I feel like I listened to this specific song for the first time. I heard a lot of details that weren’t that obvious to me before, and this was using Qobuz.

I’m really sad to leave Tidal because for me, the app and the cross platform experience is just the best when it comes to Hifi streaming services, however, I’m truly impressed with the audio quality of Qobuz, so I’ll be sticking with them until Tidal gets rid of the MQA thing, then I will try them again and see how it goes.

I just wanted to share my experience and see if there’s more people that have try both streaming services, and just like me have also heard the difference in audio quality between the two of them?