Which Hi Res music streaming service is the best overall Quboz, Tidal and Amazon Music Hd

Smallboydanger

Established Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2020
Messages
144
Reaction score
34
Points
55
Age
54
Location
Nottingham Uk
Which Hi Res music streaming service would you recommend of these 3 Quboz, Tidal or Amazon music Hd?
Looking at streaming from a dedicated streamer like the bluesound node 2i hooked up to my Hifi system
 
I use Qobus and Amazon HD. I've used Tidal up until a few weeks ago.

It's probably worth a free trial on each of the services to decide which one best suits your musical tastes and also to decide which you think has the best sound quality for your system.

For me Qobus is excellent, at £15 per month it is cheaper than Tidal and gives full hi-res and not the lossy MQA masters that Tidal use. MQA is very good but I feel it has been overhyped as a format.

Amazon HD is also very good with hi-res support but it is sometimes inaccurate in the reporting of bit rates of files.

Overall for me I would recommend Qobus but to be honest they are all very good.

Price wise

Amazon HD - £12.99 per month or £130 per annum
Tidal - £19.99 for the top tier service
Qobus - £14.99 per month.

Another factor in both Tidal and Qobus favour is the amount of hardware they seem to be able to integrate with compared to Amazon.

Also if you use Roon then Qobus and Tidal also work very well, I use Roon and it is a great service alongside my Qobus.
 
I use Qobus and Amazon HD. I've used Tidal up until a few weeks ago.

It's probably worth a free trial on each of the services to decide which one best suits your musical tastes and also to decide which you think has the best sound quality for your system.

For me Qobus is excellent, at £15 per month it is cheaper than Tidal and gives full hi-res and not the lossy MQA masters that Tidal use. MQA is very good but I feel it has been overhyped as a format.

Amazon HD is also very good with hi-res support but it is sometimes inaccurate in the reporting of bit rates of files.

Overall for me I would recommend Qobus but to be honest they are all very good.

Price wise

Amazon HD - £12.99 per month or £130 per annum
Tidal - £19.99 for the top tier service
Qobus - £14.99 per month.

Another factor in both Tidal and Qobus favour is the amount of hardware they seem to be able to integrate with compared to Amazon.

Also if you use Roon then Qobus and Tidal also work very well, I use Roon and it is a great service alongside my Qobus.


Thank you for your very educative answer, I went from Tidal Hi fi to amazon Hd and I am now on a trial of quboz. I am thinking of getting rid of amazon Hd because I use musicast to stream music to my Yamaha Avr and amazon Hd is not supported but quboz is supported and this is the best I can get until I invest in a dedicated streamer. I am thinking of trying Roon as well and either. buying a dedicated streamer or building one from a rasperry pi. What sort of streamer and system do you use?
 
Thank you for your very educative answer, I went from Tidal Hi fi to amazon Hd and I am now on a trial of quboz. I am thinking of getting rid of amazon Hd because I use musicast to stream music to my Yamaha Avr and amazon Hd is not supported but quboz is supported and this is the best I can get until I invest in a dedicated streamer. I am thinking of trying Roon as well and either. buying a dedicated streamer or building one from a rasperry pi. What sort of streamer and system do you use?

I wouldn't say I'm using anything dedicated like I see in other people's set ups

I use my imac as my Roon server with a basic 2tb HDD connected and stream to my Yamaha R-N803D
 
Have tried them all but personally prefer Tidal for my content

Also another vote for Roon, love it.
I also use my iMac as the core but have a variety on End Points around the house.
 
Depends on your kit. I use a Cambridge Audio streamer CXN, this permits Tidal to be played via Chromecast. It really is excellent. When I play tracks via Amazon Music HD they sound awful, but this is being connected via Airplay and not Chromecast. I suggest this is killing the quality compared to my TIdal setup.

however, my streamer will not play Tidal Masters ( Shame on you Cambridge Audio), and it costs more. Amazon has a lower cost, as a primer member, and on paper has a higher bit rate for non UltraHD tracks, but it just sounds awful over AirPlay.

In a nutshell you equipment and broadcast technology make a major impact on choosing between TidL and Amazon. Tidal and Chromecast are brilliant in my CNX, but on a PC you can also get Tidal masters. Hope this helps. The solution is to take the trial offers and see how they implement on YOUR system.
 
The solution is to take the trial offers and see how they implement on YOUR system.

Yes, very sensible advice. Amazon HD was perfect on my tablet with 24/96. But on Chromecast it can't do HiRes and I had listener fatigue within 1-2 hours. So, I've gone back to Tidal.
 
I’ve used all the different streaming services except Deezer, just never got around to it. I’m only interested in minimum CD quality so 16/44.1
Tidal is great but you need an MQA enabled DAC to get this, which I do have. I would say Qobuz is best and if you pay annual amount then its equivalent of £12.99 monthly for guaranteed minimum CD quality and of course plenty of high res without special DAC. I also use Amazon Music HD which is brilliant via HEOS on my Denon DRA800H stereo receiver. I can control from App on iPhone and achieve 24/192 kHz. Also I disagree that Amazon Music App sounds bad on AirPlay. It is CD quality and very good.
 
I've had subscriptions to each, to give them a long term trial. My opinion is thus:

Tidal: very good, but more expensive. Not sure MQA made the difference the marketing people tell me it should.

Amazon: variable sound quality. Some tracks sound great, some sound flat. The worst of the three.

Qobuz: best sound quality, and comes in cheaper than Tidal. It's a no brainer for me and the only one I have continued to subscribe to.

Proof of the subs... Screenshot_20200521-092949.pngScreenshot_20200521-092852.pngScreenshot_20200521-092754.png
 
Last edited:
Just a note on Cambridge Audio CNN. Amazon Music HD is coming natively later this year...response from Cambridge Audio ....

Thank you for contacting Cambridge Audio.

Amazon Music HD will be fully integrated into the CXN v2 later this year, which will allow native streaming.

In the meantime however, it is restricted to AirPlay, which will throttle audio to 16 bit, 44.1 kHz.
 
Depends on your kit. I use a Cambridge Audio streamer CXN, this permits Tidal to be played via Chromecast. It really is excellent. When I play tracks via Amazon Music HD they sound awful, but this is being connected via Airplay and not Chromecast. I suggest this is killing the quality compared to my TIdal setup.

however, my streamer will not play Tidal Masters ( Shame on you Cambridge Audio), and it costs more. Amazon has a lower cost, as a primer member, and on paper has a higher bit rate for non UltraHD tracks, but it just sounds awful over AirPlay.

In a nutshell you equipment and broadcast technology make a major impact on choosing between TidL and Amazon. Tidal and Chromecast are brilliant in my CNX, but on a PC you can also get Tidal masters. Hope this helps. The solution is to take the trial offers and see how they implement on YOUR system.

Hi,

I've purchased the CXN and use Roon to play Tidal MQA / Masters. Roon unpacks the MQA and plays via the CXN, works a treat.
 
Thank you for your very educative answer, I went from Tidal Hi fi to amazon Hd and I am now on a trial of quboz. I am thinking of getting rid of amazon Hd because I use musicast to stream music to my Yamaha Avr and amazon Hd is not supported but quboz is supported and this is the best I can get until I invest in a dedicated streamer. I am thinking of trying Roon as well and either. buying a dedicated streamer or building one from a rasperry pi. What sort of streamer and system do you use?
Amazon UHD for me lasted about 30 minutes. Absolutely terrible software. I use a Node 2i, Roon, and both Qobuz (trial ATM) and Tidal as my main streaming service. The Pi is a great alternative I still have one (Allo DigiOne HAT) hooked into my system, I do have a huge library of hi-res music files, but after getting the Node2i I rarely use it. The Pi DigiOne sounds really good on my system serving up .flac from my pc. Although If you don't have a collection of hi-res music files on your network (PC/Mac) the Pi won't help you much as it is not a streamer. The Node2i will give you a dedicated streamer with MQA capabilities. Paired with a Roon subscription, which has Qobuz and Tidal integrated into the software, this makes a nice neat little streaming set up. I also use a Yamaha product, RX-a 3080 with Musiccast, I much prefer the wired set up with the N2i streaming through the Roon software, much cleaner and much more efficient software IMO.
 
I have tried all 3 main music streaming services & have been with Amazon music HD for a little while thro a Node 2i & Bluos as I am prime member. Since getting a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 streaming amp I have tried Qobuz free for a couple of weeks using the amps built in chromecast & Qobuz native app on my smartphone & I like it.
The search facility works well & there is plenty of Hi-res music & quality is very good. The amazon native app isnt as good at finding music & restricts Hi-res tracks to CD quality via chromecast. Tidal is just too expensive & pushes Rap music which I dont like.
Looks like I'll be dropping Amazon & paying a years subs for Qobuz.
 
I have tried all 3 main music streaming services & have been with Amazon music HD for a little while thro a Node 2i & Bluos as I am prime member. Since getting a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 streaming amp I have tried Qobuz free for a couple of weeks using the amps built in chromecast & Qobuz native app on my smartphone & I like it.
The search facility works well & there is plenty of Hi-res music & quality is very good. The amazon native app isnt as good at finding music & restricts Hi-res tracks to CD quality via chromecast. Tidal is just too expensive & pushes Rap music which I dont like.
Looks like I'll be dropping Amazon & paying a years subs for Qobuz.
I’ve just renewed and paid for Sublime + which allows discounted purchases of high res downloads. This is great as artists paid more. Plus all Qobuz streaming is guaranteed minimum CD quality at 16/44.1 kHz. Tidal still has mp3. And of course it’s cheaper. Plus doesn’t need an MQA enabled DAC.
 
I’ve just renewed and paid for Sublime + which allows discounted purchases of high res downloads. This is great as artists paid more. Plus all Qobuz streaming is guaranteed minimum CD quality at 16/44.1 kHz. Tidal still has mp3. And of course it’s cheaper. Plus doesn’t need an MQA enabled DAC.
Tidal isn't mp3 on the Premium tier....Plus Qobuz is French and they burnt our Sheep so by default Tidal wins....
 
Last edited:
Good for you!! I’ve had tracks described on my iPhone Tidal App as Normal, High, HIFI & Masters

Good for you!! I’ve had tracks described on my iPhone Tidal App as Normal, High, HIFI & Masters.
Ha Ha Good for me eh.....I'd suggest you look at your app settings then if your getting mp3 quality then....Tidal Hi-fi is as i've said all CD Quality or MQA on there Top tear...
There is a world of difference between the ability to listen to MP3 on the go to save Data Usage and obviously the option not too...
The good news is i'm sure there's a tutorial out there for you if your struggling with the app....
 
Last edited:
Ha Ha Good for me eh.....I'd suggest you look at your app settings then if your getting mp3 quality then....Tidal Hi-fi is as i've said all CD Quality or MQA.....
There is a world of difference between the ability to listen to MP3 on the go to save Data Usage and obviously the option not too...
The good news is i'm sure there's a tutorial out there for you if your struggling with the app....
I’m fully familiar with all my settings! Everything set to stream highest res for WiFi and mobile. I’m disabled and rarely venture out so use WiFi all the time. Nowt wrong with what I’m doing. Do your research. Tidal streams some tracks at less than CD quality referred to as Normal and High, even on highest tier.
 
I’m fully familiar with all my settings! Everything set to stream highest res for WiFi and mobile. I’m disabled and rarely venture out so use WiFi all the time. Nowt wrong with what I’m doing. Do your research. Tidal streams some tracks at less than CD quality referred to as Normal and High, even on highest tier.
Sorry but No it doesn't for me via my Node 2i via Wi-fi.....Never Has.....Its CD or MQA....
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom