Tír Na HiFi

I've been messing about with bluetooth connections, and experimenting a bit with both Tidal and Qobuz.

Definitely there is better sound quality with Qobuz... but I am failing at finding a reason why (dynamics and sparkle, maybe a bit tighter resolved bass). Both are simply streaming off the phone to a bluetooth module in a DIY dac so no difference other than the stream source and installing (android) app. Its not a hi-res vs lo-res thing either as I've ran both at CD quality.

Just when you thought bits were bits....

Anyone experienced anything similar? I doubt you'd hear it if you were using it in the car or very casual use, but in the main system its pretty clear.

Fran

Definitely I found Qobuz to have better sound quality than Tidal, and like you I can't figure out why.

Well, its well known that with Tidal you're not getting bit-perfect lossless file for songs which are available in MQA. If you listen to Hifi version, its actually MQA version with MQA signaling stripped off, no 2-3 bits of information where those MQA folded things are stored.
Be sure to find an album that doesn't have MQA version. And turn off normalization thats on by default.
Try few different albums, because often you might get different (re)mastered version.
Also with BT there's a compression, so you're actually listening something like 200-300kbps mp3...

I compared them briefly, and didn't notice much difference, maybe there was some, but doubt i could pass blind test. Qobuz was using their desktop Windows app, and Tidal was through Roon.
Its hard to do A/B test, because until i switch to a different app, i already forgot how it sounded on the previous app.

But people are constantly saying Qobuz sounds a bit better. I would switch, but Qobuz library is missing so many albums I have in my list, so that was a deal-breaker for me.

Yep, I did a bit of googling around last night after posting that, and the file differences are what most people point to.

Its one of those counter-intuitive things I think. Interesting that although BT has compression (there are new codecs coming out all the time) I would have said it was easy enough when critically listening to hear the difference.

fran

On a related note, I treated myself to a pair of Sony noise-cancelling earbuds in the sales, the WF-1000XM4, and they allow the use of LDAC Bluetooth codec. Switching between it and AAC when listening to Qobuz streaming (Hi Res) is actually quite shocking. LDAC is *clearly* better.

I'm very fond of those earbuds, actually.

Very interesting. The reason for my experimenting with this is that I have made up a DAC with a bluetooth input. I intended this for very casual listening but it sounds far better than I thought it would. It uses LDAC for the transfer......

I can't remember which online (Youtube) audio reviewer it was who said he preferred TIDAL over Qobuz?

I think he said they were both great but that he detected a slightly "toppier," edgier sound with Qobuz - which might translate for some into more clarity, detail etc - which is often the case.

Note: I've TIDAL Hi-Fi and I'm more than happy with it. I had a month's trial with Qobuz and thought it was good but can't say I noticed it was any better or any other differences - apart from a few albums that weren't available at the time on TIDAL. (Neil Young being one of them - although he's now back on it, presumably having gotten over his latest grump.)