I am unconvinced by Tidal's MQA albums, especially as my dac and streamer set-up is not MQA compatible, and most of the albums I've played from Tidal seem to be at 16 or at most 24 bit resolution, whereas on Qobuz everything in Hi-Res is at 24 or 32 bit, and seems much sharper, detailed and overall better quality. However I've been trialling Qobuz and definitely - at least to my ears - it seems to be a marked improvement - as well as being cheaper for the equivalent package. I moved to Tidal from Spotify about three or four years ago - and found it quite an improvement. I would say that I am a happy - if not proselytising (each to their own) - streaming convert. I think the quality of my streaming experience has improved immeasurably in terms of both access to available content, and the quality of my equipment combined with increasing higher resolution availability from streaming platforms. Overall I have switched to streaming now for about 75% of my listening, about 20% digital radio (either through a streamer or DAB/FM tuner) and about 5% CD. I ran the first three from various Apple Macs, then moved to Auralic streamers (Aries Mini then G1) for the last two. 0000005 % audio-geeks get the most out of our toys.I got into streaming quite a few years ago, initially using Audirvana and then Pure Music piggy-backing on iTunes, subsequently Spotify, then Tidal and now I've been trying Qobuz. Your entire job is to help me and the rest of us. We spend too much time and energy agonizing over gear when we should be agonizing over recordings. But the depressing reality is that we have no control a really good recording streamed over Tidal will always beat a so-so recording streamed over Qobuz, and vice versa. I also have a dumb, but nonetheless real, skepticism toward MQA and its whole “compressed, but not really” approach. But, like others have said, I do prefer the Qobuz sound for some elusive reason. I’ve invested a decent chunk of money into my digital side on two systems, and I still find it a close call. (2) I question whether it’s decent enough, however, to reveal a difference between HiRez Qobuz files and Tidal’s MQA. (1) OP is doing something that, IMHO, more people should do: bypassing the Node 2 DAC and using it as a streamer only. Almost sounds like two different recordings when listening on Qobuz vs Tidal. The Qobuz file sounds fuller and has more presence. I listened to ’The Box’ by Roddy Ricch which is a MQA file on Tidal and CD quality on Qobuz. Not a big fan of hip hop, but decided to listen to something that is squarely in Tidal’s area of focus. The CD quality file on Qobuz sounds a LOT fuller and more natural. I’m currently listening to a track that is a MQA file on Tidal vs a CD quality file on Qobuz. In the process, I think side effects of doing this is to take out some of the presence of voices and instruments and add an artificial quality to voices and instruments. I think they have applied some equalization to boost the bass and treble. Some additional thoughts about Tidal after listening on higher quality equipment. Spotify Premium even seems to sound better than Tidal. I’ll listen a bit more to Tidal, but so far I’m not impressed at all. Tidal sounds very two dimensional and flat in its sound quality but with some harshness in the high frequencies. Round 2, Qobuz vs Tidal: So far Qobuz is clearly better than Tidal even listening through pretty cheap desktop passive speakers. My listening notes comparing Qobuz to Tidal:
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