Tidal uses MQA for its high-resolution Masters tier Qobuz uses the nonproprietary FLAC format. Qobuz’s arrival in the New World promises to stoke one of audio’s hottest controversies: the merits of Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) technology. But the current situation is unusually fluid. Of course, streaming services are always in flux - in terms of the content offered, the software and user experience, and which devices are compatible with which services. Rumors have circulated for months that Tidal would soon issue apps permitting hi-rez playback on mobile devices, but as I put this piece to bed that had yet to happen. That service has desktop and mobile apps, but with a couple of exceptions, Tidal’s mobile apps don’t yet support hi-rez playback. Because Qobuz must negotiate licensing agreements with rights holders for each region in which it offers its service, the eventual selection of music available on Qobuz US might well differ from what I’ve been enjoying, as might the software and the user interface. My demo account of Qobuz was for the European version. However, as I completed this feature in late October, the North American version of Qobuz was still a work in progress. I’ve had ample opportunity to compare the two services. I’ve had a demo account of Qobuz since last January, and have been listening to Tidal’s Masters tier since its launch, in January 2017. In late September, David Solomon, Qobuz’s chief evangelist for hi-rez music, told me that that date had slipped, and that Qobuz would announce its North American launch date “certainly in the last quarter” of 2018. That launch was supposed to happen at the 2018 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, in October. The US would come first, with Canada following a few months later. In January, at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Qobuz announced that it would launch a North American service this year. The other is a relative unknown, at least on the west side of the Atlantic.īased in France, Qobuz has been operating since 2007, but until now has been available only in a few European countries. One of them is a familiar name - now available in 57 countries, Tidal has been operating in North America since 2015. Sometime soon, hopefully before the end of 2018, North American audiophiles will have their choice of two high-resolution music-streaming services.
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