Qobuz vs Tidal: Battle of the hi-res music streamers

If you're looking through the best music streaming services for high-res streaming, your options are limited — at least until Spotify releases its high-end streaming add-on. Although they're not as popular as Apple Music or Spotify, Qobuz and Tidal deliver superb sound quality that's unrivaled by any other service.

Because Qobuz and Tidal offer a similar selling point, determining which is better for you can be a mammoth task.

Do you want the best audio possible, or do you want more formats to play with? Do you prefer to learn about your music, or download it? While both seem to be targeting the same sound-conscious audience, they each have their own pros and cons.

But which is the best of the two? We've tested them extensively to figure out the answer to that very question.

Qobuz vs Tidal: Price

If you want to get Hi-Res streaming for the lowest price possible, then you’re looking at Tidal. It’s the cheaper of the two platforms by one whole dollar per month, with an individual membership costing $11.99.

There is a family option, which gives you 6 accounts for $17.99 per month, along with some bonus family features. To make sure that little ears don’t hear a swear, there are clean playlists of popular tracks with all the naughty bits taken out. There’s also curated content for kids, so that you know what they’re listening to when you’re not watching their iPhone/iPad.

Tidal also offers a student price, which brings down the price to $5.49 per month. You have to prove that you’re a student mind you, so you’ll need those student credentials when you go to sign up. Otherwise, it's a full-price individual membership. Students get special study playlists as well.

Qobuz, on the other hand, is the costlier of the two, especially if you opt for the highest tier: Yes, there are two tiers on the platform — Studio, and Sublime. The former is the cheaper option, and the latter the more expensive.

You can pay for Studio either monthly or yearly, and paying for the whole year in one go will save you money in the long run. In fact, it is slightly cheaper than Tidal, with its $129 cost averaging out at $10.83 per month. Most of you will go for the monthly payment option though, which makes the price $12.99 per month. Sublime can only be paid yearly, and it will cost you $179.99 for the year

If you have more than one listener in your home, there are different multi-account bundles in the two tiers as well: There’s a Duo and a Family standard tier option, which can again be paid monthly or yearly, or you can shell out for a multi-person Sublime tier account, which costs even more and can only be paid for monthly.

Lastly, Qobuz also has a student plan, which comes in less than Tidal’s. Students only pay $4.99 per month, one of the cheapest streaming plans for college kids and those still in education. If you want to listen to music while studying, Qobuz is the way to go.

As for which comes out on top here, it’s going to Tidal — but only by a hair. Qobuz has the more flexible pricing options, but in order to get the lowest prices you have to pay for the year; you’ll need more up front, and some can’t afford that. Tidal is cheaper monthly for most of its plans, which helps it win out here.

• Winner: Tidal

Qobuz vs Tidal: Availability

Wherever you can download and install apps, you can get either Tidal or Qobuz. There are iPhone, iPad and macOS apps for Apple users, as well as Android and Windows apps. The Tidal app has a shared aesthetic across the board, and the Qobuz app looks pretty much identical no matter where you use it.

The apps themselves are free to download and install, you need only sign in with your subscription when you open them for the first time.

Both apps have their issues, however. Tidal can sometimes get unresponsive on some systems, and outright refuse to stream anything you click or press on. A quick restart gets rid of the issue, but it's annoying nonetheless.

Qobuz seems to like fast internet, and I’ve had some issues streaming when the internet is very slow. Given that the internet is getting faster almost everywhere this isn’t the biggest problem in the world, and it’s easily kept at bay with offline listening modes.

Where availability becomes slightly trickier is with the two platforms' wireless protocols. Both are compatible with AirPlay, and have their own ‘connect’ options. Tidal Connect is widely accepted with a whole bunch of different devices, so you’re unlikely to find something it doesn’t work with. It’s not the most reliable, however, with some dropouts.

Qobuz Connect is slightly newer, and there are fewer devices that accept the standard. It is more reliable than Tidal Connect though, and it’s becoming more widely used by different speakers and audio systems.

Either way, this round is a draw — you can get apps on most platforms, and Tidal Connect has too many reliability issues to keep it from swinging the score.

• Winner: Draw

Qobuz vs Tidal: Features

Both services offer some great extra features, so this one is going to entirely depend on what you’re looking for in a music streaming service. Do you prefer to get super deep into your music, and learn the story behind the tunes you listen to? Or are you more into the technology side of things, paying more attention to the kinds of musical experiences you can have? Even further than that, do you want to buy your music for even higher quality listening and superior offline listening?

Tidal focuses more on features like spatial audio and swappable tech support and the like. There’s Dolby Atmos for spatial mixes for example, although the range of tracks available is smaller than you’ll find on the likes of Apple Music.

It’s also trickier than it should be to find devices that support its mixes. Sonos, for example, only supports spatial music from Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited, leaving Tidal users out in the cold. When it works it's amongst the very best — but you need to curate the rest of your gear for the full effect.

There’s then the usual spate of streaming platform features. I particularly like how you can share your tracks, albums and playlists with users of other platforms, and it takes them to the right place within their chosen app. That’s smart.

There are all the playlist options and collection options you could want, from the easy-to-create playlists and customizable ‘liked’ music panels. Curation is also good, with solid algorithms and video mixes that base themselves on the kind of music that you listen to. The Explore tab is helpful for finding new music, and there are loads of Discover playlists for you to listen to.

Qobuz, on the other hand, goes for a curation and editorial feature set. You don’t get the Dolby Atmos spatial audio that you do with Tidal, but you do get a whole lot more information about the music that you’re listening to.

Qobuz has some of the best content around, gathering articles written for the platform and articles from around the web so that you can learn more about the music you listen to.

Personally, I’m a big fan of this prioritization of editorial. There are interesting tidbits about everything from mega pop stars to esoteric black metal acts and everything in between. There’s even a curated magazine section within all the Qobuz apps, so you can discover new music based on what journalists are writing about.

There are also curated playlists, and up-next queues that now rival those found in Tidal. They’re just as good at this point, giving you suggestions based on the rest of your listening habits. Those sit under the ‘Discover’ tab.

You can of course make your own playlists as well, or save one of the pre-made playlists. I like the ‘My Weekly Q’ playlist. That’s created based on your listening habits, and I’ve discovered some great music through it.

There’s offline listening too, although there’s one big bonus in Qobuz that you don’t get with Tidal. The Qobuz store is a great way to buy and keep your music, all in incredibly hi-res formats. They cost a fair bit for the higher-quality tracks, but if you go for the Sublime tier you can save up to 60% on each purchase you make. It’s a massive bonus for those who like to have copies of their music.

At the end of the day, each streamer has their own headline features — and while I personally prefer the Qobuz store to Tidal’s spatial audio, it’s likely that others prefer Dolby Atmos support. Given the wider appeal of a fancy audio format, this one goes to Tidal.

• Winner: Tidal

Qobuz vs Tidal: Sound Quality

On paper, the two streamers have similar streaming specs — and both have some of the highest-quality tracks that you can stream. Tidal features FLAC streams at up to 24-bit 192kHz, and Qobuz features FLAC streams, also up to 24-bit 192kHz.

But not all FLACs are created equal, and some of the quality will depend on the gear that you’re using to stream it. If you give either of the streamers a chance to breathe with dedicated DACs and top-quality hardware, you’re in for an incredible audio experience, but Qobuz manages to edge out Tidal when it comes to sound quality.

From my testing, I found that there was more space to Qobuz’s streams, as well as more richness when paired with quality audio equipment. The bass line in Pendulum’s Salt in the Wounds felt more impactful, and classical music recordings felt bigger. The differences are very slight, of course, but Qobuz takes the point when it comes to the sound quality.

That’s not to mention the incredible quality of the tracks that you can buy from Qobuz. Those can go all the way up to some incredible DSD and DXD streams, with bitrates higher than you likely thought possible. It’s more expensive to access them, but it’s something completely lacking from Tidal.

• Winner: Qobuz

Qobuz vs Tidal: Verdict

This one is extremely close. Qobuz got very close in some of the rounds to being completely on par with Tidal, but Jay-Z’s platform of choice just managed to keep the French challenger from stealing its thunder. Tidal wins out in price and features. It’s cheaper than Qobuz for most people, and spatial audio is, I think, going to have more fans than the Qobuz editorial content.

The moment Qobuz adds in spatial audio, though, Tidal will have an even tougher fight on its hands because I honestly believe Qobuz offers better audio playback when it comes to stereo mixes. With that said, music quality can be subjective so it all comes down to what you want to do with your listening, and how you like to experience your music.

Interested in the tech side, and like the idea of spatial audio? Tidal is the best for you, and likely most people. If you want to learn more about the music you listen to, and access a hi-res store so that you can own your music, then Qobuz is the way to go.

• Winner: Tidal

More from Tom's Guide

• The iPhone 16e is the end of an era — here's why
• Where to buy RTX 5090, 5080 and 5070 gaming laptops — live updates and stock checker
• I went hands-on with the Framework Laptop 12 and this 2-in-1 could be my favorite yet