APPLE MUSIC, TIDAL or QOBUZ? The MOST POPULAR 'audiophile' streaming service (AS VOTED BY YOU 🫵🏻)

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[@colanitower]

Awesome opportunity to show the 'before' and 'after' of improving the sound in a room. Have fun 👍

[@uw4ntsum342]

What I find slightly annoying with Tidal that they sometimes change the file for an album to a different, and sometimes worse, mastering. Qobuz by comparison seems to be more transparent as to the origin.

[@gregstevenson7401]

Good point. I also didn’t like when my Neil Young catalogue fell into the abyss without warning (fists shaking at clowns (sic)). But hey, record store in a box - I can’t complain too loud.

[@SandsOfArrakis]

It seems to me that Tidal is busy replacing FLAC with MQA. I’ve decided to downgrade my subscription from Hifi + to Hifi as my living room setup doesn’t support MQA.

[@DouweBuruma]

I used Tidal for more than two years, but when they converted a lot of cd quality music into 44.1 MQA, I switched to Qobuz, I do not like the MQA sound, and oh!, what a difference in sound quality, I LOVE the sound quality of Qobuz!

[@Soggy-Soy-Toy]

I use both but jesus is qobuz bad for shuffling a playlist more than 50 songs. It just skips every 20, unlike tidal who actually shuffles it

[@teodormihai9810]

@@Soggy-Soy-Toy lol

[@pmpgonzalez]

I stream music, but also buy records and CD’s. In fact, I mostly stream music to later decide which albums I buy.

[@baldstuff]

My main takeaway from this video is that you have an audience that complains a lot. Appreciate the work you do and I will always trust your judgment. If you exclude something that I use, I trust it's for a reason. You're the expert, not me. Keep up the great work!

[@KeithHeinrich]

Given how no one can possibly test and compare all the things at once, I have no idea how some people know so much. 😉

[@ibassnote]

Congratulations on your move. That’s quite a shift. Happy to see the Buchardts as I pretty much bought mine because of your comprehensive and life-assessing review (very happy with them).

[@johnpischedda6951]

New room looks spacious John ! look forward to see what you do with it!

[@ptpoul]

Good to have you back. 🙏 Hope your health is improving💪

[@oliviacarmo]

I'm portuguese and was not expecting you to say you moved to Lisbon! Beautiful city, I hope you enjoy the wonderful weather after winter ends

[@salmonerd202]

Your shirt has me questioning if my eye prescription needs updating.

[@JayKerr]

Ha ha. Me too!

[@spunkthecombo]

Thanks for great videos! I look forward to them.

[@aridembo1693]

John, congratulations on the move to Lisbon. I'm glad to see you are back on your channel. Please keep up the good work. Your efforts are extremely appreciated Seems like you are feeling better!

[@jacobh5817]

I’ve tried them all, but the one I kept is Qobuz. In my view they have great sound but most importantly for me also the best catalogue of classical, jazz and world music.

[@bethb5915]

I'm glad to hear that about world music, thanks! I have lots of obscure world CDs that I love and wasn't sure how much world music is on the streaming services. I want more of a selection than Putumayo albums, you know?

[@davea3791]

Good to see you John. Have fun with the new room! A happy Qobuz user.

[@equilibrium2147]

Great job John!!! highly informative . Cheers my friend !!! lots of love from the Big Apple.

[@jamesoloughlin]

Congrats on the move to Lisbon John. Really want to visit Portugal. I’m sure you’re frantically, swiftly and quickly fixing the room problem :) I know the feeling.

[@geraldschrader8511]

Your polls didn't really cover my situation, where I still buy CDs but rip them all and store them on a Roon music server. My listening is then a mixture of my ripped CDs and streaming from Qobuz.

[@arthurwatts1680]

Sure, but you are still BUYING the physical disks and that feeds into sales figures which is what the original 'vinyl outselling CD' vid was about. If I stream most of my entertainment from Netflix while still buying Blu-Ray movies, I have some small stake in whether the industry drops the optical disk completely.

[@bruffyb3796]

You're still buying cds then...

[@mondovicium]

I have CDs ripped as single FLACs with embedded cue sheets sitting on a home server and sync'd to my phone in batches, plus TIDAL for exploring new-to-me stuff.

[@geraldschrader8511]

To all those saying "But you still buy CDs..." - of course I do, I said that in my original post. The point that everyone seems to be missing is that I buy CDs AND stream Qobuz, and the polls were flawed because they had no option for people that buy physical media and also stream - the available poll choices were only one or the other, but not both.

[@jamestaylor9258]

Well, a comparison of ripping CDs to FLAC and comparing those files to hires from Qobuz? ;)

[@leeellis6738]

Tidal for the past 5 years now. Very happy with it

[@carlosmioto5972]

Wow, John radical moving. Good luck in new home . And success in 2023.

[@mastaboog749]

Currently using Tidal. It may cost more but I really like that it pays out more to artists than other services and I really like the "exclusive mode" where it takes over my dac on the PC and ends up sound 10x better

[@JoseFerreira-zb7wh]

I also use Tidal and the main reason is that it pays artists the most among all the streaming services. Because in the end music is what it's all about.

[@rosswarren436]

If you are willing to buy a year's subscription through Best Buy (if you are in the U.S.) you can get it for a very good price.

[@mickyelvino]

I used to be a Tidal subscriber but was alerted to the problems with MQA by GoldenSound's video. I did a trial with Qobuz and to my ears, it sounds much better. More detail, better tone. Tidal subscription cancelled.

[@scottbaylor6215]

Good stuff. Very interesting. Glad you got your move done and that you are feeling better. 👍🏻

[@koekert112]

When I heard the new room I was really hoping for some EQ testing. Nice:) looking forward to the video. Thinking of intergrating a minidsp in my system for dirac live

[@ProfessorHamer]

I was with tidal for a few years but switched to Apple Music because I just couldn’t justify the price difference. Biggest shock in changing was that tidal has a favourite tracks concept, but apple still sticks to the iTunes library concept. On Apple Music you have to create a playlist and add tracks in a 2-step process, but in tidal it’s direct to your favourite tracks list and adding albums is separate. Didn’t realize how much I appreciated that.

[@delvalle9256]

Tidal through Best Buy is 119$ per year

[@macawjacob]

Great video. I am a Tidal subscriber. In the past couple of months Qobuz came available in Canada. Today I decided to try there free one month subscription. Maybe your poll may be a bit different now that Qobuz is available in Canada. I have a lot of playing back and forth with Tidal and Qobuz to see what is better for quality and sound. I have only played with Qobuz for a few hours and I find that the quality is a bit better but the bad is that I imported my playlists from Tidal and Qobuz does not have a lot of my songs available. I have a month to figure out what I will go with.

[@grinskey327]

Love the video, very intriguing stats!

[@isaacsykes3]

Yay!!! TIDAL!!! Thank you for all your hard work. 🙏🏿 Also, I'm so glad to "see" you doing better (get it?..lol). Seriously though, I'm glad you're well, and congrats on all the changes. Speaking for myself, I love Tidal, especially running it from the HDMI output of my MacMini to my A/V Processors. Articles, music, and not mentioned enough imo, the videos, all coming through uncompressed via HDMI in either two-channel or multichannel. Glorious!! You can't beat it!!! I also love Amazon(HD), but mainly as a way to buy CD'S and the benefit of the Autorip feature.

[@kaanpeker8284]

I've just switched from Tidal to Qobuz as the prior wouldn't let me stream MAX quality from my phone to my amp through Chromecast Audio. I can now use the Chromecast's max 24-bit/96khz capacity and it makes an audible difference. Tidal seems to have a better library though.

[@hanksta34]

Trying QoBuz today for the first time after being a Spotify subscriber for years. Starting with Vince Guaraldi Trio's - A Charlie Brown Christmas Expanded recording. Bass seems louder according to wife and I on Spotify, but I can hear more individual notes played on the upright bass via QoBuz (CD quality) recording. Will keep experimenting to see if it's worth it. Hi-fi system consists of high efficient KLH Kendall tower speakers, a Marantz 2270 used a pre-amp for a PrimaLuna 36WPC tube amp. DAC is a BlueMe Pro.

[@ghajik.]

yeh, the bass is higher, i felt that too...I came from apple music where the music is generally flat so i felt it more easily.

[@trystanbanger6843]

Love your work. Note that in your poll about audio formats you were talking about which format was being bought, whereas the poll itself asked which format was being used. There is a difference- in my case I often play/ use vinyl but haven’t bought anything new for years; day to day is all streamed. My 2c on the streaming- to my ear, on my equipment, Qobuz sounds much better but has an inferior UI when compared to Tidal; I ‘make do’ with Tidal and its boosted lows because of the better UI… if Qobuz upped its game on the UI and all other things remained equal I’d switch back in a flash! Cheers

[@neilkirkwood2617]

Hi John, good luck, acoustically, in your new Portuguese digs. One factor about streaming platforms can be their availability across borders. For Canadians, Qobuz is officially not available although it rolled out in The States years ago and in New Zealand and Australia. For some reason they have decided, so far, to omit most Canadians from their service. I enjoy Tidal, and formerly Amazon HD, which was inexpensive and well-integrated into the BlueSound platform I used. Now that I am a Roon user, Tidal is my main go to for streaming. I buy vinyl as well and enjoy its presentation. Often I listen to music recommended by reviewers, such as yourself or Michael Lavorgna, on Tidal before deciding if I want to purchase the vinyl version, if one is available at a price I can afford. I also stream for the musical enjoyment and have found some good music from Roon Radio.

[@richardgrumbine4867]

I admittedly mostly stream, but I do buy physical copies ( CD, DVD, SACD, or Bluray) from time to time (about a month) I also sometimes buy hi res downloads… but mostly my music is via Apple Music (Tidal is not a thing in Japan)… I like to listen to hi res and ATMOS tracks and Apple has a fair amount of them now a days..

[@TheNatEight]

I started a free-trial for Tidal HiFi Plus recently…I’m a pretty amateur audiophile (if that) but I feel like I can definitely tell its a step up from other services (I’ve used Apple Music, Amazon and Spotify).

[@foldspacenavigator6011]

Congrats John on the new abode and interesting indeed. Sound & format aside, my Tidal interface experience is meh / ok but do it for Roon. If ever a Spotify upgrade would manifest, I’d use it with Roon for endgame streaming. Look forward to the coming room acoustics vid.

[@liamo4]

Looks like plenty elbow room in your new room John. Looking forward to your taming of it, which will be instructive. All the very best to you in your new home and location. Glad you finally got all your ducks in a row.

[@zibikonti8901]

Interesting comments below about Tidal vs. Qobuz preferences. I just migrated from T to Q. Not only cheaper in NL but also my impressions were that Q streaming in HiRes was superior to anything I have had with Tidal over last 10 years. Not to mention the MQA coding - decoding controversy with Tidal files. Anyway - enjoy your music !!!

[@markwalsham7115]

Good luck in your new adventure in Portugal. I personally use Apple Music, especially after they went mainly lossless across their catalogue, and now it high definition files too. All my music goes via an external DAC to the hifi, or DAC/AMP for portable purposes. I tried Tidal for MQA studio masters, but honestly I could not hear or feel any difference from hi-def sources that I used before, so cancelled. Apple Music for me as it works across my iPhone, iPad and MacBook.

[@James-mb5jr]

Great video!! In terms of pure sound quality, do you prefer the downloaded album version or the physical CD version? Thanks

[@bigtom6939]

Good video. Hope you are feeling better. just as a side I've been trying to re-subscribe with Qobuz for 3 months and all I can get is snippets of tracks maybe 5 seconds then on to another. track. It really ticks me off because I like the classical selection with Roon.

[@barneyrubble9309]

before you do any room treatments on the new room. Try the lyngdorf amp with room perfect just to see how it deals with a really bad room. You can then try it again after room treatments and see what difference it makes. Would make an interesting comparison and maybe also try Dirac Live as cross compare.

[@BrettShaw]

Tidal+Roon. Perfect. The Qobuz is not available in my country. (Hungary)

[@danrussell9357]

Great video, I would like to see more of the same style.

[@tybowers9807]

Great poll! Congratulations on the move to Lisbon. Be well.

[@spandel100]

If play a track off of my pc(cd rip) and then play the exact same track from a streaming service(cd quality),played through the exact same hardware,there are differences in quality,audible ones.The rip is less "grainy",fuller,has a smoother more buttery and dense texture,better bass definition and the sound stage is more defined.I have also noticed that there is the odd distortion in the form of a high frequency "crackling" now and again while streaming...almost like there is instability in the stream.I am sure a bigger buffer,or any buffer at all, would help this no end.

[@spandel100]

Just to be clear,these differences were not very big but were definitely distracting and also created a listener fatigue situation.

[@alexdenton6586]

For me, it's Qobuz 🙋🏼‍♀️ after having been for some time at TIDAL But here we are talking about high quality, if we are just talking about music in general the biggest streaming service is still KZbin in my opinion, the vast majority of people I know who listen to music, do so on KZbin

[@williammackinnon9592]

I was using Tidal but the cost of Amazon hd meant it was a no brainer although they probably don’t have as good a library. Any advice gratefully received.. keep up the good work John. 👍👏

[@delarocquejean-jacques5792]

I have about 500cd and I transfered them in Flac to different DAP (Cowon Plenue, Shanling and Pioneer). On my tablet I use Spotify, sorry none of the ones you mention. I use an xduoo amp/Dac with with Akg and Grado headphones. If I was changing it would probably for Quobuzz high resolution. Thanks for your videos.

[@DerekAldridge1]

I recently canceled Tidal since Apple Music was already included in my subscription. I just can't hear the difference, but my wallet feels it.

[@BrianVallotton]

I cannot tell the difference between the two of them. I also recently tried Qobuz but literally could not hear any difference using my Shanling M6 Ultra and Ananda headphones. I do think it comes down to what you get used to. I already liked the Apple ecosystem and recently did get a plan where the Music is included. Happy listening!

[@supes323]

I can definitely hear a difference. Comparing the same tracks back to back on each service there is a difference. Apple music just sounds lifeless and Tidal has a wider soundstage. A lot more air separation around the music. This was evident not just on my main speakers setup but also music from my car stereo.

[@amxaas4450]

You're probably using terrible hardware... A very high chance.

[@cbgaming08]

@@amxaas4450 😢

[@ZR1Terror]

I can definitely here the difference using a fiio dac and hi res earbuds and Sony MX5’s via 3.5 mm cable.

[@awhirsch]

I am an audiophile inasmuch as I am obsessive about sound quality. I have ABed Spotify with Tidal and Apple Music and have repeatedly been unable to detect a difference. I would be interested to hear whether others have done this and know what their findings were. I stayed with Spotify for the music discovery and user experience.

[@stevenswall]

Spotify has the best UI for me. Google Music was the best for discovery. Now I use Spotify for stereo tracks and Apple Music for surround sound.

[@Rsalmond83]

In the end, I have chosen to go back to Spotify. Spotify has a livelier sound that I like, the UI and UX is much better, and the recommendations are unmatched.

[@KeithHeinrich]

For me Spotify is the goto for the reasons you mentioned and where the bulk of listening occurs. Qobuz is fired up if I want to sit back with something in particular and be amazed again at a recording, but I might have to dig to find it. I have all my CD's digitised on a NAS but then Spotify right - its just easier. And honestly its degrees between them for listening quality, not night and day.

[@HarmvonAtrak]

Very informative video. Funny how Vinyl is slightly more bought than cd's in the poll. Apart from streaming, I predominantly buy cd's, the odd vinyl album, but most physical audio I use is Minidisc. This niche product from the 90s still has quite a fanbase it turns out. Personally I hear no difference with CD quality (and anyone who I tested double blindly, failed to notice any difference), and I like the fact that you can mix, fade in, out, alter, delete so easily. CD's that I buy, I usually copy to MD, so that I have them physically backed up and can use on different locations too . If I purchased a file lossless, my question would be: how do I ensure that the lossless audio files (from Tidal or Qobuz) are going through my external DAC without data compressing and end up at the MD where Atrac does its sole, rather magical (mp3 butt kicking) compressing? And the same question for cdr's I might want to burn that way on a vintage Pioneer cd-rw machine. Any clues? I am planning to connect the DAC to a Dell lVPRO i5 laptop, and the optical out cable should take it from there.

[@peepers4763]

Had Tidal, picked up the DAC, headphones, bought the best physical formats, downloaded the highest quality files and enjoyed the best audio. Then I realized Amazon was already paid for, can listen in the best quality my equipment could handle and there is a lot of music, I listen to, which isn’t available above CD quality. I’m mobile, need to bring the music, stream the music. My downloads are best quality available still enjoy the music regardless of what comes down the service.

[@lloydstephens2135]

I only stream Spotify for new music, and I purchase music on CD or vinyl if I find music I like. Have tried all the streaming services on your list. I don’t like the inconsistency of their sound quality. I think the lack of standards causes the quality issues compared to CD and vinyl.

[@saezrosario2730]

I love Apple Music they don’t charge you extra for it and has spatial audio wich is not bad it’s a whole new experience too I enjoy both lossless hifi and spatial audio I use AirPods Pro so when I’m in the go doing work outs I love it when I’m home is when I enjoy my hifi lossless music and love it”about the difference in the lossless music with tidal and Apple Music I think it depends on the equipment you use but it’s also about preference I don’t think is the streaming service it all depends on your headphones and dac too also wire’s

[@stephanem5125]

Great insight and wish you the best new life in Lisbon. It will be interesting to know how many of the apple misic fan really listen in lossless audio as all Apple wireless headphones doesn’t support it. Thank you for the great content

[@valentinobv]

Best of luck in the new country and new home! Cheers from Romania!

[@DarkoAudio]

New "second" home. 😆

[@user-mo9wp2ed7u]

Today I found out an interesting thing, after trying out Tidal (always used Qobuz), I did stream to my cambridge CXN V1 via Tidal app using connect, I did not like the way it sounded, too much loudness (especially the mid/high section), no good stereo separation between the speakers. When I use Tidal via the cambridge CXN app, the sound is again what is should be, much..much better balanced and in proportion, anybody an idea what is happening?

[@ceegold2583]

Tidal- very happy with content, very occasionally use Apple Music. One key thing is listening to the collection in the car.

[@noxplague]

I recently started using Qobuz because of the Roon integration. I love Roon and it's power as a multi-room/device music server. Qobuz on my iPhone also seems okay and I've been testing that out with a Audioquest Dragonfly Cobalt with great results, huge improvement particularly for my car audio system.

[@mr_ion]

interesting! how do you connect the Audioquest to the car? what's the process/cabling/streaming?

[@anarchodandyist]

Wow be great to see the place take shape John. Hope you are well and I am sure the sun will be good for you.

[@DarkoAudio]

Yep, I am here for the winter ☀️

[@randycook6500]

If Qobuz only had Spotify's interface. I've chosen to use Spotify exclusively just because of the interface. I've bought numerous albums from bands that popped up on my feed. The sound quality is good enough for me. If they ever deploy Spotify Hi-Fi then they will dominate the market based on their user interface alone

[@dgjspurs]

Yes I agree, this is a massive oversight from Spotify imo. Yes 320kbs on good hifi equipment isnt all bad but lossless Hi-Res audio is so much better!

[@marshallhughes4514]

Randy I pay for Qobuz but I have a free account on Spotify that I use to direct me to new music. I can't believe Qobuz doesn't at least have a radio feature.

[@robbadobba]

I have said this for YEARS. Spotify wins largely because their interface - on PC, Mac and Mobile - is vastly superior. It's why I stick with them. I also find more music to my liking on Spotify currently than is available on other services. For me, 16/44.1 is enough - mainly because I have 5000+ CDs, mostly ripped to FLAC. I'd switch to another service for CD-quality streaming over Spotify's 320k in a heartbeat if they had a Spotify-like experience and catalog. Not sure how much I'd be willing to pay over $9.99/month, though.

[@talents010]

I think you may have missed a sizeable segment of audiophiles who stream from a music server via hard drive stored files that were either downloaded or ripped from a physical medium.

[@rave662001]

Fully in agreement. That's what I wondered too. Certainly my preferred option but I thought maybe I was in a minority....

[@KITFLETCH1]

Those Portuguese tiles look lovely but oooo! Not good for speakers? Looking forward to your video on that. Welcome to your new home!

[@jerchapman]

I found the chart by RIAA so interesting. I still listen to a "physical" download (lossy) most of the time, either from prior CDs or KZbin and most current music download from Tidal. but on Roon from home it is 50/50 streaming and download.

[@supes323]

Since watching this video it has made me reconsider my options. I have been with itunes/apple music for years and never thought considering trying another streaming service. I have since tried Tidal as it was the most popular in these polls. OMG! What a difference in sound quality, so much better than apple music. It doesnt make sense why it sounds better but it just does. Its incredible.

[@trmus]

It doesnt

[@supes323]

I have been a fan of apple music for years but have given up waiting for bit perfect playback or a streamer with native apple music playback. Since switching to tidal Im enjoying both these features on a Wiim mini which only costed £80. This just increases the sound quality gap even further.

[@russelldobson9945]

I tried back to back trials of Qobuz, Tidal and Amazon and found Qobuz to have the best sound quality (and outputs the correct bitrate of the stream) followed by Amazon (though no matter what quality stream it outputs 24bit 192khz so there's some algorithm afoot), then Tidal. I ended up with Amazon as it has a bigger library than Qobuz and had nearly as good sound - Tidal seems unreasonably more expensive. I'm re-evaluating as I've noticed Amazon downgrade quite a bit of high res to cd quality. I do note CD rips saved directly to my iPad actually sound more detailed than 24bit 192khz streamed- so that is my current consideration.

[@christinejames5697]

I am changing my TIDAL subscription from Apple Store to TIDAL at a saving of 30%!

[@TiaanJonker]

Results fits me like a glove... Good luck with the move and everything else.

[@barryarmstrong5232]

Hope you are feeling better John!

[@vit3494]

I, like many many others, use only FLAC files (none from your pool options). By the way, MQA is lossy. But Tidal have lossless as well.

[@richardzedman1160]

a lot of us may not be buying cds or records but we have a large collection of it and still use it regually

[@SandsOfArrakis]

It's been years since I've bought a CD. But I do have my whole collection ripped to uncompressed FLAC and loaded to my Roon Core. I have several albums that are not available on streaming services. So they complement the streaming parts nicely.

[@EugeneKee]

I subscribe to stream services to check and decide prior to buying physical formats

[@pirataderuidos]

Thanks so much for the information 🤓

[@gcahill51]

John, you need some house plants, a lava lamp and maybe a few Blacklight posters to jazz up the set, LOL

[@24kHERTZ]

FOR MOI Tidal - best App. Better, more extensive library than Qobuz. Qobuz - best sound - much better than Apple Music for some reason despite the same file specs. Apple Music - rapidly becoming redundant due to hi fi incompatibility issues. And if you like niche music genres, the app is a bore to scroll around. Plus it’s unreliable on your phone for creating playlists - spinning wheel of death etc

[@theLEGOguy22]

Agree Qobuz has the best sound but the app is terrible and there is no native ‘connect’ function like Tidal has.

[@MaNtIcHoRaOfficial]

Apple music really only makes sense for people are are integrated into apple’s ecosystem. If you are then its well worth it for the money compared to tidal

[@LM6361]

Hi John. Tidal for me. Where is Olaf? Glad to see you're doing good.

[@georgemueller9681]

People streaming music on their iphones takes me back to the '60s listening to my transistor radio or the '80s with my Walkman. I've never listened to music on my iphone so maybe I'm missing out?

[@Benvos]

I find it really interesting that Apple Music is number 2 in the overall poll, I got rid of it because it’s just not as simple to connect up within a hifi system as the others. While I’m not surprised Tidal is the most popular, I’m still shocked people would choose it over Qobuz as it’s twice the price, and from what I’ve experienced, doesn’t have the catalogue for my needs vs Qobuz. I’m a big electronic music guy (along with everything else to a degree), Tidal just had so many gaps in that department.

[@Benvos]

@@owlatwork ah thanks, I didn’t know that, so this makes even more sense then!

[@BrettShaw]

Qobuz is not available in many countries (not even here in Hungary), so I am not surprised by the result.

[@MaNtIcHoRaOfficial]

If you have a iPhone i would just use apple music due to the tidal hifi format nit working with iphone. And its cheaper then tidal. Regardless you cant get full in lossless over Bluetooth so it really doesnt matter

[@paullewis1750]

Congrats on the new place, give us a our when you're ready. Lots and lots of hills to walk now.

[@Robert.Dickson]

I thought you’d only buggered off to Lisbon on holiday 😊 Enjoy some good weather, keep up the great content and wish Olaf all the best.

[@DarkoAudio]

It's a loooong working holiday. I will be back to making videos in Berlin with Olaf in April.

[@josepmariaalandisomoza1315]

Amazon HD do the thing for me. At te same price that AM but sounds better for my ears

[@Santos.Sarmento]

I'm over 60, I always liked listening to music, in my childhood I lived with 45 rpm records in mono mode, in a sound system with a single huge speaker, in my adolescence vinyl was the law, but I used cassette and I even had a Sony TC-377 reel-to-reel recorder. Then came the CD, the MP3 downloads, and today I'm exclusively streaming at the highest audiophile level there is. After a long time I recently listened to music on vinyl and strangely, at least at first, even on a super system it sounded inferior to me. Greetings from Brazil.

[@joscallinet6260]

You have made quite the move from Berlin to Lisbon! Climate-wise, Lisbon should be a better place to live in especially during the winter months, when it must be awfully cold, damp and dreary in Berlin. I hope the place you're living in now has one of Lisbon's lovely panoramic views. Did you base your move on the recommendations of your doctors, or was it strictly your choice? In any event, I wish you the best of happiness and good health, and I look forward to your next video releases.

[@albertmeijer9905]

I quit streaming (Qobuz) this month and bought a proper cd player (Luxman D-03X) so I could play my cd’s again that were in storage… already had a turntable. Main reason to quit streaming was because i mainly used it to discover new music, but then always would buy the vinyl after that… so why spend 15 or 16 euros a month on that then? Can also discover new music on youtube and then spend the money on more vinyl and now also again cd’s!

[@danchristensen2967]

If Apple Music had the option for native integration like other platforms do on streamers and not only AirPlay i would be rocking Apple Music instead of Qobuz.

[@Bambam21476]

One thing to remember is that Tidal has a Tidal Connect option. This allows me to connect directly to my Blue Sound streaming box. Other services don't offer this.

[@aussie8114]

That’s how I’m streaming. The Tidal app is pretty decent.

[@nd011]

Spotify has the same feature too, though not sure if bluesound supports Spotify connect?

[@theLEGOguy22]

@@nd011yes Spotify also offer connect but the sound quality is simply awful - they don’t offer CD quality and maybe never will. Hence I had to move to Tidal.

[@brianirving5889]

Hi John - I have bought around 85 cd's in the past 12 months, of which 31 were new, the rest were secondhand. Can I suggest that you do a pole of your subscribers to ascertain how many of us are contributing to world music sales and how many to a third non-measured market (secondhand = eBay, discogs, records fairs etc). I think the outcome will be extremely interesting.

[@Foxrock321]

I have been an iTunes guy for a while now, with a pretty large library.. $$$…but my total music library is a healthy dose. of LP, CD, and purchased from iTunes. Oh and I have a couple of cases of cassette tapes ( self recorded) btw, just finished watching a really great Documentary, All Things Must Pass, the story of Tower Records ..it’s how we all got where we are now….and I don’t pay for a streaming service

[@tobiaswinter1358]

Kinda sad that you left Berlin tbh. Don't know why, but it feels that way 🥲

[@DarkoAudio]

I didn't leave permanently. Will be back in Berlin in April.

[@Elsteck]

That 10% represents a lot more in terms of “times listened to”. I mean the streams are counted each time it is streamed, the fysical music get bought once, but listened to many uncounted times.

[@MrMrpony]

Idk about the linguistics on those polls but more troubling is calling Tidal lossless.

[@anthonyf3957]

I have an Amazon Music Unlimited account, but honestly, streaming is the music delivery version I use the least (other than cassette, of course). In my vehicle I use SiriusXM Satellite radio or I play FLAC and MP3/AAC files from my phone via Bluetooth. At home I stream files off my computer over the network with HEOS, or I play Vinyl or SACDs. I still occasionally buy the odd CD, but those immediately get ripped onto my server for playback over the network. Lately, however, I have been getting back into MiniDisc, which still sounds pretty great compared to MP3/AAC, if not as good as Vinyl/CD/SACD etc., but darn it all if it is not still fun making those mix MDs; way more fun than creating playlists on my phone. It is also great for listening to music on walks when I choose to leave my phone at home. I have also dabbled with compact cassettes a bit lately, but they are so meh. lol

[@djule1986]

Very glad you chose Lisbon, I think you will have a great time there! And, yeah, Tidal, UI is just something that is intuitive, even better than Spotify.

[@sjsphotog]

I still buy physical CDs and rip (using E.A.C.) my own FLAC music files for my Plex server to get the best quality. If I cant find the CD then I defer to get it from Bandcamp so I can still get the lossless FLAC files. If I want to convert later to MP3 for non critical playing/xport I can use a converter software

[@RoyGBiv-lc8tv]

Do you find that bandcamp has all of the music you need?

[@alex42884]

What device do you use for Plex? My android device, an Nvidia Shield Pro won't send bit perfect audio out via USB. It's a limitation with Android as I understand it.

[@alonst]

I like your channel very much. About the statistics. There are few variables you haven’t mentioned like who has an iPhone or android. less Apple Music for the androids Quboz does not function in most of the world. So the demographics is important. And. Then only Tidal or also Spotify or like myself all of them. Interesting definitely.

[@Riotdrone]

i'm new to audiophile stuff. i just got a FiiO K7 BT dac/amp and a HD 660S2. the guy at the store was using Qobuz so that's what i'm trying out but i'm curious about Tidal

[@stuartamer8968]

Interesting numbers. I still use Apple Music for day to day in car Streaming, but moved away from Tidal to Qobuz due to too many MQA formats in Tidal. using Roon as the main function, and have even spent time re-ripping my CDs to FLAC, as I read somewhere that steaming is still "noisier" than a ripped CD at the same bit rate

[@watchtvatmyplace6691]

Deezer for me :) i like it so far for the hifi music :D Cd`s also with a 1997 Jvc disc changer :), sounds great still.

[@Geoduck.]

I only know Tidal but do enjoy it another service could be better for all I know. Portugal? Wow how cool is that! Your new room as far as I can see looks lovely. Yes, a room affects sound immensely no doubt.

[@luissantana4442]

Welcome. There's a lot of good audio stores in Lisbon and of course the Audio Show. (also good cd and vynil ones)

[@chengo51]

I didn't know you spoke portuguese 😛😛 ....I would be interested of why this choice ! Now back to the subject, I am with Qobuz because I find their price OK and policy straightforward. And that could be your next poll, why did you choose Tidal or Qobuz or else ?