Last time we met, we discussed Tidal and its partnership with MQA. This time we are going to bring its chief competitor Qobuz into the conversation. Tidal and Qobuz are at present the only services that bring "higher than Redbook CD resolution" music to the listening public. In that elevated sphere, they alone compete. For all you music lovers in the Boston, MA area, these are both excellent high-resolution streaming services.

Last time we introduced our Greater Boston, MA readers to the high-resolution audio streaming services, Tidal and Qobuz. Both offer their subscribers the opportunity to choose exactly what they want to hear and hear it in full CD resolution...or better, selecting from vast libraries of recorded music. In this way they are distinguished from services like Pandora (adaptive playlists, not on-demand, and lower quality) and Spotify (on-demand, but not full resolution). Other full resolution services include Deezer and Amazon HD, but neither offers higher than CD resolution listening choices.

(This is kind of a personal article about my relationship to recorded music. Reader beware!)

If you had told me 15 years ago that I could pay $20 a month and hear almost any music I wanted to in very good fidelity on both my home audio system here in Framingham, MA and my cell phone, I would have laughed and said "Really, what an incredible bargain.” 

Streaming music actually started around 2005 and has gotten progressively more popular as more services have been developed and the fidelity has gone from OK to really good--purportedly as good as a CD or better. You know, high-res or MQA or something of the like.

Natural Sound has served the Greater Boston area (and beyond!) for over 40 years as the “go-to” venue for the finest audio equipment.  Because not everyone is ready to purchase “the ultimate” the first time around, we instituted a unique home stereo system and speakers trade-up policy for our customers. 

The policy has been popular and has kept many customers “coming back for more.”  However, not everyone knows about it or fully understands it, so we thought we might attempt to give as clear an explanation as we could.