Qobuz - When is a 24-96 "Guaranteed Studio Master" NOT one?

[bissie]

See:SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar | Compositeurs Divers par Jan-Hendrick Rootering*– Télécharger et écouter l'album

 

Touted as 24-96 "Studio Master". From the Qobuz site (see attachment):

 

 

 

Recorded by BIS; so I went to the eClassical site (BIS owned Web vendor) to see if it was cheaper - the site has has good prices and gives members special offers.

 

eClassical - Shostakovich ? Symphony No.13 ?Babi Yar?

 

At the page on the eClassical site it says "orig sample rate": 44100Hz; their download is 24/44.1

 

I wrote both companies asking what is going on, as one of them is clearly wrong.

 

Qobuz replied asking me how I know that the album was originally in 24/44.1

 

BIS/eClassical replied (reply directly from Robert von Bahr, the CEO), referring to the Qobuz quote above:

 

 

 

and:

 

 

and:

 

 

 

The album was also sold as SACD by BIS. So Qobuz may have been given a file resampled to "hi-res" from a DSD version. But clearly their "guarantee" isn't worth much, as they didn't get it from BIS, but apparently from Naxos.

 

I'll update when I get another response form Qobuz. I informed them that BIS had confirmed to me that the master is 24/44.1.

 

I was pointed to this thread from sa-cd.net. As I said, I have written to Qobuz with my real name and position in order to demand an explanation, as these things could be rather damaging to us, and certainly tricks the buyer into paying for something it isn't, and never was, namely a 24/96 recording.

With the risk of being accused of touting my own goods, I have to say that you should buy BIS stuff from eClassical.com High Resolution FLAC & MP3 Classical Music Download Store. Here you will, at a rather better price, get the real thing, and advertised as such. End advertisement.

 

I am outraged by situations like this: several years ago, I was drawn and quartered on sa-cd.net, because HDTracks wrongly sold our first SACD:s in 24/88,2, when in fact they were 24/44,1. At the time I had no idea that HDTracks even existed. They had got hold of my physical SACD:s and ripped the DSD layer, then advertised them to be 24/88,2. I didn't know anything about this, but I was named a liar and a cheat etc. Very uncomfortable. So what did HDTracks do? They blamed BIS!!!! This is why, since that day, they are under an absolute boycot from BIS - they get nothing to sell.

I hope that this will not get that far with Qobuz, but the fact that they haven't even deigned to answer me in a week speaks badly for them.

I have no problems whatsoever in cutting off anyone from selling our stuff, who doesn't live up to the very basic rules of transparency and honesty. Basta!!

 

BTW, we now exclusively record in 24/96 or 24/192.

 

Robert (von Bahr, CEO, BIS Records and eClassical)