qobuz Qobuz USA launching soon!

[Bob Stern]

8 hours ago, sockpit said:

it is awesome right down to the app, which is as good as it gets outside of Roon

 

When I checked a few weeks ago, the Mac app was nothing but a standalone web browser, so there was no difference between using the app and going to their website in a browser.

 

Is the Windows app more sophisticated?

 

(I'm trying to figure out how to stream the audio from the web browser on my laptop to the Mac Mini across the room that's connected to the DAC.  I may have figured out a solution using Soundflower, Jack, Liquidsoap, and Icecast.)

[Bob Stern]

9 hours ago, Charente said:

I stream Qobuz via Audirvana 3.1 ... better sound quality than via app or web

 

My experience is that Audirvana only accesses purchased albums.  Is that true, or am I missing something?  Would the entire Qobuz catalog appear in Audirvana if I upgraded to a Sublime subscription?

 

My interest in streaming is to browse the Qobuz website to preview potential purchases.  I also want to see prices, especially the pages of current promotions, which I assume is impossible in Audirvana.

[Bob Stern]

1 hour ago, #Yoda# said:

There is a bypass for the regional restrictions of Qobuz. If you browse Findhdmusic.com on your computer and click on the Qobuz links you'll get to the specific country site you've chosen. There you can see the prices, quite often they are very different between the three given options in Europe.

 

Cool!  I have two Qobuz accounts purportedly in England and France.  I want to compare prices and availability of promotions before deciding which one to elevate to Sublime.  So far the differences are small, but Brexit might change that.

[Bob Stern]

2 hours ago, left channel said:

there are Qobuz apps for Mac now: http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/applications

 

The Mac app is merely a wrapper around a web browser engine (probably WebKit, the basis for Safari).  Its GUI is identical to browsing the Qobuz website in Safari.

[Bob Stern]

28 minutes ago, left channel said:

So nothing like the output device control offered by the Windows app, as shown in the attached image?

 

The player window in the Mac app looks completely different but, based on your hint, I discovered it does have a popup to choose the audio output device.  I had never tried clicking that icon before because it is unlabeled and is the icon normally used on the Mac to "share" (forward) a link.

 

Both the website (in a regular web browser) and the Mac app have a popup menu to choose playback sample rate as in the Windows app.

[Bob Stern]

5 hours ago, #Yoda# said:

They are aware about many HiRes fakes in their catalog for a very long time now and took no action to replace this obviously faulty files.

 

Where did you read that?

 

Were classical labels included?

 

Aside from their failure to purge old fakes, are fake hi-res albums continuing to be newly added to their catalog?

[Bob Stern]

2 hours ago, bobbmd said:

A+3 allows you to access the entire Qobuz streaming library/playlists and can stream in 16/44 or higher

 

I assume you have a 10€/month streaming account.  I only have a free account, so I can only access albums for which I have purchased downloads.

 

I plan to upgrade to Sublime, but I still expect to use the Qobuz app rather than A+ because my main interest is buying downloads, not streaming, so I want to see the prices.

 

 

2 hours ago, bobbmd said:

how did you manage 2 accounts in 2 different countries?

 

Using Tunnel Bear, I registered under 2 email addresses via proxy servers in GB and FR.

[Bob Stern]

On 12/12/2017 at 2:44 PM, #Yoda# said:

There is a bypass for the regional restrictions of Qobuz. If you browse Findhdmusic.com on your computer and click on the Qobuz links you'll get to the specific country site you've chosen. There you can see the prices, quite often they are very different between the three given options in Europe.

 

(1) What is the third region besides FR and GB?

 

(2) findHDmusic.com has a link to the Qobuz home page, but I don’t see an option to choose a country site.

[Bob Stern]

US customers would be prudent to wait to see what labels are excluded from the US market.  The lower price may reflect a smaller selection of labels.

[Bob Stern]

26 minutes ago, rickca said:

They are also leaving the door open a crack with Roon.

 

The problem between Qobuz and Roon is that the Qobuz license of its API to 3rd party developers requires the developers to adhere to a GUI format that's inconsistent with Roon's distinctive GUI.  Qobuz requires licensees to "consider Qobuz integration as a « stand-alone experience » within their apps."  Qobuz has a list of metadata whose display is mandatory (plus some that are optional), and even specifies the order in which search terms appear in a list.

 

See the document under the heading "Apps & UX Guidelines":

https://github.com/Qobuz/api-documentation

 

[Bob Stern]

1 hour ago, left channel said:

I assume you have a France account; mine is UK so it's all in the Queen's English, or mostly English anyway.

 

I have a French account, but the desktop app allows me to choose English.  I'm sure there's a popup on your UK desktop app to choose other languages.

[Bob Stern]

42 minutes ago, phosphorein said:

Question for you Audirvana people: does Audirvana 3,1X recognize the Qobuz beta US accounts?

 

Yes.

 

The term "beta" is misleading.  These are regular accounts.  My US beta account seems identical in every way to my older accounts in FR and GB.  I believe they merely use "beta" to mean they are only accepting a limited number of US subscribers.

[Bob Stern]

2X higher price in US:

 

I just purchased the opera "Tristan und Isolde" conducted by Bernstein in 1981 on the Philips label.  (Being early digital, it is Redbook only.)

 

After currency conversion, it was $30 in GB, $40 in FR, and $60 in the US Qobuz stores.  I hope this is a fluke.  

 

The Philips label is part of Universal, by far the largest classical record producer, so it will be a blow if Universal label prices are higher in the US than elsewhere.

[Bob Stern]

2 hours ago, dmackta said:

Bob where are you seeing currency conversion?

If you are in the US store, everything is priced in US$

 

I meant the US dollar equivalent of the prices quoted in Euros or GBP for purchasing that specific album:

US store = $60

FR store = 35€ = $40

GB store = 23£ = $30

 

(So I purchased the album in the British store for 23£.)

 

In contrast with the large discrepancy in purchase prices for downloads, streaming subscription prices are almost identical in all countries.

[Bob Stern]

1 hour ago, dmackta said:

Please post a link to the product in question. Doesn't seem right.

 

The album titles and numbers in the URL's are completely different, suggesting that the Qobuz catalogs for different markets are completely distinct and unrelated:

 

https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/wagner-tristan-und-isolde-symphonieorchester-des-bayerischen-rundfunks/0002894382412

 

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/wagner-tristan-und-isolde-bernd-weikl/0002894789514

[Bob Stern]

13 minutes ago, wgscott said:

Am I supposed to give them my credit card for the free trial?  Maybe it is just skipping around free demo samples or something.

 

Yes.  Without a credit card on file you have an account but not a streaming subscription.  The account allows you to purchase downloads, but you need a streaming subscription to listen to entire tracks.  You can cancel your subscription before the one month free trial ends, and you'll keep your account so you can still buy downloads.

[Bob Stern]

The UK study doesn’t disclose how the 24/192 recordings were downsampled to Redbook.  Linn could have stacked the deck with an inferior downsampling algorithm.  The study authors write as if they are fairly ignorant of audio SRC theory.

 

(I have no opinion about Linn, positive or negative, so I'm not implying anything about their ethics or intent.)