qobuz Qobuz USA launching soon!

[wklie]

On 2/12/2018 at 6:00 AM, ddetaey said:

I am living in Belgium, I have a 'download' account at Qobuz - no streaming.

In the download section, no Won-Ton-Ton is too be found.

 

I tested a Qobuz Sublime+ account registered in GB, I can find Won Ton Ton "Oh No, Not Not Now" in both download and streaming section.  (Initially I couldn't find it from web due to the way it prioritizes its results - I could only find it using "show all results".)

 

I'm sure licensing rights for different albums are different for users of different countries using the same Tidal service.  I believe Qobuz should be similar in this respect.

[wwc]

I'm interested to give Sublime or Sublime+ a trial when available in the US.  I'll be particularly interested to see how their catalog compares to Tidal in jazz and classical.

 

I'm also interested to hear the sound quality of their streamed hi-rez.  I'm not very impressed by MQA and wonder if Qoboz's hi rez streaming might be better.  

 

Do any users of Qobuz   have an opinion on sound quality between Tidal 16 bit and Qobuz 24 bit?

[#Yoda#]

1 hour ago, wwc said:

Do any users of Qobuz   have an opinion on sound quality between Tidal 16 bit and Qobuz 24 bit?

Your question is like comparing apples and oranges.

 

If you think you really need HiRes streaming to an outstanding price, if you usually notice differences between HiRes and CD quality, if it's worth the significant surcharge for you, sometimes unsure if you really get the labeled resolution, Qobuz Sublime + should be superior in SQ, compared to TIDAL HiFi and TIDAL Masters (MQA).

 

If the Qobuz catalog in the US will be comparable to the current European catalog in Jazz and Classical it is for sure bigger than TIDAL in this genres.

[rickca]

Qobuz only has a subset of their catalog in 24-bit.  If it's not available in 24-bit you will get CD quality.

[#Yoda#]

2 minutes ago, rickca said:

Qobuz only has a subset of their catalog in 24-bit.  If it's not available in 24-bit you will get CD quality.

Correct! I've forgot this important issue. 

[wklie]

According to https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qobuz-brings-worlds-premier-high-res-online-music-service-to-the-us-at-ces-2018-300577268.html

 

"Qobuz has unparalleled expertise in the field of Hi-Res music and offers music lovers a huge Hi-Res (24-Bit up to 192 kHz) catalog of one-million tracks (80,000 albums)."

[rickca]

18 minutes ago, wklie said:

Qobuz has unparalleled expertise in the field of Hi-Res music and offers music lovers a huge Hi-Res (24-Bit up to 192 kHz) catalog of one-million tracks (80,000 albums).

But Qobuz has 40 million tracks in CD quality.

[wklie]

Yes.  I was just providing some supplementary information for the "subset" you mentioned above.

[bobbmd]

@wklie@ddetaey : so maybe I am correct there are different albums groups artists depending on your country/address

Doesn't it seem strange that my USA 'address' gives me access to Won-Ton-Ton? Did either of you try Bea Van Der Maat the lead singer? I have both the album HOME and Oh NO... in my CD collection one i bought in USA years ago and another one from one of my patient's Belgium parents sent and one my nurse found on a trip to the Hague.

Have either of you or anyone else listened to this group and what did you think? Especially their version of  Richard and linda Thompson's walking on a wire and i lie and i cheat

[wklie]

2 hours ago, bobbmd said:

Doesn't it seem strange that my USA 'address' gives me access to Won-Ton-Ton?

 

I've always assumed, though not 100% sure, that your IP address (after VPN, if involved) at account creation time determines your country of registration and price, and therefore what albums/tracks you can access in the present and in the future.

 

Note 1: Even if you can access an album there can be individual tracks of it being inaccessible

Note 2: Some Hi-Res albums are searchable in both download and streaming section (for Sublime+), but if you try to stream it, Qobuz app or web will tell you it is not licensed for streaming, and offer you a choice to purchase it.  In my testing many months ago, this is more significant than 1.

[bobbmd]

@wklie I have found that also and sometimes albums of particular artists will no longer play ie Barb Jungr especially her Dylan and Leonard Cohen covers-I figured she just didn't allow Qobuz to stream them anymore yet she is still available on TIDAL but haven't tried Deezer or Spotify and sometimes certain songs will not play within an album or an album of compliations(sic) especially Dylan either in his own albums or in collections( they are greyed out and will play maybe a minute in MP3 quality

[randyhat]

@wklie

Looking forward to trying it out when it is available....on my new and soon to be delivered Lumin T1.  It will be interesting to compare it with Tidal.  Having two services offering high quality audio sounds like good news for the consumer.

 

 

[wklie]

On 2/23/2018 at 8:59 AM, randyhat said:

Looking forward to trying it out when it is available....on my new and soon to be delivered Lumin T1.  It will be interesting to compare it with Tidal.  Having two services offering high quality audio sounds like good news for the consumer.

 

Since Lumin product line natively supports Tidal Masters MQA Full Decoding and Qobuz Hi-Res, it enables you to do an apple to apple comparison.  I look forward to your comparison.

[woodford]

didn't want to start a new topic, but what's the best Qobuz hardware implementation?  i quite like the Qobuz desktop app, but you're limited to using a computer to stream, or using airplay. 

 

my only other experience is via the BluOS app, which is generally suboptimal.

[Dr Tone]

8 minutes ago, woodford said:

didn't want to start a new topic, but what's the best Qobuz hardware implementation?  i quite like the Qobuz desktop app, but you're limited to using a computer to stream, or using airplay. 

 

my only other experience is via the BluOS app, which is generally suboptimal.

 

I assume you have iOS devices.  Maybe Auralic?  Mini or one of the other various Aries.

[wklie]

1 hour ago, woodford said:

didn't want to start a new topic, but what's the best Qobuz hardware implementation?  i quite like the Qobuz desktop app, but you're limited to using a computer to stream, or using airplay. 

 

my only other experience is via the BluOS app, which is generally suboptimal.

 

In addition to our products, you'll find other products compatible with Qobuz Hi-Res here - scroll down to the bottom part on Partner Integrations (for Qobuz Sublime):

http://blogsv2.qobuz.com/qobuz-blog-en/2017/03/07/to-summarize-with-which-products-is-qobuz-compatible-2/

 

Note that AirPlay is limited to 16/44.1 and is therefore not suitable for Qobuz Hi-Res.

 

If you use a hardware implementation, make sure it supports gapless playback for Qobuz Sublime+.

[left channel]

As that list says, one of the compatible platforms is Logitech Squeezebox. I've got the Qobuz plug-in installed in LMS (Logitech Media Server, hosted on an SGC microJukebox) and am streaming Sublime+ hi-res music to a Sonore ultraRendu with Squeezelite and also to two Squeezebox Touch units, all controlled via the Squeezer app for Android or via Muso on my PC.

There is a new Squeezelite-X app for Windows, but there I just use the Qobuz desktop app. 

On Android I can also play Qobuz through UAPP as well as their own app.
 

[woodford]

7 hours ago, left channel said:

As that list says, one of the compatible platforms is Logitech Squeezebox. I've got the Qobuz plug-in installed in LMS (Logitech Media Server, hosted on an SGC microJukebox) and am streaming Sublime+ hi-res music to a Sonore ultraRendu with Squeezelite and also to two Squeezebox Touch units, all controlled via the Squeezer app for Android or via Muso on my PC.

There is a new Squeezelite-X app for Windows, but there I just use the Qobuz desktop app. 

On Android I can also play Qobuz through UAPP as well as their own app.
 

 

thanks- i have a house full of squeezeboxen, including a transporter and two touches, dedicated to Roon now.  i've used the Qobuz plugin via LMS, but was trying to avoid running another server (in addition to Roon Core), and also prefer to use the native Qobuz app, particularly the desktop app for MacOS, which i quite like.

 

i guess chromecast is the best way to do this, but even with an external dac i'm unimpressed with the sound.  this is one of the main reasons i invested in the BluOS ecosystem as well, support for Roon and Qobuz, but the BluOS app is a very poor experience compared to the native Qobuz app.

[mourip]

Does anyone know if there is a plugin or support to use Qobuz via JRiver?

 

It might seem like an odd question but on my audio server I use Dante Virtual Soundcard which does not use/support Windows Audio...at least without a workaround.

[church_mouse]

@mourip 

 

For Qobuz through JRiver I installed the BubbleUPnP Server (just Google that to find the download) to create an OpenHome server environment and then use an OpenHome capable app like Lumin or Kazoo (ios and Android) or BubbleUPnp (Android) (my experience has been Lumin on ios is ok, Bubble on Android is rock solid, Lumin on Android is flakey and Kazoo is unreliable on either platform).

[left channel]

11 hours ago, woodford said:

 

thanks- i have a house full of squeezeboxen, including a transporter and two touches, dedicated to Roon now.  i've used the Qobuz plugin via LMS, but was trying to avoid running another server (in addition to Roon Core), and also prefer to use the native Qobuz app, particularly the desktop app for MacOS, which i quite like.

 

i guess chromecast is the best way to do this, but even with an external dac i'm unimpressed with the sound.  this is one of the main reasons i invested in the BluOS ecosystem as well, support for Roon and Qobuz, but the BluOS app is a very poor experience compared to the native Qobuz app.

 

I wouldn't worry about running LMS on the same server; it's far less demanding than Roon. But for light work like streaming you could also run LMS directly on an ultraRendu (as Squeezebox Server, preinstalled). As an endpoint you'd get better sound out of a micro- or ultraRendu than you'll ever hear from Squeezboxen or Chromecast thingies, and not just because the latter two top out at 96 kHz. The 'Rendus are simply in another class.

The Sonore products are little headless computers and can be more a bit more fiddly than Squeezeboxez and Chromecast thingz. But the Squeezelite player (also preinstalled on the 'Rendus) is most stable when LMS is on the same machine, and as I mentioned above that is certainly possible if you're using it only for streaming Qobuz and not for serving up a big local library.

[mourip]

13 hours ago, church_mouse said:

@mourip 

 

For Qobuz through JRiver I installed the BubbleUPnP Server (just Google that to find the download) to create an OpenHome server environment and then use an OpenHome capable app like Lumin or Kazoo (ios and Android) or BubbleUPnp (Android) (my experience has been Lumin on ios is ok, Bubble on Android is rock solid, Lumin on Android is flakey and Kazoo is unreliable on either platform).

 

Thanks! Much appreciated.

[woodford]

11 hours ago, left channel said:

 

I wouldn't worry about running LMS on the same server; it's far less demanding than Roon. But for light work like streaming you could also run LMS directly on an ultraRendu (as Squeezebox Server, preinstalled). As an endpoint you'd get better sound out of a micro- or ultraRendu than you'll ever hear from Squeezboxen or Chromecast thingies, and not just because the latter two top out at 96 kHz. The 'Rendus are simply in another class.

The Sonore products are little headless computers and can be more a bit more fiddly than Squeezeboxez and Chromecast thingz. But the Squeezelite player (also preinstalled on the 'Rendus) is most stable when LMS is on the same machine, and as I mentioned above that is certainly possible if you're using it only for streaming Qobuz and not for serving up a big local library.

 

yeah, it's not the SQ question i'm working on, it's the UX for Qobuz.  none of the 3rd party implementations, from BluOS to LMS (or another squeeze app like iPeng) is particularly good.  the native qobuz apps on the other hand are quite nice.

[left channel]

3 hours ago, woodford said:

 

yeah, it's not the SQ question i'm working on, it's the UX for Qobuz.  none of the 3rd party implementations, from BluOS to LMS (or another squeeze app like iPeng) is particularly good.  the native qobuz apps on the other hand are quite nice.

 

I think one of the sticking points in discussions between Qobuz and Roon has been the text content, and the great presentation of that content, in the Qobuz website and apps. Like other third-party offerings, the LMS apps don't attempt to replicate that but they do function well.

 

Here's Squeezer displaying the Qobuz New Releases screen, and playing one of those albums on my downstairs Squeezebox Touch. Looks a lot like the same thing in UAPP and many other third-party apps: no bios, lists of other albums, or other text content.

[jhwalker]

5 minutes ago, left channel said:

 

I think one of the sticking points in discussions between Qobuz and Roon has been the text content, and the great presentation of that content, in the Qobuz website and apps. Like other third-party offerings, the LMS apps don't attempt to replicate that but they do function well.

 

Here's Squeezer displaying the Qobuz New Releases screen, and playing one of those albums on my downstairs Squeezebox Touch. Looks a lot like the same thing in UAPP and many other third-party apps: no bios, lists of other albums, or other text content.

 

Audirvana does a nice job with this, as well, with no pushback from Qobuz.

 

So it seems the conflict is Roon's desire not to "break" their UX model to allow simple playback without all their bells and whistles, as Qobuz has already shown they don't mind other programs repackaging their material.