Official Qobuz Issues Thread

[David Craff]

On 10/25/2023 at 9:40 PM, 111MilesToGo said:

thanks for forwarding my request to the team, whenever it will arrive in the Qobuz iOS App.

 

Difficult to give you a date but all our applications will undergo a UX overhaul. This may take a little longer for iOS, as we have a code refactoring to complete beforehand.

[David Craff]

On 10/25/2023 at 9:04 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

In three days it’ll be two years since Qobuz acknowledged that Connect is in the works. This is similar to Spotify supporting lossless 🙂
 

 

 

 

 

If you take into account the decision to do it, the thinking about how to do it, the practical implementation (development) and the size of Qobuz's resources for such a big project, then yes, it does take quite a long time, unfortunately.

[David Craff]

Thanks for this big feedback. I will have a look with the team and come back as soon as possible here to give you update.

 

Regards

[David Craff]

On 11/15/2023 at 12:17 PM, 111MilesToGo said:

@David Craff Dear David, I would like to ask you whether your are aware of and working on recent issues with the Qobuz iOS App which potentially / probably are severe fallout from Apple releasing iOS 17 (Sep 2023). My observations come from an iPhone 14 Pro Max 512GB, which had iOS 16's til the last 16.7.2, then installed iOS 17 first as 17.1, now on 17.1.1.

 

The fallout from iOS 17 to several music players is seen and reported by several people on the web. Some potential fallout started a bit earlier in the 16s, maybe when Apple released some things before 17. From surveying these reports, and from my own experiences, the issue areas concerned comprise:

• Gapless replay broken
• Sample rate handling to the extent of
  • (a) iOS not exposing the sample rate capabilities of outboard (USB) DACs to an app correctly, and
  • (b) the music player app not performing the appropriate sample rate switching as required by the audio file
• Music player app losing internal 64-bit capability (if present)

This list might still be incomplete.

 

Two remarks: Qobuz is my dearest music streaming service. And an iPhone is quite a good and convenient digital audio transport device, thus it's valuable also to a demanding music lover.

 

 

My observations with the Qobuz iOS App on my a.m. iPhone:

• Very severe: Gapless replay is completely BROKEN. This issue occurs for:

1. Any streamed and any offlined (imported) audio tracks
2. Any input bit depths / sample rates
3. Any output, out of which I tested
   • iPhone speaker output
   • Output to outboard USB-DACs via the Lightning port into the DAC USB ports, in my case to Chord Hugo 2 and Cayin RU7 using various adapters
   • Output via Bluetooth (AAC) to a Sony WF-1000XM5 TWS IEM

• Sample rate setting and switching seem to be okay, as far as I can tell from the sample rate indicators on my two USB-DACs. This was tested for the same three sets of circumstances given above under gapless. Unfortunately, I cannot see the output bit depth ...

I find these failures and successes to be reproducible in a number of test repetitions. Of course, the usual precautions and checks were done, like fully update iOS and the apps, do reboots, check with several outboard DACs and cablings as mentioned above.

 

I suppose you don't need any hinting at appropriate audio tracks, but anyway ... any recording of Beethoven Symphony No.5 Movement 3 going into Movement 4, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, and almost every proper concert recording with applause etc. spanning across track transitions.

 

 

I should expand a bit on other music player apps in order to point you towards further potential issues in the Qobuz iOS App:

• Neutron Music Player on iOS:

1. Sample rate handling is severely broken, which means
   • (a) Neutron doesn't get to see the outboard DAC rate capabilities correctly, and
   • (b) it does an incorrect or even no switching of outgoing sample rates
2. DSD handling is broken
3. 64-bit internal processing is broken

The "Neutron and iOS 17" stuff is found at https://neutroncode.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6919&sid=9e320a24678c8e9ddbdd3c8383508414 (don't be irritated by the thread title, in fact it collects all iOS 17 related issues further down).

• Apple Music (standard app and Classical) on iOS receives a mixed bag of reports of proper functioning as well as myriads of failures, amongst them gapless replay being broken. Myself, I have seen both proper functioning, but also some - even irreproducible - errors.

 

In addition to all this, I checked the behavior of the Qobuz Android App today - everything is fine and well-behaved.

 

Thus, I would like to ask other Qobuz iOS App users for their experiences, and I would be grateful if you @David Craff could give feedback here.

 

 

PS: David, I don't know precisely what your preferred Qobuz Issue Report Channel is. Thanks for kindly letting me know. Sorry if this channel here lets you invest more of your time than desirable.

 

 

Hi, our QA team made some tests without any issues. The only one we have is when we seek directly to the end of the track. In this case of course we have no time to download the next track to play without a gap. And has you know all tracks are not gapless unfortunately even from live album.

[David Craff]

14 hours ago, 111MilesToGo said:

Hi David, Thanks to you and your team. I‘m quite torn between a "so good for you“, a "I had almost expected that“ and a "hmm, what now“.

 

Regarding my seamless test tracks, I know them all by heart. Imagine Beethoven‘s 5th movement 3 into 4 with a gap …

 

Unfortunately, I have tried here and elsewhere to find a common denominator for those gapless issues - none found up to now. Parameters could be iOS version, iPhone model, maybe (very maybe) settings for Apple Music.

 

As of now, I am left with a vague hope of Apple solving things on their side. Waiting for iOS 17.2.

 

Thanks again. I‘ll be back when I have news to report.

Because our player is homemade I can't see any impact from iOS 17

[David Craff]

51 minutes ago, Balthazar B said:

it does seem like Qobuz is buffering the following track when there are gapless metadata flags embedded in the content.

 

Hi, We do not have this information. For all tracks, we prepare the next one when the current listening approaches the end, to get continuous listening. If there is no gap on the track it will be gapless, if there is a gap, there is no gapless.

[David Craff]

5 hours ago, 111MilesToGo said:

 

Hi @David Craff, I still owe you a feedback on what happens to gapless playback with the Qobuz iOS App version 7.6.1 when playing imported ("offlined") tracks. I am still on iOS 17.1.1; still holding back on 17.1.2 which was released last evening in order to stick to my clear case of ONLY installing the App version 7.1.6 as of yesterday morning. Before the checks now, I wiped the cache and the previously imported tracks, then imported the tracks from my test playlist only. In order to make playing only imported tracks from the iPhone storage double safe, I switched to Flight Mode.

 

The results are the same as reported yesterday for playing streams from the Qobuz servers:

• Gapless works most of the time,
• but the exceptions - i.e. failures of gapless stell present - have changed a little bit, of course:
  • The only exception left is this one: When I scroll forward in a track to some seconds or a minute before its end and transition into the next one, I still see gapless failures at times.
  • No problem seen yet when the second track is a long one.
  • No problem seen yet for this Suzanne Vega stuff of "Song 1" - "Short announcement" - "Song 2".
  • No difference for playing my tracks for the first or second time - i.e. gapless works except for the first and only exception given above - , supposedly because the tracks sit inside the iPhone.
     
• The weird behavior of the time slider and displayed time figures is the same.

 

Thanks for your attention.

 

I need to do some tests, can you send me your playlist for Qobuz and Tidal. So I can test on my to better understand your issue.

[David Craff]

18 hours ago, mooseloose said:

Track listing information leaves a lot to be desired e.g. the latest Tiga album. In Spotify each guest singer is listed, but not so in Qobuz. I notice this a lot. Is there an issue with the metadata? I would have thought this would have been the same across different streaming platforms?

Hi

 

We planned to do the same at Qobuz but this is not an easy thing because we only received a string of names related to the track. We need this string to match with the artists on our base, be sure this is the one we need to display etc...

Not so easy to get good results. But we will.

 

Regards

 

[David Craff]

18 hours ago, vitoruch said:

Excuse-me for changing the subject, guys, but.... @David Craff, last time you said about Qobuz Connect, your expectations were to open tests with partners still in 2023....to be delivered publically on early 2024. As far as you are aware of, is it on schedule?

 

Thanks a lot!

Vitor

 

Hi

 

We'll be a few months late, but 2024 will be the launch year for Qobuz Connect.
We're already in contact with HiFi brands, and testing will begin shortly, but as it's a big project for a small team (yes, Qobuz is a small company) it's taking us longer than we thought.

 

Regards

[David Craff]

2 hours ago, thegios said:

Marantz Cinema 50: look who's missing 😁

@David Craff I have already read you'll be late for Connect: I am an IT Program & Delivery Manager with 25+ experience, if you need a help to speed this up I'm available for a new job 😁 Also what about bit perfect in Android app?

 

 

 

Hi

 

Thank you very much for your suggestion. You should come to France and see if your profile matches the positions we have open.

Bit perfect Android is to be tested with the latest version of the OS. But it's hard to find the time for that.

 

Regards

[David Craff]

On 12/9/2023 at 9:52 AM, thegios said:

I want to be honest here: my Qobuz subscription has ended last month and I was really about to move to another hires streaming service supported by Marantz, where options would be Amazon Music HD, Deezer and Tidal. I still believe Qobuz has the highest quality and is the most transparent service, so I subscribed fir another year, but something new must happen @David Craff otherwise many will migrate to other platforms.

 

A few ideas, some already discussed:

- DLNA / UPNP support for Windows app

- Bit perfect support via USB in Android 14+

- Qobuz Connect fit Denon/Marantz

- a little UI overhaul 

 

Hi,

 

I understand you completely and you're free to do so. I just hope that if you leave us one day it's to see you again later when everything is up to your expectations.

 

About your list
- DLNA / UPnP: never, and even more so now that we're working on Qobuz Connect.
- Bit Perfect support via USB for Android: planned
- Qobuz Connect with Denon / Marantz: this is probably the most important brand for Qobuz and this project, so we're working closely with them to get it done as quickly as possible.
- A little UI Overhaul: This is underway, we have a new design system that will be gradually rolled out to all applications.

 

Regards

[David Craff]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:36 PM, thegios said:

Don't worry, I can't leave: I renewed my annual subscription back in November:-)

 

Yet, I am testing, out of curiosity, Amazon Music HD, so you may be interested in some comparisons:

 

- On Windows tha Amazon app supports wasapi and direct mode like the Qobuz app. The only advantage of Amazon is that it tells you the bit/sampling capability of the whole listening chain: of the song, of the DAC and of the speakers/headphones.

 

- On Android Amazon app has an advantage over Qobuz app: like the app for windows it tells the capability of the whole listening chain. Yet, I don't think it's bitperfect, even when it shows 24bit/192KHz for the song and the dac being used. Regarding the dac, unlike USB Audio Player Pro (that at the moment is the only Android app to listen to Qobuz in bitperfect) that supports external DACs, it seems that Amazon app supports only internal DAC. To clarify: when using UAPP it explicitly says "external DAC" or "direct" depending if I'm using headphone attached via usb external DAC or of I'm using phone's speakers: while Amazon app always says it's using my phone's internal DAC. Qobuz app does not produce any of this information.

 

- On Marantz, Amazon wins because Heos is integrated, but Bubble UpNp is a very good if not similar alternative.

 

Thanks for the feedback;

We planned to display more information about the listening chain later. It's not a huge feature and probably of little use to an audiophile, but for the average person, it'll be handy to understand better what's happening.

[David Craff]

3 hours ago, Cebolla said:

Or, perhaps that's what you mean by it being "probably of little use". 😀

 

By unhelpful I mean that I imagine the audiophile customer is aware of what's going on. If he's surprised that by using Bluetooth he can't get HiRes, that's a problem.

[David Craff]

On 12/27/2023 at 10:53 PM, thegios said:

@David Craff do you know that for playing bit perfect on Android via USB thru an external HiRes DAC, in addition to USB Player Pro, there is also another app named HiByMusic that supports Qobuz? And it's free... 

 

No sorry, I'm not aware of this application.

[David Craff]

2 hours ago, 111MilesToGo said:

… continued. I did find the support chat bot to be alive now, at least in its machine incarnation. It says "we will be back in an hour". So strange for a service machine to adhere to business hours or whatever …

 

Anyway, I reported my issue also to the chat bot now. I think this is another instance of the notorious problems when trying to reach out to Qobuz customer service, reported here all tooooooo often. Thus, I feel sorry for reaching out to them via three channels, just a tiny bit sorry only, to be honest.

 

Hi 111MilesToGo

 

For your information, we faced a DDOS attack on our servers yesterday 'around 7pm in France'. Service was interrupted for around 2 hours. This may be the problem you're experiencing.
If you still have problems, please contact me privately, and I'll see what I can do.

 

Regards

[David Craff]

1 hour ago, 111MilesToGo said:

Sorry for my strong feelings during the occurrence of the issue, but the coincidence of updating the app & failure of the login and the server attack indeed strongly suggested there might be problems with this re-login requirement.

 

In this case, we will do a rollback. And for all new release we launch them to a % of user before going to 100%

 

Thanks

[David Craff]

44 minutes ago, vitoruch said:

Hello David, how do you do?

 

- Could you gently share with us any update you have over the Qobuz Connect matter, since early december, if you will?

 

Thanks for you kindness!

 

Regards,

Vitor

 

 

 

The project is progressing well but is taking time. I don't want to give any deadlines because it's hard to meet them. The project is complex with few resources (Qobuz being a small company).
But it's going really well and I'm confident of a launch this year.

[David Craff]

On 2/10/2024 at 1:27 AM, RichardSF said:

@David Craff 

 

The Still trending list (beneath Qobuz grand selection) has been broken for a long time. It looks somewhat reasonable when all genres (or none) is selected..

 

 

However, if genres are selected, Classical or Jazz must be selected or else the Still Trending section will disappear.

 

 

If only Jazz is selected, all of the albums are classical!

 

If only Classical is selected, I noticed that the Still Trending list got stuck for over a year and remained unchanged during all of 2023 (in the past, it would get updated periodically).

 

 

 

Thanks for this feedback I will forward to the team.

 

Regards

[David Craff]

I understand the impatience surrounding Qobuz Connect and your high expectations. However, it's important to realize that pressure and criticism will not speed up the project. We are fully committed to this project and are working hard to deliver an experience that meets both your expectations and ours, but this takes time. Quality is our top priority, and we will only launch Qobuz Connect when it meets our high standards. To fully focus on the development and quality of Qobuz Connect, I will no longer be commenting on this topic in this forum.

[David Craff]

On 4/10/2024 at 2:34 AM, Juan Triana said:

In the Android TV app I have found a bug in playlists. Only the first 5 tracks can be selected for direct play. From there when I try to play any track it plays the first one in the list.

Thanks for the feedback, we are aware of this issue and will fix it.

[David Craff]

On 4/14/2024 at 11:30 PM, Trisolaran said:

So, yesterday completely out of the blue most of my offline library and online purchases became unplayable on my Android Qobuz app on my Google Pixel 7a.

 

Weirdly a few songs can be played as normal still, but the majority won't, giving me this error-message when attempting to play them:

 

"It's impossible to play this track. Thank you for trying another playback forma..."

 

What is going on, Qobuz??

 

Hi,

 

We found an issue with the last release this one is fixed in the next one. Sorry for that.

 

Regards

[David Craff]

On 4/15/2024 at 9:33 PM, LoryWiv said:

Hi, @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist, @David Craff. I noticed that the QoBuz app. no longer allows for downloading of booklet pdf's, although they are "view only". IAs a sublime user, I had really appreciated being able to download Booklet pdf's for offline reading (I am travelling internationally tomorrow, 11 hour flight) to learn what to add to my purchase list, and occasionally to add in a booklet to something I previously downloaded. eg - from another source, that was missing one.

 

This is not a particularly customer friendly change, rather it is a ":take away" decreasing customer use scenarios and flexibility. Please consider reverting to the prior functionality: ability to download booklet pdf's from the QoBuz app., at least for those of us with paid membership accounts.

 

Thanks.

 

Hi

 

This is a rights issue. The majors and suppliers do not authorize the right to download the booklet, so it can only be consulted.

 

Regards