Official Qobuz Issues Thread

[thyname]

Not having Metal as a genre is really bad decision

[rickca]

On 2/18/2019 at 6:05 PM, R1200CL said:

 

Her is his answer to how he came to that number:

 

‘’I arrived at that number after looking at the number of new recordings that were actually recorded and released at 96/24 (or DSD 64) or better. Virtually none of the albums on HDtracks and the other hi-res music sites qualify. They are hi-res transfers of older standard-res masters. Real Hi-Res music albums are only produced and delivered by audiophile labels. Just because some uses 96/24 bits during the recording stage doesn’t mean that the potential of those specs survives to the distribution format``

 

 

I'm confused.  Are a lot of the hi res albums on Qobuz just 'hi res transfers of older standard-res masters'?  Does that mean they are just upsampled?  If so, buying the hi res download at CD prices with Sublime+ isn't really a bargain.  

This question is for @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist.

[Sal1950]

1 hour ago, Kal Rubinson said:

OK for now.  Hoping things will iron out over time.

Kal,  What is the  data path your using to get proper multich streaming functioning?

I'm using the Wn 10 app, have the Studio level service, using HDMI feed directly into my Marantz 7703 PrePro via wasapi (exculsive mode).

While playing back one of the 5.1 albums, PrePro is reporting a Multi Ch In source but I only seem to get sound from the L & R front channels? My first shot at playing any 5.1 files off the PC.   Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

TIA

[BrokeLinuxPhile]

1 hour ago, thyname said:

Not having Metal as a genre is really bad decision

 

It's also strange to me considering how popular the genre is in Europe and Qobuz has been available there for quite some time.  Metal fans are big on buying media to support bands, so it makes since to lure them in for downloads.  It's there, just needs visibility.

[Sal1950]

1 hour ago, thyname said:

Not having Metal as a genre is really bad decision

Their county catalog isn't real strong either. Seems their focus is on classical.

[thyname]

3 minutes ago, BrokeLinuxPhile said:

 

It's also strange to me considering how popular the genre is in Europe and Qobuz has been available there for quite some time.  Metal fans are big on buying media to support bands, so it makes since to lure them in for downloads.  It's there, just needs visibility.

 

 

Totally agree! Every other streaming service has Metal as a separate Genre. Even Tidal. What is Qobuz thinking?

[thyname]

1 minute ago, Sal1950 said:

Their county catalog isn't real strong either. Seems their focus is on classical.

 

The following genres are poorly covered on Qobuz:

 

Metal

Alternative / Indie

Folk / Americana 

[dmackta]

Hey guys David Solomon and I are reading this stuff while we have a celebratory beer after another 16 hour day. I wanted to have Metal as a genre for US launch, of course! But we are a tiny team and do not have the resources to properly curate a metal section. Remember with Qobuz it is about the original content etc so its a big job. However - it is probably the next to be added! 

[thyname]

9 minutes ago, dmackta said:

Hey guys David Solomon and I are reading this stuff while we have a celebratory beer after another 16 hour day. I wanted to have Metal as a genre for US launch, of course! But we are a tiny team and do not have the resources to properly curate a metal section. Remember with Qobuz it is about the original content etc so its a big job. However - it is probably the next to be added! 

 

‘Awesome! That would be great! Thank you 

[Kal Rubinson]

1 hour ago, Sal1950 said:

Kal,  What is the  data path your using to get proper multich streaming functioning?

I'm using the Wn 10 app, have the Studio level service, using HDMI feed directly into my Marantz 7703 PrePro via wasapi (exculsive mode).

My setup is using Qobuz within Roon because Qobuz has issues with the exaSound USB driver and will not let me use the e38 by USB.  

 

I have not tried HDMI but I have a new gadget that might enable me to try it.

[jhwalker]

2 hours ago, rickca said:

I'm confused.  Are a lot of the hi res albums on Qobuz just 'hi res transfers of older standard-res masters'?  Does that mean they are just upsampled?  If so, buying the hi res download at CD prices with Sublime+ isn't really a bargain.  

This question is for @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist.

 

Their library is very similar to all the other hi-res sites; i.e., some are remasters of older material (e.g., classic rock remastered to 24/96, etc.) and some are new releases recorded in 24/48, 24/96, etc. 

 

I've bought well over 1,000 albums from them in the past several years, and 90%+ are new, hi-res releases.

[Bob Stern]

36 minutes ago, Kal Rubinson said:

My setup is using Qobuz within Roon because Qobuz has issues with the exaSound USB driver and will not let me use the e38 by USB.  

 

I have no idea whether this will enable you to drive the exaSound e38 directly from the Qobuz app, but it's trivial to try if you are willing to run Qobuz on a Mac and connect your exaSound e38 directly to that Mac:

 

Download and install Rogue Amoeba "Loopback".  (In its free trial mode, it will play 30 minutes of music before quitting, after which you can relaunch it.  Idle time does not count toward the 30 minutes.)

 

In Loopback, if a virtual device named Loopback Audio doesn’t exist by default when you first launch it, create one by clicking the Plus button at lower left of window.

 

In the Output Channels column, click Plus until you have as many channels as needed.

 

In the Monitors column, click Plus and select the exaSound e38.

 

In the Qobuz app, select Loopback Audio as its output device.

[Jud]

2 hours ago, rickca said:

I'm confused.  Are a lot of the hi res albums on Qobuz just 'hi res transfers of older standard-res masters'?  Does that mean they are just upsampled?  If so, buying the hi res download at CD prices with Sublime+ isn't really a bargain.  

This question is for @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist.

 

Mark Waldrep may also include hi-res digitization of analog recordings in that "standard-res" appellation - in any case he doesn't consider it to meet his notion of "hi res."  If you read his posts over the years, it turns out very little music meets his high standards, except, just coincidentally, his own recordings. 

 

For example, he's criticized DSD, and said that anything over 24/96 is unnecessary, while until quite recently he also disdained "standard res," and in fact continues to post critically about it, though his test subjects couldn't tell the difference from 24/96 in his own tests.  For me, as I've said before, I'm quite happy to have stuff available like the 24/96 recordings Giles Martin has done of Sgt. Pepper and the White Album.

 

I'm also generally impressed with the sound quality of Qobuz material, RedBook or hi res.

[Kal Rubinson]

9 minutes ago, Bob Stern said:

I have no idea whether this will enable you to drive the exaSound e38 directly from the Qobuz app, but it's trivial to try if you are willing to run Qobuz on a Mac and connect your exaSound e38 directly to that Mac:

Thanks for the time and effort but I prefer not to use my Mac unless absolutely necessary, especially since this is not a long-term solution.  I have raised the issue with both exaSound and Qobuz.

 

[coot]

When I first installed Qobuz on my Aurender N100 I was a happy camper. It worked well. Now it seems it will only play for 30 secs. at a time. I am subscribed to Studio. What am I doing wrong?

[Gus141]

I was playing one of my playlists just now through the iOS app and noticed for the first time that some of the quality labels to the far right of the song (e.g., CD, Hi-Res) are in blue; not many, most are gray labels.  What does the blue signify?

 

Cheers

[rando]

2 hours ago, coot said:

When I first installed Qobuz on my Aurender N100 I was a happy camper. It worked well. Now it seems it will only play for 30 secs. at a time. I am subscribed to Studio. What am I doing wrong?

 

This sounds like it sees an account but not a streaming plan. 

 

Log out and back in?  Do a soft reset?  Both?

[Sal1950]

I

6 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

My setup is using Qobuz within Roon because Qobuz has issues with the exaSound USB driver and will not let me use the e38 by USB.  

 

I have not tried HDMI but I have a new gadget that might enable me to try it.

I now notice the little box at the bottom reports the stream as 24/192 Stereo or whatever that album's speed. Clicking on that box reports the various speed streams available but nothing of 5.1.  Does yours show a 5.1 option there?

 

[David Craff]

19 hours ago, RichardSF said:

 

I've only had the problem with this particular album, where it effectively causes the Windows app to become disabled even after restarting.

Generally, I've had UI responsiveness issues on the Windows app, I joined Qobuz USA a few weeks ago and last year I had a preview trial given away at an audio show. The Windows app was running better last year than now.

 

While music is playing, the UI is very unresponsive if I try to browse or search the catalog (e.g. as much as 15 seconds to respond to a click or scroll). Even after an album or playlist has finished playing, the responsiveness remains very sluggish until I manually clear the play queue. Speaking as a software engineer, this is a symptom of code that is running CPU intensive operations in the UI thread, blocking the UI from updating responsively. Operations that are not directly related to UI should run in a background worker thread.
 

 

Thanks for this feedback. I have this issue too. Until the buffering is not finish, UI is very sluggish.

[dmackta]

12 hours ago, Gus141 said:

I was playing one of my playlists just now through the iOS app and noticed for the first time that some of the quality labels to the far right of the song (e.g., CD, Hi-Res) are in blue; not many, most are gray labels.  What does the blue signify?

 

Cheers

@Gus141If it's blue that means it is cached on your device. 

[Gus141]

11 minutes ago, dmackta said:

@Gus141If it's blue that means it is cached on your device. 

 

Thanks! And congrats on the successful US launch. As a new US user, I’m loving it!

[R1200CL]

15 hours ago, Jud said:

 

Mark Waldrep may also include hi-res digitization of analog recordings in that "standard-res" appellation - in any case he doesn't consider it to meet his notion of "hi res."  If you read his posts over the years, it turns out very little music meets his high standards, except, just coincidentally, his own recordings. 

 

For example, he's criticized DSD, and said that anything over 24/96 is unnecessary, while until quite recently he also disdained "standard res," and in fact continues to post critically about it, though his test subjects couldn't tell the difference from 24/96 in his own tests.  For me, as I've said before, I'm quite happy to have stuff available like the 24/96 recordings Giles Martin has done of Sgt. Pepper and the White Album.

 

I'm also generally impressed with the sound quality of Qobuz material, RedBook or hi res.

 

Here are two links you may read. 

 

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/when-high-resolution-audio-isnt-hd/

 

https://opensource.com/article/18/11/hi-resolution-compared-cd-quality-audio

 

The following definitions may also cause some confusion.

It also seems they are not being used by the record companies in order to clarify what the source is. 

 

 

 

Can someone explain what to expect from MQ-A ?

 

My understanding is that many of the Qobuz Hi Res offering is based on MQ-A. 

 

And Tidal’s Masters probably originated from same source. 

 

Master Quality Recording sources

The descriptors for the Master Quality Recording categories are as follows:

MQ-P
From a PCM master source 48 kHz/20 bit or higher; (typically 96/24 or 192/24 content)

MQ-A
From an analog master source

MQ-C
From a CD master source (44.1 kHz/16 bit content)

MQ-D
From a DSD/DSF master source (typically 2.8 or 5.6 MHz content)

[R1200CL]

18 hours ago, rickca said:

I'm confused.  Are a lot of the hi res albums on Qobuz just 'hi res transfers of older standard-res masters'?

 

Me too 😀

 

 But what’s the option to your question ?

This is what I understand as MQ-A. 

 

https://www.cta.tech/News/Press-Releases/2014/June/DEG,-CEA,-The-Recording-Academy®-and-Major-Labels.aspx

 

[Kal Rubinson]

9 hours ago, Sal1950 said:

I now notice the little box at the bottom reports the stream as 24/192 Stereo or whatever that album's speed. Clicking on that box reports the various speed streams available but nothing of 5.1.  Does yours show a 5.1 option there?

That box does not appear when using Qobuz within Roon and that is the only way that I have accessed/played multichannel.

[RichardSF]

4 hours ago, David Craff said:

 

Thanks for this feedback. I have this issue too. Until the buffering is not finish, UI is very sluggish.

 

My observation is that the Windows app UI remains sluggish after buffering finished, as long as anything is in the play queue, even if no music is playing.

1. Start playing music — UI unresponsive while buffering
2. Music playing (buffering finished) — UI sluggish, but not as bad as while buffering
3. Music finished playing (finished tracks still in play queue) — UI sluggish, Qobuz consuming 20%-25% CPU (the app should be idle!)
4. Quit and restart the app (no music playing, finished tracks still in play queue) — after restart,  UI sluggish, Qobuz consuming 20%-25% CPU
5. Empty the play queue — UI becomes responsive, Qobuz CPU drops to 1%

Clearly the software is doing something as long as something is in the play queue (even if music finished playing and it should be idle). However, in all cases the UI should never become sluggish and unresponsive. As I said before, I believe that it is running computational tasks in the UI thread that should be run in a background thread.