Official Qobuz Issues Thread

[spin33]

3 hours ago, Gus141 said:

“We are working on updating the Cobalt manual for 96kHz.  It is not magenta but more of a light blue.  This helps make more of a distinction between the MQA Magenta(MQA Purple) and the previous magenta 96kHz on DragonFly Red and Black.  Which looked too close to each other when playing Tidal Masters/MQA.

 

Hmm... unless I'm missing something here, that's a peculiar decision on AQ's part. Most (all?) other MQA capable DACs use a blue light to indicate authenticated MQA file/stream in use, per MQA's desire I always thought. I wonder why Audioquest chose to do it the other way around?

[mansr]

8 hours ago, PAR said:

No, it is the Dragonfly  that is downsampling. Its "ceiling" ( to use AQ's own wording) is 24/96.  The colour represents the  resolution it is playing rather then receiving ( as with the Red).

None of the Dragonfly devices are capable of receiving anything above 96 kHz. If you play a higher-rate file, the player or OS drivers will downsample. The limitation is due to the "full-speed" (12 Mbps) USB interface. Higher rates require a "high-speed" (480 Mbps) connection.

[mansr]

49 minutes ago, spin33 said:

Hmm... unless I'm missing something here, that's a peculiar decision on AQ's part. Most (all?) other MQA capable DACs use a blue light to indicate authenticated MQA file/stream in use, per MQA's desire I always thought. I wonder why Audioquest chose to do it the other way around?

DACs with full MQA decoding generally use a blue/green indicator. Render-only devices, such as the Dragonfly, tend to use red or purple.

[PAR]

4 hours ago, Gus141 said:

It is the manual that needs to be corrected.

One rare time when  RTFM doesn't work!

 

I am surprised though that such an unprofessional error could be made by a long established company like AQ.

[mansr]

10 minutes ago, PAR said:

One rare time when  RTFM doesn't work!

 

I am surprised though that such an unprofessional error could be made by a long established company like AQ.

I'm not.

[Sal1950]

On 7/23/2019 at 5:51 PM, PAR said:

One rare time when  RTFM doesn't work!

 

I am surprised though that such an unprofessional error could be made by a long established company like AQ.

Remember the HDMI video?   LOLOLOL

[spin33]

A Favorites 'issue' in Qobuz App

 

I'm using a U.S. Hi-Fi+ Sublime subscription, primarily accessed via Roon at home but sometimes via Qobuz app when traveling. Hoping for some help understanding and resolving a curious situation/problem:

 

1) Favoriting artists is not a feature I've used much, if at all, yet just today notice that I have well over 1000 artists in the Favorites/Artists section of the app. Many of them I've never even heard of. I definitely did not individually 'heart' all of these folks so am wondering if there is any known current issue or anomaly that could explain this curiosity and what I may do to prevent further unwanted additions.

 

2) I can see no way to delete them en mass. Anyone have a method to do that? I believe they total 1300+ and selecting each individually to 'un-heart' them is a rather unsavory prospect.

 

TIA

[PAR]

 

I I would point out thatHiFi+ is a magazine. The Qobuz subscription option is called Sublime +. There is no option in  Qobuz called " Favouriting Artists". There is a "Favourites " option but this does not allow the selection of artists per se. It allows you to select and add your favourite albums or tracks. If you haven't added them yourself then the list should be empty. However that point relates to the Qobuz apps. I cannot comment on what Qobuz via Roon integration is providing.  So the Roon Community website ( where Roon/Qobuz problem postings are frequent) may be a more appropriate place for your question.

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/c/roon/qobuz

 

 

 

 

[spin33]

11 hours ago, PAR said:

I would point out thatHiFi+ is a magazine. The Qobuz subscription option is called Sublime +.

 

Well, thank you very much for correcting my typo (putting the '+' in the wrong place). Yes indeed, my sub is 'Qobuz Hi-Fi Sublime +'

 

Now, back to the actual issue I'm trying to understand/rectify...

First, let me clarify that I am indeed talking about behavior in the Qobuz app itself, not Roon specifically (although the over population of 'favorite' artists can be observed in Roon's Qobuz section as well... Qobuz -> My Qobuz -> Favorite Artists).

 

11 hours ago, PAR said:

There is no option in  Qobuz called " Favouriting Artists".There is a "Favourites " option but this does not allow the selection of artists per se.

 

Actually, there is. In Qobuz app (either desktop or mobile) go to an artist's page and click on the 'heart'. That artist is now 'favorited' and will appear in the Artists section of Favorites. To remove the artist from Favorites, go back to the artist's page and 'un-heart'.

 

My Release Favorites are all correct, I did select each and every one of those. Same with Tracks Favorites (only 18 or 20 there and I selected them). It's the Artists Favorites that's behaving differently and I'm trying to understand why. If I ever favorited any artists in Qobuz I could probably count the number on one hand, yet there are well over 1000 artists in that list. I'd like to whittle than down to a handful but I'd really rather not go to each artist page one at a time to 'un-heart' them.

 

So to reiterate, hoping someone can offer insight re: why the Artist Favorites behaves this way. Bug or anomaly in the US Beta app? Some other reason?

And also hoping to hear that there may be a trick to enable a bulk 'un-heart', 'unfavorite' (or whatever you want to call it) the majority of that list.

Thanks

[PAR]

OK, I just ran through the procedure that you outlined. I entered an artist name into the search box. In this case Beatles. I then selected " See all artists" and from the results selected The Beatles. This produced the artist page (with a  very good little essay on the Fab Four BTW). Without selecting an album from the menu I just hearted The Beatles. Then I went to my Favourites page.  The artist had transferred to my Favourites ( Artists) but only , effectively, as a link which if then clicked took me back to the artist page where I can "unheart" them and they disappear from Favourites.

 

Is this roughly what you are experiencing except for the fact that you have hundreds of artists in Favourites that you have never selected as a Favourite?

 

Are the artists shown in the Favourites linked in any way to your choices in music or are they completely random perhaps with artists in genres that you don't use? Has anyone else got access to your device which has the Qobuz app installed?

 

Maybe David Craff from Qobuz will pick up on this thread. Alternatively and if there is  no chance that these artists could have been added inadvertently, I would contact Qobuz customer services as it may be a problem at their end. It certainly has no equivalent over here on the UK version as far as I am aware. I have found only one small clue to what might be happening as I found an artist ( only one) that I have never" favourited" in the artists list. When I clicked on the artist name in the list Qobuz took me to a page which showed an album that I think I may well have added to my Album favourites a year or so ago. So it looks as if there may be a glitch where favourite albums can or could somehow be mistakenly added as artist favourites ( for clarification in the favourites view only the artist name appears, only when it is  selected does the album show).

 

I still wonder if there is a connection with your uses of Qobuz via Roon. The Qobuz apps appear to reflect changes that you have made across all apps irrespective of where  you may have opened Qobuz using your account.  So if I, say, add an album to favourites on the phone app it will also appear on my desktop app or in the Qobuz part of dCS Mosaic.  So something that may have happened when using the Roon integration with Qobuz ( which still seems a little flakey from reading the Roon community posts) may affect  a stand alone Qobuz app that you also use.  I am just speculating.

 

The important thing  is that if Qobuz customers services do pick up on this e.g. via a complaint from you they should be able to remove all of the unwanted favourites . I agree, a thousand "unhearts" is impractical.

[rando]

22 hours ago, spin33 said:

I'm using a U.S. Hi-Fi+ Sublime subscription, primarily accessed via Roon at home but sometimes via Qobuz app when traveling. 

 

Favoriting artists is not a feature I've used much, if at all, yet just today notice that I have well over 1000 artists in the Favorites/Artists section of the app.

 

I can see no way to delete them en mass.

 

@David Craff is very busy and this thread has settled down enough I doubt he checks in daily on the weekend.  

 

Using Roon and the app complicates amateurish troubleshooting.   Resolution should be coming shortly from a Qobuz support staff.  A good chance of someone else with insight into the problem seeing this also exists.

 

 

[dmackta]

Bulk favorite deletion can be done on the website: for https://www.qobuz.com/account/favorites/artists

[David Craff]

1 hour ago, rando said:

 

@David Craff is very busy and this thread has settled down enough I doubt he checks in daily on the weekend.  

 

Using Roon and the app complicates amateurish troubleshooting.   Resolution should be coming shortly from a Qobuz support staff.  A good chance of someone else with insight into the problem seeing this also exists.

 

 

 

I am on vacation until August 19. But I'll come back to you after.

[spin33]

1 hour ago, dmackta said:

Bulk favorite deletion can be done on the website: for https://www.qobuz.com/account/favorites/artists

 

Thank you David. Greatly appreciate your time and help here.

 

This will definitely speed up the deletion process. My only wish would be that there could be a 'select all' checkbox at the top 😊. Nonetheless, scrolling down the list and checking off artists for deletion will be much preferable to the alternative within the app itself.

[spin33]

5 hours ago, PAR said:

OK, I just ran through the procedure that you outlined....

....Is this roughly what you are experiencing except for the fact that you have hundreds of artists in Favourites that you have never selected as a Favourite?

 

Yes, exactly.

 

5 hours ago, PAR said:

Are the artists shown in the Favourites linked in any way to your choices in music or are they completely random perhaps with artists in genres that you don't use? Has anyone else got access to your device which has the Qobuz app installed?

   ----------

I still wonder if there is a connection with your uses of Qobuz via Roon.

 

My wife occasionally uses the account at work via Qobuz app on her phone. She only listens to what's already there and is not interested in saving or 'favoriting' anything else. 

 

However... I have now come to a new realization about the content of my 'Favorite Artists'. Upon further examination, I think that the list is a reflection of all artists associated with every album I have in my library. And I see that my initial reaction/observation (that a significant number of artists were unfamiliar to me) can be explained by the following:

 

Back when ECM first made the majority of their catalog available to streaming services, in a fit of over-exuberance I proceeded to save every single one of their titles into my Roon library (although I was using Tidal at the time, not Qobuz). That was somewhere around 1000 albums if I remember correctly. And, no, I didn't save them one at a time. I found a method to select all ECM and do a bulk-save. 🙂  It appears that the unfamiliar artists are associated with the (many) ECM albums in my library that I have yet to explore for a listen. So...no totally bizarre, random artists in there. It just seems that somehow all of the artists in my entire musical library became Qobuz favorites.

 

But that still leaves the mystery, how and why? 'Favoriting' artists is just not something I've ever really done and therefore haven't been inclined to even look in the Favorite Artists section much (if ever, prior to now) so it's possible that this overpopulation has been there since the beginning. 

 

1) The theory that there is/was some anomaly in the interaction between Roon and Qobuz is definitely worth considering.

 

2) I transferred my Tidal library to Qobuz using Soundiiz when Qobuz became available in the U.S. and I made the switch. I wonder if something happened there that caused Qobuz to think that every artist from all of my albums were 'favorites'.

 

I'll embark on the process of deleting the unwanted favorites via the Qobuz website as dmackta suggested and I'll see what happens from there.

 

Thx  @PAR @rando @dmackta for your input. 

[firedog]

10 minutes ago, spin33 said:

2) I transferred my Tidal library to Qobuz using Soundiiz when Qobuz became available in the U.S. and I made the switch. I wonder if something happened there that caused Qobuz to think that every artist from all of my albums were 'favorites'.

 

Yes, I think that is it. Some kind of weird interaction between Tidal Soundiz and Qobuz that caused unknown favorites. I has a similar thing happen to me when I made the switch and used Soundiz.

[OldHardwareTech]

11 hours ago, David Craff said:

 

I am on vacation until August 19. But I'll come back to you after.

Enjoy your vacation!  

[mabe]

Qobuz download - measurement results

 

Attached results of a recent download. Strange things happens above 24 Khz.

 

Are there any ideas/explanations regarding this strange spectrum?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Spectrum_Qobuz.pptx Spectrum_Audacity.pptx

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, mabe said:

Qobuz download - measurement results

 

Attached results of a recent download. Strange things happens above 24 Khz.

 

Are there any ideas/explanations regarding this strange spectrum?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Spectrum_Qobuz.pptx 516.29 kB · 2 downloads Spectrum_Audacity.pptx 337.41 kB · 3 downloads

I don't think this has anything to do with Qobuz. It's the original file Qobuz was given. 

[PAR]

I am no expert in interpreting such graphs but to me it appears that the energy spectrum I would expect from a 44.1 KHz ( or rather 44.1 KS/s)  sample rate is shown and extends to circa 22 K.  Then there is additional  energy shown after a margin without activity extending to 40 something kHz. Are we looking at an upsampled track? Perhaps someone with more technical expertise than me can comment.

 

The subject of ECM upsampling their catalogue in order to provide hi-res issues has been a subject in at least one previous thread on Computer Audiophile ( as was) in 2013:

 

I agree with the point that Qobuz simply put on their servers whatever the record company provides them with. Any concept of them being able to validate recordings first is unrealistic given their claimed catalogue of 40M tracks ( perhaps not yet all available in the USA) and the hard business reality of their reliance on the cooperation of the record companies in order to stay in business.

 

Do upsampled tracks sound better than the native res original? Well there is certainly no additional musical information created. However some people seem to like the effect and even upsample their own local files. 

[mabe]

Thanks to both.

 

I fully agree, considering mentioned amount of tracks (40M) along with current business situation.

 

There are obviously no resources available validating purchased goods. As result, we have to do it....

 

Anyway, w.r.t. SQ, the overall sound of downloaded tracks are perfect (on my system).

[#Yoda#]

Qobuz claims to have a "dedicated department to check the content delivered by the labels".

Quote

 

 

[dmackta]

@#Yoda# We do have a department. They spot check. And check issues reported by users. Can you guess how many albums we receive from labels each week?

[The Computer Audiophile]

45 minutes ago, dmackta said:

@#Yoda# We do have a department. They spot check. And check issues reported by users. Can you guess how many albums we receive from labels each week?

 little less than a trillion 😁

[firedog]

1 hour ago, dmackta said:

@#Yoda# We do have a department. They spot check. And check issues reported by users. Can you guess how many albums we receive from labels each week?

I'd guess thousands.

 

FYI, years ago, I reported some old BIS recordings (  early 2000's, 90's) being sold as 24/96 on Qobuz, when eClassical said original recording rate was either 16/44.1 or 24/44.1. They were recorded (at BIS) BEFORE they started recording in 24/96.  I confirmed this with Robert von Bahr at the label.
They were very upset, and said apparently one of their distributors had taken SACDs of the material (which were clearly not originally DSD recordings or hires PCM, and not sold as such-they were labelled as sourced from PCM) and turned it into "Hi-res" PCM and distributed it as hi-res. This without permission from BIS.

Both the label and I reported it to Qobuz and .... nothing was done. I haven't checked those albums in years, but if you have old BIS recordings in 24/96 - they're fake. BIS started recording in 24/96 in 2006.