Official Qobuz Issues Thread

[AudioDoctor]

I am upsampling by power of 2 before sending it to my DAC, also the same between both streaming services. Perhaps it's Audiophile sacrilege, however I do it to help 16/44 files sound a bit better.  Anything above that does not get upsampled.

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

12 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

If you can answer, are you trying to get Qobuz on the Aurender as well as Roon?

The roon part is still a secrete... But Yes, we will work on Aurender. In fact, if you set your iPad clock 7 hours in advance, it'll come up as available now.

 

[AudioDoctor]

That I like to hear, thank you.  I will keep that secret!

[asdf1000]

1 minute ago, AudioDoctor said:

I am upsampling by power of 2 before sending it to my DAC, also the same between both streaming services.

 

Cool, thought it had to be some DSP.

 

Will give it a try when I'm on my iMac later.

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

5 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

 

Thanks, will do when I'm on the iMac.

 

Why does top right say 16/44 and top left says 24/88?

 

Do you get that with both Tidal and Qobuz streaming of this file?

Make sure you're set up on Qobuz and system preferences to do up to 24/192. And it's conceivable that it could be marked wrong. What track?

[asdf1000]

3 minutes ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

Make sure you're set up on Qobuz and system preferences to do up to 24/192. And it's conceivable that it could be marked wrong. What track?

 

Thanks David.

It's the Buddy Guy and Junior Wells track that AudioDoctor posted on previous page.

 

AudioDoctor is saying CD quality sounds different for Qobuz vs Tidal through Audirvana - not Hi-Res.

 

You've been at both companies - can you share a possible explanation ?

 

Are they likely streaming the same CD quality file?

 

Of course Hi-Res streaming is a different story altogether.

 

[AudioDoctor]

 

I have it set right in A+, the Qobuz file is 16/44 and I upsample those to 24/88.  In case anyone doesn't know how to only upsample specific sample rates, here, I will show you.

 

Open Audio Preferences > Audio Filters >  and select Custom > then over to edit settings and a pop up will appear letting you select what you want to happen to each sample rate.

 

[asdf1000]

The only explanation must be you're streaming different actual files, from the servers.

 

I can't imagine you're hearing the differences of different paths (Qobuz vs Tidal servers), from server to your ears?

 

Is the difference the same when played bit-perfectly, all DSP off?

 

I know you said the same DSP applies to both services.

 

Again, I don't doubt you, I've heard stranger things myself.

 

David is in the unique position to know if the files are the same or can be different in some cases. But I would understand if he doesn't want to comment on Tidal anymore.

 

[AudioDoctor]

Hell if I know.  It would make more sense if one was an MQA file and one was a straight Hi-Res file. But there is certainly a difference, not a huge one, but a difference none the less.

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

6 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

The only explanation must be you're streaming different actual files, from the servers.

 

I can't imagine you're hearing the differences of different paths (Qobuz vs Tidal servers), from server to your ears?

 

Is the difference the same when played bit-perfectly, all DSP off?

 

I know you said the same DSP applies to both services.

 

Again, I don't doubt you, I've heard stranger things myself.

 

David is in the unique position to know if the files are the same or can be different in some cases. But I would understand if he doesn't want to comment on Tidal anymore.

 

 

I'm not sure about this one, but I have found on a new release is a great way to check differences. I have a dog in the fight, so I won't comment, but there are audible differences. I'm getting some great feedback from a few people in the industry that I know are true listeners. My favorite last week was Paul McGowan that simply wrote, "wow, David, Qobuz does sound better". Anders from Hegel says the same.

[AudioDoctor]

I believe it, it almost sounds like the Qobuz version has less compression.

[shadowlight]

4 hours ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

Just saw this. I just went to Soundiiz and the Qobuz site is up again. Wasn't aware that it was down.

Yep, the message from Soundiiz said that Qobuz requested that the service be temporarily be disabled, while maintenance was going on.

[AudioDoctor]

David, I have found a small issue related to tagging of Morgan James.  She is listed as James Morgan, who is not female.  

 

 

[Musicophile]

On 8/25/2018 at 10:58 PM, shadowlight said:

Question for the folks who have being using Qobuz for awhile.  Can you let me know how I can configure Qobuz to continue playing similar songs/artist once the last song in a playlist has ended.  Looking for something similar to what Spotify does when playlist ends or what Deezer does with Flow.  I use the Spotify functionality to discover new music and I cannot seem to find how to do that under Qobuz.

I don’t think they have that functionality yet. 

[shadowlight]

Before I drop support an email message about this, can someone help confirm if they are having the issues with the desktop app crashing when your DAC is turned off while Qobuz is still running on your system?

 

I am using version 4.0.28-b015 and I am using Wasapi (Exclusive Mode).

 

 

[nbpf]

On 8/22/2018 at 6:41 AM, shadowlight said:

@nbpf, I have a working system with Volumio, MPD, upmpdcli and upmpdcli-qobuz for 16-bit music but with 24-bit music I get white-noise.  I think I am missing some configuration under mpd/upmpdcli, if you know of anything that will help me remove the white-noise let me know what changes needs to be in place for it to make it work.  I can test similar setup as you with Linn Kazoo, mdp/upmpdcli configured as OpenHome renderer.  I only get white noise when I am using Linn Kazoo which uses the upmpdcli-qobuz plugin.  If I use BubbleDS on a Android device which I believe bypasses upmpdcli-qobuz plugin I am able to play 24-bit files just fine.

 

For now, I am going to call it a night and pick it up tomorrow night.

Sorry shadowlight, I have been offline for a few days: I do not use Volumio and my Qobuz subscription is for 16bit/44.1kHz files only. Thus, I cannot confirm or confute your observations. MinimServer + upmpdcli work fine up to 24bit/192kHz in a minimal Raspbian distribution.

[shadowlight]

Sorry and ty. I'll put in a support ticket  now that I know that it is just me.

 

@4est responding to you on this thread instead of the migrating playlist thread.

 

Are you seeing a completely blank screen or are you seeing everything on the screen but it does not respond to anything?  If it is not responding I ran into similar situation when the software version was updated.  It told me that it was updating and once it was updated the warning about need to restart was in the smallest font possible.  I kept on clicking everywhere on the screen until I noticed that warning.

 

I am not sure if you are running into something similar.  If you are still having issues, please try to uninstall, reboot and reinstall if you have not done that yet.

[austinpop]

I just sent this note to (address removed at request of Qobuz)

 

Have others seen this kind of issue before?

 

========

Incorrect format

 

All of the Mahler albums by Michael Tilson Thomas and the SF Symphony - here is just one example: https://open.qobuz.com/album/0821936001226- are tagged as being in 24/96 high-resolution. However, when I play them back, they come up as Redbook 16/44.1. This is not true of other high-res content that plays just fine.

 

Also, the following album https://open.qobuz.com/album/7318599922263 is tagged as being 24/96, but only plays back as MP3 320kbps!

 

Please let me know if these issues can be fixed.

============

[AudioDoctor]

I just sent an identical note to Qobuz about a different album.  Yes, I have seen that problem.

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

On 8/25/2018 at 4:58 PM, shadowlight said:

Question for the folks who have being using Qobuz for awhile.  Can you let me know how I can configure Qobuz to continue playing similar songs/artist once the last song in a playlist has ended.  Looking for something similar to what Spotify does when playlist ends or what Deezer does with Flow.  I use the Spotify functionality to discover new music and I cannot seem to find how to do that under Qobuz.

We're working on that now.

We are partnering with Musimap to achieve that feature, similar to Spotify and Deezer's flow.

Timing is harder to predict as it depends on the quality of the Algorithms that will be provided, and how long it can take them to bring it to a quality deemed good enough for a release.

I would say that we aim to have something live in the first half of 2019.

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

7 hours ago, shadowlight said:

Before I drop support an email message about this, can someone help confirm if they are having the issues with the desktop app crashing when your DAC is turned off while Qobuz is still running on your system?

 

I am using version 4.0.28-b015 and I am using Wasapi (Exclusive Mode).

 

 

I just tried this on my system and the app did not crash. Just curious; why would one want to do this?

[asdf1000]

3 minutes ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

We're working on that now.

We are partnering with Musimap to achieve that feature, similar to Spotify and Deezer's flow.

Timing is harder to predict as it depends on the quality of the Algorithms that will be provided, and how long it can take them to bring it to a quality deemed good enough for a release.

I would say that we aim to have something live in the first half of 2019.

 

Great stuff David.

 

Question: any plans for the desktop app to also incorporate someone's locally stored library?

 

Or will the desktop app only ever be for streaming?

 

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

2 minutes ago, Em2016 said:

 

Great stuff David.

 

Question: any plans for the desktop app to also incorporate someone's locally stored library?

 

Or will the desktop app only ever be for streaming?

 

Probably just streaming. But thee will be third party apps that will do this.

 

[asdf1000]

3 minutes ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

Probably just streaming. But thee will be third party apps that will do this.

 

 

Hehe yes I'm already using Roon (and Audirvana)... just wanted to know if this was something Qobuz was interested in too.

The Qobuz native app itself is quite nice on it's own.

 

[austinpop]

Through the good offices of @The Computer Audiophile and @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist, I have been given trial access to Qobuz Sublime+. Having used it for a couple days, I thought I'd post my impressions so far.

 

My focus is classical music, and I have also been focussed on high-resolution content. Not because I don't listen to Redbook, but I want to assess the availability of high-res content in particular, as that is one of the selling points. I'm using the Qobuz app support in LMS that's built in to my Innuos Zenith SE server. While this isn't my preferred experience - I use Roon primarily - this works fine for now. I use a somewhat disjointed approach to finding content using the Qobuz desktop app on MacOS, tagging albums I want to listen to as Favorites, and then locating them during playback using the iPeng app controlling LMS. Not ideal, but tolerable, knowing Roon is coming,

 

One feature I'd urgently suggest to Qobuz is to provide a way to filter and sort search results. Sorting is available in some areas of the app, but not others. I would love to filter results by resolution - i.e. only results that are high-resolution.

 

I sure hope the rumors of Roon integration with Qobuz are true, and there again, my fervent suggestion to Qobuz would be to ensure from day 1 that high-res content was clearly identifiable in Roon. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to not have Tidal MQA content visible in Roon. Not that I'm promoting MQA - just saying that high-resolution results need to be visible from day 1.

 

As regards Qobuz content. I used the Soundiiz service referenced in Chris's excellent article to migrate my Tidal favorites and playlists to Qobuz. I am going to equate MQA content on Tidal with high-res content on Qobuz - again, not because I believe MQA to have inherent value, but because both are value-adds on their respective platforms. I had a lot of MQA albums tagged as favorites in Tidal. I was gratified to find that most of them (I'd say > 90%) had high-resolution counterparts on Qobuz. So to the extent that MQA content on Tidal is a proxy for high-resolution music, Qobuz seems to have that well-covered.

 

But from this point on, Qobuz left Tidal in the dust. Again, speaking from the perspective of a classical music lover, the sheer amount of high-resolution content on Qobuz was far greater than MQA content on Tidal. For example, take symphonies by Mahler. There are exactly 0 MQA versions of Mahler Symphony 3, while on Qobuz, I count 5 or more high-resolution versions. This is just one example. But the pattern is repeated over and over. Take Haydn's The Creation (Die Schöpfung). There is exactly 1 MQA version of this album on Tidal. Just a quick count of Qobuz yields at least 7 high-res versions.

 

I can't comment yet on sound quality. I'm not really expecting the same lossless track on Tidal and Qobuz to sound different, but it wouldn't surprise me. I will defer this kind of testing until Roon integration happens. Until then, I'm focusing on content.

 

And based on that criterion, even after just a couple days of exploration, Qobuz is light years ahead of Tidal.

 

With all that said, Qobuz is far from perfect. I hope to see a continued focus on usability on their app, including the missing features I highlighted.

 

But all in all - bravo, Qobuz!