Qobuz Discussion Thread

[Gryffles]

1 hour ago, Tobes said:

Not sure what could be causing this impression.

I heard nothing like this in my comparisons to Tidal. 

Nor have I heard anyone else report this. Maybe check your settings?

Can you be more specific re settings?

[Tobes]

1 hour ago, Gryffles said:

Can you be more specific re settings?

Well the first thing that comes to mind is to check Qobuz is in high quality mode - ie not streaming MP3 quality (unlikely I know).

It might be helpful for you to identify some tracks you've heard sounding 'ragged' to see if anyone else can duplicate your results - or are you saying all tracks sound ragged in the highs compared to Tidal (which would be weird)? 

What player(s) are you using?

Are you doing any upsampling or just sending native rates to your dac? 

 

Just trying to get a handle on what might be happening because when I compared Qobuz to Tidal I heard nothing amiss in the highs (in either case) via either my Utopia headphones or ATC speakers. 

[Gryffles]

1 hour ago, Tobes said:

Well the first thing that comes to mind is to check Qobuz is in high quality mode - ie not streaming MP3 quality (unlikely I know).

It might be helpful for you to identify some tracks you've heard sounding 'ragged' to see if anyone else can duplicate your results - or are you saying all tracks sound ragged in the highs compared to Tidal (which would be weird)? 

What player(s) are you using?

Are you doing any upsampling or just sending native rates to your dac? 

 

Just trying to get a handle on what might be happening because when I compared Qobuz to Tidal I heard nothing amiss in the highs (in either case) via either my Utopia headphones or ATC speakers. 

Qobuz is in high quality mode as it's a trial of the premium subscription. I haven't taken note of particular tracks but I can moving forward. I'll try some well known tracks and compare. I've only had it a week so I can't say all tracks but I have certainly noticed it and swapped back to Tidal today and it was better. The Hi Res tracks in Qobuz don't exhibit the problem for me whatever that's worth

 

No upsampling and it just goes from my Innuos Zen to Line Magnetic dac.

 

 

 

[Tobes]

@Gryffles I wonder if the tracks being compared are different masters and something more esoteric is going on - like intersample overs(?) That might explain why the Qobuz Hi-res material doesn't exhibit the same issue.

My Benchmark dac has compensation built in to avoid this condition, which could be why I'm not hearing the problem.

This is highly speculative of course and it would be odd if the issue was confined to Qobuz.

I've previously owned a hi-end dac that exhibited quite obvious distortion (awful on some tracks) with high level material containing intersample overs.

Actually quite a few of my Bandcamp downloads exhibited this problem perhaps as less care was used in mastering levels, but it's not uncommon in wider commercial releases. 

In any case, if Tidal sounds better in your setup you'd be right to stick with it.  

[Gryffles]

39 minutes ago, Tobes said:

@Gryffles I wonder if the tracks being compared are different masters and something more esoteric is going on - like intersample overs(?) That might explain why the Qobuz Hi-res material doesn't exhibit the same issue.

My Benchmark dac has compensation built in to avoid this condition, which could be why I'm not hearing the problem.

This is highly speculative of course and it would be odd if the issue was confined to Qobuz.

I've previously owned a hi-end dac that exhibited quite obvious distortion (awful on some tracks) with high level material containing intersample overs.

Actually quite a few of my Bandcamp downloads exhibited this problem perhaps as less care was used in mastering levels, but it's not uncommon in wider commercial releases. 

In any case, if Tidal sounds better in your setup you'd be right to stick with it.  

Thanks for your thoughts. I compared a couple tracks today and they sounded very similar.

Perhaps it was a coincidence that the tracks I was listening when I noticed had the problem you mentioned

[astormsau]

I used Qobuz about 2 years ago with an account signed up via VPN. I figured since it’s now available in AU time to give the trial a spin. 
 

The sound quality of most tracks seems better than Tidal when listening via Roon. I only have Roon MQA so only the first unfold but even with tracks at that resolution I find Qobuz better. 
 

I have to say their mobile app, whilst pretty, is very slow and I find their playlist navigation is really average so far. Also quite a lot of content missing which I enjoy on Tidal. 

[davm]

I started a Qobuz trial just over a month ago.

 

I knew my free trial period was coming to an end but still wanted to test a few more things, so I thought I'd pay for a month to buy a bit more time

 

To my surprise, I've found that Qobuz charged me for a full 12 months up front ($229), rather than billing me month by month.

 

I haven't seen this before -- other streaming services I've trialled start charging month by month, once the trial finishes.

 

Personally, I'm very unimpressed and now want to cancel and get a refund, apart from the month I expected to pay.

[awayward]

9 minutes ago, davm said:

I started a Qobuz trial just over a month ago.

 

I knew my free trial period was coming to an end but still wanted to test a few more things, so I thought I'd pay for a month to buy a bit more time

 

To my surprise, I've found that Qobuz charged me for a full 12 months up front ($229), rather than billing me month by month.

 

I haven't seen this before -- other streaming services I've trialled start charging month by month, once the trial finishes.

 

Personally, I'm very unimpressed and now want to cancel and get a refund, apart from the month I expected to pay.

When I started my free trial I’m sure I had to select my preferred plan for the end of the trial, my trial has just expired and I have been charged for the plan I selected. Did you get a notification of the plan you originally selected?

[El Tel]

4 minutes ago, awayward said:

When I started my free trial I’m sure I had to select my preferred plan for the end of the trial, my trial has just expired and I have been charged for the plan I selected. Did you get a notification of the plan you originally selected?

Same here. I just checked my bank and sure enough, $24.99 has been taken for the month. I will bite the bullet and do the annual thing before the next billing cycle.

[turnthetable]

I changed my plan from annual to monthly 48 hours before trial end and all went well.

 

I'll probably take up the annual subscription down the track

Edited May 16, 2021 by turnthetable

[Steffen]

Have any of the maverick VPN account holders had a chance to check whether there are catalogue differences between Qobuz AU and Qobuz somewhere else?

 

I’m still using my account that I created using a US proxy server and a European credit card, and I’d love to go local, provided I won’t miss out on anything. I’ve really grown fond of Qobuz over the past year or so, and I don’t want to ruin that experience.

 

I’m not using the Qobuz app, BTW, but either Roon or Audirvana.

 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by Steffen
tpyo

[Telecine]

7 hours ago, Steffen said:

Have any of the maverick VPN account holders had a chance to check whether there are catalogue differences between Qobuz AU and Qobuz somewhere else?

 

I’m still using my account that I created using a US proxy server and a European credit card, and I’d love to go local, provided I won’t miss out on anything. I’ve really grown fond of Qobuz over the past year or so, and I don’t want to ruin that experience.

 

I’m not using the Qobuz app, BTW, but either Roon or Audirvana.

 

 

 

I haven't used an overseas account with a VPN but periodically have noticed that some tracks on some albums are unavailable and marked as such. I assume that this relates to distribution rights. I would be surprised if there were any other differences.

[Dropbear67]

11 hours ago, Steffen said:

Have any of the maverick VPN account holders had a chance to check whether there are catalogue differences between Qobuz AU and Qobuz somewhere else?

 

Well the playlists are definitely region 'locked'. I went to the Qobuz website without logging in and it had a really great playlist on the front page .. and I jumped straight on to find it (after logging on) and it was not searchable.. Really annoyed the crap out of me to be honest.

 

[Steffen]

Hm, I think I will keep things as they are for now, the overseas account hasn’t been an issue so far.

[noddyc43]

20 hours ago, Steffen said:

Have any of the maverick VPN account holders had a chance to check whether there are catalogue differences between Qobuz AU and Qobuz somewhere else?

 

I’m still using my account that I created using a US proxy server and a European credit card, and I’d love to go local, provided I won’t miss out on anything. I’ve really grown fond of Qobuz over the past year or so, and I don’t want to ruin that experience.

 

I’m not using the Qobuz app, BTW, but either Roon or Audirvana.

 

 

Hey Steffen.

 

You could use Soundiiz premium to backup your VPN qobuz playlists to txt and then open a free trial one here in Oz and then import it back to see if your playlists is within the Aus catalogue?

 

Soundiiz is a few dollars a month so cheap to test it out. 

[Steffen]

5 hours ago, noddyc43 said:

 

You could use Soundiiz premium to backup your VPN qobuz playlists to txt and then open a free trial one here in Oz and then import it back to see if your playlists is within the Aus catalogue?

 

 

I don’t use playlists, I normally play albums. My “liked” albums are easily listed and transferred, the question is, will all that I’m listening to now still be available when I switch to an AU Qobuz account?

[noddyc43]

9 hours ago, Steffen said:

 

I don’t use playlists, I normally play albums. My “liked” albums are easily listed and transferred, the question is, will all that I’m listening to now still be available when I switch to an AU Qobuz account?

In that case I can't think of any quick way apart from manual searching on an  AU account.

 

 

[Tobes]

On 17/05/2021 at 10:55 AM, Steffen said:

Hm, I think I will keep things as they are for now, the overseas account hasn’t been an issue so far.

 

When I came across to Qobuz from Tidal the catalog gaps I initially noticed were Indy or non-mainstream artists. 

However there are some strange anomalies.

For instance I noticed that almost all of Bob Seger's catalog and all of Janis Ian's Columbia titles are absent on Qobuz (Tidal has these).

While neither of those artists are that important to me I find the omissions strange as they're mainstream artists on major labels - and there are probably others I haven't noticed.

Maybe some sort of exclusivity clause  or other objection prevents Qobuz having these titles? - like Neil Young's stoush with Tidal and MQA.

I tend to lean towards some sort of regional objection because when I look on zdigital.com.au the missing Janis Ian albums are strangely missing from their lists as well(?). Doesn't explain why Tidal has the titles though.

[Tobes]

@Steffen would you be able to check a couple of titles for me on your overseas Qobuz account?

I restored my Tidal account after receiving the $2 for 2 months offer and have been enjoying some of the titles which didn't port across to Qobuz AU.

I have the two albums by The New Gary Burton Quartet - Common Ground and Guided Tour - favorited in Tidal. Obviously Burton is a major artist and most titles are available on Qobuz, but these two albums are on the smaller 'Mack Avenue' label.

Neither album is available on Qobuz AU, but when I looked on the overseas Qobuz download page the titles were available - but as soon as I logged in with my Qobuz AU credentials the page became unavailable.

I just wanted to confirm their availability on Qobuz elsewhere and then pose the question to Qobuz AU as to their likely availability locally.

[Steffen]

1 hour ago, Tobes said:

 

I have the two albums by The New Gary Burton Quartet - Common Ground and Guided Tour - favorited in Tidal. Obviously Burton is a major artist and most titles are available on Qobuz, but these two albums are on the smaller 'Mack Avenue' label.

 

Yes, they are available in my account:

 

 

I hope this is just a matter of Qobuz AU catching up.

 

[Chris.chapterten]

Today I noticed the first new Album added to one of my favourited artists in Qobuz. They have added the Blind Guardian Orchestral album in Hi-Res. It would be great if they would send a notification when a favourited artist has new albums added... now to see if they have added anything else...

Edited May 20, 2021 by Chris.chapterten

[Tobes]

14 minutes ago, Steffen said:

 

Yes, they are available in my account:

 

 

I hope this is just a matter of Qobuz AU catching up.

 

So do I - thanks for doing the check.

It is very frustrating to have access to these albums (on Tidal) and then have them unavailable after the switch to Qobuz. 

Like I said, for the the next 2 months I have $1 a month win-back deal with Tidal. I'm cognisant that we're only about a month in with Qobuz so hopefully the catalog gaps start to fill in. 

 

I'll message Qobuz and see what they have to say. 

[Niktech]

I've just cancelled my studio subscription to Quobuz. There"s just not enough choice in terms of the genres I listen to, and I don't see the need to stream music I already own. The navigation in Lightning DS was also offputting. 

 

I still have my premium subscription to DI.FM, which I will stick with - 92 channels of goodness - and then purchase Hi Res or FLAC albums direct from the Indy label or artist on Bandcamp.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Niktech

[Tobes]

I got a reply from Qobuz customer service.

They have a link for reporting catalog shortcomings/requests. I suggest people use it and see what sort of traction it has.

 

"We are always happy to receive our customers' feedback. 
 
So as to ask for albums you would like to see in our catalogue, you can contact the catalogue team directly via this link:" https://airtable.com/shrWFlthbAGjTSuJu 
  

[rowbo]

Thanks @Tobes that's great, I will definitely be using that link. Its my biggest bugbear at the moment too. The entire Eva Cassidy catalogue is unavailable, a lot of Australian artists don't have their newest releases as well as established Latin artists (Bad Bunny, Aventura) and then there are random holes in catalogues - The Midnight, Zhu etc - some albums but not all. Strange and hopefully will work itself out soon.

Thanks again.