Qobuz Discussion Thread

[cheekyboy]

9 hours ago, Tobes said:

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 
  

 

34 minutes ago, rowbo said:

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.

 

Hello folks,

 

I wrote to Qobuz a few weeks ago, shortly after I took up their subscription and my question was regarding the lack of content and artists compared to Tidal and I was specific in nominating a few artists for example, but I also posed the question to them that perhaps this lack of content and artists in their catalogue was only a temporary thing and due to Qobuz being new to Australian subscribers. 

 

Over a few emails I was given the customer's feedback link too and I have filled that out several times now with different artists that I'm unfortunately coming across. I also hope that their catalogue is being expanded to match what is apparently available to overseas' subscribers, but Qobuz conveniently ignored responding to that direct question. I'll wait and see, but in the meantime, I'm getting many emails from Tidal offering me heavily discounted subscriptions if I sign up with them again.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

[NonPlayableCharacter]

27 minutes ago, cheekyboy said:

I'm getting many emails from Tidal offering me heavily discounted subscriptions if I sign up with them again

I'm not getting any. When I unsubbed, I wrote to them and asked them to delete all personal data (except data required for regulatory audit purposes). This stops the "I'm sorry, I can change, please forgive me, please love me." emails from coming your way.

[Niktech]

With my recent departure from Quobuz, I've signed up for Deezer premium. Much more content to my liking and it streams FLAC files. Seems to have a much better discover / similar artists function.

 

TBH  once data has been reclocked through the Hermes DDC the difference between FLAC and Hi Res is not night and day, more like subtle.

 

Anyway, I digress from the Quobuz discussion... 

[Chris.chapterten]

46 minutes ago, Niktech said:

With my recent departure from Quobuz, I've signed up for Deezer premium. Much more content to my liking and it streams FLAC files. Seems to have a much better discover / similar artists function.

 

TBH  once data has been reclocked through the Hermes DDC the difference between FLAC and Hi Res is not night and day, more like subtle.

 

Anyway, I digress from the Quobuz discussion... 

 

I have Deezer and Qobuz alongside each other at the moment and I definitely notice the better selection of music on Deezer. With my Bluesound Powernode 2i there is definitely a noticeable difference in sound quality when comparing Hi-res on Qobuz to the CD quality of Deezer though. Deezer doesn’t sound bad, but the difference is enough to be noticeable on some of my favourite tracks..

[Replicant2049]

Signed up to Qobuz yesterday and did quite a bit of comparing to Tidal. For my system Qobuz consistently sounds better than Tidal. Better imaging and tonality, more spacious presentation, and overall more ease. The main components of my system are a Rockna Wavedream DAC, XI Audio Formula S amp stack, and Abyss Phi TC, plus lots of other bit and pieces. Very happy to have discovered Qobuz, sorry Jay Z.

 

Also, the library is def more limited for my tastes but the uptick in sound quality is worth it.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Replicant2049

[Tobes]

6 hours ago, Replicant2049 said:

sorry Jay Z.

Jay Z sold his stake in Tidal, so no need to apologise.

[Tobes]

Not sure if anyone else has had any luck with submissions for missing albums on Qobuz (submitted using this link I mentioned above: https://airtable.com/shrWFlthbAGjTSuJu )?

I haven't, its kind of annoying.

There are no albums on Qobuz AU from the Candy Rat label - which has lots of great guitarists - but the albums are available on Qobuz elsewhere and Tidal. I submitted another half dozen requests today, but this sucks.

[Chris.chapterten]

47 minutes ago, Tobes said:

Not sure if anyone else has had any luck with submissions for missing albums on Qobuz (submitted using this link I mentioned above: https://airtable.com/shrWFlthbAGjTSuJu )?

I haven't, its kind of annoying.

There are no albums on Qobuz AU from the Candy Rat label - which has lots of great guitarists - but the albums are available on Qobuz elsewhere and Tidal. I submitted another half dozen requests today, but this sucks.

I don’t have my hopes up that these missing artists / albums are coming anytime soon… I currently have TIdal, Qobuz, Deezer and Spotify running together (free trials etc.) and none of them have some of the albums I am looking for available in Australia..

[brumby]

39 minutes ago, Chris.chapterten said:

I don’t have my hopes up that these missing artists / albums are coming anytime soon… I currently have TIdal, Qobuz, Deezer and Spotify running together (free trials etc.) and none of them have some of the albums I am looking for available in Australia..

OK.  But do you have a preference out of those four or do you reckon they're much of a muchness?  I'm still leaning towards Qobuz but I'm waiting until my new system is up and running before getting any free trials or making any choices.  The only way I have to compare sound quality now, for example, is through my laptop and a (cheap) pair of Sony headphones.

[Kevy]

Having all but Deezer I don’t mind Tidal if I am using a source with full unfold (eg. My SP2K). However, my brain has burnt in a preference for Qobuz - to the point I’ve transferred most of my Roon playlists to Qobuz. 
 

I still subscribe to tidal 

[Tobes]

1 hour ago, Chris.chapterten said:

I don’t have my hopes up that these missing artists / albums are coming anytime soon… I currently have TIdal, Qobuz, Deezer and Spotify running together (free trials etc.) and none of them have some of the albums I am looking for available in Australia..

That may be a bit different though, if none of the services offer particular albums there may be some particular regional blocking. Or maybe the artists simply don't want their albums available via streaming?

I'm talking about albums available on Tidal in Australia but not available on Qobuz AU (though they are available on Qobuz o/s).

[Chris.chapterten]

1 hour ago, brumby said:

OK.  But do you have a preference out of those four or do you reckon they're much of a muchness?  I'm still leaning towards Qobuz but I'm waiting until my new system is up and running before getting any free trials or making any choices.  The only way I have to compare sound quality now, for example, is through my laptop and a (cheap) pair of Sony headphones.

 

My system is very modest. Powernode 2i into Dynaudio Emit M10 speakers. But I do feel I can hear a difference with Qobuz being the best for Hi-Res to my ears. 

As for CD quality tracks I felt Qobuz and Tidal were essentially the same - but Deezer didn’t sound quite as good as either.

 

I was lucky to get onto a family plan for Qobuz so feel like it is definitely worth having, but I will probably keep Deezer or Spotify to help plug in a few holes. Selection wise, Qobuz is not too bad at all, just a few unexpected things missing.
 

 

1 hour ago, Tobes said:

That may be a bit different though, if none of the services offer particular albums there may be some particular regional blocking. Or maybe the artists simply don't want their albums available via streaming?

I'm talking about albums available on Tidal in Australia but not available on Qobuz AU (though they are available on Qobuz o/s).

 

Oh yeah, that’s a very good point - it is a different thing. I suppose the point I was trying to make, was: if it’s not available on the service now I’m not confident it will be added anytime soon. Perhaps artists / labels are making some music exclusive to particular streaming services. If that’s the case, who knows how long until those deals expire?

[Janus77]

Does anyone else find that Qobuz is a bit slow in operation compared to other streaming service'?

 

I'd planned to move from Tidal to Qobuz, however after having Qobuz for a couple of months i'm not using it much as i find the interface much slower than the alternative, and also i'm finding half the time i have to wait for songs to fully cache before i listen to them, or there's some weird distortion as if the file has become buggy - crackling etc?  After which i need to restart the app to get anything to play properly.  Maybe this is a hardware issue at my side, I don't get this issue with Tidal though.

I really want to like Qobuz, but it's slow to use and then i need to keep restarting the software to get songs to play properly - which has put me off using it.

 

Tidals' not perfect, but by comparison the interface is much slicker and i never have problems playing songs.  On Tidal i do get a glitch where i can't scroll through a play list with my mouse, so i have to use the down button, and then vice versa sometimes i can only use the mouse and the down button doesn't work.  Also the Tidal app on my phone is buggy when connected through apple car play in my volkswagen.  Songs wont play when i click on them, so i have to go back and forth in the menu a few times to get them to work.  Also sometimes when i click to the next song, it just starts playing the same song again.

I should try the Qobuz app in my car, maybe it's much better than Tidal in that use.

 

Anyway my 2c.  I like Qobuz because it's high res and they don't force you to use their registered hardware (and they pay the artists a bit more), however at the end of the day Tidal's just much easier to slicker to use and i'm finding given the option between both over the last 5-6 weeks, i'm tending towards using Tidal.  I can't really tell any difference between MQA and Hi Res playback, but that's not to say there isn't and i'm just not good enough at listening to discern the difference.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Janus77

[Tobes]

2 hours ago, Janus77 said:

Does anyone else find that Qobuz is a bit slow in operation compared to other streaming service'?

Haven't really noticed any difference between Tidal and Qobuz, but I typically run both in Roon.

 

2 hours ago, Janus77 said:

I'd planned to move from Tidal to Qobuz, however after having Qobuz for a couple of months i'm not using it much as i find the interface much slower than the alternative, and also i'm finding half the time i have to wait for songs to fully cache before i listen to them, or there's some weird distortion as if the file has become buggy - crackling etc?

My FTTN NBN is compromised due to distance from the node and I only  get a bit over 30Mbps, but I haven't experienced these issues. I've used the Qobuz app on Mac, Windows and Android devices. What's the speed of your internet connection?

If using Windows maybe make sure you have WASAPI Exclusive mode engaged (what I use on my laptop - Win10, 11'th gen i7/16GB ram, SSD).

[rowbo]

I will continue with qobuz, but am continually annoyed with the overall library. I mean, no Garbage? Not a single album? No Eva Cassidy.  Might as well purchase lossless versions from Apple Music. Anyway, time will tell if qobuz are actively seeking rights agreements to increase their library in Australia. Rant over. 

[Steffen]

1 hour ago, rowbo said:

I will continue with qobuz, but am continually annoyed with the overall library. I mean, no Garbage?

 

I thought that was a plus? 

 

Joking aside, my overseas Qobuz account shows 8 albums and 8 singles/EPs by Garbage. So, they have it, just not in AU yet. There’s hope.

[08Boss302]

I am still enjoying Qobuz, No desire to cancel it at all.  I still have the US account for the moment as it does seem to have the greater depth to it.  The ONLY thing that (still) frustrates me about Qobuz is that if you close down the desktop app or mobile app, when you re open it the last page you were on displays infull screen.  As in, it does not reset itself to show what you were playing at the bottom or to the side with the main page on display, it literally goes back to how it was shut down.

 

Not sure if its a deliberate thing Qobuz thinks people like but to me its a PITA to finish one listening session, then reopen the app and need to hit the actual Qobuz logo in the top left corner to see the main page, or my Qobuz button on the mobile app  even if its been a few days since last opened.  Its a small grievence but one I think could be easily fixed so that when you return to the app (much like Spotify or Tidal etc) you see what you were playing bottom of screen but the main page is displayed so you can see anything new or your feeds etc.

 

[Bass13]

Ive joined the Qobuz club too today,..

 

[rictee]

After some extensive listening, Qobuz certainly sounds better than Tidal to me. Surprisingly considering all the marketing talk around MQA bringing you closer to the recording studio, it sounds just that bit more veiled (less micro detail) and unnatural compared to the Hi Res version on Qobuz.

 

Yes the music library is smaller but I haven't run into any issues so far. Perhaps my listening taste is not big enough for it to be a problem.

 

If anyone is keen I have a couple spots in a Family sub - PM me if you're keen.

[Janus77]

Does anyone else find the Tidal app when used with apple car play to be an absolute dog?  I have many issues using it in the car, annoying.

[ICUToo]

I have kept Tidal for now, but Qobuz sounds better to me.

Especially better via Audirvãna Suite

But-

just lately, Qobuz has been stopping just near the end of a song. 

This has been very disappointing, as you're usually just getting to the climax of whatever tune is cued up!

Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas how to solve it?

[KRSDarwin]

On 23/06/2021 at 7:38 PM, ICUToo said:

just lately, Qobuz has been stopping just near the end of a song. 

I use Qobuz daily integrated with Roon but I have not experienced this problem. 
 

On a different subject I read in Stereophile that Qobuz had a Stereophile curated playlist of well recorded music. I have been unable to locate that playlist. Has anyone located that playlist?

 

I generally prefer Qobuz library and hi-res over Tidal versions but still prefer MQA in Tidal as the pinnacle. I decode through a PSAudio PerfectWave DirectStream DAC with Bridge II. 

[08Boss302]

@KRSDarwin Type in stereophile in the search function then select the playlist tab.

You will find a heap of playlists with that title, some belonging to the magazine and others not 

 

Some screens shots for you. Hope it helps.

 

 

 

[KRSDarwin]

Thanks @08Boss302 I know it shouldn’t be that hard but whether I go though Roon or Qobuz direct I do not seem able to produce the same results.  As I continue to type Stereophile the playlist option drops off after Stereophil as per below.

 

I will keep tying as you have convinced me it is user error/incompetence. 
 

Thanks (I think). 

[hammerharry]

USA account? No luck either