Qobuz streaming service, anyone use it?

[bluedroog]

The flac lossless function is called 'Hi-Fi', I belive there are three options and sometimes peple wrongly assume that 'premium' is the highrest rate as it is with Spotify.

Still loving this service but I have a cople of issues; first is the amount the phone app crashes, pretty muc everyday which never happened with Spotify, also I have noticed some tracks which used to availible have since been resticted to buy, I noticed this with London Grammar which is a pain, I'm not paying £20 and then extras too. Lastly the search feature could be a bit slicker.

No way I'm giving this up now though, the sound is just great and I have faith the other areas will improve, it just looked that much bit cooler and grown up than spotify too.

 

[sheffstevie]

Hi

it was the hi-fi option i signed up for at 19.99 per month and it took me to paypal to authorise my payment - so I should have the option for lossless quality but nope! no joy.

 

[philipjohnwright]

I've been a user of the French service for about 5 months now. It is a little quirky - I reckon the WHF review got it right on - but it is a very good service indeed. I won't reiterate the review, just a couple of pointsworth making. First, their customer service is good - email them in English and you get a response pretty quickly. Secondly, I signed up when it was a lot more than it currently is. They automatically reduced my payments when they dropped the price, unlike virtually any other company in any field. To say I was impressed would be an understatement - another sign of looking after their users.

And thirdly (!), I find the offline facility a bit better than spotify (which I also have , albeit the downgraded service now). Downloading to listen without a network generally works reliably and quite quickly.

 

[bluedroog]

Hi

it was the hi-fi option i signed up for at 19.99 per month and it took me to paypal to authorise my payment - so I should have the option for lossless quality but nope! no joy.

Come to think of it I remember now, it is slightly odd as even if you chose the Hi-Fi option for some strange reason it still defaults to compressed, you need to go in to the settings or preferences and switch it to lossless FLAC, there are two little grey boxes about half way down the page.

 

[bluedroog]

Has anyone else had issues with certain music restricted by the artist? It then prompts you to pay and download the tracks? I really think the music industry needs to universally open up to streaming royalties these days. Anyway, the issues I’m having is that some of these tracks I’ve listened to on Qobuz previously and now don’t work, do you think artists change their minds or perhaps you get a finite number of listens?

It is quite annoying as I’m paying a premium £20 a month subscription and thought I just head the subscription route over ownership, previously Spotify I considered a discovery tool and still had a library but paying more for high quality this is now my only source. I was really enjoying the London Grammar album and now I can’t listen to it, I think it doesn’t appear at all now, The Disclosure album prompts me to purchase it.

 

[iQ Speakers]

Not sure but might help, London Grammar is not available on Spotify which is really unusual, so i would suggest its an artist thing.

Must admit i tried Qobuz and liked the sound but so many albums missing its just not usable for me.

 

[ROTH AV]

I find it extraordinary that such a flawed product should be given a 5 star review.

I have no doubt it sounds great - that's the whole point, but from reading this thread and others, there would seem to be many tech issues to resolve before it could be considered a 5 star service. Maybe it's just me being thick, but previous experience of the review process suggests that superior audio quality cannot be considered in isolation.

If this was an amplifier and the review unit's volume knob fell off.....would it get a 5 star review ?

What is being said here is that it sounds great.....but doesn't work properly, is expensive and has a limited catalogue (at least for the time being - I'm sure this will change).

Can someone from WHF explain the thinking behind the review verdict so that I can better understand how this all works ?

Ta.

 

[bluedroog]

Well I think my issues are more to do with licensing rather than a technical issue. It is a technology still in it’s infancy and I have to say I find the user experience very good, I think you’ll likely get a high number of issues reported on a thread as this is in part what the thread is here for, also for many people we’re still trying to get to grips with streaming, I’m certainly a bit of a technophobe when it comes to the computer side of things.

There is no doubt room for improvement and I am counting on the library expanding as they roll out across new countries and markets, for me it is a step up from Spotify which I am a fan of. Re the star rating I think sometimes the system is a bit flawed, it isn’t a very fine rating system and of the available ratings there are usually only three ever used. Personally I’d give it 4 stars based on the overall experience, sounds great but room for improvement in regards to usability and library, especially given the price.

 

[philipjohnwright]

James

i can only speak for myself - I haven't really had any problems. True the catalogue isn't quite as extensive but I suppose it depends what you listen to - the latest rock / pop stuff isn't really my field (with some exceptions), I'm more of a jazz man. It's slightly frustrating but not overly so. Everything else is good, with the offline being better than spotify in my experience.

And the higher sound quality is worth the price difference in my view. Again a personal judgement, but I'd happily benchmark it against a Sky TV subscription, which seems to cost most people over £50 a month as far as I can see (and ne'er a moan about the cost!).

Id say 80% of my listening is ivia Qobuz at the moment, which puts it into perspective. Give it a try, you can always cancel if you don't like it. I've thought about reverting to spotify Premium but have never quite made the jump. Think it's called voting with my feet (or wallet).

Rgds, Phil

ps I'd agree with the previous poster - 4 stars for the current service, (and 5 for its potential)

 

[bluedroog]

I just checked out my example of London Grammar and their label took them off streaming sites. One issue I have had which is a little annoying and definitely worse than Spotify is the phone app does crash at least three times a week (I use it about twice a day communing).

I wonder how WIMP which I believe is a similar service spreading from Scandinavia compares to Qobuz overall? I’m not sure it is available her yet but could be an interesting battle ground as they both roll out to new territories.

With any luck as competition increases, the technology matures and users wise up we’ll benefit in terms of quality, usability and price.

 

[BigH]

I find it extraordinary that such a flawed product should be given a 5 star review.

I have no doubt it sounds great - that's the whole point, but from reading this thread and others, there would seem to be many tech issues to resolve before it could be considered a 5 star service. Maybe it's just me being thick, but previous experience of the review process suggests that superior audio quality cannot be considered in isolation.

If this was an amplifier and the review unit's volume knob fell off.....would it get a 5 star review ?

What is being said here is that it sounds great.....but doesn't work properly, is expensive and has a limited catalogue (at least for the time being - I'm sure this will change).

Can someone from WHF explain the thinking behind the review verdict so that I can better understand how this all works ?

Ta.

Probably I can think of a few products that got 5 stars, such as Wharfdale speakers and Cyrus cd player that did not even play some cds. I agree many flawed products should be marked down, there are far too many 4 and 5 stars reviews.

 

[philipjohnwright]

Bluedroog

Interesting, I've just checked and London Grammar is on my Qobuz and streams fine. I'm on the French version still (€20 not £20!), I don't know if that makes a difference (I was told the catalogue for the French service is bigger than the UK one, presumably for licensing reasons)

In general terms too much competition will be bad for the market, fragmenting it. Services like Spotify and Qobuz need critical mass to enable them to persuade the labels to license music to them. If we're not careful we will mirror the high end market, with prices rocketing as small companies have to spread overheads and R&D over small volumes. But that's a whole different subject.

 

[bluedroog]

I suspect you're right in that it is because you're on the French service. I can see what you're saying but it is an expansing market, I suppose it is a balance, I'd like to think I'll be paying less than £20 a month for a bigger library and same quality soon. Still, the prices of these things don't often come down...

 

[Verity Burns]

I find it extraordinary that such a flawed product should be given a 5 star review.

I have no doubt it sounds great - that's the whole point, but from reading this thread and others, there would seem to be many tech issues to resolve before it could be considered a 5 star service. Maybe it's just me being thick, but previous experience of the review process suggests that superior audio quality cannot be considered in isolation.

If this was an amplifier and the review unit's volume knob fell off.....would it get a 5 star review ?

What is being said here is that it sounds great.....but doesn't work properly, is expensive and has a limited catalogue (at least for the time being - I'm sure this will change).

Can someone from WHF explain the thinking behind the review verdict so that I can better understand how this all works ?

Ta.

Hi James,

We can only speak for our experiences rather than those being mentioned on the thread. Of course any product or service we test is judged as a whole and a verdict is agreed upon based on how we find it in balance. For us, Qobuz's sound quality was so much better than other services out there, that it took some of its quirks on the chin. And that's what we felt they were - quirks that weren't serious enough to deduct it a star. We felt the expense was justified for the significant boost in sound quality, its catalogue was largely acceptable and there were very few usability issues that made us change how we felt about the service overall. We really enjoyed using it, and we'd have no hesitation in recommending it to someone who cares about sound quality above all else.

I hope that helps.

 

[johnire]

HI WHEN AM LISTENING TO QOBUZ ON MY SONOS IF I PLAY 1 TRACK IT COMES ON AS FLAC IF I PLAY ALL TRACKS IT DOES NOT

 

[Chrisb74]

Signed up for the Hi-Fi option today playing via Sonos using digital out into Arcam rDAC and naim 112/150 + Focal set up. Revelation. I wanted the convenience of Spotify premium, but found the sound unengaging and flat, the difference is noticeable, detail, presence and not tiring to listen to!

The interface is harder than Spotify and several times I couldn't find a track and then searched via an album or track name and found the artist - so care required. Back to back against Spotify premium, for listening there's no comparison.

After having streamed for a few years and secretly regretting selling py CD player, I can strongly recommend.

 

[sheffstevie]

I have gone to the settings and tried to change it to FLAC lossless - It remains greyed out. All I get is a message saying I need to download the desktop player which I have now done 5 times! I have emailed Qobuz twice and have had two replies in French advising me to download the desktop player! Grrr! Getting severely peed off with the lack of support on this. I would serously consider spending the money if the sound quality was worth it but I have no way of assessing this and will be forced to cancel the trial and remain with my premuin spotify account which is spot on for a tenner a month.

 

[m0n5t3r]

Qobuz is fantastic!

I was round a friends last weekend and he's built a media PC with loads of copper shielding and a faraday cage, the sound through his Cyrus 8 is equal to or better than his Cyrus CD8.

The service is still very young and it's a bit unfair to compare to Spotify which has been going and building their library for years.

The very thought of being able to stream CD quality without a cd player with millions of songs at my fingertips is almost game changing!

 

[EvPa]

The service is still very young and it's a bit unfair to compare to Spotify which has been going and building their library for years.

Qobuz is actually older than Spotify, I've been using it since late 2007.

 

[Andy Clough]

HI WHEN AM LISTENING TO QOBUZ ON MY SONOS IF I PLAY 1 TRACK IT COMES ON AS FLAC IF I PLAY ALL TRACKS IT DOES NOT

Strange, that doesn't happen to me, all tracks played on Sonos come up as FLAC no problem.

 

[bluedroog]

One thing I didn’t like about Qobuz compared to Spotifty in terms of Squeezebox integrated (aside from the fact it isn’t officially supported) is that with Spotify you don’t need a server but Qobuz I needed LMS running which meant having a laptop on getting hot and making noise. I now have a Raspberry Pi with LMS on all the time and silent, fantastic! I’ve no idea how novices manage to get the Pi working, I had to have a mate shadow my network for nearly an hour but well worth it. Raspberry Pi serving a Squeezebox Touch steaming from Qobuz with EDO to a DAC makes for a great source that I’m delighted with, looking forward to upgrading to a better Async USB DAC at some point.

 

[Nullgrad-UK]

I have just started my free month on hi-fi and I am very impressed by the sound quality - I thought Spotify Premium was good , but the sound is much brighter and has more depth, I'm not sure if I can afford to spend £19.99 every month as well as £9.99 on Spotify . There are some artists I like that have a better selection on Spotify but there is plenty too keep me happy for the time being. I love my music playing when I'm at home so I expect I will be giving it a good listen for the next month.

 

[cjtyler]

I've been using Spotify for about 6 months now. Lovin' it. Playing it through soundbar and JBL Radius through MacBook Air / iPad. Favourite bit - finding new music: Polica, London Grammar, Telepopmusik, Crystal Castles, Alt J, Parra for Cuva (awesome). Then reinstated Hi-Fi, after long storage and WOW, 320 kbps sounds excellent. Next day tried Qobuz trial with an Armin Van Buuren track and was completely sold; this was sooooo much better than the Spotify version.

Then, I'm confused - the settings on the Qobuz trial version suggest I'm still streaming at 320 kbps. Simple fact: QObuz 320 is significantly superior to Spotify's 320 stream - significantly. However, I couldn't find more than half my playlist stuff on there, but I must have there CD quality stream, I simply must...

 

[bluedroog]

even if you have Qobuz hifi version it defaults to mp3, you need to switch it in settings to Flac.

 

[Potts]

I'm still registered but no longer a subscriber to the service. I would like to purchase songs from the website still but it always says that the song is not available to purchase in my location (i.e. UK). This includes songs that I have purchased previously from Qobuz. Is this a polite way of saying that I can only purchase songs if I am a current subscriber? So annoying as it's impossible to find more mainstream/charty music in anything more than 320kb/s