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https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl AUDIO FORUMS >> General Discussion and Support >> Qobuz beta in the US https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1547750211 Message started by lazb on 01/17/19 at 18:36:51 |
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Title: Qobuz beta in the US Post by lazb on 01/17/19 at 18:36:51 sign up to be a beta tester--- http://on.qobuz.com/RH |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by jslateiv on 01/17/19 at 21:42:14 I'm all in on that one! Paul McGowan has raved about how much better he feels the streaming quality is verse Tidal, comparing the same tracks. Thanks for the heads-up, was completely unaware of the beta opportunity! |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by HockessinKid on 01/17/19 at 23:33:14 Cool. I'm on the beta wait list. HK |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 01/18/19 at 07:46:12 Ditto....I had signed up early yesterday morning as well. It will be interesting to see how their interface compares to Tidal. I sometimes get streaming issues with Tidal via WiFi at my gym, so I am curious to see how Qobuz does. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by HockessinKid on 01/18/19 at 09:25:40 Hey Dom, Did you get your new TEAC DAC yet? How do you like it? HK |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 01/18/19 at 12:50:35 Hey Roger......no not yet. Patiently waiting. I am getting it at the end of February. It was part of a Christmas/birthday combo gift. As part of my gift, I had also got 3rd row Orchestra seats to John Mellencamp at the Beacon Theater. He’s one of my long time favorite artists....so it will be a very musical bday for me this year!! Dom |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Lonely Raven on 01/18/19 at 15:39:07 Damn, I meant to be keeping on top of this so I can get into it early. I've just been too busy with other projects to pay attention. I hope Roon integrates it into their system like they did Tidal - I'm kind of invested in Roon right now. Thanks for the sign up link! |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Palomino on 01/18/19 at 17:34:13 I got in early and already got a rejection notice. I am not worthy. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by HockessinKid on 01/18/19 at 17:37:45 Did you send in your bribe $?😎 HK |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 01/18/19 at 20:05:37 Quote:
Palomino...just a thought and a long shot....Do you have access to a mobile VPN? If you cloak your geo location and signup, you may get lucky. Depending on how the site was setup, if your location is pinged let’s say in “Hawaii” or “Canada”, it may just allow you access. If you don’t have a VPN...Shoot me a PM with your email address, and I’ll take a crack at it for you. Dom |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Lonely Raven on 01/18/19 at 20:20:53 Dom, I was thinking the same thing about using a VPN - I could probably just sign in from Sweden or something, and sign up for an actual account. My only concern would be if the streaming software catches on and I get cut after paying for the service. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Reddy Kilowatt on 01/18/19 at 20:40:56 Don't worry about being rejected. I signed up 2 weeks ago, got the rejection last week, and was signed on last night. I understand they plan to have all beta testers on board by mid-February. This is my first streaming service other than Pandora & internet radio, so I'm no expert, but Qobuz sounds great! Since the first month is free, I went with the top hi-resolution service. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 01/18/19 at 20:59:33 Eric....yeah a valid concern for an actual account. For Beta testing purposes, I wonder if there is a difference and some leniency...Not sure but more than likely not. People travel outside the US all the time, so they have to be somewhat accommodating. A friend of mine has a second house and travels to Panama multiple times a year...he uses for Spotify since their service was the only one accessible in that country, but his registered address is the USA. I just checked my VPN software ‘s location in the US, and unfortunately Hawaii was not listed. Bummer.... that would have been the best choice for USA beta testing IMHO. I have to put a call into my computer guru who may be able to weigh in and shed some light. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Jeff of Arabica on 01/19/19 at 07:07:30 I have been streaming Qobuz for exactly one year now. I signed up for Qobuz UK using a VPN for the exact reason mentioned here - you have to reside in the UK in order to stream this service based on the music licensing established between Qobuz and the record labels. I do not care or concern myself as to why. So, many folks on the forums have described a way to get Qobuz service even if not physically residing within their required locations. That is where the VPN comes in. Their system only cares about your location at account sign-up. Once their system is convinced you reside within the UK (thanks to the VPN) you will be good to go forever. After I established my account, I no longer used the VPN to sign in and stream. Dominick's explanation of travel is the reason it only matters at initial account sign up and not with any subsequent sign-ins. People travel and the system in not sophisticated enough to decipher the difference between permanent location and temporary travel location so they have to dumb it down so as to not piss off their subscriber base when they are in Panama, Australia, or the U.S. on travel. My suggestion would be to sit tight. U.S. service will happen in the coming months and I am not sure it is worth the hassle to go through the "veiled" sign up for the sake of streaming Qobuz for three months before U.S. service is established. Plus, due to the exchange rate differential (USD vs. GBP), you end up paying more for the hacked Qobuz UK account than you will spend for the U.S. service once established. I like Qobuz ALOT. But we are so close that I actually cancelled my service this month and will await the U.S. launch. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Lonely Raven on 01/21/19 at 01:01:44 Thanks for validating that, Jeff, appreciated. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Palomino on 01/22/19 at 16:13:26 Thanks Dom, I'll just wait for the US release. Jeff, any comments on quality vs Tidal? Paul McGowan seems to be sold on Qobuz. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 01/22/19 at 17:17:31 Your welcome....anytime. Yeah at this point we are so close that’s it’s not that big of a deal. I’ve experienced some streaming issues with Tidal, and it’s a bit annoying. If the streaming is better with Qobuz, then I have no problem jumping ship. Out of France comes amazing champagne....so let’s hope that Qobuz rises to the level of a Vintage Cuvée!! Cheers!! |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by MrDerrick on 01/22/19 at 22:37:46 I was invited to participate in the Qubuz US beta, but declined. I subscribed to Qubuz last year while in Aruba, Google Translator was a big help. My Sublime Plus subscription is up for renewal in March and I am undecided as to letting it expire and open a US account or to renew. I did do a comparison with Tidal during Tidals free 12 Days of Tidal over Christmas and was not impressed with Tidal. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by StanleyG on 01/24/19 at 05:14:58 Roon Server 1.6 (at least for their Nucleus device) lists Qobuz as a Service along with Tidal and Dropbox. Yay! I am now gonna try to Beta test. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Lonely Raven on 01/24/19 at 05:30:25 I just upgraded my Roon tonight - I'm looking forward to trying it out! |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Palomino on 01/24/19 at 18:36:57 I got a free Tidal subscription with my Sprint phone plan and was going to drop my paid Tidal subscription...but the Sprint Tidal is for low res only. I asked Sprint how much if I wanted to upgrade my free to hi-res and they said $20. So no gain there. Not impressed with Tidal customer service either. If Qobuz has the music I want, I'll probably toss Tidal. Qobuz sent me another sign up for Beta so I did...again. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Lonely Raven on 01/31/19 at 02:50:55 I got my acceptance E-mail from Qobuz tonight. I signed up for my month free high rez account, and put my new account information into Roon. I'm going to give it a spin later tonight and see how I like it. Hopefully Roon's implementation of it is well done. Warming up the ZMA now! |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by jslateiv on 01/31/19 at 14:17:22 Hey LR, how long ago did you request to be a Beta tester for Quobuz? I made the request about 2 weeks ago but have not heard anything yet. Just curious as to the time frame people are seeing with a reply. thanks! |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 01/31/19 at 15:59:25 To give you an idea.....I signed up like the night before Lonely Raven, and I am still patiently waiting. That was like 2 weeks ago, so I would assume it should be any day now. Dom |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by jslateiv on 01/31/19 at 20:07:54 Gotcha,.. So I guess they just like LR a little better then us ;D,.. Hopefully I'll get the email soon too! Thanks for the response!! |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Lonely Raven on 01/31/19 at 20:27:09 Quote:
Well, I am quite handsome. :) Judging from our posts above, I probably submitted mine on the 18th. I think some of it has to do with location - maybe they even have a way of verifying your connection speed. So I wouldn't worry if you didn't see yours yet. Honestly, I'm just as surprised as you guys are. On an update note - Qobuz implementation in Roon is fine. I went to settings, plugged in my new account info, and quick as a blink it verified and connected. I didn't really see a huge amount of albums, but I didn't spend a lot of time deep diving, I was just clicking around. In Roon, if you bring up an album, you can click the "Versions" tab, and it will show you what versions of that album you have available. In the case of one of my well worn demo albums, Alt+J's An Awesome Wave, it showed I had two different high rez versions in my library, a Tidal version, and a Qobuz version. I tried to quickly switch between all the version available, and even mixed myself up as to what version I was listening to. Even on my system, on this well worn album they were so friggen similar, that none stood out as "better". But on a gut feeling level, I *felt* like there was a slight difference, but it was such splitting hairs that I couldn't pin down what that difference was. I got bored with that and started playing with the Digital Radio feature they recently added to Roon, and ran into a different frustration of finding streaming radio station links, and stations I even liked! Though Roon's implementation was simple and worked just fine for my needs. I have to say, Roon is really becoming my Go To software and it's really feeling like it's worth the (to me) rather high yearly fees. I'll give my Qubuz, Tidal, Library testing another chance this weekend when I don't need to be up for work at 5am and I can stay up and listen to the wee hours. Also, keep in mind, because I'm using Roon - the software could somehow be homogenizing the various streams and sources, which is why everything sounds the same to me. A real test would be if I pitted Roon using my Library, Tidal using it's native App, and Qobuz using it's native App. I may do that as well this weekend, assuming I have time and inclination. I'm curious how their implementations of their own app differs from just using Roon. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by lazb on 01/31/19 at 21:48:34 L R, it would be interesting to know your thoughts/findings on that three way comparison! At this time my Oppo 103D player is my "server" as it has a Tidal access app on it. I am happy with the sound I have now but ...............????? |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by armstdav on 02/06/19 at 20:50:49 I submitted my application either 1/18 or 1/19, and got the beta invite today. Listening now! David |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by HockessinKid on 02/06/19 at 21:04:56 Just received my Qobuz beta invitation today. Look forward to trying it out for a month. I will be using my trusty Lonely Raven PC tethered to a ZDAC2 (Decware modified TEAC NT-503) for listening. HK |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by ScottNC on 02/06/19 at 21:10:40 I just got my invite today, just filling it out. I'm pretty happy with my Roon/Tidal currently and I run Spotify for more casual background and guests sometimes, it sounds pretty good (not the same mind you) with the upgrade subscription) but figure I'll give Qobuz a shot just because of all the talk of it. We'll see. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 02/06/19 at 21:46:23 I just got my subscription invite this afternoon. Looking forward to running it full throttle (bad pun.... I was just watching some car racing on TV). I wish I had my new DAC.... but as long is there are no streaming hiccups, and it intergrates well with Audirvana well, then I will drop Tidal like a hot stack of pancakes!! Dom |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by ScottNC on 02/06/19 at 22:11:58 Quick first impression, very easy to setup, good interface, got the ap on my phone, iPad and MacBook. It also immediately shows up in Roon right next to Tidal and all you have to do is sign in once. Interesting thing I missed earlier is if you want to own and subscribe to Sublime, there some very good discounts on all the HiRes downloads, a quick look, from $9.99-$15.99+ for a HiRes 24bit to own, not bad. I have to say $249.00 a year for 40 million tracks in HiRes seems to me to be a pretty good deal. As much as I have a bad taste paying subscriptions that's what the price of owning 15-20 good HiRes discs. Since I no longer own a single vinyl record or any CD's, I guess I'm a digital guy [smiley=10.gif] Good Listening...they are packing my ZTPRE! ;D Scott |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by HockessinKid on 02/07/19 at 14:26:28 Playing around with Qobuz interface this morning. If you are streaming using the Qobuz app and DAC, to extract the best sound quality make sure you stream @ the Studio Quality level. Lots of 24 bit/192 khz recordings already in the beta testing inventory. Also, there is a little MP3 player (audio devices) icon on the screens lower right corner near the volume adjustment. Click this on. The Digital Audio Interface should show your DAC. I found clicking on the Direct Sound setting option sounds best to me. Qobuz sounds great streaming via my Verizon FIOS internet service. HK |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by ScottNC on 02/07/19 at 16:27:35 I used Qobuz for several hours last night, like 6 and I like it. They say it will be fully populated before the BETA Trial ends, that seems like a very short window to get 40 million on line but time will tell. The way it integrates with Roon is to me amazing, I don't understand how it really works but it is totally seamless, all my own ripped discs, Tidal and Qobuz artists, playlists etc just show up all integrated and ready to be streamed. I have an incredibly slow DSL connection out here in the sticks, 6.48 Mbps, and it virtually never buffers, it must be a function of the large amount of SSD cached in the sonicTransport, but I don't really have my head wrapped around all that technology yet, maybe never will, but it works. When I get the ZTPRE and the MKIV back into the system I'll have a better feel, but it sounds really incredible so far. Scott |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by jslateiv on 02/07/19 at 16:43:39 Just got my signup email yesterday too. Had a short time to listen and play around with it but yes, the SQ seems to be a bit better than Tidal (which I was never happy with). Like you Scott, I have dismal DSL service,.. 2.8mbs is the best I can get! With Tidal, there was constant buffering, even at 44.1/16,.. Interestingly, with Qobuz I was streaming at up to 24/96 with NO ISSUE! That is awesome (for me), all things considered. Now if PSA will just update their Bridge II software to include Qobuz as a streaming platform natively (like they did for Spotify Connect), then I think I'll be all set,.. At least till the next best thing comes out,. :D |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 02/07/19 at 22:53:03 I got some time to play around with Qobuz for the past 24 hours and here are my first impressions based off of using the mobile apps with my iPhone/ iPad. Due to work, most of my listening has been in either in my personal/work car, or on a wired connection from my phone to a powered speaker. Unfortunately not the ideal scenario or HiFi, but nonetheless it is what it is. The UI is a cleaner look compared to Tidal and Spotify. The white background is refreshing and overall it’s easier to navigate. So far there are no streaming hiccups while streaming via LTE or WIFI to my phone while at the gym. This is HUGE for me since Tidal would always buffer when I changed songs. Another big plus is the UI with integration on my Gen 4 Apple Watch. Each song lets me know at what resolution I am listening to on the watch. Tidal’s intergration was more basic with less information. Now for car audio via a wired connection, the SQ is definitely better. The highs are crisp without being tinny, and the lows are fuller without smear. The best has to be the bass drum....the kick is clean with nice punch. I did get a Qobuz notification that a wired audio output connection via iPhone... is that I will be limited to a CD quality resolution. Either way.... I do hear a difference in SQ. After dinner I will install Qobuz on my PC and see the intergration with Audirvana+, but so far I am a happy guy 😀. I can’t wait to listen to this in my house. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by StanleyG on 02/12/19 at 23:02:55 Very excited to get the email that I could sign on to the Beta... when there there, a pop-up mentioned the full release is scheduled for Valentine's Day (as in day after tomorrow). I'll get less than 72 hours to feel bleeding edge special on the Beta, lol! |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by rodcad on 02/19/19 at 16:50:32 Anyone have any more thoughts on the sound quality of Qobuz vs. Tidal? |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by HockessinKid on 03/05/19 at 21:21:00 The sound quality of both services is excellent. Very little difference if you have a DAC that upsamples to DSD. I decided to cancel my Qobuz subscription after the one month trial. I encountered 3 issues with Qobuz: - Poor quality control. Listening to albums, I regularly encountered changing to the next song would get "hung up". The next song would not play and had to be reset. This proved very frustrating. Not a WiFi issue, I've got plenty of bandwidth and signal strength in my listening room. - The Qobuz song library lacks a lot of my favorite albums. This will likely lessen over time, but for now it's a problem. - TIDAL has better playlist options which I really appreciate when exploring new music. The Qobuz Studio subscription (which includes HiRez albums) is currently $24.95/month. It's $5 more per month than TIDAL'S HiFi offering. Not a big difference in cost, but very little difference in SQ with TIDAL offerings if you have an upsampling DAC. YRMV. NB |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 03/05/19 at 23:39:45 Hey Roger, Sorry to hear Qobuz didn’t live up to your expectations. You mentioned about songs hanging up...did this only happen on your mobile device, or was it on your PC? I noticed that if you have some programs running in the background on your mobile device with location services enabled, that a hang up could occur. By clearing them out...I have not seen any issues as of yet. I just ordered a Red Dragonfly that should be hear tomorrow. It will be interesting to hear how Tidal’s MQA tracks sound as a comparison to Qobuz. I had to hold off the NT-505 for a bit, due to some unexpected big bills. It’s no big deal, since I do a ton of music playing in the car while I am at work, so the dragonfly will be a great addition to my gear. Hope all else is well. Dom |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by HockessinKid on 03/06/19 at 00:45:02 Dom, The hang ups were on my home system. PC is an Intel Core i5 based system with 8G of memory. I don't run any other programs when streaming, it's a dedicated music PC. I didn't really compare the two streaming options on mobile. Enjoy the Red Dragonfly. I really like mine through my Pixel 2 and Etymotic er3xr IEMs. Best portable sound I've ever heard. All is well here. We're expecting our first grandchild (a baby girl) in a couple weeks, so it's a very exciting time. Cheers, Roger (HK) |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Dominick on 03/06/19 at 06:04:08 Roger, Congrats on your 1st grandchild....what an exciting time for you guys!! I normally run Qobuz/Tidal from a mobile device either on my iPad/ iPhone due to my work schedule. For the small amount of times that I get a chance to run it off my PC, it’s from my iMac quad core i7. I haven’t truly given it a fair amount of time on my PC... so my experience cannot relate to your issues. My NAS server is an OWC setup, configured as a Raid drive, with the Western Digital Red Pro NAS hard drives installed. No hiccups there thus far, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I’ll be using the Dragonfly with my iPhone mostly in the car. I picked up the Audioquest Golden Gate 3.5 to 3.5 cable for now. I also bought the Audioquest 3.5 to RCA hard converter...and have a nice set of “MAC Ultra silver plus” RCA cables...so it will be interesting to see the difference. I will also roll in Decware’s DAG RCA cables to compare. Glad to hear all else is well on your end. Dom |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Palomino on 03/06/19 at 17:49:35 I got the notice on the Beta, but when I clicked on it in Audirvana it said there was a problem and I needed to call. Thus far, I haven't got around to it. I wish Audirvana would allow song from Tidal or other services to be integrated in playlists with your ripped/downloaded songs. Right now, as far as I can tell its and either / or situation. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Steve Deckert on 03/19/19 at 03:17:49 Qobuz is now available to everyone. Having a love/hate relationship with Tidal I was so impressed with Qobuz that I dropped Tidal and my entire virtual music library along with it after only 1 hour of auditioning Qobuz. The sound quality is better. Imagine streaming 24/192 when available without paying more... nice touch. The fact that you are streaming 16/44, 24/44, 24/48, 24/96 or 24/192 depending on what the album or track is available in is obviously the ideal we have all been wishing for. I think this Qobuz is worth our support. So far from a sound quality and functionality standpoint, no other streaming sight touches it that I know of. Great job!!! With a good DAC this is better than spinning a CD because there are no scratches and no jitter. You have no transport and no digital cable to deal with. A CD player typically wouldn't sound as good as this because of jitter and error correction. -Steve |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Melvin on 03/19/19 at 10:34:38 I'm not a fan of Tidal and jumped at the chance to trial Qobuz. Despite some holes in their catalog (still in beta) I knew from the get-go I'd be subscribing to the Studio tier. As Steve points out .. wonderful sound quality. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by Palomino on 04/25/19 at 20:52:44 I'm now on the 30 day trial. I do think the SQ is good, but I can't find a lot of music that I am listening to lately. So I am sticking with Tidal for now. I am not sure I will re-up with Qobuz after the 30 days are up. |
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Title: Re: Qobuz beta in the US Post by HockessinKid on 04/25/19 at 22:16:46 Pal, I made the same decision, staying with TIDAL for the time being. I expect in a year or so Qobuz will have built out their music library sufficiently. The SQ is a bit better, but I also had occasional hang ups transitioning from song to song on some albums. HK |
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