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QOBUZ IN AMERICA

Sal1950

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Finally, in addition to the US, they are also working on settlements into South America, using the Spanish market as bridge to succeed there.
They've got a long and winding road to travel but I wish them well. There entry into the US market is a big step, I've suggested elsewhere that they bring their lossless - HD tier's to market at a price level that will eat deeply into the established Tidal customer base. I would love to see them crush Tidal thru aggressive pricing and promotion.
 

graz_lag

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FYI :
In France they offer :
unlimited streaming of CD quality songs @ 20 EUR/month
unlimited streaming of Hi-Res up to 24/192 @ 25 EUR/month
or @ 300 EUR/year : the unlimited streaming of Hi-Res + purchasing of songs at reduced prices (how much reduced depends upon the album ...)

I like their catalog for the reason that they are focused on "albums" rather than "artists".
 

graz_lag

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... for casual listening and previewing albums before purchasing a CD ...

Searching for new artists out of my radar, I use a lot the net radios, Alligator Records radio for blues artists for example.
Entirely free, the quality is ... just enough - though it's OK if you are out hunting for new ideas ...
 

Sal1950

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Alligator Records radio for blues artists for example.
In general there isn't much on Alligator to sweat the streaming quality about. ;) A shame really but Alligator has never been exactly a HiFi studio, they have a huge selection of the best blues artists on disc.
 

gvl

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Spotify O Spotify, how I'm going to miss you. :(
I've fallen in love with streaming and having just about any piece of music I could want at my fingertips.
The Spotify UI so easy to navigate and now after 2 years it's become so comfortable I'm going to hate to change.
But the call of a lossless steam is strong.
Time to get off your ass and offer us a top quality product or there will be a different icon on my desktop soon.

My only gripe with Spotify is that they make it difficult to get audio out to a DAC without resampling. Chromecast Audio sort of helps, but for car use I have to settle on my Android phone spitting out 192kHz data, and it doesn't sound particularly good.
 
OP
svart-hvitt

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Darko update:

https://darko.audio/2019/01/ces-2019-qobuz-opens-us-beta/

There’s a link to a beta sign-up.

Seems like Darko is the one on the Qobuz ball for the time being. I find it interesting, the lack of interest from other journalists. As if high-resolution were a non-issue; so why are the hifi magazines otherwise full of hi-rez?
 

graz_lag

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I am surprised by the display of manufacturer logos he has in his web pages ...
I wonder how a reader may judge this in terms of objectiveness of his reviews ... o_O
In any case, chapeau to him for his marketing skills.
 

Sal1950

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I am surprised by the display of manufacturer logos he has in his web pages ...
I wonder how a reader may judge this in terms of objectiveness of his reviews ..
There lays the million dollar question, or is it lies the million dollar question.
Never can get that right.
 
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svart-hvitt

svart-hvitt

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I had a free trial. It didn’t blow up my skirt.

It shouldn’t, in theory. Nobody on ASR says hi-res is much better than 16/44.

What may make Qobuz interesting is, if:

1) The hi-res sounds better than the 16/44 copy due to incompetent compression from the hi-res master.
2) The hi-res master is in any other way a more superior product.
3) anything else?

:)
 

Samoyed

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Let me be specific: Tidal masters/mqa sounds great, to me, on my system. Qobuz lacked depth or soundstage but the classical content was to die for.
 

Sal1950

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Let me be specific: Tidal masters/mqa sounds great, to me, on my system. Qobuz lacked depth or soundstage but the classical content was to die for.
Unless there was difference in the masters being streamed, there must be something going on that your not seeing.
The data stream from Tidal or Qobuz of any identical digital recording should sound the same.
 

Samoyed

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Didn’t to me. I listened to the same music on the same gear from the same streamer. Lifeless. That’s just me.
 
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svart-hvitt

svart-hvitt

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Didn’t to me. I listened to the same music on the same gear from the same streamer. Lifeless. That’s just me.

Could you try streaming both Tidal and Qobuz through Audirvana so as to control for player architecture?
 

Samoyed

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I don’t even know what that is, AND I canceled my free trial. Frankly, I find Jerry Lewis movies more entertaining, and I hate Jerry Lewis. Now, Peter Sellers is truly funny.
 

Sal1950

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I don’t even know what that is, AND I canceled my free trial. Frankly, I find Jerry Lewis movies more entertaining, and I hate Jerry Lewis. Now, Peter Sellers is truly funny.
This is a science based forum. If you expect your statements of A sounds better than B, to be given any credence you need to provide some firm evidence on how those conclusions were obtained. A description of how closely you were able to match levels between sources being foremost at the beginning of any type comparisons. Even the slightest difference in level can fool the listener into hearing all sort of preference.
If taking the time to put together any evidence to support conclusions are likened to "Frankly, I find Jerry Lewis movies more entertaining", maybe your in the wrong place.
 

Willem

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I did have a Qobuz subscription for a while, here in the Netherlands, but cancelled it, though I am tempted to try again. I am not into anything above 16/44, but lossless 16/44 is a notch better than Spotify's 320 kbs (even if the jury is still out on whether the difference is audible). It may be audible now that I have a new DAC/preamplifier and can avoid the basic inbuilt DAC of the CCA. Also, I loved the classical content and the way classical music is displayed as pieces of music rather than the Spotify format of 'tracks'. There were two things that persuaded me to discontinue, however. The first is that Qobuz does not yet have a family subscription, unlike Spotify. They promised one, but have not yet delivered it. The second and more compelling reason was the Chromecast app for Android. I could not get it to communicate reliably with the Chromecast. But this was a while ago, so maybe I should try again.
 

Sal1950

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YO Mr Qobuz,
How about considering a 5.1 channel stream for us multich guys?
TIA
 
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