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Qobuz

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I have been using Qobuz a coople of years with CD-quality. The streaming device is Moon MiND 2 from Simaudio. It works without problems via cable or Wi-Fi. I like the big colletion of classical music. Searching isn't the best, but the other streamingservices aren't any better.
 

ezra_s

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Simplest way to achieve variable sampling rate would be upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Pulsaudio in this Ubuntu release is configured to support automatic sample rate switching out of the box. I found it working pretty well here.
....

Which option? By default?
 

Foxenfurter

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I got a Qobuz subscription as a gift this year. I already have Spotify so wanted to give it a whirl.

I had some problems initially as my old account password was no longer working and when I changed it I could not login to the music player. I dropped a mail went to bed, and next day it was working.

Most of the hi-res I have wanted to listen to have been 44.1 / 24 bit. The player is fine, although I wish it was a bit more oriented to discovery and making recommendations based upon what you are actually listening to rather than generic stuff.

I also run LMS and so tried out the plugin, once I figured out that the account name was your email and not the alias, this has been working fine. LMS has a Don't stop the music feature, which builds a continuous playlist based upon the songs you have seeded it with. This does not work with Qobuz, but in my-case flips over to last.fm recommendations played via Spotify.

Completely subjectively, the sound is better (mainly bass seems more dynamic and clearer). But I am probably deluding myself, and at the moment happy to continue.

One observation, Qobuz pay the artists more per stream than Spotify, in fact Spotify pays one of the lowest rates, whereas Qobuz is one of the highest payers.
 

CMOT

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So I got a free three month trial for Qobuz. Have been using Spotify. Started comparing the same tracks to see if I noticed a difference (Topping NX4 DSD -> Sennheiser 6XX's w/ equalization from Oratory). The same tracks definitely seem to sound different. But I am not entirely sure. At first I thought the signal separation was better with Qobuz, but the more I listen the less sure I am. However, there are two really obvious things - on some tracks, but not all, there is noticeably more bass with Qobuz and the entire signal is noticeably louder. I had several people listen not knowing what they were listening too and everyone thought the same thing. More bass, louder. It was particularly apparent on a track like Bad Guy. Other tracks by other artists no so much. Higher res should not equal louder, nor really much more bass (maybe better defined, but not MORE). So Qobuz seems to be using their own equalization curve? And boosting the signal? Anyone know what is going on. I am frankly skeptical that I would hear much, if any difference, but the differences are dramatic. I wonder if they are doing this intentionally?
 

Sal1950

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It was particularly apparent on a track like Bad Guy. Other tracks by other artists no so much.
Try to determine if both streams come from the same master?
 

Rottmannash

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So I got a free three month trial for Qobuz. Have been using Spotify. Started comparing the same tracks to see if I noticed a difference (Topping NX4 DSD -> Sennheiser 6XX's w/ equalization from Oratory). The same tracks definitely seem to sound different. But I am not entirely sure. At first I thought the signal separation was better with Qobuz, but the more I listen the less sure I am. However, there are two really obvious things - on some tracks, but not all, there is noticeably more bass with Qobuz and the entire signal is noticeably louder. I had several people listen not knowing what they were listening too and everyone thought the same thing. More bass, louder. It was particularly apparent on a track like Bad Guy. Other tracks by other artists no so much. Higher res should not equal louder, nor really much more bass (maybe better defined, but not MORE). So Qobuz seems to be using their own equalization curve? And boosting the signal? Anyone know what is going on. I am frankly skeptical that I would hear much, if any difference, but the differences are dramatic. I wonder if they are doing this intentionally?
Why would you think the amplitude from both services would be identical?
 

CMOT

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Try to determine if both streams come from the same master?

No way to tell - they are listed as tracks from the same album, but I doubt either service would explain the provenance of their masters...

But it is consistently in one direction. Volume and bass boost for Qobuz. And possibly more separation in the channels.
 

CMOT

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Why would you think the amplitude from both services would be identical?

Interesting question? Anyone know one way or the other? To have different amplitudes, they would have to be intentional about a boost or be equalizing all amplitudes to a different target. But I don't think it is just the amplitude, but also the relative bass. I am going to try a few things. Maybe capture both outputs and null them against one another...
 

Sal1950

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But I don't think it is just the amplitude, but also the relative bass. I am going to try a few things. Maybe capture both outputs and null them against one another...
Record a section of both streams and view-compare them in Audacity
 

Rottmannash

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Interesting question? Anyone know one way or the other? To have different amplitudes, they would have to be intentional about a boost or be equalizing all amplitudes to a different target. But I don't think it is just the amplitude, but also the relative bass. I am going to try a few things. Maybe capture both outputs and null them against one another...
But you still won't know which one is the accurate one. Who knows who has the best or more accurate master? And you would be comparing a flac file against a compressed file?
 

CMOT

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But you still won't know which one is the accurate one. Who knows who has the best or more accurate master? And you would be comparing a flac file against a compressed file?
Nope. I won’t. But I will know if there is an overall amplitude difference and a boost in the low frequencies. Neither of which should arise from different encoding technologies

it would suggest one service is tweaking their sound to generate perceived differences
 

Pennyless Audiophile

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I'm trying out Qobuz, to see if it can unseat Spotify. Qobuz has "better audio quality," or might, if it worked. I didn't see a thread via search that this was appropriate for, but if it should be moved, NP.

Linux - Linux subsystem can't handle variable bitrate streams? OS limitation, not app, but limits the value vs Spotify.
iPhone/Airplay - limited to 44.1 KHz / Marantz AV8802A noise? Again, not Qobuz's fault, but limits value due to existing hardware.
Windows - App won't open most times, and when it does, it won't play most times. When it *does* play, using the computer (Core i7 with 16 GB RAM) interferes with the steam, which gets staticky or goes into half-time. This *is* Qobuz's issue.

When it doesn't open, I get this:
View attachment 84184

When it does open, I get this when trying to go to WASAPI mode:
View attachment 84185

I've filed support tickets with Qobuz, but I figured I'd post this here in case anyone was considering.

For more money per month than Spotify, it offers a substantially worse experience, with (IMO) inexcusable software issues across platforms. The audio quality is better than Spotify, but the library is smaller, there are no custom playlists based on artists I <3, etc.

If there's an approach to take with Qobuz that a longtime Spotify user wouldn't know about, I'm all ears... also happy to know of any solutions to the problems posted here. Said problems also occur immediately after a restart with no other program open, so it isn't a (non-startup) application conflict.

Cheers / TIA.

I listen to Qobuz for hours every day, when I am working and I am not in a conference call, and I don't have these problems so I can't help you. It also works fine on Android. In terms of sound quality, it is ok for me, mostly indistinguishable from the CD (if the master of the song is the same...)
 

MRC01

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Simplest way to achieve variable sampling rate would be upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Pulsaudio in this Ubuntu release is configured to support automatic sample rate switching out of the box. I found it working pretty well here.
...
Note that Qobuz only streams in lossy MP3 format to all Linux web browsers (same is true for pretty much all other streaming services as well) ...
Ubuntu 18 also has the version of Pulseaudio that avoids resampling. But Ubuntu 16 does not. However, even the latest versions of Pulseaudio can change the system sample rate only when no audio is playing. So if you have some other process using the audio stream, Pulseaudio will get locked to a single rate. If you want Pulseaudio to automatically switch the system sample rate to match whatever your playing (to avoid resampling), make sure no other apps are using audio.

Regarding MP3 format, looks like this has changed over the past year. When I play streams in the Qobuz browser player on Firefox Ubuntu 18, the Pulseaudio pacmd command reports the audio stream anywhere from 44.1 to 192 kHz depending on the track. The rate shown by pacmd matches the rate shown in the album metadata. So it appears Qobuz actually does stream in high res. The Chrome browser on Ubuntu always resamples everything to 44-16.
 

Bamyasi

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Regarding MP3 format, looks like this has changed over the past year. When I play streams in the Qobuz browser player on Firefox Ubuntu 18, the Pulseaudio pacmd command reports the audio stream anywhere from 44.1 to 192 kHz depending on the track. The rate shown by pacmd matches the rate shown in the album metadata. So it appears Qobuz actually does stream in high res. The Chrome browser on Ubuntu always resamples everything to 44-16.
Yep, Qobuz updated their embedded web browser player to support FLAC playback silently some time ago. It works properly under Linux now.
 

scherbakov_al

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I can confirm that qobuz, played back in firefox (on Linux), perfectly switches the sampling frequency of my smsl m500 DAC to the frequency of the track. Just a delight! Chrome doesn't do this for some reason.
And no other programs are needed to play qobuz. The problem of playing tracks from qobuz in proper quality under Linux has been solved!
(I'm using Fedora 38)
 
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