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Qobuz 24 Bit

Leaving the entirely dubious merits of 24 bit media for home audio, and the cynical misselling of this idea to one side for a moment, the problem is surely the quality of the competition and the limitations of broadband speeds.

Most will struggle to detect the difference between a full fat 24 bit stream from this outfit and the same master via 320kbs lossy on Spotify. Given the latter makes far smaller demands on the broadband connection and works fine over 3/4G I don't anticipate any rush for these new services in the short-medium term. It will have extremely limited appeal.

It does amuse me that, given the somewhat whacky characteristics of many audiophile systems I've encountered over the years, there is this desire to have 24 bit 'pure' files delivered.

I've found the biggest problem with streaming services to be inconsistencies in the files they stream. Where did they obtain the files, what's the provenance, and if its older material from analogue masters, have they sourced a decent copy which has been property decoded using the correctly aligned noise reduction systems etc.
Yes folks, these idiots will happily stream you classic analogue recording with no complimentary NR!

Market demands and economics will in time fix the broadband concerns and cause the pricing to settle, but they wont fix the file quality issue because quite frankly, the target market simply isn't sufficiently discerning for them to bother. So if your music tastes take you outside of the past decade or so of music releases, keep buying up all those bargain CDs!
 
Robert said:
Most will struggle to detect the difference between a full fat 24 bit stream from this outfit and the same master via 320kbs lossy on Spotify. Given the latter makes far smaller demands on the broadband connection and works fine over 3/4G I don't anticipate any rush for these new services in the short-medium term. It will have extremely limited appeal.
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I was quite shocked at the awards ceremony photos in the May HiFi World. Nearly everyone was at least 60. HiFi has lost contact with the young
 
Slightly OT, having only recently got in to streaming, I’m currently trialling Qobuz, having given up on Spotify for Tidal. I find Tidal not to sound as good as a ripped CD and as someone said on another thread, it does seem to have its own sonic signature which I find a bit irritating after a while. I’m aware that in theory it should sound at least as good, but that’s not my experience.

So far, after a day, I’m finding the Qobuz sound a bit better. Hasn’t got quite the hard edge I get with Tidal, a bit more open and involving. Marginal, but after a while I just find Tidal unsatisfyimg.
 
I’ve been a Qobuz subscriber for several years. I tried Tidal last year, but for me Qobuz had the better Jazz and Classical selection, and their meta data was far better than Tidal.
 
A+ remote works just fine for Tidal here with no iTunes integration, so I guess Qobuz would be the same. How good does your BB need to be for these Qobuz streams? I might switch (again).
 
Alex S said:
A+ remote works just fine for Tidal here with no iTunes integration, so I guess Qobuz would be the same. How good does your BB need to be for these Qobuz streams? I might switch (again).
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I use Audirvana to access Qobuz. I don’t know what the broadband requirments are, but if you’re streaming 16/44.1 I’d expect them to be similar to Tidal.
 
Alex S said:
A+ remote works just fine for Tidal here with no iTunes integration, so I guess Qobuz would be the same. How good does your BB need to be for these Qobuz streams? I might switch (again).
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Qobuz has a feature whereby you can download albums and listen to them offline, so if your B.B. is flakey you could do this and listen without even being online. And if you wanted to listen “live”you could just drop the streaming quality to suit your B.B. speed. How fast is your internet?
 
It averages at about 30mbs. It's a shame you can't trial the 24bit to see if it works and/or sounds any different. Thinking about it, I can stream Netflix at 4K so it probably won't be an issue.
 
Alex S said:
It averages at about 30mbs. It's a shame you can't trial the 24bit to see if it works and/or sounds any different. Thinking about it, I can stream Netflix at 4K so it probably won't be an issue.
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I've mentioned this "lack of a trial" thing a few times before.

Call me cynical if you like, but I smell a rat.

This goes against every single marketing strategy I'm aware of. Qobuz offer a trial of their standard service so they presumably think trials drive subscriptions and all of the infrastructure is there so why wouldn't they offer a trial on this?

I'm a Tidal Subscriber and I like it. But I could be swayed to be a Qobuz customer despite the higher cost. But I won't do that without a trial.

There MUST be a reason they are not offering a trial. Why don't they come clean and tell us?
 
Alex S said:
It averages at about 30mbs. It's a shame you can't trial the 24bit to see if it works and/or sounds any different. Thinking about it, I can stream Netflix at 4K so it probably won't be an issue.
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They have 24 bit test tracks available free. Nothing stopping you buying a few other hires tracks for a few quid to see whether they are worth paying to stream. The interface doesn’t change across versions, so the two week free trial is perfectly adequate to evaluate that. Your internet speed is more than twice mine, and I’m fine with hires streaming.
 
HarryB said:
Here you go. From the Qobuz website.

https://help.qobuz.com/hc/en-us/art...ime-only-available-on-a-yearly-payment-basis-

They pose the question and the avoid answering it.
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But they do answer the question! It’s the rights holders that have made the one year buy-in necessary. I guess it is the hires thing that scares the record companies - they regard that as the “crown jewels”. Hence you can get a monthly Qobuz subscription at cd quality, but Sublime gives cd quality plus cheap hires downloads for an annual subscription, and Sublime plus gives you hires streaming for an annual subscription.
 
AndyU said:
They have 24 bit test tracks available free. Nothing stopping you buying a few other hires tracks for a few quid to see whether they are worth paying to stream.
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Fair point. One reservation I have with an annual subscription is that Qobuz seems perpetually about to disappear altogether. Or is that no longer the case?
 
Alex S said:
Fair point. One reservation I have with an annual subscription is that Qobuz seems perpetually about to disappear altogether. Or is that no longer the case?
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I think it is less flakey than it was a while ago; the management changed. And they are supposed to be going into America this year, which should help. But I don’t know what the future is for streaming services, especially as the record companies seem to be trousering most of the profits. Maybe streaming live concerts in high quality is the way to go, MQA have announced an MQA live box that makes this possible easily. But right now I get great value from my Qobuz sub, so i’m just going to enjoy it!
 
AndyU said:
But they do answer the question! It’s the rights holders that have made the one year buy-in necessary. I guess it is the hires thing that scares the record companies - they regard that as the “crown jewels”. Hence you can get a monthly Qobuz subscription at cd quality, but Sublime gives cd quality plus cheap hires downloads for an annual subscription, and Sublime plus gives you hires streaming for an annual subscription.
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As the resident Qobuz fanboy, that's the reply I expected.

If their 24-bit, hi res, all singing, all dancing offering was so good they'd offer a month-long trial and thereby get new customers.

Or did I miss something?
 
AndyU said:
But they do answer the question! It’s the rights holders that have made the one year buy-in necessary. I guess it is the hires thing that scares the record companies - they regard that as the “crown jewels”. Hence you can get a monthly Qobuz subscription at cd quality, but Sublime gives cd quality plus cheap hires downloads for an annual subscription, and Sublime plus gives you hires streaming for an annual subscription.
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Oh, and nice that you've "fleshed out" the official Qobuz answer with your own version
 
HarryB said:
As the resident Qobuz fanboy, that's the reply I expected.

If their 24-bit, hi res, all singing, all dancing offering was so good they'd offer a month-long trial and thereby get new customers.

Or did I miss something?
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That’s out of order. There’s no need to be so aggressive towards someone who’s trying to help.
 
HarryB said:
As the resident Qobuz fanboy, that's the reply I expected.

If their 24-bit, hi res, all singing, all dancing offering was so good they'd offer a month-long trial and thereby get new customers.

Or did I miss something?
Click to expand...

You missed a lot Harry.
 
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