Official Qobuz Issues Thread

[mulberry bush]

I used to use a mac mini with A+ to stream Qobuz.    The A+ Qobuz integration is very good, comparable to using the iOS app.

I few weeks ago I upgraded to the Auralic Aries G1.     A very pleasing all round improvement in sound quality - one of my better decisions.     I would say that the Lightening DS integration of Qobuz is as good as A+, with one or two minor issues.

[rickca]

I'm using the Qobuz desktop app on Windows. 

 

I set the genre to Classical only.  In Discover, I see two rows of New Releases.  If I click 'See all new releases', the app just displays one additional row.  I have to click 'See all new releases' a second time to actually see all new releases.

 

@David Craff is this behavior intentional?  I find it irritating.

[bobbmd]

@David Craff: Hello- I have had Qobuz since 2013 and I love it!

Today when I turned on A+3 only the Qobuz symbol/logo came up no 'Discover'  'Favorites' etc came up My Playlists were there all listed below the Qobuz logo(and they play) that I have made and the ones I transferred from TIDAL-yet when I go to my Qobuz desktop app Qobuz is there and plays-I am listening now

In A+3 preferences 'streaming' it shows my Qobuz account that I have Streaming HiFI in CD lossless and FLAC

Do you think this an A+3 problem or something else related to Qobuz streaming to A+3?

I have never had this problem before in last 5 years since starting Qobuz and A+3.My account is current and I have A+3 version 3.2.10(31410) which is most up to date version and my OS is El Capitan- please help if you can

Thank You

bobbmd

[#Yoda#]

On 9/21/2018 at 5:32 PM, David Craff said:

 

Our product is good but not perfect and I think the American market is more demanding than the European market. So if it were up to me, I would postpone the release in the USA even more. But I only have the product vision and not business, so it won't depend on me alone.

It does not change the fact that the product is working and that everything necessary will be done to improve it further.

 

A good progress for Qobuz.com would be to eliminate the still existing HiRes fakes in the Qobuz catalog by establishing a stringent quality control for the existing catalog and any new albums.

 

Even proven customer complaints haven't had consequences for the catalog so far. The HiRes fakes, I complained about are largely still in the Qobuz catalog since 2015. 

 

As a download customer you're able to analyze the files with tools like e.g. MusicScope, may complain and usually get a compensation. Possibly you can purchase the album again in the correct resolution from a more reliable competitor. As Sublime + streaming subscriber, you are stranded and must rely on the correctly streamed resolution, even if the hearing conveys something different. 

 

Selling and streaming digital content like HiRes files is a matter of trust and a content provider like Qobuz.com should be responsible that their customers reliably get for what they have paid. To sell or stream consciously incorrect labeled digital files is customer deception, not only from my point of view.

[jhwalker]

10 hours ago, rickca said:

I'm using the Qobuz desktop app on Windows. 

 

I set the genre to Classical only.  In Discover, I see two rows of New Releases.  If I click 'See all new releases', the app just displays one additional row.  I have to click 'See all new releases' a second time to actually see all new releases.

 

@David Craff is this behavior intentional?  I find it irritating.

 

Just a comment - the Mac client does not work this way.  A single click expands to all available new releases, though as you scroll down, more are loaded dynamically to fill the available screen space.

[rickca]

2 minutes ago, jhwalker said:

as you scroll down, more are loaded dynamically to fill the available screen space

The Qobuz Windows desktop app does that also, but it takes two clicks to get there.

[bobbmd]

@David Craff: Problem solved by Jud- all I had to do in A+3 preferences was log off Qobuz and log back in 'streaming' (it is a good thing I remembered my password)!

One thing- I really like in A+3 the old format on Qobuz of 'new releases' 'Qobuz playlists' 'most streamed' 'best sellers' 'editors picks' and 'press awards' than what is offered under the new desktop app with the vinyl and tone arm- I bet others like that better- in addition A+3 to me sounds 'better' maybe because A+3 plays 'up' from  FLAC 16/44.1 to my Merdian Explorer 2 in 24/176.4 and on my pre-multibit Schiit Gungnir to 24/192

bobbmd

[Sal1950]

On 9/20/2018 at 12:31 PM, firedog said:

According to Sound & Vision who appear to have visited the Qobuz booth at CES, the pricing will be the same in the US vs the UK/EU, but in dollars instead of pounds/euros. In other words:

• Premium (MP3 320 kbps), $9.99/month or $99.99/year.
• Hi-Fi (16-bit/44.1 kHz), $19.99/month or $199.99/year.
• Sublime (Hi-Fi + downloads of Hi-Res 24-bit at MP3 prices), $219.99/year.
• Sublime+ (Hi-Res 24-bit FLAC up to 192 kHz + up to 60% discount on a large part of the download catalog), $349.99/year.

The discounts for buying hi-res downloads in the Sublime tiers is pretty worthwhile. You can make up the extra charge with  a relatively modest number of download purchases. 

Thanks firedog! Looks to be the same streaming pricing as all the rest. Hoping competition pressure would make for some price lowering.

As to the download levels personally I would pass. Don't buy any hires downloads any more unless they are the result of a positive remastering from the likes of Hoffman, Wilson, etc. I've found little of the classic rock/country genre I listen to, to have any value from high data rate upsampling.  If I have the desire to own something now I'll usually just look to purchase a used CD off ebay, rip it, then pass it on.

[firedog]

1 hour ago, Sal1950 said:

Thanks firedog! Looks to be the same streaming pricing as all the rest. Hoping competition pressure would make for some price lowering.

As to the download levels personally I would pass. Don't buy any hires downloads any more unless they are the result of a positive remastering from the likes of Hoffman, Wilson, etc. I've found little of the classic rock/country genre I listen to, to have any value from high data rate upsampling.  If I have the desire to own something now I'll usually just look to purchase a used CD off ebay, rip it, then pass it on.

But they often have hi-res at lower prices than CDs for "Sublime" level members. So still might be worth it for you to check out. 

[AudioDoctor]

This will make some of you very happy, this was in my email this morning.

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

I am streaming one of their albums right now.

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

Found an error on one of the new channel classics records.  Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestras version of Wagner.  Plays at 16/44 identifies itself as 24/192 in both A+ and the Qobuz desktop app for Mac.

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

and because I KNOW someone is going to point out that the album in question was not playing in the Qobuz app screen capture, here you go.

 

 

[David Craff]

On 9/22/2018 at 2:43 AM, AudioDoctor said:

 

No kidding, that would be awesome!

 

 

Yes it will, this is on our back lof of feature

[David Craff]

On 9/22/2018 at 1:35 PM, rickca said:

I'm using the Qobuz desktop app on Windows. 

 

I set the genre to Classical only.  In Discover, I see two rows of New Releases.  If I click 'See all new releases', the app just displays one additional row.  I have to click 'See all new releases' a second time to actually see all new releases.

 

@David Craff is this behavior intentional?  I find it irritating.

 

Yes  it is intentional. I think this must be change. I'll ask the UX team about that.

[David Craff]

On 9/23/2018 at 2:14 AM, bobbmd said:

@David Craff: Problem solved by Jud- all I had to do in A+3 preferences was log off Qobuz and log back in 'streaming' (it is a good thing I remembered my password)!

One thing- I really like in A+3 the old format on Qobuz of 'new releases' 'Qobuz playlists' 'most streamed' 'best sellers' 'editors picks' and 'press awards' than what is offered under the new desktop app with the vinyl and tone arm- I bet others like that better- in addition A+3 to me sounds 'better' maybe because A+3 plays 'up' from  FLAC 16/44.1 to my Merdian Explorer 2 in 24/176.4 and on my pre-multibit Schiit Gungnir to 24/192

bobbmd

 

You can find New Releases, Press Awards etc on the new discover too. But the navigation is not the same.

 

For

"in addition A+3 to me sounds 'better' maybe because A+3 plays 'up' from  FLAC 16/44.1 to my Merdian Explorer 2 in 24/176.4 and on my pre-multibit Schiit Gungnir to 24/192"

A+3 sounds better (for you) because it apply some secret audio filter. On Qobuz we do not apply any sound modification.

[David Craff]

14 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Found an error on one of the new channel classics records.  Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestras version of Wagner.  Plays at 16/44 identifies itself as 24/192 in both A+ and the Qobuz desktop app for Mac.

 

 

 

Not an error, this album is available in hi-res on download but not for streaming. I agree we need to separate hi-res display for download & streaming

[David Craff]

On 9/23/2018 at 12:13 AM, #Yoda# said:

 

A good progress for Qobuz.com would be to eliminate the still existing HiRes fakes in the Qobuz catalog by establishing a stringent quality control for the existing catalog and any new albums.

 

Even proven customer complaints haven't had consequences for the catalog so far. The HiRes fakes, I complained about are largely still in the Qobuz catalog since 2015. 

 

As a download customer you're able to analyze the files with tools like e.g. MusicScope, may complain and usually get a compensation. Possibly you can purchase the album again in the correct resolution from a more reliable competitor. As Sublime + streaming subscriber, you are stranded and must rely on the correctly streamed resolution, even if the hearing conveys something different. 

 

Selling and streaming digital content like HiRes files is a matter of trust and a content provider like Qobuz.com should be responsible that their customers reliably get for what they have paid. To sell or stream consciously incorrect labeled digital files is customer deception, not only from my point of view.

 

 

Thank you for the feedback. This is indeed a problem we have with suppliers. We have a team dedicated to this problem that tries to control the files as much as possible to make sure that it is indeed a Hi-Res file. We need to implement a more efficient, automatic and effective test procedure to meet the needs of our catalogue.
This is one of the many areas for improvement at Qobuz, we have every confidence in it.

[David Craff]

For information, we are currently experiencing problems with the availability of our servers, after DDOS attacks, this problem is different. Our teams are taking care of it, we hope it won't last.

[Cebolla]

4 hours ago, David Craff said:

A+3 sounds better (for you) because it apply some secret audio filter. On Qobuz we do not apply any sound modification.

 

Is it similar in the Qobuz for Mac/PC's UPnP/DLNA renderer output function, ie, is the connected UPnP device streaming the audio (FLAC) file tracks exactly as supplied by the Qobuz online server?

 

Audirvana Plus always transcodes the audio file tracks to WAV files for the UPnP/DLNA streamer, by decoding them first through its audio engine, which also allows any optional filter/DSP settings to be applied.

[David Craff]

5 hours ago, Cebolla said:

 

Is it similar in the Qobuz for Mac/PC's UPnP/DLNA renderer output function, ie, is the connected UPnP device streaming the audio (FLAC) file tracks exactly as supplied by the Qobuz online server?

 

Audirvana Plus always transcodes the audio file tracks to WAV files for the UPnP/DLNA streamer, by decoding them first through its audio engine, which also allows any optional filter/DSP settings to be applied.

 

On Qobuz Desktop we send directly the track file url, we do not convert the file in wav audio format before. So the sound renderer is the same.

[left channel]

Love the Panoramas. But attention localizers: the Picasso piece includes three untranslated French paragraphs floating in a sea of English.  (I read English and, with some effort, Spanish and Mandarin. It would be fun to learn French, but not today.)

 

 

@David Craff @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist

[AudioDoctor]

15 hours ago, David Craff said:

 

Not an error, this album is available in hi-res on download but not for streaming. I agree we need to separate hi-res display for download & streaming

 

That's a bit disappointing, does this apple to all Channel Classics files?

[rando]

4 hours ago, left channel said:

Love the Panoramas. But attention localizers: the Picasso piece includes three untranslated French paragraphs floating in a sea of English.  (I read English and, with some effort, Spanish and Mandarin. It would be fun to learn French, but not today.)

 

 

@David Craff @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist

 

I mean you could just translate it.  Which practically every modern browser does quite easily.

 

54 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

That's a bit disappointing, does this apple to all Channel Classics files?

 

 

Des pommes aux pommes?   

[David Craff]

10 hours ago, left channel said:

Love the Panoramas. But attention localizers: the Picasso piece includes three untranslated French paragraphs floating in a sea of English.  (I read English and, with some effort, Spanish and Mandarin. It would be fun to learn French, but not today.)

 

 

@David Craff @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist

 

Thanks, I contact the editorial team to correct this.

Regards