A crazy thought hatched in my head after reading this thread last night and seeing how many are missing out on Qobuz.
If I opened a Qobuz Family Plan and invite 5 forum members who has no access (well, maybe 4, as I probably want my wife in the deal)…would anyone be open to it? I have US-based Sublime. Each “family member” has autonomy of their account ie. they would have separate email log ins, settings, interface, playlists, and so on.
I have reached out but have yet to hear back from Qobuz if music purchases by the adjoiners can be completed by them with their own funds/info, or if the account holder and the default payment method on the account would be the only way to do so. I assume it’s the former, but the latter won’t matter f you don’t purchase music to begin with. The Sublime discount for high-res tracks is pretty sweet though.
This was just a passing thought that’s now fomenting. Thought I’d place it down here for comment.
I’ve never had a problem with Tidal. I use Tidal and Qobuz feed via Ethernet into either a Lumin T2 or a D2. I started out years ago when Tidal first came out on 30 Mbps and now I use a Spectrum high speed 400 Mbps service for everything including streaming movies… About the only time I have an issue its usually related to something the cable company has done, or an issue with a server at Tidal or Qobuz. Knocking on wood, so far everything works. I find Qobuz at times sounded a little fuller, maybe a little more dynamic, but it could be the ale talking as well.
Excellent video! You motivated me to sign up, someone new to hi res. I’m likely to try and eventually subscribe to 2 or 3 of SPAQ: Spotify Premium, Primephonic, AmazonMusicHD, Qobuz.
My OnePlus 7 Pro phone is showing device capability of 24 bit/48 KHz; I need to see if it can be increased up to 192.
Great production quality and content on the video. I like your work area/setup, and those Klipsch speakers are doing it right.
Thank you @bpcarb appreciate you!! Amazon Music HD is pretty great, Qobuz is still my go to for critical listening and bit perfect playback. I hope Amazon keeps upping their game and developing new features, they definitely have the money to bring future developments to the platform. What a cool time to enjoy music.
Those Klipsch speakers for the price I got them open box were a hell of a deal. I do warm them up a little with my Schiit Loki, I want to check out some speakers from Kef next!
Cool, I’m looking forward to experiencing Qobuz. True about Amazon, consumers should benefit and their competitors will be forced to innovate, again benefiting us!
Nice, I also recently picked up an open box pair of Elacs. I was considering Klipsch and Kef also. You might want to check out Triangle too, which are now sold online here in the US by Adorama.
Which Hi REs service would have the most variety of genres offered and also goes deep into the non-mainstream genres (Americana, bluegrass, contemporary folk, acoustic, jazz fusion). Guessing they all do fine with rock, pop, jazz, blues, etc. Not a hip hop fan, so the Tidal thing may or may not be for me. Amazon Music HD sounds like they might be the best, from a catalogue standpoint of what I listen to, but it sounds like they are maybe not quite there on the Hi Res quality? Qobuz sounds like it might be interesting as well.
I have Apple music and Pandora Premium for casual listening and discovery, which are great,but just getting into the Hi Res world so need to check out a few of the offerings to see which best fits my needs…
I tried Tidal, Qobuz, and Amazon HD in 2020. I’m still with Amazon HD.
As you mentioned, Tidal is strong with hip-hop and R&B, and also smoother and more filtered on the high end (not always accurate, but smooth). Qobuz and Amazon HD sound about the same quality-wise to my ears, and offer a similar mix of content. My gut tells me that all three services lease nearly identical sets of master files from the RIAA and record labels. Some of them have legacy versions of albums that spontaneously disappear after a while too. Their interfaces each have plusses and minuses, but I like Amazon’s popularity ratings – it makes it much easier to find hit singles.
I’m surprised that Amazon have still got the same, lame, client for macOS as they had at launch.
There’s still no choice of output device so, as with Spotify (which I long since dropped), you’re limited to the “System” audio output. This is a pain in the arse when you’re listening via a computer you’re also using to do other things on (e.g. when I’m on my laptop and no my main rig).
And no exclusive mode access either - which is admittedly much less of an issue on macOS than it is on Windows, but it is still not ideal.
Though, at this point, they could address those issues and I’d still never use it because I don’t like having to use a different, inconsistent, client for every service. So it’s Roon or bust … which today means TIDAL and Qobuz, plus my local library.
Yep. That’s where I’m at too. If Amazon HD had Roon integration, all of the issues Torq mentioned would instantly be fixed.
I think it’s kind of telling that any company would get into the HiRes side of this and not understand the importance of exclusive mode or a bit perfect device chain. You’re selling an audiophile product that isn’t suitable for most Audiophiles. It’s like they did it just to slap an HD tag on the product for marketing reasons and justify a higher price tag.
That reminds me, I have about 15 new CDs i need to rip to my NAS, mostly purchased from Amazon. I guess they win either way.
I use Audirvana, one time purchase and done, and was hesitant to go to Roon due to the yearly cost and the one time fee was a bit much for me at the time. Now that I am firmly entrenched in the audiophile game I’m looking for whatever upgrades may improve things even a bit.
Yes. MacOS Catalina 10.15.5. Amazon music screenshot below. Click on the speaker icon near the right end of the bottom of the window status bar – roll over says “Available Devices.”
I’m hooked up to a monitor now and run audio through it.
I was looking in Preferences … rather than playing a file and then looking at the status bar.
Well, that definitely helps, especially for single-service subscribers … but I still want Roon integration … it’s too nice having ALL of my Tidal, Qobuz and Local music appear as a single, integrated, library (even without all of the other features of Roon I employ).
If you can muster a lifetime sub, its worth it imo. Audvarkauna (whatever) is fine for SQ, but the stability and UI are severely lacking in the comparisons I’ve done. Granted, it’s been over half a year since I’ve had it on my PC, so some things might have gotten better.
Roon’s selling point, besides the amazing sound quality, is the user interface and media metadata. Nothing touches it.
I should try it out. Audirvana is a bit clunky for some things, you are correct there. I’ll likely just try a year sub and then contemplate going in full hog if it appeals to me.
Once you learn the little quirks of Roon, it’s hard to use another app. Things like: right click to select songs, shift+right click to select a range. The queue list and output options at the bottom right being very handy. Etc.
I think they have a trial period, and they also have a referral program that will give you 30 days free.
