I just can’t hear any audible difference so far @allegro , but maybe that’s gear dependent as I am using my portable set up and my most basic cans I own the 6XX headphones from my iPhone/iPad and XDSD. I am strictly comparing 24bit 192 vs. 24bit 192. I did hear increased volume levels on some Qobuz tracks. Now that I am back to my office and not traveling I am going to go deeper into listening to Qobuz and AmazonHD side by side with higher quality headphones, amp, dac.
I do see the benefit of Qobuz working in tandem with my DAC automatically appropriately changing the quality of the stream, vs Amazon just upsampling as @Torq discussed. Now I just need to keep listening. One thing I do notice is there is definitely less selection with Qobuz vs Amazon. Entire albums are not even there for certain artists. I think I would probably lean towards Qobuz if the selection and price were on point with AmazonHD. I am going to spend the rest of this month really giving Qobuz a good listen so I have a better point of view. I definitely like it and the interface so far.
Quality aside, I’m finished with Tidal. Some of there “non high res” stuff is 320 kbs… where as with Qobuz EVERYTHING I’ve listened to has been at least 16/44.1, now granted that’s what I pay for BUT again that’s what I PAY FOR an I appreciate that Qobuz doesn’t even SHOW me anything under 16/44.1
So Tidal’s library is suddenly not as impressive since I’ll need to keep an eye out for lossy files, and I’ve no problem with lossy but I have Napster and Spotify which combined cover pretty much everything I’d want. I have no desire to even have the option for lossy when I’m paying for at least Redbook
I hope that they do! Of everyone their App and brand is the most Polished honestly and the marketing is a step above the others as well. I’d love to see all those MQA masters bought out, decoded and re-released under another Label or service. OR to see Tidal really step up their game and offer something truly unique.
I agree the more players there are in the space the better the offerings for the consumer usually too! They will have to make some adjustments I think to their model quickly if they want to take in new business to be more competitive.
We added qobuz with the “studio” plan for 25€/month(in germany)
the android app does not let me share a song via copy/paste (remember the link) like I am used from Tidal Masters and Spotify Premium
Have cancelled the Tidal Masters plan (20€/month) which still runs until the end of january
So I will compare both using the ifi xDSD with the Focal Elegia(mainly) and the other hf and IEMs in the next weeks
Will keep Amazon Ultra HD for our audio books
The qobuz catalog has really grown in the last months and the app is maybe the worst though usable
I will miss the magenta/purple indication for mqa- for sure!
I quite enjoy Tidal, but if Qobuz offers better selection and service, then I’d gladly move subscriptions. I do like Tidal’s GUI though. Simple and clean.
at the moment Tidal has a Promotion running in germany with 5€/month for the first 6 months - maybe I cancel one of our two audible Abo’s which saves me 10/month, however would miss some podcast…
I still enjoy Tidal (gets most used at the office)
wanted to try the qobuz experiance
Can anyone let me know how to prevent the Audible drop or click noise as Qobuz and my DAC SMSL SU-8V2 are switching songs with different sample rates? I imagine this is because of the quality rate of the song is changing, just wondered if there was a way to prevent it from being audible?
Yea that’s a hardware or Firmware issues not a problem with Qobuz, I have the same issue when I use my Shanling M3s as a DAC in my car with my One Plus 7T 5G
Difference is I have a 24/48 dac [behringer UCA 202 pre 2013] I can use and thankfully [surprise] Amazon HD music on Mobile is limited to 24/48 so between both I can listen to what ever… YAY
I have the exact same issue when using my SMSL SU8 v2 and playing Qobuz. When I use Audirvana and play Qobuz it’s not as bad but still noticeable. I am using a MacBook Pro.
I use Wasapi Exclusive Mode on my w10 machines with Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify and Foobar
no problems
had this with audirvana, when changing tracks with different qualities
You can try enabling the “Mute during sample rate change” setting under “Low level playback options”. You might also turn on “Large CoreAudio I/O buffer”.
But generally this is a DAC-level issue not a player one, and is more common when changing between PCM and DSD content and/or DSD bit-rates. Some DACs mute themselves on rate changes; some even use a relay to mute the output during the change (e.g. Bifrost 2, Yggdrasil etc.).
I have tried mute and it does help some, but occasionally still have the pops, dropouts etc.
I have not tried “Large CoreAudio I/O buffer”, I will give that a try.
Correct it is a dac level issue as all 4 of my SMSL SU8 v2 do this, I have not noticed this issue yet with my Airist R2R dac nor my Chord Mojo(using as a desktop dac in line out mode). Basically I have just gotten use the the pops and dropouts during rate changes, though I don’t use the SU8 as much anymore.
I am actually going to save up for two more dacs(and one amp) to replace my two of my SU8’s. First I am going to get a Schiit Bifrost 2 and second it will ‘probably’ be a Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro (MQA), would like to pair those dacs with a SPL Phonitor XE Headphone Amplifier.
I noticed that there is no “Exclusive Mode” on Audirvana for my 2018 MacBook Pro, I know I have seen pictures(older pictures from 2018 I believe) of them having an “Exclusive Mode”. I believe I read somewhere that they pulled this option for 2018 or newer Mac’s. Not sure why though.
Just used audirvana trial to activate a VST plugin, I could not register via Foobar
I would try torq’s recommendings as far as possible
without exclusive mode
I just tried this on my arrived-on-Tuesday latest revision 2019 MacBook Pro and the “Exclusive Mode” option is definitely still there (and works, both for external DACs and even the internal one).
It should be under “Audio Settings”, “Low level playback options”. It’ll be the first of the toggle options, right beneath “Max. memory allocated for tracks pre-load”.
The “Integer Mode” option, which is the next option in the list, doesappear or disappear based on whether the DAC you’ve connected actually supports integer mode or not.