Qobuz as a straight-up download store.

North Americans (who haven't already found ways) can sign up for Qobuz "Public Beta" for the purpose of just buying downloads. No subscription plan or trial required. It's not (yet) everything I've dreamed of in a download store, but it's close. I bought way too much, maybe, but it seems inevitable that once they really get rolling in the US market, all these wonderful things like cherry-picking tunes from hi-res releases, and finding lossless and hi-res titles which I've never seen in any US store are going to catch someone's attention, and end up shut down.

Out of 32 purchases, the only dodgy-sounding "CD quality" downloads are the ones I cherry-picked from the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" albums. Sound like mp3s to me, so I'm gonna put those to a visual test at some point.

 

I'd like to compare the same song downloaded from Qobuz and from HDTracks (who has a smaller selection)

 

I've been using Qobuz in the UK for about 5 years now. It has the same provenance problems as all the other high res download sites and quality control is no better or worse. You will find many 'hi-res' titles that offer no audible benefit and sound worse than other lower res releases. It is, on the other hand, significantly cheaper usually than hd tracks (although it seems to be becoming more and more expensive). As a subscriber I find their promotions are frustratingly incomplete many are items frequently listed as 'on sale' but having no discount at all. This is presumably because of individual country rights but its annoying when they send you emails advertising an item as on sale, you click through and it isn't. They also advertise that you get money off the entire catalogue as a subscriber, which is false - many titles are discluded, again, presumably because of licensing issues. And since they stopped selling MP3s years ago, I don't know why they keep advertising that subscribing means you get items at MP3 prices (again, if you compare to MP3 prices on other sites you'll see this isn't true). Sale items typically only apply to the non-subscriber price - meaning that often the non-subscriber price is cheaper than the subscriber price. Promotions are frequent, however. My advise is that you're better off sticking with the audiophile labels where possible and if you have the equipment to rip SACDs in dsd for on the go - that's what I increasingly do these days. The audiophile labels aren't infallible, but they do have a much higher hit rate in general and it's easier to find info on the ones to avoid.

 

Bleah. Hope not. I typically ditch old MP3s ASAP once I find a lossless from a store to supersede it. Part of my workflow. So far, the best-sounding find I've gotten from Qobuz is the Joe Strummer songs from the "Permanent Record" soundtrack, and the worst those "Hall of Fame" performances, all ostensibly redbook. As for the latter, I think I just got taken for a ride twice. Worse things have happened to me.

Also, anger plays a role: I bought Keith Richards' "Run Rudolph Run"/"Pressure Drop" from iTunes years ago and never got the latter song. Didn't hear it until this week. I was so happy to be able to delete that sucker finally. (Happy to rid myself of ANY itunes purchase, frankly.)

As someone from the US, I find the Qobuz prices competitive without a subscription. It was $1.49//$1.99 for 16-bit//hi-res songs. Of the three lossless-download-selling stores in the US (Tidal, HDTracks, and 7digital), only 7digital (sometimes) sells individual songs at all, and they're getting moody. Tidal doesn't deal in hi-res at all. All three are inferior to the shuttered pono store.

 

Yes me too - hate the sound of MP3, it's the place transients go to die - but you'll definitely find as many brick-walled, overly compressed messes on Qobuz as you will on any of the other stores - in fact 9/10 it'll be exactly the same master. You're right the price is very competitive with hdtracks without subscription, over here in the UK we've also got highresaudio.com which is typically cheaper than Qoubuz - esp. for box-sets (even compared with subscriber price on Qobuz), but highresaudio.com's customer service team are appalling to deal with.

 

Oh, and if you're a Joe Strummer fan, and they have it on the US store check out The Clash sound system box set - the high-res version easily trumps the redbook (which is overly compressed) and is a very well curated release.

 

Yeah, got that a while ago. It's a needle in a hi-res haystack. Extremely impressive. (But another example of US stores making us wait too long: a 2013 release that took a couple of years to go on sale in the US).

Speaking of waiting: I'm (also) just buzzed that I finally have the 24/96 "Young Americans" from David Bowie's "Gouster". I was able to buy just that 1 song off the 24/96 hi-res box on Qobuz because delivery of the original was so screwed up. (I would have happily pirated it, considering the price I paid, but people were either offering up the redbook or the 24/192. The 24/96 box proved a rare beast in piratey haunts.) So THAT only took 2 years.

 

Hi Tony,

There are already some hi-rez, and even redbook titles, that will not allow us to cherry-pick songs, so, I think the labels are already on this. It seems like Qobuz worked out a sweet deal with the labels, including prices. Right there, they have already gone beyond what Pono was. The only thing is that Pono let you upgrade your purchased titles to hi-rez for free when they came along.

As soon as my money situation gets straight, i'm going to town again on some music.

I can't tell you how damn happy I am that Qobuz has finally made it to the U.S.. Canada should be next.

The only issue I have is not with Qobuz, but some of the record labels. Some of them need to get their sh-- together and fix some of their albums. I just wish I knew whom to contact at a certain label. Of course, they hide and ignore us, so we are left to bitchin' about things here. I refuse to use Facebook.