I got a one month beta acceptance email yesterday. Signed up today. Now I just need to find the time to actually test it out.
Got my Qobuz beta invite last week, and set it up yesterday, along with a 30 day trial of streaming. I had thought I'd mostly use this for downloads, but then found that this integrated cleanly and quickly with my Squeezebox/Logitech Media Server setup! Given that, I may wind up keeping the streaming subscription. Working wonderfully well in all aspects (streaming and purchased downloads) so far, but I'll follow up if I run into issues.
I've had my invitation for a couple of weeks now, and, yes, it's very, very nice. I've only caught two bugs, and reported one confirmed bug, but, it's a very minor one. I'm still trying to find them. The one annoying thing is the French language still in places. I've also offered a couple suggestions for the website. I don't think there is a non-disclosure for discussing if we are beta testers, but i'm happy I was selected. I've been buying lots of music. The streaming is very nice, too. I may be modifying my staunch opinion on it a bit. Anyway, I won't say too much, but, when Qobuz finally goes live, I think the U.S. music lovers will be very, very happy! I know am! At this point, I no longer have any desire to buy another CD unless it's the only way I can get something. One more thing: a big thanks the record companies for stepping up.
I got my invitation yesterday and I started listening to Quboz. I was suprised about two things: how much better the 44.1 tracks sound in Quboz in comparison to Tidal and how bad MQA tracks sound in comparison to the original HIRes tracks.
I'm glad that I purchased Audirvana+ a few months ago. I received my Qobuz invite yesterday and downloaded the Windows PC desktop app and was very disappointed with the playback. I could not get a track to play without skipping or pausing to buffer. After loading Qobuz into Audirvana+ everything's fine! No issues whatsoever. If no issues surface within the free month trial period I will cancel Tidal and continue with Qobuz. I can definitely hear a better Hi Res sound over MQA. I'll be paying $5 more a month but it's worth it to me.
I will also most likely be dropping Tidal for Qobuz since Qobuz is rock solid with Audirvana+. I know I am not the only Windows 10 user who has problems with the Qobuz app but we seem to be in the minority or there would be complaints all over the forums. I have been working with a Qobuz manager to try to help debug the problem; it may be specific to a driver used on my brand of laptop because I fail the LatencyMon tests despite all drivers up to date as well as Win 10 Pro.
I subscribed to Tidal the same week it was introduced to the U.S. (long before JZ purchased it). I recall that it had the same issues that I'm experiencing now with Qobuz. The issues disappeared after a few weeks. I'm sure Qobuz will also work it out. But, for now, Audirvana+ is the hero. It's a great player!
I also downloaded the stand alone Quboz app and it was very problematic with my Surface Windows 10 tablet. But I have a macbook pro with Audirvana+ and the integration with Qobuz is perfect, so this is what I am using.
So far, I have had zero issues playing from the web browser in Windows 10. The app works great, though neither allow you to fast-forward on songs. I have yet to try the standalone thing. I notice that many hi-rez albums I checked out have been remastered in the last few years. Some hi-rez Chic albums were remastered just two months ago and sound fantastic! I am going to be very busy updating my music collection! There are lots of hi-rez albums that I didn't even know existed! I auditioned one hi-rez Luther Vandross album and was stunned! A Taste Of Honey's first album was reissued in something like 2011(?), and the sound quality on the 16-bit floored me! I checked out Foreigner's "Double Vision" hi-rez and never noticed the subtle vocal tracking on the chorus before. Amazing! I guess I know where my paychecks are going now! BTW, for all you hi-rez naysayers: the sound really gets you back to the original sound of the album. Yeah, I know a lot of you luv your "vinyls", but, for those who do not, give it a fair chance. And, like I said, not everything's available in the U.S. for some reason, but for what there is, I am glad the labels are all-in. I checked out the hi-rez of two huge Jacksons albums on Epic, and the sound somehow put me right back to the time I first played the vinyl LPs. However, that said, I have been noticing several issues with the labels, Warner, in particular. Some albums have had the edited single version substituted in place of what was originally the long versions. I discovered this with K.C. & The Sunshine band's S/T album and Sister Sledge's "We Are Family". No doubt there are more I haven't caught yet. Hey! What gives, Warner? Tryin' to rip us off? Motown used to pull this crap with their two-fer CDs. Anyway, Tidal? Spotify? I'm done with you! iTunes? Hahahahahah! Never! Apple, let me tell ya something: just about all the other stores let the customer pick whatever format they want. YOU keep your customers locked into the Apple world with your lossy downloads. Yeah, you care more about streaming... OK, enough for now. I gotta get to bed.
I got my Beta testing approval yesterday - but I am waiting until my Wolf audio server is ready (is being built as we speak) prob next week to start it - that way, I can compare and contrast to Tidal (which I am currently using). It does sound promising thus far from what people have said here - especially regarding the hi-rez files on Quobuz sounding better than MQA files on Tidal. I also like the purchase option that Quobuz offers on their top tier - those prices (from what I've seen) are far below what HDtracks is offering. Hopefully, if Quobuz succeeds and stays stable, J River will take the steps to be able to integrate Quobuz into listeners' J River library.
I've mucked around with the Mac app a bit. Gotta say, sound quality aside...I actually prefer Spotify.
I think I've solved the problem with the playback on the Qobuz desktop application. After changing the driver from Wasapi to Asio the playback plays fine, no more audio stuttering. I'll continue to monitor but I'm sure this did the trick. I'll continue to use Audirvana+ for streaming, it's such a wonderful player, and I think I'll make use of the import feature on the Qobuz desktop application for more efficient wifi usage. As far as I know, Tidal did not have a import feature although I do remember using one with Spotify back in the dark ages of 320 bps. Wifi usage was a much bigger issue then!
Pyroshane is a very much underrated musician and I am glad I found his music.. I love the underground
I just changed the driver back to Wasapi in the Qobuz desktop application and it now plays just fine. I don't know what's going on.
Don't forget you can just login to your Qobuz account and use their web player. While the desktop app hangs on me the web player has been trouble free so far. I normally use Audirvana+ for Qobuz which is trouble free but if you don't want to spend the $75 for A+ just use the web player until the bugs in the desktop app are fixed.
The Qobuz desktop app is playing just fine now. At first with the Wasapi driver installed it hanged something awful but after I changed the driver to Asio it played perfectly. Out of curiosity I changed it back to Wasapi and now it plays just fine. I haven't tried the web player yet but currently there is no need. I've had Audirvana+ for several months and Qobuz plays great through it. I like the quality that Audirvana+ provides and I'm seeing myself using it with Qobuz often. I've been digging into the Qobuz desktop app just to check it out and I have to admit it has some great features. I really enjoy the import capability as it will play back from my hard drive without having to rely on bandwidth and wifi. I have plenty of storage space and I'm having fun importing some of my favorite music. Also, with some releases a digital booklet is available, very similar to a included CD booklet. You just have to look for the booklet icon. I've subscribed to Tidal from the first week it was offered to the U.S. and after JayZ purchased it I hated that when I signed on a bunch of music and musicians I care nothing for would always appear on the home page. With Qobuz MY music appears first! I think Qobuz is a keeper. I'm confident bugs will be fixed over time. Looks like it's time for me to say goodbye to Tidal.
For anyone on a beta trial of Qobuz you may want to watch this thread here: Official Qobuz Issues Thread Poster David Craff works for Qobuz and will help look into issues for you.
I’ve had a month trial of Qobuz. Which I thought was going to be hi res quality as that’s the package I chose. Hover, listening via digital outputs, my amp displays the frequency as 44.1 kHz - the same as when I play a cd. Strange.
If you have the Studio package you should be able to stream 24/192 but you need to click on your user name in upper right of the web player or app and under music playing manually set maximum resolution to 24/192. It is also a good idea to go into sound settings for your computer and increase resolution to 24/192.
I guess the majority of the titles I've listened to haven't, but there are some I know that definitely have.
So far Qobuz sound quality is superior and the app seems to have been designed with music lovers rather than teenagers in mind. My only complaint is that the lean back experience via a radio or curated playlists are lacking. It will definitely replace my Tidal sub, but I’ll probably have keep Pandora or Spotify for my needs as well.
