Music Streaming Services

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by rott, Feb 22, 2017.

  1. mitochondrium

    mitochondrium Friend

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    Happy Qobuz user on the other side of the pond, would not touch Tidal with a stick for its involvement with MQA, because MQA is a hoax.
     
  2. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Since I can't decide if I want to upgrade my DAP to the Sony Walkmans (even if I like the design of the current ones, but no streaming is a problem), I was sad so I went to Qobuz.

    And I saw this:

    [​IMG]


    LETS SEE IF THIS WORKS FOR MEEEE.

    Edit: DAMN IT, ONLY FOR TESTERS. But hey, online store and full site is active at least. Time to dig.....
     
  3. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    I've been using Qobuz for about a month with a preview account. I also have Tidal, Spotify, and Google subscriptions.

    I listen primarily to classical music. On Qobuz, besides Redbook resolution, a good proportion of albums are available in 24/96 or 24/88, and a smaller number in 24/192. Qobuz can stream all of these resolutions lossless, which makes MQA completely pointless. I find Qobuz to sound better than Tidal lossless. I've noted in an earlier post that the audible watermark in Universal Music Group releases that is on Tidal and Spotify doesn't seem to be present on Qobuz.

    The Qobuz catalog mostly overlaps with Tidal and Spotify, but each service has things not found in the others. It's frustrating that even within the same label (e.g. Sony Classical), different streaming services can have small differences for which albums are available, so choosing just one service could involve some compromises. Qobuz has some additional European classical labels not on the other services..

    The Qobuz software is buggy:
    • While playing music on either Windows or Mac, I see Qobuz running 3 processes that consume a total of 20-30% of the CPU. This is much higher than Tidal or Spotify. Worse, after the current play queue has finished playing, Qobuz continues to consume 20-30% CPU even though nothing is playing. At that point, I can manually clear the play queue, and the Qobuz CPU usage drops to 1%. This seems like a software bug with a process that is running and processing the play queue without regard for whether anything is actually playing.
      Edit: I just noticed that the Qobuz Android app also continues to consume power when it should be idle.
    • Occasionally (averaging about once a day), a track may suddenly stop playing in the middle and a spinner is displayed to show it is trying to download/queue more data — however it hangs forever and never recovers. The workaround is to start playing a different track, then delete the stuck track from the cache (which is a track option), and play the stuck track again — it will re-download the entire track and play correctly. This is probably a bug in the Qobuz downloading and caching code.
    • The search function is not good (about as bad as Tidal's). When I'm looking for a specific album, sometimes I have to try different search terms before it finds the album. Spotify has the best search.
    • There are various quirks in the app UI and translations (Franglais).
    Hopefully they can resolve some issues before the U.S. launch. The bottom line though is that the sound is very good.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2018
  4. psuKinger

    psuKinger Facebook Friend

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    Took the 30-day-free-trail on Tidal after I got the e-mail from Plex about the team-up/integration.

    High level overview of my experiences so far:
    - Having a gigantic catalog of *pretty good* sounding music *does not* suck... I'm still doing A-B comparing between songs I'm familiar with and have on FLAC rips, side-by-side... and sometimes feel like maybe the Gain is a little higher on Tidal than my rip (FLAC file made using Exact Audio Copy)... but it certainly seems like "good" quality, and a healthy full-step above my other streaming subscription (Google Play Music) in terms of sound quality.
    - Everything I'd read about a bad UI experience (within the Tidal app) is real. Pretty bad.
    - The plex integration is GREAT, and addresses most of my UI complaints, with one big exception:
    - Plex supports Google Cast and was one of the original 7 to do so when the very first gen Chromecast video came out. I've been using CCAs for lossless playback via whole-home-audio for years. Tidal supports Google Cast natively within the Tidal app. But the "Tidal Library" within the Plex app appears to not be allowed to Cast?? Very odd. Seems like a huge *nerf* to me, and I don't understand why...
    - The lack of support for HiFi via Firefox is a big deal for me, due to what is available to me / outside of my control within my work/office environment. It's not that I don't love chrome, or even prefer it. I'm typing this on it right now... but I *probably* needed Firefox support to keep this beyond the free trial.


    Sucks, because the sound quality seems pretty legit to me, and at this scale/size of catalog, it sure would be nice to have/keep...
     
  5. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    Qobuz is well aware their desktop app has problems. Might be the reason for the delay on the full US launch? If you don't want to put up with the bugs until they fix perhaps get the free trial of Audirvana and see how you like it. I have zero problems on Win 10 streaming either Tidal or Qobuz using Audirvana+.
     
  6. AdvanTech

    AdvanTech Friend

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    I got a Qobuz preview code and was pretty disappointed when I tried it out. I use Soundiiz to sync playlists between streaming services and around 3/4 of my tracks on Spotify made it to Qobuz. I know it’s great for jazz and classical but I’m also into obscure modern electronic music and it’s pretty weak in that category.

    I am also trying out Deezer hifi (lossless) and my playlist syncs from Spotify are usually around 95-99% successful, so I think that might be the way to go for lossless.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2018
  7. gefski

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    Yep, A+/Tidal has been glitch free for me for 2 years, and Redbook sonics are "good" as has been described.
     
  8. Metro

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    Is it because Qobuz is missing indie music labels that you listen to?

    It's interesting to look into the music streaming industry.
    https://variety.com/2018/music/news...titors-measure-apple-music-amazon-1202741460/
    I was surprised to find that Deezer is a much larger business than Tidal. Deezer operates in 180 countries and claims to have 14 million users (includes free, ad-supported subscriptions). Tidal is in 52 countries and estimated to have 1 million users worldwide (link). Both services are dwarfed by Spotify and Apple Music.

    Meanwhile, Qobuz is such a small operation that it's in the noise and doesn't even get mentioned in industry news. It operates in 8 countries and even in Europe didn't launch in Spain and Italy until a year ago.
     
  9. Sunflower_sutra

    Sunflower_sutra Acquaintance

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    I've been surprised with Deezer, have found some pretty obscure 60s psych and 70s prog in their catalogue. Tidal's catalogue is livable and Spotifys is the best but Qobuz seems more for audiophiles then music fans.

    I still find that ripped CDs on my local network sound better then most of them, dunno if it's placebo? But has made me search out for a few
     
  10. Metro

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    The weirdest bug I've seen on the Qobuz desktop app so far. It randomly happened to me twice in the past week but I can't reproduce it on my own.

    I pause the music and go away for awhile. Later I come back and resume playing. It begins to play two streams simultaneously (mixed together)! One stream resuming from the paused point and the other stream from the beginning of the track. Really weird to hear this effect. The play/pause button works for one of the streams while the other stream continues playing.
     
  11. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Too bad Deezer doesn't have wide Third Party UPnP support. I primary use BubbleUPnP and only support Tidal and Qobuz as their main streaming services.
     
  12. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    Have you tried Stream What You Hear as a work-around?
     
  13. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    That I haven't. I'll research it. Thanks!
     
  14. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Managed to get a free trial on Qobuz. Going to plug the GOV2+ into my phone later and give the hi-res stuff a whirl.
     
  15. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    The sound is very good, even when streaming hi-res. However I’m experiencing stuttering at the start of tracks, like the buffer is set too low. I’ve also had issues with gapless playback. Jumping back and forth between Qobuz and Apple Music, Qobuz is the clear winner. Qobuz sounds more like the disc or hi-res file and just sounds truer to the source.

    The interface is a cut above any other streaming service I’ve tried. Recommendations are varied and interesting, and some of the albums have reproductions of the booklets and sleeves. The UI alone almost makes it worth it, but again there’s a catch because it can take quite a while for selections and pages to load.

    This is easily the best sounding streaming service [edit: I forgot Deezer offers lossless streaming at 16/44, but does that work with the mobile app? Their website makes it sound like it only works on certain hifi systems with Deezer integration], better than I remember Tidal being. The UI and design are terrific as well. If the devs can work out those little bugs, this is the streaming service to subscribe to.

    I may consider $24.99 a month for the hi-res streaming option once this officially launches.
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2018
  16. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    The gapless issue is worse than I thought. Not only is there a big gap between tracks, but the app is cutting off the end of tracks. That’s completely unacceptable. I’ll have to stick with Apple Music until they fix that.
     
  17. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Disappointing @Merrick . Personally I want to do a Qobuz trial to see how good/bad is Gapless via BubbleUpnp. Personally I never trust the official apps and I use Third Party Apps to access Tidal/Qobuz.

    I get almost Gapless using Tidal via BubbleUpnp, and true Gapless using USB Audio Player Pro via my Fiio X5 3rd Gen (with the catch that it will only be for the DAP you are using).

    I guess I have to wait for the Beta to be over before trying it out for real.

    I have some questions with regards to what George Clinton albums are available to stream on Qobuz than anything else.
     
  18. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    @Uri Cohen there is a signup page for Qobuz that was confirmed working yesterday for US IP addresses at https://www.qobuz.com/nl-nl/discover

    Click the "Try For Free" button and sign up with a username and password, if you are taken to a page asking for a credit card you are good to go, you get a free month then your card starts getting charged. Maybe the page will work for a few more days like the beta test did back in November.

    There is also another workaround reported working. Log into Facebook and search for Qobuz (not Qobuz USA) click on the first link listed in the center.
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2019
  19. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Doing that when I get home. Thanks !!!!!!!!
     
  20. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    I think you may be out of luck Uri ... I just logged into Facebook and tried signing up and today they are saying you need to be invited to the beta test looks like they found and closed the loophole dangit. It was working yesterday:( Sorry for the false alarm.
     

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