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Post by Tim on Mar 31, 2023 4:26:37 GMT
Watched a presentation from Qobuz last night chaired by David Solomon and two people from WiiM. David says Qobuz is planning for WiiM to be the first streamer they are going to partner with for Qobuz Connect. This is a little after 52:45 in the video Looks like I’m getting a WiiM Pro then  |
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Post by Tim on Mar 31, 2023 11:17:38 GMT
I've just signed up for a Qobuz trial . . . . any tips or pointers from the more experienced users here?
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Post by MartinT on Mar 31, 2023 11:22:52 GMT
If albums or tracks are greyed out, it means they're either coming on stream soon or there is a problem with licensing. Sometimes a replacement of the same album in hi-res is already showing.
The Qobuz interface is easy to use, but it really helps to indicate if you're searching for an artist, release or something else. For classical music, watch out for the odd Symphonie and other French spellings.
Playlists are really useful to create and maintain for your 'collections'.
I think the default highest resolution for Windows is 24/96, don't know how to get 24/192 as I don't use the Qobuz interface.
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Post by Tim on Mar 31, 2023 11:42:45 GMT
Thanks Martin 'watch out for the odd Symphonie and other French spellings' is a top tip, I'll bear that in mind.
What interface do you use then? I'm just trying out their Windows and Android apps at the moment. I like the idea Qobuz connect though, hopefully that wasn't just marketing BS to boost WiiM sales. David Solomon is a master at marketing!
It's very different to Spotify and Tidals UI, so I've got some poking around to do.
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Post by John on Mar 31, 2023 13:46:59 GMT
If you have playback issues you might have to use the proxy settings to resolve
Sometimes albums go to extract and worth searching if alternative is in place
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Post by MartinT on Mar 31, 2023 14:23:45 GMT
What interface do you use then? I'm just trying out their Windows and Android apps at the moment. I like the idea I use BubbleUPnP (Android) for controlling my Signature Rendu SE. Brilliant interface for Qobuz, does everything I need including artwork, curated playlists, full metadata etc. |
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Post by Tim on Mar 31, 2023 14:26:02 GMT
So far I'm liking what I'm seeing UI wise, I really like the Magazine and there's enough album info to satisfy me, without it being bloated. Hard to tell soundwise as I can't listen through my main system, only on my desktop system in the study and Bluetooth from my phone, so that's no test. One big thing for me it has over Tidal is it scrobbles plays from both my desktop system or phone, Tidal only scrobbles plays from the desktop player. So far so good |
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Post by John on Mar 31, 2023 15:12:54 GMT
Sound Wise I prefer over Tidal that still sounds eitched for me.
It is not as good as Spotify for discovering new music. This is still my only real complaint.
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Post by MartinT on Mar 31, 2023 15:29:50 GMT
I guess it's dependent on your musical tastes, John. I find the 'similar artists' and the curated playlists rather useful, as well as the magazine.
I guess the proof for me is that I'm having fun discovering new artists and have found a few that have become lifelong loves.
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Post by Tim on Mar 31, 2023 15:52:14 GMT
It is not as good as Spotify for discovering new music. This is still my only real complaint. I would agree with that John, overall as a complete product (if you discount it's not lossless), Spotify is still top of the pile IMO. I'm just about to ditch Windows as my main PC operating system for Linux and most Linux distributions have a built in Spotify package in their software store, no-one else does that to my knowledge. I also really fancy a Hegel amp and that has Spotify built in. That's the perfect solution for me, a single box with an ethernet cable going in. I really like Hegel amps too, they sound fantastic with my LS50s. I guess at some point in the future most will do a Connect function for whatever streaming service you choose and they'll all be lossless, but that's a few years away I reckon. I'm still happy with redbook, so the whole MQA malarky is moot for me. I do have Tidal Masters available, but I don't use it, preferring Hi-Fi, which is redbook. |
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Post by John on Mar 31, 2023 15:55:04 GMT
My tastes are a bit more obscure but honestly it's my only real complaint
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Post by Tim on Mar 31, 2023 16:07:04 GMT
If Qobuz was as comprehensive as Spotify, hard baked in a Hegel and worked in Linux like Spotify does, now that would be perfect.
I still prefer to play my own FLAC files, but I'm impressed with Qobuz and I like their ethos.
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Post by MartinT on Mar 31, 2023 16:59:00 GMT
most Linux distributions have a built in Spotify package in their software store, no-one else does that to my knowledge. There's always play.qobuz.com which works in a browser just like the app. |
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Post by Tim on Mar 31, 2023 18:00:23 GMT
BubbleUPnP is good Martin, I have used that for JRiver, works well, not as slick as JRemote, but it does so much more.
Hang on, I should be able to use that for Qobuz and send it to Volumio acting as a renderer?
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Post by MartinT on Mar 31, 2023 18:54:00 GMT
Hang on, I should be able to use that for Qobuz and send it to Volumio acting as a renderer? That should give you a sound quality improvement over sending Qobuz data from a laptop or tablet. Just use the latter as a controller, it's what I do. |
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Post by Tim on Mar 31, 2023 20:14:26 GMT
Yes, doing it and it works.
Been poking around and I think John has hit the nail on the head, their lists of supposedly new releases are often old music. That seems odd, unless it's there as a remaster or something. I guess each service has its pluses and minuses, I definitely discovered more music with Spotify than I do with Tidal and this looks unlikely to change that, but if you only stream and sound quality is the determining factor, then Qobuz seems the logical choice.
Still, I've got 30 days to decide, but I'm starting to feel I'm about to go full circle and return to JRiver and Spotify. I played way more music using those two and discovered more artists. I only used Spotify for discovery, so 320kbps wasn't an issue for me, as when I really liked something I bought it.
Interesting journey though and it'll be funny if I do end up right back where I started. The Roon/Tidal combo definitely didn't work for me, but you don't know until you try it out.
A Hegel H190 is starting to look like it's really all I might need, which definitely fits my less is more preference. I think I'm reaching my 'can't be arsed to mess about anymore' threshold.
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Post by Tim on Apr 1, 2023 19:40:46 GMT
It is not as good as Spotify for discovering new music. This is still my only real complaint. I thought I would put this to the test John and completely randomly used an artist I happened to be playing (one of my albums - not streamed). I don't normally stream him as I have his work. I checked what content was available, but more importantly for the way I use streaming, what discovery there was for similar artists. It's a very imprecise test as it's just one artist I picked out of the air - Robert Vincent. Albums available;Qobuz = 2 Spotify = 4 Tidal = 5 Singles and EPs available;Qobuz = 20 Spotify = 20 Tidal = 20 Discovery - similar artists;Qobuz = 3 Spotify = 20 Tidal = 50 (additionally Tidal also had Influenced by = 8) The above surprised me as I was expecting Spotify to offer more, especially regarding discovery. But if you liked Robert's music and wanted to delve further, Tidal is way ahead. I'd like to switch to Qobuz as I like the company ethos and I like David Solomon, but the above could be a crippler for me. I guess it all depends on how you use a particular streaming service, as we all seem to favour different ones for different reasons. Interesting experiment though, as I wouldn't have predicted that result. |
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Post by John on Apr 1, 2023 21:56:51 GMT
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Post by Tim on Apr 1, 2023 23:15:59 GMT
I guess over time Qobuz is likely to improve and level off with the others, if sound quality was the only defining factor it would be an easy choice . . . . Qobuz. But like anything in HiFi there's nearly always a compromise to be made. I do realy like the editorial content in Qobuz though. Life was a lot simpler when it was just Spotify! Thats cool having your suggestion lists to see too . . . I'm going to give them a go I think we do our discovery differently too, I tend to do it manually checking out the related artist's, rather than playing the suggested playlists. In fact I rarely play those . . . maybe I should start? |
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Post by MartinT on Apr 2, 2023 10:30:09 GMT
I pick and choose from the 'similar artists' and playlists. Wikipedia is helpful too, but there are many artists without a wiki page. Sometimes YouTube is helpful, even reading the comments (with a rubber suit).
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