Qobuz.

Qobuz beta is running as a Roon service along with Tidal on our mac-mini.

Thanks @dmackta !

But how do you know?

Hey @thyname the US service catalog is not complete. The labels you are looking will be live some time in February. 

Lots of reviews about Quoboz and the fact it will work with Roon at the Daily Audiophile site. Getting positive reviews.
David Pritchard

The issue with Qobuz is that it’s missing a lot of albums. Especially in the Alternative/ Indie / Folk / Americana/ Metal genres. Many smaller US labels are missing completely.

32 of my Tidal favorites (albums) are missing, plus many additional albums I browse from my favorites.

As much as I like to cancel Tidal, and keep Qobuz, I am afraid as it stands now, I will stay with Tidal. Cannot keep them both

@dbphd sorry for the delayed response.  In both cases, using the Ethernet render built into the QX5 and using the Aurender and streaming via USB, Qobuz sounds better than Tidal.  In fact, I just cancelled my Tidal membership. 

David that's great I haven't messed around with the app really yet, using the Lightning DS app at home but looking forward to checking it out and exploring more. I haven't decided to cut Tidal yet but I may down the road we shall see.

Qobuz is certainly working for me. I am streaming while driving and getting CD resolution with no dropouts. The sound is excellent. The search engine is easy to use.
Next for me is developing play lists.
I have cancelled my Tidal account. 
I do think Qobuz is for music lovers!
David Pritchard

Spotify (top tier) is 320 kbps

Red Book CD (16/44.1) is 1,411 kbps (44.1 * 16 * 2). So almost five times more than Spotify

Bob don't pay attention to the 44K with Tidal the difference is in the kbps reading. 44K is redbook CD standard the difference it Tidal is Flac and Spotify is MP3 with never get above 320kbps. And as far as Quobuz I am sticking with Hifi as I am 16/44.1 all the way no hi-rez for me. And so far enjoying both classical and jazz on Quobuz.

@jond ,
+1, I agree Spotify sound could be better, but most of Tidal is showing 44K output on my DAC, which is the same as Spotify.
FWIW, after 3 days, I think Quobuz is a keeper. Much better selection for Classical and Jazz than Tidal, and if I get the Supremo subscription, I get a discount on downloads.
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Bob I gave up Spotify years ago due to the poor sound quality and have used Tidal ever since. Now I need to decide if I need both Tidal and Quobuz. I like them both at least I have a free month to figure it out.

@jond ,
Yes, very good selection on classical and jazz.
Listening to Cal Tjader right now.
Also listened to the remaster Sgt. Pepper album and heard things I never knew were on that record.
And, make sure you set the output quality. I have it on the highest level and am not experiencing any streaming issues. So, I guess, I can drop Spotify (though I do like the Discover tab), Deezer was nothing but problems. Only Tidal remains besides Quobuz.
Bob

Ok so far through three albums on Quobuz and loving it! I think the sound quality is a bit better than Tidal and certainly at least as good.  Jazz selections seem excellent thus far as well.

LMAO thanks mahler123 so I obviously let despair get the best of me! :p But there is a good outcome I read the comments above by you and gdnrbob2 and decided to email Quobuz CS. I got a response in under 24 hours they fixed my account and I am signed up as a beta user! Relative to experiences with Tidal CS this was first class service, now what should I listen to first!?

Don’t take it personally.  We still like you!

Wow so it sounds like I am now the only one who wasn't accepted?

@mahler, 
I had issues signing up, too. I had to do a password reset. 
To their credit, Quobuz responded in 2 days after a ticket.
If you can login to the web player, then go to your account and reset your password.
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Supposedly I was accepted, but app didn’t work, kept sending me back to the application page.  I’m having a bad IT month.  I’ll wait until it’s really launched to try again.  Right now just enjoying being able to listen to Bluesound after it was MIA for a months

They emailed me yesterday and I am now enjoying a month's free listening.
Sounds pretty good so far.

I opened up Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Reissue and heard things I didn't know were on the album.
Those guys were really pushing it to the limit.
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Ok it wasn't annoying at all to get another Beta Tester email from Qobuz today try signing up and get wait listed again!

@jond .
Now I don't feel so bad...😩
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nycjlee, when you wrote that when you tried streaming Tidal and Qobuz directly to the Ayre QX-5/20 via ethernet the results were the same did you mean the sound quality was the same or that the preference for Qobuz that you observed in the previous paragraph were the same?

I steam Tidal to a QX-5/20 via ethernet using Roon.  

I got the Beta email signed up and was also turned down. I guess I have to wait but it sounds very promising from what you Beta users are posting!

Finally got into the Qobuz BETA program in the US.
Music streamer: Aurender N100H
DAC: Ayre QX5/20
Setup the Qobuz account online and then on the Aurender. Tidal was already setup on the aurender.

I spent the last several hours a/b comparing Tidal with Qobuz and my conclusion is that I will be switching to Qobuz and pay the extra $5 dollars for hi-res access. Every song that I compared, in all genres, in my opinion was noticeably better and in some cases significantly better on Qobuz compared to Tidal. Also, Qobuz Hi-Res songs sounded better than the equivalent MQA songs on Tidal. In regards to the sound quality, Qobuz wins hands down in my opinion. The sound is fuller and richer, with better bass.  In terms of overall polish and stability, like searching for artist and suggesting playlists, Tidal is still better in certain aspects than Qobuz (Note: I wasn’t using the Qobuz app so it could have been the Aurender Conductor app not being stable for the Qobuz service causing these issues).
I also tried a/b comparing Tidal and Qobuz streaming directly to the Ayre QX5/20 via ethernet and the results were the same.
Qobuz is still a bit buggy (good thing they are still in beta), for example I noticed that some albums will show up in search results but you can’t play them (probably due to licensing issues in the US). I’m sure they will work out the kinks. I haven’t extensively look through the Qobuz catalog just yet but, I think their Jazz and Classical selections seem better than Tidal.

Overall: I’m pleasantly surprise with the the sound quality and service. I thought that the sound quality was going to be similar to Tidal, but in my opinion, it’s way better. In a revealing audio system, you will definitely easily notice the difference.

@davidpritchard 

Keep in mind that while I do use the Qobuz desktop app to browse, I'm using the 3rd party Qobuz plugin for controlling playback on the LMS server (I'm pretty wedded to the LMS ecosystem).  USB Transport in my big rig is a Raspberry Pi 3B.  I did test a bit using a direct USB connection from my macbook to my Vega DAC.

Impressions so far:

• Sound great!  I haven't tried to do any kind of A/B with Tidal.
• Tracks are in the correct order!  (A constant Tidal problem).
• Their classical selection is excellent but doesn't seem that different from Tidal.  They are missing some things that Tidal has and vice versa.  For example, they have new Chandos releases whereas all the releases that Tidal has are about 5 years old.  I'm only a few days in and will have a better impression of the selection after a few weeks.
• Search is better than Tidal, but Tidal sets a low bar.  You can search Qobuz by label, for example.  But you see some of the same problems, for example something not coming up because the conductor's name is not in the search data.
• The Qobuz desktop app is easier to use and browsability is much better than Tidal (again, that low bar).  You can click on Display Track Details and get a sheet of info with hyperlinks that will display matching albums (e.g. Label, Composer, Conductor, etc.)
• However, the Tidal app on Mac is technically more sophisticated in that it allows you to connect directly to hardware rather than having the OS upsample everything (sampling rate manually set in Apple's Audio Midi Setup utility; has Apple fixed this dumb thing yet?)
• At least for classical, their default listings for genre and new releases are more informed than Tidal. Not all Bocelli and pretty young things.
• Again, metadata is more complete and useful.  You can also read booklet notes in the app.  I haven't done a thorough survey to see how many discs do have notes.
• I don't use playlists much, so haven't tried that yet.
• Most things marked as Hi-Res are only available in Hi-Res for download.  Qobuz is aware of the problem.  They really need to fix this before official launch or they are going to piss a lot of people off.  As it is, the "Studio" plan doesn't seem worth the extra money for some occasional hi-res streaming albums.  I'd get either the standard FLAC service or pay for the Sublime level that has discounts on high-res downloads, if you are into that.

They told me I wasn't going to be a beta tester and I have to wait with everyone else.
What nerve...
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daverz:

I look forward to your impressions of how user friendly Qobuz is, the audio quality and ease in setting up playlists and if will it automatically play similar music at the end of a play list.


David Pritchard

Just got my "acceptance" email today and am now playing Qobuz using thru my Squeezebox Touch using the Qobuz plugin for LMS.

I got the Beta e mail a few days ago and signed up but haven’t heard

Hi,

We can't comment on Roon just yet, but we are all big fans of Roon here at Qobuz US. We hope to give you good news at some point :)

Thank you,
Qobuz US

Hello 

You are now a Qobuz Studio subscriber! 

Your subscription is active until 2/2/19. 

It will be automatically renewed at the end of this period, but you can end it at any time on the page My Account > Unlimited Music

Unfortunately I canceled because I use Roon. Very disappointed 

Thanks for the link.
I put in my ticket.
I heard that people who visited the NYC show got a free offer to sign into the Beta.
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I just got an email from Qobuz:

--------------------------------------
Hi from Qobuz US,

You signed up on our website to be among the first to experience true Hi-Res audio streaming in the US.

The big day is finally approaching!

We are soon going to select our first open beta testers based on specific criteria.

Please complete the form below to have a chance of being selected as one of the first to experience our platform:
http://on.qobuz.com/Ym

We will notify you within a week whether you have been selected as a first-round beta tester or placed on our waiting list.

We look forward to seeing your responses!

The Qobuz Team

-------------------------------------------------

Among the questions on the form are "Products used", with things like Auralic, Sonos, Naim, etc.  Sadly, LMS/Squeezebox wasn't on the list, though LMS does have a Qobuz plugin.  I marked "Other" and put in Squeezebox Touch, assuming they wouldn't know what piCorePlayer is (I do still have a Touch, though.)  I hope the Qobuz plugin will still work with Qobuz in the US.

It is available now! I have but does not integrate with Roon. I have spoken with a knowledgeable person confirming this

@whatthe Read the above posts.

Signed up but can’t use. Seems not Roon able. Anyone know different?

Hi there, Qobuz is not yet available to the public in the USA but starting this month we will be launching an open beta. Watch online for a spot to sign up for the beta waiting list. You'll have access soon. 

Best, 

Qobuz USA

Thanks gdnrbob and David P. I too am looking forward. 

bander:
The normal and high-resolution version is not yet available in the USA. Paul Mcgowan of PS Audio has tried the high-resolution version and said it was clearly superior to Tidal. I am looking forward to listening to it.


David Pritchard

Nope, try to click subscibe and you'll see it is still in Beta.
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I went on their website which certainly makes them appear to be open for business. 

Still in Beta for the US. I opened an account but am still locked out.
It seems they gave free passes at the NY Audio show, those guys have access to Quobuz.
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