Qubuz feedback and membership Plan Suggestions

I've been using it for a few weeks and think it's pretty great. Sound quality is excellent and to my ears often better than Tidal.  The trick is the catalog ... there've been some tracks not playable but there which I think is a regional BS thing.  Hoping that goes away ... but for now believe it's a winner regardless.

On the straight experience part, it kills Tidal which is constantly throwing hip-hop my way and as much as I like the genre, I mainly listen to other things.  Qobuz is far more agnostic and offers some pretty excellent content along with the music. 

Any idea how the jazz catalog on Qobuz compares to Tidal?  I plan to sign up for the Qobuz free trial over the weekend.

@three easy,
I find Quobuz to be pretty complete. I also have Tidal.

So far, Quobuz seems to have a better catalog. And, sound quality is as good/better.
Classical is much better represented on Quobuz-almost as good as Spotify.
B

I haven't signed up yet because I'm repairing a speaker but I received an invite which stated that their complete catalogue will become available once it's offered to the general public.

It went online today in US. I just signed up for the 30 day trial.

The only glitch with the Qobuz trial so far is that this morning the glorious 24/192 Stones mono box set crapped out in the middle of Disc 5 and now produces an error message instead of music.  Hopefully they'll get their act together so I can move past 1965....

would you Qobuz users continue to comment on your experience please? I've been using Tidal for a couple of years; jazz and classical are my two most listened genres
Larry

@gdnrbob Thanks for feedback on Qobuz catalog.

Classical catalogue is way better than Tidal and Deezer. Qobuz has the same popular releases but much more in depth with lesser known recordings in addition to some of the great maestros from years past.

I'm still a bit concerned with the number of "Could not play the track. The cache must be corrupted." messages I'm getting. I thought they were just glitches in the Closed Beta version, but I'm still getting quite a few with the live, Free Trial version. I'm using a McIntosh MB50 as the streamer, which works flawlessly with other subscription services. Is anyone else encountering this?  

I have Spotify Premium so I understand that Qobuz Premium would be the same I assume and would have to go to the next HI-FI tier to get better sq at twice the price. I wonder how much better it would be?

I’m using free version of Qobuz thru a Bluesound Node 2i and Samsung Galaxy. No skips, minimal buffering, and fast access.
Tidal had constant trouble on 2.5 gHz.

Started a Qobuz trial today and really liking it.  Great jazz catalog and the hi-res catalog appears deeper and more of higher quality than Tidal.  For example Coltrane's "Blue Train" is available to stream at 192/24 on Qobuz and limited to 48/24 on Tidal.  Noted Burrell's "Midnight Blue" at 96/24 on Qobuz and 48/24 on Tidal.  We will see how things go but I may end up dropping Tidal.  Both integrate identically on my Auralic Lightning DS app.

@lowrider57 ,
I, too, am streaming Quobuz to my Nodes. Until last August everything was fine, but since then I have issues with skipping or repeating tracks.
I just found that some high rez tracks cause one of my Nodes to hang up or distort sound. Bluesound has been trying to find the source of the problem, but it seems to elude them. 
Have you noticed any issues like mine?
Bob

@gdnrbob, I only signed up on Feb. 14, I wasn't special enough to get an invite. 
I'm using the 16/44 service for the trial period with no issues. If you are using Sublime+, then maybe the hirez files are a problem for Bluesound.

I've run my Node 2i day and night since yesterday. It's performing and sounding great with a 2.5gHz router.

Does Quobuz include audiophile remix, reissues i.e. MOFI, Analogue Productions?

Since yesterday I’m noticing that some Qobuz titles (e.g. Stones Mono box, Springsteen on Broadway) that are shown by Roon as hi-res at 24/96 or above, are actually coming through at 16/44.1.

If the mix/remaster is average, then it doesn't matter how high the resolution is. Tidal, Deezer, Amazon Music, non of these streaming services offer the MOFI, etc... audiophile remasters. 

From a long time user of Tidal and a pre launch trial of Quboz here are my thoughts.

SQ is about the same.
Service and speed is about the same.
Levels and pricing about the same.

For rock music Tidal wins hands down!
Quboz did not have half of my saved Tidal albums in its catalogue.
Apparently Quboz is much better for jazz and classical selections, I don’t listen to those genre so can’t confirm.

I hear so many people criticize Tidal for its catalogue layout and search function. Again all I can comment on is rock and can honestly say I find it perfectly simple and powerful in use.

Just my 3 cents.

I like that Deezer offers the original recordings in addition to the remastered albums. I've seen this for much of the rock catalogue and some jazz.

@lowrider57 

I used Deezer for a while too and found their catalogue to be very comparable to Tidal for rock music.

However it had a lot of playability issues that were shared by some other members here as well.

So it was bye bye Deezer too......

I have been on Quobuz for about 3 weeks now and love it. I am surprised to hear folks are having playback issues I wonder are those just on hi-rez recordings? I am doing the Hifi tier my Dac won't do hi-rez and I am fine with cd quality sound. I have had no dropouts or files that won't play so far running it on the 5ghz band on my Auralic Aries Mini. I've basically just been playing jazz so far and love the catalog!

And that right there is the main difference as far as I can tell between Tidal and Quboz.

Rockers will want to go with Tidal for its far more extensive rock catalogue.
Jazz and classical seem to be much better served by Quboz.

And it likely just boils down to that.

I never could tell any difference in SQ between Tidal, Quboz or Deezer on 16/ 44 streams.

@uberwaltz, are you subscribed to the hirez Subime?

Lowrider.

I have always been on Tidal hifi tier at $20 which gives MQA masters.

On both Deezer and Quboz it was just the 16/44 tier.

However when comparing I always used same 16/44 albums.

Ok
Time to eat a big slice of Humble Pie!

Upon discussion with a friend who stated that Quboz 24/96 was superior to same Tidal MQA album I had to sign up again .
At least there is now a 1 month free trial.

And I concur.
Playing Stranger to Stranger by Paul Simon and the Quboz 24/96 is just so much better than the Tidal MQA version.
More body, more depth, just more of everything..

And while the rock catalogue still lags behind Tidal, they appear to have added a lot more rock since my last venture.
Looks like I may stay with the Studio tier after the month is up.

That's good news.
But I wonder how many hires files are actually offered on Qobuz.

24/96 or 24/192 are the common studio formats for recording and mastering, but it seems that the majority of files offered for streaming are still at 16/44.1 kbps.
Is it too soon to sign up for Qobuz Sublime, the hires service?

Honestly at least half of the albums I have saved on Quboz are hires at 24/ 96 and a few 24/192.
Apparently the word is they have listened and are adding lots of titles daily.

Will be monitoring it over the course of my free month membership.

I also signed up (Sublime tier) on the 14th. My focus is mainly jazz and so far I'm happy with their catalog, which sounds wonderful. Reports I've read online mention 170,000 hi-res albums. 

@uberwaltz
“Apparently the word is they have listened and are adding lots of titles daily.”

I hope you’re right! My album import from Tidal to Qobuz resulted in only about 60% being found in Qobuz :(   This would be a showstopper for me. 

My catalogue is mostly Blues, Folk, Jazz, Rock.

1markr.

I would say 60% was about right for myself.
But they have 1 month to go so will see.
And yes if a lot more rock is not brought in it will likely be shut off until they do improve the rock catalogue... or Tidal goes bust!

I had a chance last week, in a friend's system, to listen to Qobuz (Studio Plan) and Tidal (via Aurender)

I declined to be a beta tester and am holding off on a trial as well, though I will be signing up for Qobuz in the future. I also wasn't focused on sound performance differences, between the two services.

When I tried to pull up albums I'm familiar with (on Tidal) they were not available on Qobuz, as of last Tuesday. 

This was a small sample. The lack of availability did surprise me. 

I signed up for the Beta Qobuz Studio Plan and I have Tidal.  I'm 71, my music preferences generally span songs between 1950 and 1990.   I listen primarily to old school R&B/soul and contemporary jazz.  I also like some blues and soft rock.  I do not listen to today's "R&B" or hip hop noise, classical music, or hard rock.

Using Roon, I've been comparing "versions" of songs and albums.  I find that Qobuz has many of the same tracks and albums as Tidal, but for the "soul" music I listen to, Tidal has more.  When comparing Tidal MQA against Qobuz HiRes tracks of the same bit depth/sampling rate, Qobuz sounds a bit more "musical."

I like the Tidal playlists much more than what Qobuz currently provides.  Tidal's provided R&B/soul curated playlists (6 in total) fit my music preferences.  Qobuz has one R&B playlist with 39 tracks; it has one song by Aretha Franklin and no other artists that I recognize (or want to hear).  I realize Qobuz is still beta, so that may change. 

I've found that many (most?) Tidal MQA albums appear as Qobuz HiRes albums.  Some Qobuz HiRes offerings are 92kHz others are 192kHz, but they both use the same icon.  It would be nice if Qobuz used a different icon for 192kHz music and added filters for their different offerings.

For my taste in music, I prefer Tidal's offerings.  Tidal also offers a military discount, which makes it's price more attractive.  So for now, I'm sticking with it.

Is anyone using Audirvana Plus with Quobuz, if so how is that working out? 

For what it is worth, I've both Tidal and Qobuz UK.  Generally, I think the sound quality is better with Qobuz (tracks sound more musical). 

My musical tastes are broad - everything but Rap and Opera.  I personally feel that Tidal is a bit too Rap focused for my tastes. 

So far I'm not running out of good classical jazz or rock on Qobuz, but I think Tidal has a deeper and wider selection of music at the moment.  If I had to choose one over the other, I'd cancel Tidal simply because the sound quality and UI are better on Qobuz.

Question about Qobuz... what is the difference between the Studio and Sublime+ levels? I have a HiFi subscription which is CD quality, I'd like to move up to hires.

@lowrider57 they are the same but with Sublime you pay the whole year upfront and get discounts on buying software as well as other offers and discounts.

Thanks a bunch, @jond 

As of now, the Studio is $249.99/yr and the sublime is $299.99. $50 additional for the -  "Purchasing advantages,  Hi-Res downloads at reduced prices".

@lowrider57 A minor difference (or asterix) which might be of value to those unsure of their level of commitment, since the Qobuz service is new and new to them:

the Studio Plan allows for a monthly option (in addition to the discounted yearly option), whereas the Sublime Plan is yearly only. [As of now]

The upside of going monthly, is to have more time than the free trial allows for evaluation and an easier out (and smaller financial 'hit') since your cancellation ends the subscription at the end of the ’month’ vs the end of the ’year.’

Thanks, all. I'm having more fun on Qobuz than on Tidal and Deezer. And it sounds damn good. I'm finding some really good classical and the cross-referencing of artists seems to work well. So why not listen in hires?
I'll give the Studio plan a go.

I'm perplexed. Can anybody explain what's happening with my 
upgrade to Qobuz Studio?
   Albums and songs in the Qobuz app indicate hires rates, but when playing them in the BluOs app they all appear as CD quality.

I understand that favorites saved from the Sublime level will be CD, but all new hires music appears as CD on the Play screen. 

Am I missing something?
 

Not sure Lowrider.
I am using the Studio plan via the Auralic Lightning app and it shows the hires rates and plays in the hires rates.
When I had Bluos I only trilaed Quboz at cd quality.
Hopefully somebody can help

@gwbeers, ok thanks, that makes sense. 
What doesn't make sense is when I find new music and it says 24/192 on the album, I save it as a favorite and it plays back with the CD icon. This is in the Bluesound app. 

@gwbeers How do you like the MB50 as a streamer? Have you tried it as a preamp too? Thanks