The difference between Qoboz stream vs purchased songs


I am a admittedly noob, so please forgive my ignorance. Recently, have had the pleasure of getting a Innuos pulse mini, what a game changer! I knew that with the mini you cant buy music, only stream. Using Qoboz, is there’s a difference in sq between the two? I live on a fixed income so I have to be frugal and am trying to figure out where it’s best spent. Thanks so much for any info on this subject.

128x128gkelly

@fredrik222 Interesting thread  It appears Quobuz is using a either a network  protocol or an application technique that will try to dump as much data down initially (which probably works really well for short pop & jazz songs) allowing an instant start of the song and then giving a slower network the time to download the rest while playing the beginning of the song.

For most pop songs, it's seems like that initial chunk may contain the entire song.

It would be interesting to see what happens if he tried to play a long song to see if the data rate stays high even after playing the song starts.

@cleeds 

Interesting.  Do you have any way to share that test?  Because based on what I'm seeing on my own, I don't see an issue with Qobuz;  quite the opposite.

As to the original poster, I have a natural tendency to want to own songs and music I really like.   Yes, I still pay for streaming too, primarily because I like to discover new music (their newsletter is handy for this), and Spotify is great in the car and on my phone because of the vast amount of music available, since the fidelity is more than enough to support listening even on a good car stereo.

Heck, I've gotten into about 4 or 5 musical genres simply because the music is readily available to listen to.

Do you have any way to share that test?

The first test I did is detailed here. It’s easy to do, so you can try yourself.

Because based on what I’m seeing on my own, I don’t see an issue with Qobuz; quite the opposite.

I have no issue at all with Qobuz, it works just about perfectly for me. I think it’s a great service.

@gkelly - I'm a big fan of your dancing!

We all have to make our own decision about sq and how important it is to us.  The bigger question with streaming is how important permanence is to you.  Several responses argued against spending money on downloads, because there's always so much available through streaming - treating music as a consumable.  Several argued in favor of buying music to which you would not want to lose access. 

How would you describe your relationship with the music you stream?  If it truly moves you, buy it!  Don't give them a chance to take it away from you.  The artists will be grateful, and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you've contributed more than a fraction of a penny to their art.