Qobuz or not

So yes, here in Canada audiophiles are pretty stoked to finally be included in countries that can stream Qobuz. I never really wanted to stream, but hey I am trying out the 30-day free trial just for fun. Full disclosure: as an obstinate non-streamer, I naturally chose Origin (especially since nothing interested me in the world of streaming, except maybe Qobuz before it was available here. Still, what the heck, might as well see what it’s like. And, yes, I have albums Qobuz doesn’t have, and vice-versa. Bottom line though…I don’t think it sounds as good as AO. Note: I am using the free-standing Qobuz, and I am unlikely to spring for a Qobuz subscription plus an Audirvana Studio subscription. And, to me, my 11,000+ personally owned albums will probably satisfy pretty much all of my needs. I’m not going to listen to all of the Qobuz collection (impossible), but I’m not going to listen to all of my own collection either. Question though…it doesn’t sound as good as AO, right?

It depends on your taste and the genre of music you listen to. If you listen to a variety of genres of music and always want to update new songs. The use of music streaming services will answer the problem in this regard.

or if you really want to own that song or album And you have a solid favorite genre. Listening through your collection is good.

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I have a subscription on Qobuz, a huge local library and Audrivana Origin (amongst several other players).
Qobuz is used by me to discover new releases, music I don’t know (yet) etc. etc. For that I use the Qobuz app (and sometimes also still Audirvana 3.5 which I also still have).

If I really like music from Qobuz I simply buy it online (from Qobuz, Bandcamp, HDTracks etc.) and download/add it to my local library (call me a hoarder :grinning:).

Qobuz is for me in the first place a really nice tool to discover new music and (for my use case) well worth it’s subscription.

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That’s interesting, AndyLubke. I might keep Qobuz just for that purpose. Do you use it to play music, or just browsing new artists/albums and purchasing?

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I use the Qobuz app for playing music as well. The sound quality is a little bit less than Audirvana, but it still sounds better (especially with high resolution tracks) than Tidal/Spotify in my opinion.
Since I still have Audirvana 3.5 I use that version regularly as well to play Qobuz. In that case I use upsampling (to DSD256) and that sounds really good in my ears. But, as said, if I really like albums I buy them and add them to my local library.

Of course I could take a subscription to Audirvana Studio and use Qobuz in there, but in my use case I don’t think it is worth it since I already have Origin and 3.5.

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Andylubke: Hey, thanks for that great idea. I’ve just dusted off my old 3.5 (which I haven’t used since I started AO) and got Qobuz up and running inside it, complete with 3 months free streaming courtesy of Audirvana. Enjoying the sound and all other benefits (hi-res tracks especially). Best of both worlds, I guess.

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And, essentially, do you think CD-quality albums sound the same if they are Qobuz streaming or part of your local 3.5 library? For that matter, do hi-res albums sound different in terms of Qobuz streamed versus 3.5 local library files?

Me too,
in fact Audirvana 3.5/Qobuz works better with my old MacOS High Sierra than AS which I tested recently.

Matt

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Did not compare Qobuz, but Hi-Res Apple Music through its native application sounds much worse than local CD files on Audirvana.

I think Qobuz Studio with Audirvana Studio is the best audio streaming experience. Yes, the quality is the same imo with few exceptions. Also their catalog has less titles than others. But why don’t you check yourself? I prefer to check with my ears and don’t count 100% on what others say. Has free trial. In some cases three months with Audirvana (one year subscription of AS).

Are you experiencing any error login with qobuz through Audirvana 3.5? Mine is telling me error login all the time now and I can’t login to my Qobuz.

Did you check to login to Qobuz directly without using Audirvana?

Matt

@matt Yes, I did and it is working just fine. In fact it Qobuz worked just fine with Audirvana 3.5.50 up until 3 days ago.

This my approach that does not entail a subscription to any streaming service…

For music discovery I use Live Plasma: https://liveplasma.com (among other resources)

For music file purchase:

:notes: :eye: :headphones: :eye: :notes:

Not.

You do not need a subscription for music discovery.
With my Qobuz account (no subscription) I am permanently logged in in Audirvana 3.5,50. I can play every track free of charge for 30 seconds in full resolution and have all options for music discovery.

Matt

Then in this case, it is no different than any other High-Resolution music file retailer… So there is no imperative to see Quboz as one’s only source of high-resolution music files…

The full original resolution for music discovery with Qobuz I get only with Audirvana.
With the Qobuz app I get only MP3 for music discovery.
BTW, the Audirvana UI is much better than that of the Qobuz app.

Matt

The MP3 demo is enough to get the feel for the music… Ubiquity does not define quality… It’s my opinion that it is a social-psychological condition that has folks dependent on the ubiquitous nature of streaming of music…

Yes, but as I mentioned the UI of Audirvana/Qobuz is much better than Qobuz app.

Matt