Qobuz

[Nick Armstrong]

In case you have an iOS device (or I assume Android) there's a Qobuz app that allows streaming on the move, and also allows albums to be downloaded for offline listening.

The quality for streaming and offline listening can be set at either MP3 or lossless in the app.

Cheers, yes, I'm using the Qobuz app on my iPad.

Presumably streaming on the move e.g. up the M1, is pretty heavy on data at best, and at worst not possible when the signal wanes or disappears. In which case the offline listening option (which I didn't know about) is useful. So I can download without paying extra? Must investigate further!

[jayne lee wilson]

Cheers, yes, I'm using the Qobuz app on my iPad.

Presumably streaming on the move e.g. up the M1, is pretty heavy on data at best, and at worst not possible when the signal wanes or disappears. In which case the offline listening option (which I didn't know about) is useful. So I can download without paying extra? Must investigate further!

You might want to look at this again....(it's a bit lengthy....)

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?16157-Streaming-revisited-losslessly

Just bear in mind that 1) You have to purchase hi-res downloads - albeit sometimes at a generous discount - to be able to stream them in Qobuz Sublime.
2) That they won't sound as good as the same files stored and played natively i.e off of your own drive or music player free of internet connection (Audirvana, JRiver etc...).
3) This applies to Qobuz HiFi lossless streaming versus downloads or CDs too, as I detail in the piece linked to above...
4) Using Qobuz in Audirvana+ works and sounds better than directly off the Qobuz site; user-interface is a lot nicer too.

[Stunsworth]

Presumably streaming on the move e.g. up the M1, is pretty heavy on data at best, and at worst not possible when the signal wanes or disappears. In which case the offline listening option (which I didn't know about) is useful. So I can download without paying extra? Must investigate further!

Yes, the downloaded music is 'stored' within the app.

[Anastasius]

Has anyone managed to actually find something that they are after in Qobuz? I find their search box to be a non-voyage of discovery. Perhaps they designed it in Reverse Polish Notation?

[jayne lee wilson]

Has anyone managed to actually find something that they are after in Qobuz? I find their search box to be a non-voyage of discovery. Perhaps they designed it in Reverse Polish Notation?

Sorry but I find it one of the best now, because it deals with the double terms I mentioned elsewhere recently, like "Enescu cpo" or "Bruckner Barenboim" etc...and if you look for a new release you can hit "newest to oldest" and so on.... how are you using it? Is your OS a few years old? That might produce problems in itself.... baffled I'm afraid, always works for me...

[Dave2002]

Has anyone managed to actually find something that they are after in Qobuz? I find their search box to be a non-voyage of discovery. Perhaps they designed it in Reverse Polish Notation?

Are you having a larf?

Bws Dave!

PS: I probably agree with you - indeed I think I may cancel a lot of my subscriptions. The money can go for other things.

PPS: Looks as though jlw has made it work for her, though. Perhaps it does have full Boolean expressions - something I've been crying out for elsewhere - as you know.

[Stunsworth]

What I tend to do is search the website on my iPad and favourite what I'm looking for. I find the website easier to search than the app.

I use Audirvana on a Mac Mini for replay and the favourited album(s) automatically pop up there.

[Nick Armstrong]

Has anyone managed to actually find something that they are after in Qobuz? I find their search box to be a non-voyage of discovery. Perhaps they designed it in Reverse Polish Notation?

I've not had a problem so far, I think I've found everything I wanted (except Hyperion recordings which I believe are excluded from this and other streaming sites as a result of company policy).

Most recently this morning, I wanted to hear the disc reviewed on Record Review (see separate thread re early music on RR):

Cifras Selectas de Guitarra
MURCIA: Canarios; Zarambeques; Marsellas; Preludio por la E; Passacalles por la E; La Azucena por la E; Los Impossibles; Baylad Caraoles; Passacalles por la B, a compassillo; Jacaras de el Torneo; Preludio por la cruz; Pasacalles por la cruz; Menuet; Zarabanda; La Jota; Marionas
SANZ: Jacaras; Canarios
Pierre Pitzl (guitar/direction), Private Musicke
ACCENT ACC24316 (CD)

I put 'murcia pitzl' into the search box on the app and 5 seconds later it was playing... There may be a knack of selecting the right search terms, but I find it instinctive.

[Richard Barrett]

I just joined, mainly because I wanted to have a download of the Quatuor Mosaïques late Beethoven set (which eventually succeeded after four interruptions) and thought that was worth signing up for a 15-day free trial. However I think I will be sticking around, the FLAC streaming quality is really quite good (though - maybe Jayne with her longer experience might confirm this - lacking in fine detail to my ears), certainly for trying things out before buying, and I've found acres of stuff I've been looking forward to listening to for ages. Clearly not everything is there, but more than enough is. Looking back over this thread it seems that they've put some effort into improving the system over the years.

[Nick Armstrong]

I just joined, mainly because I wanted to have a download of the Quatuor Mosaïques late Beethoven set (which eventually succeeded after four interruptions) and thought that was worth signing up for a 15-day free trial. However I think I will be sticking around, the FLAC streaming quality is really quite good (though - maybe Jayne with her longer experience might confirm this - lacking in fine detail to my ears), certainly for trying things out before buying, and I've found acres of stuff I've been looking forward to listening to for ages. Clearly not everything is there, but more than enough is. Looking back over this thread it seems that they've put some effort into improving the system over the years.

I agree with you, and I remain a faithful subscriber to the HQ service. I get a lot out of it. The sound quality I find pretty superb, beamed from the iPhone or iPad through the Airport Express to the big amp/speakers. Still seems like magic to me.

[jayne lee wilson]

I said this the other day....(on yet another tangential thread...)


[Since signing up for Qobuz hifi in 12/2016 - see link in #122]...
"My own behaviour has changed, (as I suggested it might...), insofar as I've come to use Qobuz HiFi more and more as a listening source, more akin to a radio station and a library, less as a buyers' guide and more as a listening pleasure. Especially since I love to explore whatever I'm into, so - with Chamber Music from Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn et al, it has been marvellous to roam about listening to so many different recordings for sheer musical pleasure, irrespective of potential purchase. I couldn't live without it now. But finally I did still want to buy some of them... which I did - mostly on 2ndhand CDs. But my actual purchases, whether of CDs or downloads, have certainly reduced because of the quality of Qobuz lossless streaming. (A good example would be the Marc Mellits String Quartets 3-5, which I enjoyed listening to very much, but not enough to spend more on buying them.. thanks to HQ streaming, I have listened to them now - and closely. Same story with the Haydn Op.20 from the Chiaroscuros...).
So of course I can easily conceive the possibility of falling in love with a newly discovered work or recording, but now, not feeling any compulsion to buy or own it. Which I probably wouldn't have said back in December.

Of course I already have a "Record Library" running to 1000s of CDs and 100s of downloads, so I can (emotionally) afford to feel very relaxed about "acquisition" or "library-building" now... and with Qobuz Discover for New Releases, you can listen instantly to almost anything which comes out, putting them into "favourites" for leisured contemplation, without agonising over "should I buy it?""
***

"...I think part of my own evolution this year has involved a bypass of downloads, as I move between streaming and CDs themselves. Part of that is due to my own perception of the sonic superiority of the CD over its streamed lossless equivalent (narrow, but infinitely variable of course, due to software and hardware quality - a well-built, well-maintained vintage CD-transport is a treasurable item), part - perhaps - due to the older pleasure of the held, owned, physical object. (Not to mention that longed-for, deleted-release, inconceivably-cheap package arriving par avion form Berlin, Paris, New York, Tokyo, or...)"

Just listening now to the Haydn Symphony No.6 finale (Heidelberg/Fey/Hänssler) on Qobuz HiFi and then the CD, I could easily hear the greater subtlety, of depth, focus and timbral colours on the CD. A naturalness, almost a "softness" which can make the stream sound just a little forced in comparison. But as I said before, listening to the lossless stream in isolation is very enjoyable in itself.

[freddie]

Well, the forum gremlins seem to have lost my old login details but ne'er mind.

I see that Qobuz have 'redesigned' aka mucked-about-with their user interface and what was a perfectly good user interface has now been rendered utterly pointless. Not only that but inadequate testing gives so many 404 errors. I really do despair. Why can't websites leave them alone?

Edit: I see that they have gone over to the 'no-one users a mouse any more' style of user interface as it's clearly been designed for someone to swipe on a smartphone. So if you have a mouse with a scroll bar then you have to scroll and scroll and scroll. Which, if like me you have arthritic hands becomes a sheer impossibility.

So...farewell Qobuz

[Bryn]

Well, the forum gremlins seem to have lost my old login details but ne'er mind.

I see that Qobuz have 'redesigned' aka mucked-about-with their user interface and what was a perfectly good user interface has now been rendered utterly pointless. Not only that but inadequate testing gives so many 404 errors. I really do despair. Why can't websites leave them alone?

Edit: I see that they have gone over to the 'no-one users a mouse any more' style of user interface as it's clearly been designed for someone to swipe on a smartphone. So if you have a mouse with a scroll bar then you have to scroll and scroll and scroll. Which, if like me you have arthritic hands becomes a sheer impossibility.

So...farewell Qobuz

This in no way relates to my experience using QOBUZ, and I use a mouse with one laptop (on which the touch pad has failed, following a recent Windows 10 update) and a touch pad with another. I rarely use a mobile phone for that site. I find no problem with either the standard presentation or the Web Player.

[Nick Armstrong]

This in no way relates to my experience using QOBUZ, and I use a mouse with one laptop (on which the touch pad has failed, following a recent Windows 10 update) and a touch pad with another. I rarely use a mobile phone for that site. I find no problem with either the standard presentation or the Web Player.

Oddly enough I accessed Qobuz on the laptop for the first time for a long while this morning. I did see a couple of mysterious '404' notices, but was more struck by how very much less easy it is to use than the application on iPhone/iPad that I normally use. (Maybe it's a question of browser - I was on Safari, which seems less and less good with various sites of late, I often have to switch to Chrome. I wonder what browser freddie was using).

But with the mobile version, no such problems - and the key advantage is that one prod of the thumb has the music coming out of the main hifi (via Airport Express): as far as I can see, this isn't possible with the laptop version. I still marvel at the new lease of life given to my big old speakers by switching (belatedly) to the iPhone & iPad bandwagon.

[Bryn]

Oddly enough I accessed Qobuz on the laptop for the first time for a long while this morning. I did see a couple of mysterious '404' notices, but was more struck by how very much less easy it is to use than the application on iPhone/iPad that I normally use. (Maybe it's a question of browser - I was on Safari, which seems less and less good with various sites of late, I often have to switch to Chrome. I wonder what browser freddie was using).

But with the mobile version, no such problems - and the key advantage is that one prod of the thumb has the music coming out of the main hifi (via Airport Express): as far as I can see, this isn't possible with the laptop version. I still marvel at the new lease of life given to my big old speakers by switching (belatedly) to the iPhone & iPad bandwagon.

I tend to use Firefox but will check other Windows browsers.

[Just checked Chrome and Edge. Same ease of use as Firefox. I wonder if we are making different use of QOBUZ. (I am currently using a mouse.)]