Qobuz Sublime revisit

I went for a sublime subscription last year for much the same reasons you mention above. Although I have not been able to stream 24b to my 272 as yet (my server doesn't support Qobuz).

Even still it's been great value, Although I did manage to get it on a deal for about £160 for the year.

Haven't got a Sublime subscription, just the straight monthly sub (I got it awhile ago when their future was looking rocky - now they seem to be ok I should probably change to Sublime). It is absolutely wonderful, and incredibly good value. It will change the way you listen to music - you just have so much choice, it's like being given the keys to a huge record shop and being allowed to borrow anything you want. And because you can easily listen to new stuff, you really do listen - a bit like going to a concert - rather than picking the same old same old cd from a shelf. Doesn't mean you don't still love the cds or rips you own, but it's much easier to find new music to love now than in the old days of paying £10 - £15 a pop for something you might not like.

I went for a sublime subscription recently and think it's good value.  I'd been paying the HiFi subscription ever since it became available in the UK, so sublime saves me £20 a year on the subscription alone.  The fact that when you do want to purchase the hi-res versions are available for less than the CD quality versions is just great.  I only held off a while on the sublime subscription as they were 'rearranging their finances' when I first heard about it, but now they have the investment they needed, and have continued to offer a top notch service, so I have no issue with paying the full year up front.  

Are they offering any streaming (as opposed to download) at higher than CD quality yet? Gosh I wish Naim would add Qobuz support to their streamers.

Goon525 posted:

Are they offering any streaming (as opposed to download) at higher than CD quality yet? Gosh I wish Naim would add Qobuz support to their streamers.

Bizarrely you can stream HD stuff that you've bought and already downloaded. I can't figure that out either! Maybe if you are using Qobuz away from your normal server, or to your phone, it would be handy. You'd soon use your data allowance up streaming HD to a phone though.

Thanks for the replies. I am going to try it for a year. I have a few purchases and in the app/software click on purchases and they are all there to stream, I use the mp3 offline copies for listening in the car via iPhone app and bluetooth, and they sound great for the car. The 44.1/16 offline copies also stream via bluetooth but the phones capacity is small, streaming though via your data allowance takes a bit of a hit.

I'm keen on the HD streaming also, Qobuz has the entire Beatles catalogue as 44.1/16 as one example and I'd never buy all or any of their albums really but streaming them would be great. Same with Springsteen, Paul Simon and so forth.

I do buy a lot of 24 bit albums so this side will be great, some of the discounts are high, over 50% off, the new Hans Zimmer soundtrack is half price, some Stones also half price in 24 bit, so appears a good deal.

Although how you got the £160 deal HARTY601 was it an invite email?

likesmusic posted:

Goon525 posted:

Are they offering any streaming (as opposed to download) at higher than CD quality yet? Gosh I wish Naim would add Qobuz support to their streamers.

Bizarrely you can stream HD stuff that you've bought and already downloaded. I can't figure that out either! Maybe if you are using Qobuz away from your normal server, or to your phone, it would be handy. You'd soon use your data allowance up streaming HD to a phone though.

HD tracks are also now offering the ability to stream hires music that you have bought and I also don't quite understand why you would need to.  I'm about to test Qobuz out through its Audirvana integration, should be interesting 

The Sublime Subscription is high value for money. If you regularly buy you easily get the subscription back. I think I already got it back multiple time. The streaming is a bonus, while I am forced to also have tidal as Naim don't yet support Qobuz ....

Bert Schurink posted:

The Sublime Subscription is high value for money. If you regularly buy you easily get the subscription back. I think I already got it back multiple time. The streaming is a bonus, while I am forced to also have tidal as Naim don't yet support Qobuz ....

I'm with Bert - I think I've saved my subscription in the discounts I've got on purchases. I bought 4 albums yesterday for £30 - I know that CD is much cheaper - but I am careful with the purchases I make and I feel the improved quality (I know that is a bone of contention on other threads - but I'm happy to put any money where my ears are ) is worth the extra money. I also have a Tidal account because of the great integration with the Naim app. I use that a lot and if I find myself listening to the same album repeatedly on Tidal I will purchase it from Qobuz if it is available in a hi res format.

Dan - I heard about the 25% discount through the What Hi-Fi website (a UK hi-fi mag), I think it was probably when Qobuz were a bit rocky so they were trying to get the membership up - I took a punt that they would stick around and I'm glad I did. I've just had a google for Qobuz sublime discounts and you might find a 10% code - but I'm not sure if it's still valid. Definitely worth a google when you are ready to commit as you never know what might be available at that point.

dayjay posted:

I'm about to test Qobuz out through its Audirvana integration, should be interesting 

Will be interested to hear how you get on with that Dayjay.

dayjay posted:

likesmusic posted:

Goon525 posted:

Are they offering any streaming (as opposed to download) at higher than CD quality yet? Gosh I wish Naim would add Qobuz support to their streamers.

Bizarrely you can stream HD stuff that you've bought and already downloaded. I can't figure that out either! Maybe if you are using Qobuz away from your normal server, or to your phone, it would be handy. You'd soon use your data allowance up streaming HD to a phone though.

HD tracks are also now offering the ability to stream hires music that you have bought and I also don't quite understand why you would need to.  I'm about to test Qobuz out through its Audirvana integration, should be interesting 

I like having the option of streaming of my purchases and offlining them to playback later (I use mp3 mind for space) for the car and out of home playback, all HiRes plays 24 bit at home from the Masters on NAS/Melco.

Bluetooth handles up to 48/24bit on my iPhone via Liztic app, so will be interesting to see how 24bit streaming may work in the car for example, as the quality sounds pretty good even in the cars system.

For me the ability to browse non-purchased music in HD is attractive (if my WiFi can cope of course) plus those discounted HD purchases as Bert mention could get you back your subs each year fairly easily.

1 year subscription seems worth a punt, and thanks HARTY601 good shout having a Google as coupons seem to be available for all sorts if the timing is right.

Signed up for sublime, HARTY601 I found an online discount and have 1 year sublime running now. Downloading some 24 bit purchases, saved £15.00 on these at their main purchase price, but one 192/24 album I wanted was £6, hoping to download quite a few over the next few weeks.

Also wanted to try streaming of their catalogue for a 1 year to see how I got on, I think their HD streaming is for purchases only, so I guess I have a personal cloud of HD music I purchased to play in the car, on the go (data fees will be interesting to see how that costs in HD) iPhone would need a DAC though for in car 192/24 over bluetooth, can I even do this? Offline would be hindered by iPhone GB capacity mine is only 16GB.

Still initially seems a good deal, 1 year upfront subs, CD quality streaming for their whole library, 24 bit downloads discounted heavily and streaming of purchases in HD if required away from home system.

I've subscribed to Qobuz Sublim last July and think it is a great service. I've purchased approx 30 albums since then and saved approx 180 EUR because of the Sublim rebate (although I would have saved more if I hadn't bought that many albums in the first place, of course!). Plus, luckily, my Linn DSM can play Qobuz directly and I can also listen to Qobuz at work. So far, Sublim has been good VFM for me.

Dan43 posted:

dayjay posted:

likesmusic posted:

Goon525 posted:

Are they offering any streaming (as opposed to download) at higher than CD quality yet? Gosh I wish Naim would add Qobuz support to their streamers.

Bizarrely you can stream HD stuff that you've bought and already downloaded. I can't figure that out either! Maybe if you are using Qobuz away from your normal server, or to your phone, it would be handy. You'd soon use your data allowance up streaming HD to a phone though.

HD tracks are also now offering the ability to stream hires music that you have bought and I also don't quite understand why you would need to.  I'm about to test Qobuz out through its Audirvana integration, should be interesting 

I like having the option of streaming of my purchases and offlining them to playback later (I use mp3 mind for space) for the car and out of home playback, all HiRes plays 24 bit at home from the Masters on NAS/Melco.

Bluetooth handles up to 48/24bit on my iPhone via Liztic app, so will be interesting to see how 24bit streaming may work in the car for example, as the quality sounds pretty good even in the cars system.

For me the ability to browse non-purchased music in HD is attractive (if my WiFi can cope of course) plus those discounted HD purchases as Bert mention could get you back your subs each year fairly easily.

1 year subscription seems worth a punt, and thanks HARTY601 good shout having a Google as coupons seem to be available for all sorts if the timing is right.

 

I don't think you can browse non purchased music in HD can you?

Initial impressions on the Qobuz free trial are very favourable.  Very easy to set up, five minutes from start to Toris Amos playing and integration with Audirvana looks excellent.  SQ so far not as good as local streaming, although to be fair I haven't tried back to back tracks yet, but it's a huge step forward from Spotify.  Very easy to flick from Qobuz tracks to local tracks etc within the Audirvana remote control app.  Could well be a keeper

dayjay posted:

Dan43 posted:

dayjay posted:

likesmusic posted:

Goon525 posted:

Are they offering any streaming (as opposed to download) at higher than CD quality yet? Gosh I wish Naim would add Qobuz support to their streamers.

Bizarrely you can stream HD stuff that you've bought and already downloaded. I can't figure that out either! Maybe if you are using Qobuz away from your normal server, or to your phone, it would be handy. You'd soon use your data allowance up streaming HD to a phone though.

HD tracks are also now offering the ability to stream hires music that you have bought and I also don't quite understand why you would need to.  I'm about to test Qobuz out through its Audirvana integration, should be interesting 

I like having the option of streaming of my purchases and offlining them to playback later (I use mp3 mind for space) for the car and out of home playback, all HiRes plays 24 bit at home from the Masters on NAS/Melco.

Bluetooth handles up to 48/24bit on my iPhone via Liztic app, so will be interesting to see how 24bit streaming may work in the car for example, as the quality sounds pretty good even in the cars system.

For me the ability to browse non-purchased music in HD is attractive (if my WiFi can cope of course) plus those discounted HD purchases as Bert mention could get you back your subs each year fairly easily.

1 year subscription seems worth a punt, and thanks HARTY601 good shout having a Google as coupons seem to be available for all sorts if the timing is right.

 

I don't think you can browse non purchased music in HD can you?

I think you are right, it appears to be for your HD purchases only, the app unlocks the options to tick up to 24/192 for streaming two ways, on a mobile network or on your WiFi. So far I am doing this for purchases, although a bit of a mute point at home as they are all stored locally on the Melco also, but it is good to try all the options to see what can be done and tweaked a bit.

The MP3 320kbps versions stored offline on the iPhone sounded pretty good bluetoothed to the car stereo on my journey down the motorway tonight.

Trying all streaming options from Qobuz library tomorrow.

Ok, there is a setting in Audirvana which limits bit rate which was set at 24 and which appears to have been outputting to my Hugo at 24 bit so I assume it was up sampling. Any way I have set this to 16 bit and sq is suddenly much better.  Very impressive in fact, as it the fact that even the albums I thought would be obscure, early Blackfoot etc, appear to be all there.  Moving from a local track to a streamed track is flawless.  Damned impressive.  I've got 15 days to test it out and I intend to hammer it but I can see me continuing with this even if just to check out new music and use on the move on my phone.   

Using Bubble UPnP on Android playing back to 272, FLAC 44.1/16 and so far sounds very good. I do need to do some tweaks but all playback fine. Has anyone found a better way to deliver Qobuz to NAIM 272 or is Bubble UPnP pretty much it?

So far so good though. Plus downloaded 5 x HD albums on discount. 

Having a curious time with the manner in which Qobuz has named their files when downloaded. Double digit text and odd naming convention, like this :

01-01-Interpretes_Divers-Beautiful_Lie-SMR.wav  

so various performers as artist but the whole metadata throws the UPnP into a spin and tracks get listed as all sorts like 

Beautifull.SMR

Or alphabetically or just random 01-01, then 01-04 not in any sequence, scratching head will play with it all later.

Reluctant to change manually as it throws the tagging out and size of file overall, plus I don't want to covert to FLAC and back to WAV to retain correct naming structure. Perhaps just download them as FLAC and see if this retains the proper naming. 

Wonder why Qobuz has issues with WAVs? This happens when using MinimServer as WAV appear to unpacked to an incorrect file size and minim won't recognise them, as FLAC they are all fine? Curious.

I've downloaded loads of albums from Qobuz. While the files are named as you describe, it's the metadata that determines how they are displayed by the server, and they have all been perfect. But then, I use FLAC. FLAC transcoded to WAV is the way to go in my book. It sounds exactly the same (to me at least) and there are infinitely fewer metadata issues. 

Once you have paid for a Qobuz album you can download it as many times as you like from your account, so just download the offending album in FLAC and see if it's ok. Then set Minim to transcode and compare the transcoded FLAC to the WAV version and see if you can hear the difference. 

dayjay posted:

Ok, there is a setting in Audirvana which limits bit rate which was set at 24 and which appears to have been outputting to my Hugo at 24 bit so I assume it was up sampling.

If you uncheck this setting, it outputs at 32 bit (at least it does with my 2Qute, presumably because he USB interface establishes what the optimum bit-depth is and the 2Qute says "32 bit please"). You should be able to check what is being output to the DAC (i.e. sample rate and bit depth) from the information displayed in the top left hand area of the Audirvana window.

I have it set at 16 bit and the window in Audirvana shows it is being output at 16 bit, however, in the remote app on some albums it is showing it as 24 bit.  A bug for Damien perhaps

That's interesting. Last time I was in that area there was just a checkbox that when checked limited the output to 24 bit. I always though it a bit odd that Audirvarna wasn't sending a "bit perfect" output to the DAC, it would either be 24bit or 32bit, regardless of the source file, depending on how this checkbox was set. I'm away from home at the moment and can't check but maybe I'm behind on new releases.

Just got around to playing a local version of a song back to back with the Qobuz version - the song was I'm a Mess by Ed Sheeran which is a good recording my son and I know well.  The local version has a little more air between instruments and a little more emotion perhaps and sound a little reader but it is pretty subtle.  I'm not sure a random visitor would detect a difference which is pretty impressive in my view 

Hungryhalibut posted:

I've downloaded loads of albums from Qobuz. While the files are named as you describe, it's the metadata that determines how they are displayed by the server, and they have all been perfect. But then, I use FLAC. FLAC transcoded to WAV is the way to go in my book. It sounds exactly the same (to me at least) and there are infinitely fewer metadata issues. 

Once you have paid for a Qobuz album you can download it as many times as you like from your account, so just download the offending album in FLAC and see if it's ok. Then set Minim to transcode and compare the transcoded FLAC to the WAV version and see if you can hear the difference. 

Thanks HH. Yes that is true with Qobuz and will download as FLAC also to see. Just wondered why the metadata looked so utterly random, but the server in this instance (Twonky) is probably the culprit. Its odd how in a single album nearly all the individual tracks presented by Twonky are all different as metadata, still back to Minim and FLAC conversion to see, thanks again.