Tidal versus Qobuz

On the first try I did not find the booklet in ipeng, too. I had to update the LMS's qobuz plugin first. Now I can find the booklet as described above.

gert posted:

On the first try I did not find the booklet in ipeng, too. I had to update the LMS's qobuz plugin first. Now I can find the booklet as described above.

What Qobuz plugin version do you run? I am on V1.340, and my plugins are set to update automatically. So I hoped my software was up-to-date... Just in case I re-installed the plugin, and restarted the LMS on my QNAP (run in a container) -- but without any success. And did the same with LMS on my PC...  

Cheers,

Timo

I am not sure which of all 3 are necessary but in my case to make it work as R.K noted:

1. I activated a couple of “file view” plugins 

2. Updated the Qobuz plugin

3. Upgraded the firmware of my renderer (SOTM)

DrPo posted:

I am not sure which of all 3 are necessary but in my case to make it work as R.K noted:

1. I activated a couple of “file view” plugins 

2. Updated the Qobuz plugin

3. Upgraded the firmware of my renderer (SOTM)

 

Ah, didn't activate the file view plugins. Now I have done this, and it works nicely. Thanks DrPo! 

Having booklets with Qobuz is a great plus compared to Tidal.  With iPeng though, I am still struggling with the management of "My Favourites". The list is getting longer and longer. And without a Filter function, or at least ordering by album name, it is somewhat tedious to locate albums... 

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

I believe it does support hidef streaming.. but can’t confirm as my lowly rural broadband can only manage standard FLAC. Yes RPi connected to switch is fine... I use a second generation RPi and it’s fine and it transcodes as well

Thanks Simon. ????

Chag -

likesmusic posted:

Is there control point app for your set up that will also retrieve Qobuz sleeve notes, as distinct from the Album/Artist info?

Not that I am aware of.

Hi Chag, hi Simon,

I can confirm, that BubbleUPnP allow 24/192 streaming of Qobuz Sublime + subscriptions.

I can use two ways of streaming hidef music on my ndx

- via BubbleUPnP and lumin app, Bubble UPnP transcoding flac to wav

- without using BubbleUPnP via the App MconnectHD direct to ndx without transcoding Flac to Wave

Greatings vom Berlin

Wolfgang

Thanks Wolfgang. My earlier question was more directed to the new Naim streamer integrated Chromecast player whereas the common dongle allow only for 24/96 resolution. 

Chag - 

Wolfgang.. thanks... can’t wait to get Superfast broadband.... our village supposedly gets its new EO cabinets activated next month.

I have been very interested in the thread concerning Bubble, iPeng (of which I had never heard!)  etc. I am away at present but looking forward to improving on the Chromecast limitations on streaming to an ND555 when I get home. My question is rather defeatist: if it is beyond me, are there people out there who will do the necessary work for a fee? If so, how can they be found?

Timo posted:

...., I am still struggling with the management of "My Favourites". The list is getting longer and longer. And without a Filter function, or at least ordering by album name, it is somewhat tedious to locate albums... 

Indeed.. there is clearly in my opinion a product enhancement opportunity for the control points and streaming services... allow adding of searchable meta data to playlists. As I use Qobuz more and more (as it often sounds effectively the same as local cd rip streaming via BubbleUPnP if the same master... but there a lot of different sounding masters out there) I find myself creating more and more playlists.. some are even edited albums.. and currently searching and retrieving these ‘playlists’ as they grown significantly in number, is not as easy as it should be.

m.paul taylor posted:

I have been very interested in the thread concerning Bubble, iPeng (of which I had never heard!)  etc. I am away at present but looking forward to improving on the Chromecast limitations on streaming to an ND555 when I get home. My question is rather defeatist: if it is beyond me, are there people out there who will do the necessary work for a fee? If so, how can they be found?

It’s not hard if you follow the self helps on the web.. if not best reach out to a friendly neighbour with kids into tech.. I am sure they could sort...

But worth remembering there is a feature/bug (depending on perspective) on the new streamers that is preventing gapless on certain types of pushed media ... so BubbleUPnP can’t offer gapless with the new streamers... but gapless works well with the legacy streamers. I did hear Naim will look into this.

other than that is straightforward.. even automation works well (at least on the NDX) .. if set up correctly, when you start to push media to your streamer such as playing an album from Qobuz, and say your NAC is on CD or tuner for example, your NAC will automatically switch input to the streamer and play the Qobuz audio.. neat????

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Timo posted:

...., I am still struggling with the management of "My Favourites". The list is getting longer and longer. And without a Filter function, or at least ordering by album name, it is somewhat tedious to locate albums... 

Indeed.. this is clearly in my opinion is  a product enhancement for the control points and streaming services... allow adding of searchable meta data to playlists. As I use Qobuz more and more (as it often sounds effectively the same as local cd rip streaming via BubbleUPnP if the same master... but there a lot of different sounding masters out there) I find myself creating more and more playlists.. some are even edited albums.. and currently searching and retrieving these ‘playlists’ as they grown significantly in number, is not as easy as it should be.

I have found metadata and browsing to be the main weakness of internet streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal to the point that I have meanwhile cancelled my Qobuz subscription. I am mainly interested in classical music and I have tagged my collection after Composer, Work, Conductor, Ensemble, Artist, Period, Form and, of course, Album. I tend to browse my music according to

Composer > Work > Album

or sometimes

Period >  Composer > Work > Album

and

Form >  Composer > Work > Album

and these categories are not available in Qobuz or Tidal. It is a shame because they offer a vast collection of classical music but little means to browse it in a meaningful way. On the top of this, I have found Qobuz's technical service to be inexistent.

Fantastic response! I am learning from a pretty low base. The forum provides an irreplaceable service from people like Simon who provide their knowledge and experience for people like me. Thank you. I will have a go when I get back

Gratefully,

a sixty year old trying to learn!

Further, reminds me of President Macron’s vision of the future of the EU. I am definitely in one of the outer concentric circles. Unlike the EU, the people on the inner circle spend their time trying to help us out-liers

Yes, agree that the favourite and playlist management of Qobuz really needs to be improved, it’s hopeless after a hundred or so albums.  Wish J River would work with them so that you could set your own arbitrary views of arbitrary complexity. Or maybe the rumoured tie in with roon will improve things. It is still a great service though.

I agree, great service... I am sure it will evolve as they take onboard customer feedback... I would really miss it now if it were to disappear... I do think they are market leader in terms of quality combined with  depth of catalogue when you consider all genres. Now quality can match home streaming... now to focus on personal collection usability.

DrPo posted:

I am not sure which of all 3 are necessary but in my case to make it work as R.K noted:

1. I activated a couple of “file view” plugins 

2. Updated the Qobuz plugin

3. Upgraded the firmware of my renderer (SOTM)

 

I do not have the file view plugin installed, but could display the booklet anyway. So it seems not to be required.

nbpf posted:

I have found metadata and browsing to be the main weakness of internet streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal to the point that I have meanwhile cancelled my Qobuz subscription. I am mainly interested in classical music and I have tagged my collection after Composer, Work, Conductor, Ensemble, Artist, Period, Form and, of course, Album. I tend to browse my music according to

Composer > Work > Album

or sometimes

Period >  Composer > Work > Album

and

Form >  Composer > Work > Album

and these categories are not available in Qobuz or Tidal. It is a shame because they offer a vast collection of classical music but little means to browse it in a meaningful way. On the top of this, I have found Qobuz's technical service to be inexistent.

How sad that you have cancelled your subscription to Qobuz because they don’t present their collection in a way that you would have chosen.  Their music is arranged at least as well as cds would have been in a physical store. If you have reasonable intuitions about how their search might work it isn’t really that difficult to find what you want quickly. 

Wolfgang posted:

 

Hi Chag, hi Simon,

I can confirm, that BubbleUPnP allow 24/192 streaming of Qobuz Sublime + subscriptions.

I can use two ways of streaming hidef music on my ndx

- via BubbleUPnP and lumin app, Bubble UPnP transcoding flac to wav

- without using BubbleUPnP via the App MconnectHD direct to ndx without transcoding Flac to Wave

Greatings vom Berlin

Wolfgang

Wolfgang, Simon: how are you able to use the NDX as renderer in the LUMIN app? Whereas m-connect allows me to select NDX as renderer LUMIN (and for that matter, iPeng) does not ...

m.paul taylor posted:

I have bought an ND555. I had Tidal top spec on my NDS and the contract extended it to the 555. I have subscribed to Qobuz sublime so at present have both. I am thinking of ending the Tidal contract unless it serves a purpose not provided for by Qobuz. Can anyone tell me of a good reason to keep Tidal?

Stop! Don't do it! Keep Tidal!     (At least until you've watched the youtube vid below dealing with the "merits" of highres.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiZqYnd5g8M

Tidal is fully integrated. There may be fair reasons why Qobuz isn't. I was about to subscribe to the sublime service (attracted by how you could buy highres albums for the price of the equivalent mp3's.) I sent a question to Qobuz customer services about integration with Naim - no response. This is the lesser issue with them - the often stated poor quality of their customer service.

But more important is the issue of the validity of highres itself. In the video I've linked above a guy gives a fantastic, clear and fully informed analysis of the maths and acoustic realities of the issues (like the uncontested science regarding the hearing parameters of the human ear). He's a sound engineer. He explains how, when Philips set the 16bit 44.1 KHz standard for CD just before the '80's, they set the parameters of the standard up to the best optimum and not down to any market based compromise. He does this really elegantly drawing and annotating sine wave and audio signal graphs with his ink pen. Camera just on the page showing numbers, equations and theories like that of Nyquist (all of it comprehensible to the layman). No larger field shots like you often get on youtube of would be hifi gurus who prattle on coffee in hand trying to develop their brand.

likesmusic posted:

nbpf posted:

I have found metadata and browsing to be the main weakness of internet streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal to the point that I have meanwhile cancelled my Qobuz subscription. I am mainly interested in classical music and I have tagged my collection after Composer, Work, Conductor, Ensemble, Artist, Period, Form and, of course, Album. I tend to browse my music according to

Composer > Work > Album

or sometimes

Period >  Composer > Work > Album

and

Form >  Composer > Work > Album

and these categories are not available in Qobuz or Tidal. It is a shame because they offer a vast collection of classical music but little means to browse it in a meaningful way. On the top of this, I have found Qobuz's technical service to be inexistent.

How sad that you have cancelled your subscription to Qobuz because they don’t present their collection in a way that you would have chosen.  Their music is arranged at least as well as cds would have been in a physical store. If you have reasonable intuitions about how their search might work it isn’t really that difficult to find what you want quickly. 

It is not so much a problem of how their collection is presented, the main problem is how the set of albums that one has marked as favourites can be browsed. For classical music it is essential for me to be able to select a composer (say Sibelius), a work (say his violin concert) and see all albums that contain Sibelius' violin concert and that I have marked as favourite. This is easily done with my collection but apparently undoable in Qobuz. I agree that the Qobuz collection is vast and interesting but since I cannot browse it the way I like, I have been using it less and less. Hence the decision to cancel my subscription. 

@Drpo:

nbpf posted

It is not so much a problem of how their collection is presented, the main problem is how the set of albums that one has marked as favourites can be browsed. For classical music it is essential for me to be able to select a composer (say Sibelius), a work (say his violin concert) and see all albums that contain Sibelius' violin concert and that I have marked as favourite. This is easily done with my collection but apparently undoable in Qobuz. I agree that the Qobuz collection is vast and interesting but since I cannot browse it the way I like, I have been using it less and less. Hence the decision to cancel my subscription. 

But Qobuz does let you search your favourites for “Sibelius Violin Concerto” or indeed any other free text. You can do this in the ioS, OS x and Windows Qobuz apps for sure. You can similarly search all of Qobuz, or your offline library, or your playlists, or your offline playlists. Perhaps it is your chosen control point that does not let you do this, in which case it is unfair of you to criticise Qobuz for something that is in fact an inadequacy of your chosen 3rd party control point/server.  Furthermore playlists offer interesting possibilities of organising your music, because unlike albums you can choose the name and the order.

@Wolfgang: this is the problem, in my case when I tap “select a LUMIN” NDX is not available to select it. Is there a setting in either LUMIN app or NDX I am missing ?