Windows 10 + Qobuz = Getting There

Posted by: SongStream on 18 February 2017

Having ranted on a week or so ago about the issues with the Qobuz Desktop player, and their Window 8+ 'appy' thing not working at all with Windows 10, I thought as things have improved significantly this week I should update fellow forum members on the situation.  On the verge of reverting back to windows 7, with quite miraculous timing I received an email from Qobuz on Wednesday announcing out of blue a new player application for PC and MAC.

From the start I thought it all looked very pretty, a definite improvement there, but what kind of noise will it make, crackly awfulness, or sweet music?  Well initially there was some crackly awfulness.  I tried it on both Windows 7 and 10 using PCs in my office, and in WASAPI mode both suffered intermittent crackly moments, which appeared to coincide with brief interruptions in the download of the track, despite the fact it would have had enough of a buffer downloaded to play for a couple of minutes easily.

On arriving home that evening, I discover that happily Windows 10 and the DAC-V1 suffer no such crackly issues while track is still downloading.  Instead it had a different issue, which was after around 10 minutes of playing the sound would collapse in to crackly awfulness, really bad this time, didn't even sound like it was playing at right speed, like a scratched to hell 45 playing at 33.  Killing the program and restarting was the only was to get it back to normal, but of course only for another 10 mins. However, I knew I wouldn't be alone, and as the world of proper PC programs has clearly not been ignored by Qobuz, I was hopeful it would be fixed soon.

The player picked up an update yesterday, and has worked faultlessly since.  It nicer to use than the old one, certainly better presented, and finally sounds pretty damn good again, and all on Windows 10.  Hooray!  It also now supports Hi-Res streaming up to 192 / 24, which works really well, I know some may have broadband speeds that are not too compatible, but my 20 Mb copper arrangement doesn't seem to struggle streaming the big stuff at all.  The only minor gripe is that it outputs 24bit in WASAPI exclusive mode regardless of what you're playing, which for the most part is likely to be 16bit, but in this case I'll let them off, as that particular conversion probably won't do much harm, and I can't fault the SQ its delivering, plus every player I've ever tried on PC will not change between 16 and 24 bit according to what its playing, you always have to intervene manually to varying degrees, and I just cannot understand why.  

Posted on: 18 February 2017 by likesmusic

You do realise you can change the output mode, the bit rate, and the buffer size? If you click your account name in the top right of the screen, and then click the music playing tab you can alter the Output Device, streaming quality and storage.  And if you want a player that will change automatically from 16 to 24 bit, the J River Media Center will definitely do that if you set it up to do so.

Posted on: 18 February 2017 by SongStream

Thanks, 

likesmusic posted:

You do realise you can change the output mode, the bit rate, and the buffer size? If you click your account name in the top right of the screen, and then click the music playing tab you can alter the Output Device, streaming quality and storage.  And if you want a player that will change automatically from 16 to 24 bit, the J River Media Center will definitely do that if you set it up to do so.

Thanks, yes I am aware of the setting, it just doesn't do anything other than limit the files it will stream, presumably for the benefit of those with bandwidth issues.  According to the DAC-V1 it's getting 24bit regardless of how that is set.  As for Jriver, I can't find any way to make it change automatically, I am on version 19 which a couple of years old, something could have changed perhaps.  

Posted on: 18 February 2017 by likesmusic
SongStream posted:

Thanks, 

likesmusic posted:

You do realise you can change the output mode, the bit rate, and the buffer size? If you click your account name in the top right of the screen, and then click the music playing tab you can alter the Output Device, streaming quality and storage.  And if you want a player that will change automatically from 16 to 24 bit, the J River Media Center will definitely do that if you set it up to do so.

Thanks, yes I am aware of the setting, it just doesn't do anything other than limit the files it will stream, presumably for the benefit of those with bandwidth issues.  According to the DAC-V1 it's getting 24bit regardless of how that is set.  As for Jriver, I can't find any way to make it change automatically, I am on version 19 which a couple of years old, something could have changed perhaps.  

Maybe something strange with the DAC V1 or it's driver - even version 19 of J River would send 16 or 24 bit appropriately. You need to check the settings - make sure volume control is disabled, no DSP, WASAPI .. J River shows the audio path so you can confirm your settings, and naims JRiver setup guide seems reasonable (though there is one setting I would disagree with). You could also download the latest version - its free to try for a month.  I notice that the V1 has it's own driver - are you using it? And when you run the bit perfect test, does it pass?