Author Topic: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial  (Read 30128 times)

Offline shadowlight

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Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« on: September 15, 2018, 05:27:10 PM »
In case anyone here wants to try Qobuz for free.  You can now register for streaming in US using "CEDIA2018" code.  The code was posted on Roon's forum.  Gives you access to Sublime+ subscription which includes 24bit 192Khz streaming for albums that are available in that format.  For the Roon users integration between Roon and Qobuz is likely to occur before end of the year according to https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2018/09/08/cedia-2018-qobuz-usa-launch-roon/

Once registered go under your profile and select "I have a gift code"


« Last Edit: September 15, 2018, 05:31:33 PM by shadowlight »

Offline richidoo

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2018, 06:25:06 PM »
Thanks for the tip Deepak!

How do you play Qobuz before Roon integration starts? Does it have its own app? (duh, it must,...)

btw Do you or anybody ever experience the Tidal delay between pressing play and when the song starts, 5-10, even 20 second delay? Tidal has admitted buffering problems which I don't expect to ever be fixed. But I am wondering if anyone else here has similar experience. Only a few have complained on Roon forum about it.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2018, 06:28:12 PM by richidoo »

Offline shadowlight

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2018, 07:20:39 PM »

How do you play Qobuz before Roon integration starts? Does it have its own app? (duh, it must,...)

Couple of ways to play.  It has desktop application for both Windows and MacOS.  If your DAC is connected directly to a UPnP Renderer you have couple of options - BubbleUPnP and mConnect under Android and mConnect under iOS.

If your DAC is connected directly to one of the streamers like Aurender, Lumin, Auralic, etc you should be able to leverage the native apps for those devices to play Qobuz.

On mobile devices you can stream using Chromecast or Airplay (I think that is the equivalent service for Apple devices).

btw Do you or anybody ever experience the Tidal delay between pressing play and when the song starts, 5-10, even 20 second delay? Tidal has admitted buffering problems which I don't expect to ever be fixed. But I am wondering if anyone else here has similar experience. Only a few have complained on Roon forum about it.

No recent experience with Tidal.  I moved away from Tidal over to Deezer couple months ago.  I am trying Qobuz right now.

You can convert your Tidal / Spotify / Deezer / Apple / Pandora playlist using services provided by Soundiiz.

Edit: Forgot to mention Bluesound Node also supports Qobuz (I know couple of folks on AN use that for Tidal)
« Last Edit: September 15, 2018, 09:50:56 PM by shadowlight »

Offline Nick B

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2018, 09:16:56 PM »
Thanks for the tip Deepak!

How do you play Qobuz before Roon integration starts? Does it have its own app? (duh, it must,...)

btw Do you or anybody ever experience the Tidal delay between pressing play and when the song starts, 5-10, even 20 second delay? Tidal has admitted buffering problems which I don't expect to ever be fixed. But I am wondering if anyone else here has similar experience. Only a few have complained on Roon forum about it.

Yes, it’s a frequent occurrence. I’ve gotten used to it.
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Offline Emil

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2018, 04:51:43 AM »
Nice find, Shadowlight
Never had a buffering proplem with Tidal but then again I have it hardwired.

What i did find a bit annoying with Tidal was that I wasn't able to save entire albums to my favorites but only individual songs.
What did piss me off was my entire favorites was mysteriously wiped clean.
Wo was me :lol:

How is Qobuz comparing to deezer?
"Today I didn't even have to use my A.K.
I got to say it was a good day"
    --Ice Cube

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2018, 08:27:27 AM »
No worky >>>

"Hi,
It seems like there's a problem. Your code isn't working.
Please contact us at society@qobuz.com so that we can fix this."

Offline richidoo

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2018, 08:54:43 AM »
Thanks for all the good info!

Qobuz.com says it's not available in my country. :(  But I assume it is available in your country... ;)

I use a sms200 which hosts a BubbleUpnp server. Are you saying can I use Qobuz windows app to beam obuz stream to my Upnp server? And same with some other Android Upnp app on my phone can play Qobuz to Upnp also?

Ever try foobar2000 as UPnP client? I think of it as a file player, but can it control internet streams like Qobuz?
Thanks,
UPnpNoob

Offline shadowlight

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2018, 08:55:10 AM »
I have not been able to do a apples to apples comparison of the sound quality, since I use HQPlayer.  With Deezer I have to use Chromecast SPDIF connected to SPDIF to USB converter to get the music to HQP, while for Qobuz I can use any of the UPnP clients like BubbleUPnP and/or mConnect.

Both have large selection of music that I like to listen to World, Jazz, 80's/90's music, Blues, Big band and some classical (just trying it out since Qobuz has such a vast collection).  To my ears Qobuz sounds slightly better but I am not sure how much of the that is due to me using Chromecast for Deezer. 

The one advantage that Deezer has over Qobuz is how it works with my listening pattern better.  Deezer has what they call flow which is based around your favorites and you created playlist.  They will play similar songs from their catalog.  The downside for Deezer which is huge is that they make it very difficult to integrate with your two channel setup.  All of the devices that support Hifi are more consumer based (Alexa, Google Home, Yamaha, Sony receivers, etc).  I have been bugging them to make their API's for hifi available for folks to write additional software but so far no such luck.  None of the mobile clients have hifi support so the only way to listen to hifi for Deezer is if you use their desktop application which is in beta state or you use one of the consumer product which do not integrate that well with my setup.

Qobuz is completely opposite to Deezer.  All of their API's are published and anyone can write the front end to access their catalog, which helps with integration.  You have just about any streamer out their that has built in client for Qobuz regardless of the cost associated with the streamer, from lowly Logitech Media Server with Touch or Rpi running LMS to Bluesound, Aurender, Lumin, Auralic, Devialet (sp?), etc.  That options makes it very easy to integrate in your main rig setup.  Since, I was already using BubbleUPnP and HQPlayer Embedded as UPnP renderer, it literally took me 15 seconds to get Qobuz up and running.  All, I needed to do was enter my account information for Qobuz in BubbleUPnP and I was up and running.  The other advantage that Qobuz has is if you like an album you can purchase it as flac file at discounted pricing depending on the subscription tier.  For example, one of the album that Tom had posted in the what are you listening to thread was "Love Is Here to Stay by Tony Bennett and Diana Krall" you can purchase that album in 24bit 96kHz format for 10 Great Britian Pounds or Rimsky-Kosakov Scheherazade, Op. 35 for 10 GBP.  The only reason for the GBP is due to my account being tied to UK based services.  My assumption is that pricing will be similar in dollars once it is officially rolled out, since I have seen similar pricing for Euro.

I have been in communication with David Solomon who is one of the main guy trying to get Qobuz deployed in US (same guy who provided the license for the Oct. 27th event) and they plan to add the Deezer type of "flow" functionality in the future once they have US rollout completed.

So what I am doing is I listen to Deezer on the phone leveraging flow and add any song that I like to a playlist, convert that playlist to Qobuz using Soundiiz, which helps me around the flow issue and listen to the same music in the basement.  If Deezer does not release the API or start integrating better with streamers I will most likely not renew my subscription once it is up for renewal.  If they do I might keep both, since there are instances where one service has. 

For folks who have Bluesound you guys might be in the best position to do a head to head sound comparision, since all three service is supported on the device.  If Bluesound allowed me to send the stream to UPnP renderer I would purchase it in a heart beat, just so I can integrate with HQPe better for both Deezer and Qobuz.

Sorry, for the lengthy rambling post.

Offline shadowlight

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2018, 08:57:34 AM »
No worky >>>

"Hi,
It seems like there's a problem. Your code isn't working.
Please contact us at society@qobuz.com so that we can fix this."

Couple of folks posted on the Roon forum that the code worked for them.  Could it have expired  :duh

I will reach out to David @ Qobuz to see if he is willing to provide eval codes.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2018, 09:01:11 AM by shadowlight »

Offline shadowlight

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2018, 09:07:28 AM »
Thanks for all the good info!

Qobuz.com says it's not available in my country. :(  But I assume it is available in your country... ;)

I use a sms200 which hosts a BubbleUpnp server. Are you saying can I use Qobuz windows app to beam obuz stream to my Upnp server? And same with some other Android Upnp app on my phone can play Qobuz to Upnp also?

Ever try foobar2000 as UPnP client? I think of it as a file player, but can it control internet streams like Qobuz?
Thanks,
UPnpNoob

Rich, I will drop email message to David @ Qobuz to see if he can provide us with eval code to try.

If your SMS200 is hosting BubbleUPnP server you are most likely using the Lumin app on your phone.  If that is the case yes, you can configure Lumin app to send the stream to UPnP renderer.  The answer to your question about Android UPnP app sending the stream is correct.  I have tested both BubbleUPnP and mConnect app under Android and mConnect on iOS devices.

I have not tried foobar but if it has plugin to integrate with Qobuz you should be able to stream to any UPnP streamer.  Currently, UPnP support under Qobuz desktop app is unstable so I would not rely on it, but the Android and iOS devices with UPnP controller work just fine.

Offline richidoo

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #10 on: September 16, 2018, 11:04:58 AM »
OK that's cool thanks. I might play around with it. I'd like to ween off Tidal.

Offline shadowlight

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #11 on: September 16, 2018, 11:49:54 AM »
OK that's cool thanks. I might play around with it. I'd like to ween off Tidal.

Email message sent.  Since Qobuz, is the official streaming provider for RMAF, CAF and NY Audio Show we might see similar codes to CEDIA in couple of weeks around the show timeframe.

Offline shadowlight

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2018, 01:40:48 PM »
Still waiting for a response back from David @ Qobuz on potential eval codes.  I will ping him on Friday.

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2018, 05:59:46 AM »
I will just wait till they go Full blown US offerings, supposed to be this year.
I refuse to use Tidal. Period!

Offline Nick B

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Re: Free Qobuz 3-Month Trial
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2018, 07:12:56 AM »
I will just wait till they go Full blown US offerings, supposed to be this year.
I refuse to use Tidal. Period!

Just curious....what’s the problem with Tidal?
Orchard Starkrimson Ultra amp
Supratek Chardonnay preamp
JMR Voce Grande speakers
Border Patrol SEi dac
Holo Red streamer
Hapa Aero digital coax
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TWL Digital American II p cord
Audio Envy p cords
Roon, Tidal, Qobuz
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