Will Qobuz be a game changer?

mcp1

mcp1

Well-Known Member
As timing would have it, while I was ripping my CD collection to a NAS over the weekend, I read a write up in Stereophile about Qobuz. I started thinking "am I wasting my time?"

If it was available to me today, I'd probably sign up with Qobuz. I think I could live happily with streaming music at 16/44 through my Sonos. Not to mention convenience (seems like work is leaving less and less time for music) and having a large library at my fingertips. I would only rip what wasn't available to me through streaming. Would CD quality streaming clinch it for anyone here?
 
From the looks of it, I can see it becoming popular. Some, myself included, have been waiting for a lossless streaming service for a little while now. If Qobuz came to America, many like minded people would be interested, too. As long as the price isn't too high, I could see myself using the service.
 
I have read that it costs around $30 a month. I will stick with the 320k services for that much of a difference in price. If it was $5 more a month, it would be easier to justify. There is also a service called WiMP that does something similar, but it isn't available in the US, either.

The good thing is that it is inevitable that services will make it here and eventually prices will drop.
 
I would happily pay $30/month or more for a service like that. The 320k services are OK for checking out an album to see if I like it enough to buy, but not for extended listening.
 
I have a mate who uses it but he's getting a but upset as he's found the French are charging us Brits more for the service if we pay in pounds than if we pay in Euro's! So as they are trying to force us to use pounds at an inflated exchange rate he's complained. Currently waiting to see what happens as EU rules state free passage of goods services etc. Going to wait and see before taking the plunge.
 
I'd gladly pay $30/month for 16/44 streams if and only if their library of songs/albums/artists was large and versatile enough to suit my musical preferences. I spend that much easily every month on new music anyways.

Having said that, it still wouldn't stop me from purchasing new music, especially the hi-rez stuff.
 
mcp1 said:
As timing would have it, while I was ripping my CD collection to a NAS over the weekend, I read a write up in Stereophile about Qobuz. I started thinking "am I wasting my time?"
Click to expand...
Personally, I would continue to put those albums on NAS. While I use Spotify and Rdio right now, they don't have all material and some of the music they have today could be gone tomorrow because they are always renegotiating contracts. Therefore, it is a moving target of what is in their collection.
 
trhee said:
only if their library of songs/albums/artists was large and versatile enough to suit my musical preferences.
Click to expand...

It's definitely got my curiosity. Hope it's not like HD Tracks, though.....they had very little of the music I was looking for.

16/44 with a catalog like Spotify, Mog etc. and I'm in like Flynn. :thmbsp:
 
At $30/month, it would be a more difficult decision...$20/month and it would be a no brainer for me. I hope they go live in the US soon.
 
Ive tried the free trial and compared adele 21 album copied to the hardrive from cd to qobuz flac version and the cd sounded better. Quality of sound is far better than spotify though
 
You guys must all have better systems than me. I wouldn't pay $30 a month for such service, given the availability of 320kbps music at much lower cost. A lot of CDs that aren't compressed sound crappy to begin with.
 
lico said:
You guys must all have better systems than me. I wouldn't pay $30 a month for such service, given the availability of 320kbps music at much lower cost. A lot of CDs that aren't compressed sound crappy to begin with.
Click to expand...

I do think you're on to something. At $30, it's going to be tough for a lot of people to justify the price vs the upgrade from 320kbps to 16/44. I don't know what the magical price point is, but I doubt it's $30...
 
mcp1 said:
I do think you're on to something. At $30, it's going to be tough for a lot of people to justify the price vs the upgrade from 320kbps to 16/44. I don't know what the magical price point is, but I doubt it's $30...
Click to expand...

I'd happily pay $10 per month for the service. $30 is a bit of a stretch though, in my opinion anyway.
 
...as long as I can cancel at any time just to give it a shot. If I had to sign a multi-year contract then heck no.
 
SWL3600 said:
...as long as I can cancel at any time just to give it a shot. If I had to sign a multi-year contract then heck no.
Click to expand...
I was looking into the pricing and a post on another site said it was closer to $40 a month if you don't subscribe for a year. However, The post was old and there is no telling what the price would be in the US.

Personally I don't think the difference between 320k and lossless is worth it for that price difference. I will probably give a trial, though. I have a hard time believing that it sounds much different unless they are getting better masters. I would rather listen to a well mastered 320 file than a badly mastered lossless file.

I should mention that I use lossless for my own music collection because it is superior for archiving.
 
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