I always found the Qobuz downloader annoyingly complex to use. I recall that I was only offered WMA once and eventually I found that it automatically chose the format it thought most suitable for the download platform, so WMA for a PC, and to change that you had to give it other instructions on almost the first screen you encountered. But it was possible to change it.
But this was the older downloader. I haven’t bought anything from Qobuz for months.
I rarely purchase music from Qobuz - my first experience was terrible. However, as I recall, in the past for lossless Qobuz offered a dropdown menu with several choices. There was no dropdown menu this time.
older webbased dropdown menu is gone - only the new downloader. And this app is crap. Hope they will fix it.
Had the same problem this morning. I downloaded the Mac downloader and it disappeared somewhere.
Then downloaded the hires track ( I bought only one track) and could have only Flac.
Unfortunately that album was not on Bandcamp, if not I would not go to the crappie Qobuz.
If you’re a Mac user Google “5 Free Ways to Convert FLAC to ALAC Effortlessly” the shortcut method works without adding any extra software, but you have to edit the meta data after.
got this response to my complaint to qobuz:
Hello,
Thank you very much for your message.
We are very sorry that you are having problems with your downloads. Our new Qobuz Downloader app has been launched but not all features could be found by our customers on the fly and partly the app has already been confused with the normal streaming app of Qobuz.
How to obtain Qobuz Downloader : Our ecosystem
(the third app on the page called “Downloader” is the right one)You can download in WAV and other formats with the Downloader App.
We have not removed this feature. Even if you have already successfully downloaded the app, here is the download instruction for your music again:
You will need to go through the website https://www.qobuz.com/:
log in to Qobuz - Sign up / Log in - Unlimited streaming and Hi-Res download store. and go to Qobuz - Sign up / Log in - Unlimited streaming and Hi-Res download store..
click on the “Download” button next to an album or a track.
then click the “Download with Qobuz Downloader” button.
If you haven’t downloaded the Downloader app yet, click “Download the app”. If you have already downloaded it, click “Open”.
select the format in the app (click on the format already displayed, most likely FLAC, to select another one) and click “add to queue”, then click “download” in the next window.
after downloading, you can find your album by clicking on the small folder icon on the right side of the download. It show the storage place on your device.
very confusing that they have a seperate “downloader” app to the desktop app. You have to have the downloader app running before you then login through the browser to qobuz, go to your purchases and choose download via qobuz desktop (which you would think means the streaming app, but doesn’t). The files will then appear in the downloader app and in my case i have set that to download .WAV files, and you then tell it to start download. very complicated, but it does appear to work in the end.
have you managed to download wav in hires in the correct format. I have done it exactly as described above on Friday. did not work.
furthermore there is no option of selecting the quality - e.g. CD quality
hmm. maybe not. just compared what i have just downloaded with the same album downloaded previously about 3 weeks ago. They are .WAV files, but they are smaller. its a 12 track album. Old download is 1.37GB, new one is 939MB.
There’s no compression on WAV so if the files sizes are different so is the music.
Have you compared the files in Windows Properties?
yes
left one is the 3 week old download track 2, right is tonight’s download.
I may have to try another album, as i notice the file names have changed so perhaps quboz has updated the file for this album over the last three weeks?
You should be able to view the audio properties. Failing that MP3Tag should reveal the bit depth and sample rate.
One must be at a lower resolution than the other.
do you know what app on windows i could use to confirm the bit depth/rate? I just tried the standard windows media player, but that only shows the same information shown in file properties.
ok, found a mediainfo webpage online where you can drop file to be analysed the old files are 24 bit. The new ones, which are listed in the downloader app as 24 bit, are actually only 16 bit!
mediainfo - is freeware
oops - seen last post too late
that’s what happened on Friday. 48/16 instead of 48/24…
a lot to do at Qobuz
The new, apparently double App system is just horrible. Previous was very straightforward. Why change something that isn’t broke? Only by reading this thread did I work out I needed to d/load a Downloader app as well as a Qobuz app onto my MacBook.
I’ve just d/loaded a new album in FLAC and WAV and the WAV files are smaller than the FLAC files!!!
The tracks cannot be identical then. You can have FLAC with virtually no compression but the equivalent WAV won’t be smaller.
this is because Wav is only 16 bit and FLAC is 24Bit.
