Of course you can purchase music from Qobuz as well - they have a good online hidef download service, and have had quite good promotions in the past
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I think you just have to try a few Qobuz purchases from their website and see how you feel, you could then run them through some analysis software if you wanted to (eg Audirvana Studio to see if the file aeems to be a genuine hi-res one, or Roon to give a numerical dynamic range indicator) though ultimately these donāt necessarily mean anything sound better with better āspecsā.
The streamed track at a particular quality (CD or hi-res) is likely to be near identical audio wise to the downloads, though as usual we could debate SQ of internet streams vs local files/NAS playback from Qobuz or anyone else.
Qobuz allows unlimited redownloads in a variety of formats via their desktop helper app - the web download system used to have more options and has been simplified for the worse in my view. From the web download pages though you can get very hi-res artwork you wonāt currently with the app. If you buy hi-res you could choose to download CD quality and a hi-res version (used to give you several options up to the purchased hi-res quality) for different purposes.
Qobuz sales can be good though the same material often pops up time and time again.
If you really enjoy Qobuz download then the Sublime subscription really gives a hefty saving on many but not all purchases (notably CD quality).
Fair to say Iāve tended to use Qobuz to audition new music/old music now available in hi-res, and from there often purchase things I like or donāt have otherwise on CD or have in older lossy download forms.
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Thanks @Simon-in-Suffolk and @Alley_Cat . I have previously purchased from Qobuz and have in fact bought a few Nick Cave download albums today. I am in the process of downloading them and copying to Roon rock.
Yes, it is great that you can then download as many times as you like in whatever quality you wish dependant upon the max quality purchased.
Is there a way to set Roon to show the DR? It only appears to work on my cd rips.
I have until mid August left on my Qobuz studio subscription and explored sublime. I could not see a way to have it start at the end of my current subscription and so I contacted them to ask the question - they will reply within a week!
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I donāt currently use Roon but when you added local files on an attached or networked drive to your library it would gradually scan all the titles from those physical locations (which might take quite some time if you add a lot at once especially over wi-fi), and eventually it would display the dynamic range over the thumbnail for the track/album.
I donāt think thereās any way for it to do this pre-purchase with internet streams.
Qobuz support can seem a bit laid back, which I think is largely cultural (donāt think theyāre support team are in on Mondays).
They generally sort things out to your satisfaction though.
I think they would probably allow you to upgrade to Sublime immediately if you wanted to with a pro-rated refund on the remaining months until August. Iād be surprised if they would offer a free trial with the discounts available, but you never know as it might work for them even if you immediately bought a 1000 albums discounted as theyād have cash in hand even if you reverted after the trial if you see what I mean.
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Hi, my downloads from Qobuz including hidef on Roon are showed with a DR number. I think Roon does the analysis when it parses the file and loads into your database.
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Thatās what it used to do when I used it. It could take a while if you added a location with several hundred GB of downloads, especially on slower network storage devices as it would have to read the whole of the audio data to do this. It was quite a useful feature, though surprising how many albums didnāt have great dynamic range.
For an album I think it probably showed the lowest DR of all the tracks if individual ones were higher but canāt quite remember.
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Yes, I will just have to be patient and wait for their response. I think sublime will cost Ā£179 a year which I am happy with especially as I now intend to purchase rather than just stream. Studio is Ā£129 so I would be happy whichever way they do it as long as I donāt waste my existing subscription.
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Many thanks as always Simon for the very clear explanation and screen shots.
I copy files from my laptop to my Roon rock internal storage over the network so it is quite slow. On reading your explanation of how Roon analyses files I remembered that I had disabled something in settings. Sure enough I had disabled the track analysis. A quick analysis later and DR data is indeed now present.
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A very quick analysis but this seems to support your theoryā¦ The album has a DR of 9 but this track as a DR of 10.
I found this information by clicking on the 3 vertical dots to the right of the track informationā¦ā¦ā¦
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I think youād probably be able to āupgradeā to Sublime via My Streaming Plan in your web based account settings - thereās a Change Plan option there:
I cannot believe theyād not ask for confirmation of a different plan selection before charging for it.
Fairly certain Iāve done this before, but Iāve always had Sublime, but possibly originally with CD quality streams only though all the Sublime benefits.
I think Sublime was around Ā£279 originally for CD quality.
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Yes, thereās a setting to enable/disable this.
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Also just to show a few examples of Sublime pricing from my basket:
I missed an offer on The Beatles stuff too which would have been cheaper still.
I wish when browsing titles rather than at the checkout it would identify youāve purchased something before, and it treats Sublime purchases as though you hadnāt made them:
Itās actually easy to get confused as some titles I originally purchased at 96 kHz are now available at 192 kHz.
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Thanks @Alley_Cat , I took another look and went through to check outā¦ā¦
So just paid the Ā£101 and good to go until this time next year 
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As in my other response, I now have sublime and look forward to a few savings!
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If youāre purchasing downloads the extra should pay for itself in no time!
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Certainly will - I could have saved about Ā£10 on my purchases earlier today.
Others may disagree, but Qobuz are a small outfit globally, and I prefer to support the ālittle guyā when I can because it gives us all more choice. Tidal is not the ālittle guyā.
Qobuz also have some great blogs/reviews and seem to punch well above their weight when it comes to web presence above and beyond simply streaming or purchasing as well as developing apps. They deserve to do far better than they have to date, but thatās a problem with people not Qobuz.
Iāve not tried their discussion website yet though probably should.
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As you have an Lp12, I am surprised you can enjoy these albums on streaming. Donāt they sound much much livier on lps?
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Inspired by the discussion on overall loudness compression, I went to listen to one of the pioneers of loudness compression from the early 60s, Joe Meekā¦ and several of his produced singles from that era were so loudness compressed they had a DR of only 2 to 3 LUs (Loudness units)ā¦ and boy do they sound compressed, lofi and congested by todays standards, but they sounded good on cheap record players and on the AM radio from that timeā¦ and sold by the bucket load.
As an example listen to āAngela Jonesā performed by Michael Cox, and āGreen Jeansā performed by The Flee-Rekkers which just has 1.3 LU
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Thatās a very good point. I never really considered them a ālittle guyā but if that is the case then that makes the situation even better.
I enjoy streaming from Qobuz and donāt subscribe to any others. I will also buy albums that I would not like to see disappear from Qobuz which will obviously give more to the artists themselves. My true reasons are purely selfish though!
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