With Qobuz or Tidal, is there any point in having stored music files?

Me too.

Roger

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See subsequent posts.

I have.

Roger

It doesn’t - was just nudging the well-off here to divert some cash to something intrinsically more worthy than a rock’n’roll band :grin:

I recently became concerned with the potential consequences for the environment of streaming a lot of large music files. Streaming just 1 album in Hi-res can use 1.5gb of data. Data centres worldwide use colossal amounts of energy and that generally means burning fossil fuels. You can do your own research on the internet, it isnt my intention to go into it too deeply here.

When music streaming first began there wasn’t the bandwidth capacity for hi res streaming so it was all MP3s. Which of course are rubbish in terms of sound quality . Now that there is the bandwidth capacity, not to mention unlimited data plans, streaming large files has become possible, but I question whether it is environmentally friendly, especially if lots of people are doing it.

Of course if you buy a new CD or vinyl, there is an environmental cost . I try to buy second hand CDs if possible and also buy some hi res stuff via Qobuz sublime.

And of course music streaming isn’t the only user of large amounts of data/energy.

If anyone is reading this and doesn’t care about the environment and doesn’t have any concerns about climate change , that’s fine , I can’t do much (if anything) to influence you, nor is it even my intention to try. Equally , I’m not interested in wasting my time getting into an argument with climate change sceptics out there. However, the OP asked the question about there being any point using local music when there is Qobuz and Tidal and I’d say to that person that the environmental costs of greatly increased levels of data-hungry streaming are something you might want to consider. Or not.

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Wanted a different focus to the Qobuz Connect thread, with a simple question.

After spending an afternoon flip flopping from Qobuz Connect across two different mobiles and then my server, i am seeing no reason for the latter.

Even Innuos, Melco, Roon are rushing, pushing Qobuz Connect, in one thread the server manufacturer stating its more a UI choice, lol :laughing:

So which ever way you look at it, Qobuz Connect seems be be a wrecking ball for server manufacturers.

In my situation, i have never liked the Naim, Innous, other apps, Qobuz is meh, but finally its one less block in the chain, but most of all for me i can discern no difference vs my server, which is now making that and my USB SPDIF converted redundant.

Why in particular is quboz a wrecking ball? Tidal have had connect for ages and Spotify ages before that?

There is a good need for a server. Streaming services remove/add music all the time, whole catalogs come and go and come again.

I use roon so ultimately need a server but I have lots of uses for a server

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I have run Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz for 10 years, always preffered Qobuz Sublime, dabbled with Roon more for Tidal unfolding.

Spotify is lowsy, Tidal Connect after the whole MQA mess i only used it for mobile listening with a AQ Cobalt to get the 2nd full unfold with UAPP, but focused on Qobuz for home, car and mobile.

Wrecking ball as in inadvertently will remove the unnecessary link in the chain and just one APP.

Appreciate for many including me, i have invested allot in my server, converter so sour, but dont care :wink:

Tidal gives you video goodness :grin:

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I invested barely anything in the server because it’s a server not hifi. Happy to have music available there for when internet plays up etc.

Last night I played my neighbour Steely Dan on both FLAC/Wav from my NAS and then on Qobuz and without knowing which was which no hesitation he said the local file was clearly better.

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Keep forgetting about that :star_struck:

Yes.

Even though I listen to some Tidal most days, my local server has a stable catalog (my collection) and better sound (to my ears) than Tidal.

And don’t forget about ISP problems, albeit somewhat rare these days here in a large US city.

Tidal (or equivalent) is a fantastic source, but definitely secondary for me.

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See current thread With Qobuz or Tidal, is there any point in having stored music files?

@Richard.Dane might it be best to merge these?

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I dont mind, for me i prefer Qobuz Connect now its finally out, but i havent used ripped local content from my server in at least 5 years, so if anything its either one big messy topic of why bother with servers at all or two different discussions about a streaming or ripped.

Personally i prefer my ripped content for SQ, but as i say its been 5 years since i thought, it wasnt worth the effort vs the available stream content.

The age if server is niche to dead, definitely for streaming, for ripped content its so niche it will naturally dry up and die.

There is a post from Naim Steve, Connect has a 6 sec buffer or more for any minor drops.

I wanted to focus on the streaming server side, not the ripped server content.

Sorry however without knowing if the streamed version is the EXACT same version as your Rip, it is impossible to make this statement. There are multiple versions out there (different mastering etc.) so without knowing the provenance of the stream (from any of the different services) it remains an apple to orange comparison

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Servers serve a purpose.

Most important is that often one can store local files.

When a publisher of music rights decides it’s time to withdraw a certain version of an album on the streaming services those streaming services can’t do anything about it.

Remember the purchases people did in Qobuz store but never actually downloaded to their own storage? Some are gone. Because the publisher decided to remove them from the music service and Qobuz couldn’t do anything than to delete those files because they were legally tied.

And then there’s an interesting other development. Software like Audirvāna Linux Core Player can be installed on some NAS devices. So they become a streamer at the same time. For that matter Metronome has even introduced their newest server DSAS at High End Munich with integrated Audirvāna software suite.

Now I know that Audirvāna and Roon a.o. come at a cost, but they also give an overview of the account of streaming service together with the local files. And they also pay attention to sound signature.

So I think more than enough viable reasons why servers still have a role regardless of Connect features.

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Well it’s what’s served up by Qobuz Connect.

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Which quite possibly may be a completely different mastered version than your Rip.