I found the odd failed search on Qobuz when I knew the album existed on there. Trying other searches using the artist, album and even a track name from the album usually works. I found Tidal was a little more forgiving when searching. Qobuz is a bit more school marmish.
If your first search on Qobuz fails, don’t assume the album doesn’t exist there. Try a variety of searches and double check your spelling in the search.
For me it’s more like 40%. But then my tastes are quite the opposite of mainstream.
I can’t find anywhere:
2000 today
Avet Terterian symphonies
Tap by Pat Metheny
the list goes on.
Fortunately, I have the CD’s, but unfortunately no CD player, so ripping is my only option.
Yes, it can take a little bit of digging to find what you want, but it’s very often there, at least in my experience.
Just typed Avet Terterian symphonies into Qobuz search, and got this:
…and there’s this:
…but yes, there is always the chance that what you want is missing. Some artists choose not to make their material available, or there can be licensing restrictions applied by record labels, so I would not want to lose the facility to keep a local collection.
And that can change, removing availability, as can the provider’s curation or even existence!
30% missing from qobuz seems about right for the music i listen to - for classical the absence of hyperion and some other labels - for world music and folk its even higher despite multiple careful searches - so for world/folk its often a case of falling back on spotify SQ isn’t great but at least the music is there.
I honestly don’t care where or what the source is as Roon is my library for local and Streaming it’s one and all not seperate but you can keep at such if you want.
If it’s something from my Roon library then it could be Local, Tidal or Qobuz that plays, it matters not as its all treated as just my Library and I don’t hear or worry about one being lesser than the other. Roon will use local over streaming unless it’s a higher res source.
If I am looking for something new, by looking at new releases, recommendations from music threads or just playing other albums from related artists or musicians then it’s Roon again and source will be Qobuz or Tidal or if not available then Spotify and If I like it a lot I may buy it.
90% listen to subscriptions i.e. Napster and Amazon prime. Also internet jazz radio streams e.g audiophile jazz radio.
I have had trials of both Tidal and Qobuz. It just makes me so confused that I give up. There is too much choice! So I buy all my music from Highresaudio, Hyperion, Qobuz, Linn, Bandcamp and direct from the artists. I’m sure it costs way more than simply subscribing to Qobuz, but somehow I like it. I get new ideas from reviews and from listening to Radio 3 and 4.
I know what you mean about confusing choice, for me, with Qobuz.
The way I use Qobuz is, I search for albums that have been recommended and look interesting and save them in ‘My Albums’ folder. I then have a listening session in the folder and anything I deem to be crap or definitely not to my tastes gets deleted (unfavourited). Those albums ‘with potential’ get a second listen, but again will get deleted if they don’t cut the NigelB mustard.
I am then left with a ‘My Album’ folder full of new (to me) music I enjoy. If I hear something new I really like, I might go and buy the CD to rip. But if it is in Hi-Res on Qobuz, I am less likely to bother paying the high price to download it.
I then again top up My Albums with more new stuff to sample. I am rigorous about ‘unfavouriting’ albums that don’t appeal. If you don’t do this consistently then it leads to the confusion HH eluded to.
That’s a nice idea and I can see it working well. Until the internet conks out, like it does from time to time. Of course, with at least some locally stored music, CDs or LPs, that’s only a temporary inconvenience.
Indeed, which is why I can’t bring myself to ignore my local store and allow it to ‘age’ too much. I feel the need to ‘invigorate’ my collection with the occasional CD rip of a great new (to me) album. Never know when t’internet is going down next, and you cannot be sure an album you really like won’t get deleted from Qobuz.
The two streaming sources both need ‘maintaining’ for these reasons, IMHO.
I was exclusively using Qobuz until a few weeks ago when they did not renew a certificate on their system for Naim…and it died. Luckily the trusty Uniti Core came to the rescue…i will now populate again with must have albums.
Hyperion is definitely the big lacuna in classical on Qobuz. A significant proportion of my classical collection is from that label and they keep producing highly desirable recordings. I also agree with you about folk discs. For example, I’m a fan of the Unthank sisters, but Qobuz has rather few of their CDs. Perhaps, being based in France, there is less demand for music likely to be of interest in just a few countries.
It doesn’t bother me too much, though. I still buy CDs and downloads, though fewer than before my Qobuz subscription, and this allows me to fill gaps using my local collection.
Roger
I’ve tried both Tidal and Qobuz, and I prefer the sound of my own CD collection, ripped, stored and served from my UnitiServe. Like IB I find the free version of Spotify more than adequate for checking out unknown artists/albums before deciding whether or not to purchase CD (from combo of Amazon, eBay and Discogs). Very occasionally I might treat myself to a HD download from Qobuz or other site.
I still find the concept of ‘ownership’ preferable to renting, but that’s probably an age thing (and yes, I know you never truly ‘own’ the music in the traditional sense).
As ever, each to their own, and I would never presume to try to persuade anyone that my preference is in any way ‘better’ than theirs.
hi @PeakMan
i am coming back to hi-fi after a few years away and having lost my hi-fi (lp12) and all by records in a flood and not feeling up to replacing them i had (foolishly) hoped to make a clean break to a simple world of wireless streaming full-stop - initially on the one-box muso2.
but things are never that simple so as well as looking at upgrades (naim or chord? - chord or naim?? - chord and naim??) it looks like i will have to investigate the world of servers and their software and possibly the alice-in-wonderland world of ethernet cables and switches.
and there i was planing an easy retirement…
It doesn’t have to be that complicated.
Get yourself an Atom, Star or Nova.
If you have CD’s then you need a server that can store your ripped copies, if not you could just decide to use a streaming service like Tidal or QoBuz and be done with it.
Oh, one more thing, you might want some speakers.
Sorry to hear about the flood.
I promise you, once you get your head around a streaming set-up, and have someone (a dealer?) help you install it, you can just forget it and enjoy the music.
It is way more convenient, and ‘at your fingertips’, than vinyl but it does not replace the tactile feel and ‘ceremony’ associated with vinyl, if that floats your boat.
It’s as much of a faff as you want to make it. In its simplest form you just plug one end of a QB / Muso /ND??? / 272 into a working router and the other into an amp, if required. Everything else is up to you - NAS, Qobuz, Tidal, Roon. As a minimum you’ll have access to a load of internet radio stations to begin with.
I’d suggest that the streaming subscription model will adapt and evolve in the future, this is already becoming the case with video content that is available streamed.
The issue is that most people subscribing to a music service only ever scratch the surface of the available library and often have no interest at all in a large chunk of it. If you were to equate your streams accessed and stream playback times against your upfront “all you can eat” subscription payments you’d find you probably aren’t getting sustained value over time.
You then have the fact that there are now multiple sources/services to choose from and in many case they share similar libraries so you are in many ways paying many times over for the ability to access the same thing.
My expectation is that the subscription model will function in such a way that you pay a flat lower rate to access music for the purposes of discovery and at a capped quality, likely 16/44.1 for arguments sake, and then have the ability to listen to that in its entirety for a short number of plays, probably in the region of 3-5 times. If you like it enough and want to pay more to add that music to your library you pay a one off track/album fee and it goes in to your permanent library, at that point you can choose the quality rate and pay a tiered fee accordingly.
This gives you a hybrid approach that lies somewhere between the old CD/rip model and the current prepay open access subscription model.
Layer on top of that analytics, exclusive content and a curated journey akin to the Roon experience and you find yourself with a more rewarding experience the cost of which is more granular and more aligned to the things you actually like and are willing to invest in financially.
The fact that the main services have many millions of tracks is not really a selling point anymore, no more than the fact that some of them make streams available at a higher quality. In many cases you would likely be happy to own certain recordings in 16/44.1 only and choose specifically what you want at higher quality without having to pay an ongoing premium for the privilege. Tidal and Qobuz have these sort of business models in mind and they have a logical extension in to front ends like Roon and Audirvana as examples.
