Qobuz Hi-Fi Versus Spotify Premium

[User211]

It's ridiculous money. We need to reduce it.

Anyway, downloaded USBPcap for Wireshark, mainly cos I'm used to Wireshark. Will have a look in the next few days. I must admit I think I'll be surprised if the ripped CD and Qobuz have exactly the same output, but in my head I really think they should do. Curious enough to check it out. Watch this space.

[User211]

USBPcap captured precisely nothing, and not wanting to spend ages figuring out why, I moved on to: http://www.usblyzer.com/usb-protocol-analyser-faq.htm, which did work.

In the raw data field, nothing but zeros are captured in the USB packets until play is pressed on JRiver or Qobuz. Then, low and behold, you can quite clearly see the data differs between the two from the word go.

The s/w was set to capture from the Amanero controlled hub.

I'm fairly sure JRiver is set to do nothing to the output, and so is Qobuz. However, there are other things that may affect their output format. I'll do a bit more checking but I wouldn't conclude anything yet. In fact, this whole episode may prove inconclusive.

Comparing raw FLAC files (by buying a Qobuz one, assuming it is the same as that which they stream) is not much cop since FLAC allows varying degrees of lossless compression, and you can't be sure what has been applied, or indeed which version of an encoder was used. There are other variables as well, for instance was the Qobuz FLAC created from the same source as the CD I have.

This is a real case of how much effort can you be bothered to expend in order to find out what is actually happening. I might strike lucky and get matching data but I am not hopeful at the mo.

[User211]

Actually I can eliminate any JRiver/Qobuz imposed output discrepancies by using Quobuz to play both the file and streamed sources. Shoulda thought of that earlier. Will try that tomoz.

[John]

It certainly better quality than Spotify but still not up with using programmes such as MQn on a Windows based system For pure music quality streaming still does not do it for me sorry. But glad it works for others. I will stick to Spotify as I use it to discover new albums to purchase

[User211]

I'm trying to prove there's no difference, John. There shouldn't be one. I may fail, LOL.

BTW having tried JPlay etc I have to say I think such programs are TOTAL foo. But that is just my considered opinion. You are entitled to your own beliefs, of course.

It is really just me satisfying my own curiosity. I'm sure when I prove it to myself beyond my own questionable doubt, I'll be happy

However Qobuz is freaking out at the moment as it considers the large music library on my hard drive I've just drawn its attention to. Hopefully it'll recover but it isn't looking good at the moment.

[User211]

Well, importing my music library into Qobuz didn't work. And I can't find a way to play my library files via Qobuz as a result. Looks like they need to do a bit more work there.

One thing that did surprise me is that taking a USB data snapshot of Qobuz playing the same track twice resulted in appreciably different traces. In order to really understand what's going on, the documents on this link need to be considered: http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/devclass_docs/

That's a lot of work. Too much for an unpaid leisure activity.

At the end of the day, I'd be amazed if it isn't what Qobuz says it is i.e. lossless 16 bit 44.1KHz data. Given USB audio drivers that comply with the specs, and using the same drivers for all audio playback, be it CD or ripped files, or indeed streamed data, there should NOT be any difference between them.

If you think you can hear differences given the previous paragraph, I'd seriously check out the various settings your audio playback software is capable of.

Given the above is true, I think Qobuz is a genuine game changer. If what I have said isn't true, well, hey... I'll continue to live in a state of delusion

[John]

[QUOTE=User211;544031]I'm trying to prove there's no difference, John. There shouldn't be one. I may fail, LOL.

BTW having tried JPlay etc I have to say I think such programs are TOTAL foo. But that is just my considered opinion. You are entitled to your own beliefs, of course.

QUOTE]

Fair enough perhaps its Foo Sound is so subjective I personally think you get a lot more out of cleaning up the power supplies like Tim has done with computer Audio
I agree their improvement with Qobuz ( I no idea why) just for me I still prefer streaming music for resource work. I guess we all different

[John]

[QUOTE=User211;544031]I'm trying to prove there's no difference, John. There shouldn't be one. I may fail, LOL.

BTW having tried JPlay etc I have to say I think such programs are TOTAL foo. But that is just my considered opinion. You are entitled to your own beliefs, of course.

QUOTE]

Fair enough perhaps its Foo Sound is so subjective I personally think you get a lot more out of cleaning up the power supplies like Tim has done with computer Audio
I agree their improvement with Qobuz ( I no idea why) just for me I still prefer streaming music for resource work. I guess we all different

[Bluedroog]

I ditched Spotify in favour of Qobuz a few months ago and it is now my primary source if music via a Squeezebox Touch.

The sound is a clear step up to me and I while a smaller library frustrates at times the trade off is worth it for me, I'm hopeful the library will continue to expand.

A quick note for people to beware of, even if you purchase the hifi version by default he settings remain on compressed steaming, you have to select lossless even if you have the hifi premium version.

Also annoyingly on the continent this is 20 Euros so cheaper than we get it here in the UK.

[User211]

There's quite a bit of HD stuff in the store to download but you can't stream it and have to pay for it. Well, they've drawn the line somewhere

Also just discovered a really nice feature - album art about 80% the size of your screen height in great quality. Just click on the album cover at the top of the screen for the album your playing.