Kinda surprised Apple hasn’t patched that sample rate auto switch issue on macOS yet. Makes my Mac useless for listening because I’ve had poor playback experiences when I fiddled with the MIDI setup app. But given they released lossless as a stepchild to spatial, not surprised either.
I could seriously see myself paying for two services and just using them for different things, though I agree with you in that I’d rather have one. I listen to enough music to justify it. Tough choice.
On paper Qobuz seems like the real winner. True Hi-res, they pay artists at least as much as Tidal does, cheaper monthly cost(by a couple of bucks), and compatibility with third party music server software(like Volumio which I use), yet I have not had a single listening session where I haven’t had to restart at some point. The ios app will quit or refuse to play a song. The desktop app will hang on 192k songs on my Mac Mini. It simply refuses to play them. The same songs play just fine on my phone or my Raspberry Pi so I have no idea what’s going on there. It will also randomly stop playing or restart itself at times. Way too buggy to use as my only service. When it plays right it sounds good though.
BTW the Tidal desktop app doesn’t support sample rate switching either.
I haven’t had these particular problems with Qobuz but I agree their software is awful, which is why I starting using it with Roon, which is far superior but yet another subscription to pay for.
I’m pretty sure the Tidal desktop macOS app with my setup supports auto sample rate switching. I use it with a hip dac in exclusive mode or whatever Tidal does when it detects it. I have the MIDI app open side-by-side and when I hop around between MQA and Hifi tracks I see the MIDI reflects the different sample rates and, crucially, the lights on my hip dac shift from green to magenta automatically too.
Yeah, I turn exclusive mode on and off since I switch different players in and out(honestly, I run a sloppy software set up right now)so it was probably off when I was testing it. I have a Hip Dac that I can test with myself. It might be related to how the app does MQA through the dac. My desktop dac doesn’t support MQA.
Gamechanger if apple comes out with a appletv pro that can replay 192/24 .
The delay when switching tracks is a downer on apple music.
I am hoping for a native Windows Apple Music app someday!
Roon is seriously addictive. I’ve tried to walk away to save a few $$$, and came right back. Qobuz via Roon is really slick. No issues at all.
My 2 cents on using multiple services:
if you want lossless, and can afford to do it, pick a main service to use daily, and a backup service that fills in library gaps when an album is missing in your main service.
I run Qobuz daily, and Tidal for backup. Qobuz sound quality is my favorite right now, but it has library gaps that Tidal fills really well.
I would seriously consider Qobuz with apple music for backup - apple music has a seriously deep library. But the Roon integration of Qobuz and Tidal is hard to beat.
We can dream.
Thanks for your input. Good way to look at it. Glad I’m not alone in pondering subbing to two services.
I sub to Spotify, Amazon HD, and Qobuz. So no, you are not alone. They all have their purpose for me. Mostly for filling in gaps and convenience /flexibility.
So I am more than a little dumb. I figured out the issue I was having with Qobuz playing 192k files on my desktop. Turns out the dac I use in that system has some constraints and quirks being a prosumer audio interface. I run my turntable into it’s analog inputs for ripping records, I run s/pdif into it to play CDs, and the USB runs to it for streaming and local library playback. All of this is routed to the main outs for monitoring. The problem is, the interface won’t handle all this at a sample rate higher than 96kHz. If I run the software straight to the outputs, 192kHz files play fine. So now I just have to manually change the output routing depending on what I’m listening to. No big deal since it’s streaming and local files 90% of the time.
The TL;DR version, it wasn’t the Qobuz software but my dac that was the problem.
Solid approach. I subscribe to Qobuz & Spotify. Qobuz is my serious listening service, and I just buy the CD or FLAC download of something it doesn’t have that I like. Spotify is my everything else service. I use it for background while working, working out, in the car, etc. Spotify’s apps are nice in that they are the only service that allows combining their library and your own local files into the same playlists seemlessly without having to buy extra software like Roon.
Living with apple lossless now months on the spatial atmos side. The front channels have to timber match and cant get away with cheaping out on the center channel. So would assume if running towers you would have to buy a 3rd one.
I have Apple which comes with my phone plan. I have Tidal and Qobuz. Qobuz sound quality is much better but lacks amount of songs and learning your tastes and developing lists for you.
Got me an apple dingle dongle camera adapter to play apple hi-res 192/24.
So through IPHONE-dingle dongle-topping E30-aiyima A08-micca RB42C’s-elac sub.
Played eagles “desperado” 192/24 got hiss coming out the speakers. Is it the amp or the recording ? Think its the recording norah jones “dont know why” 192/24 is clean.
Another observation, think turning off ATMOS gains a louder playback.