Hello there
I’m considering getting Qobuz for my mom as she likes classical music.
I read some bad reviews though, specifically with their customer support. Last time, I heard they were under administration.
I checked this French website and the reviews are horrible: Avis de Qobuz | Lisez les avis marchands de www.qobuz.com
Would you still recommend it?
In the last couple of days, some people have been reporting about Qobuz’ inflexibility about subscriptions.
My experience at the other hand is rather positive.
Long (probably too long) before renewal date, Qobuz is sending you an email to make you aware.
I agree it would be nice if at least they would repaet that 14 days before the actual renewal date.
I have planned a renewal activity in my calendar, in order to be reminded in time.
For other issues, if I have a support question, I must say that they are more or less responsive, but overall I am quite satisfied with the feedback they provide.
My personal experience with Tidal however, is horrible. Whilst I am sure that other people are delighted about it.
My personal advice, give it a go for 1 year.
Dirk
What is the inflexibility refered to here, just curious?
@Gigatoaster
I’m more than happy with Qobuz, never had any issues. The trustpilot link you gave only had
131 reviews, so I wouldn’t take that as being definitive. I mostly use Qobuz through roon, don’t have that much experience with their apps so can’t really comment on how well they perform day to day. Monthly subscriptions are available, so maybe try going with that for a while and if there are no issues swap to annual to save a little.
Jon
Qobuz is good for classical music. One big advantage is that you can access the liner notes for most newer released albums - very important in classical music for sung texts (opera, lieder etc).
I have never had any technical problems using the app that I have needed support and I have been a subscriber for several years now, nor have I had issues with my (annual) subscription. I have required support on purchased downloads (faulty tracks) and the response has been generally OK, if not the fastest.
I use PayPal for subscriptions and have cancelled in PayPal when there has been difficulties with cancelling a subscription directly with the business (some news sites make it impossible to cancel on line - but Qobuz allows you to cancel on line)
I am very happy with Qobuz. But, a) I use roon, not their apps, and b) I don’t listen to much classical music. So, not sure that helps much but there you go.
I am pretty happy with Qobuz. I have not had any issues with billing or my subscription. Customer service isn’t bad in my experience. Maybe not the fastest but usually no more than a day or two. Sound quality is excellent and I find they have mostly anything I look for. I don’t listen to classical that much though so I cannot say anything about the quality of their classical music library. But no complaints about anything
When I first signed up for a year subscription a few years ago, my bank shut down my account and issued me a new card because they stated the activity immediately following my Qobuz transaction was cause for alarm. After investigating it, they killed the card and issued me a new one.
That said, I have had nothing but positive experiences with them here in the States. I hope they do well and prosper. I tried Tidal and didn’t care for it. Qobuz gets a lot of my money via annual subscription and download store.
Therefore, I recommend them.
I mostly listen to classical music and think Qobuz is absolutely wonderful. Hundreds of thousands of cds, or in many cases better than cd quality recordings, sleeve notes, for a very modest amount of money. Best value in hifi. I wouldn’t hesitate to give your Mum a subscription. Perhaps start with a monthly one, then if she likes it you can go annual and if she doesn’t it won’t have cost you a lot. And buy her some flowers too. You can never buy your mum enough flowers.
Is it just me, or is even “tongue-in-cheek” bashing of other cultures other than our own (whatever that may be) starting to seem a bit…well…divisive and sophomoric?
In any event, French-centric or not, I’ve had no issues with Qobuz and like using their service. No problems with billing so far.
What I like about Qobuz over Tidal, the tracks and compositions are much easier to find, far better then Tidal, the last one does that poorly. If you don’t look right, you will think the library contains only cheap bad performances, however the great ones are somewhere available.
but with Qobuz, I have one mayor problem, when a classical album finishes, it always goes to familiar master Pieces, in over then 50% it will play a Beethoven symphony in 2-3 tracks, I like other tracks, but Qobuz thinks, it is classical, you will definitely like the 5th symphony. Yes I do, but not all the time! And here Tidal wins, when a track ends I get all lovely less well known pieces of art.
I’m quite happy with Qobuz. No subscription issues thus far. Excellent jazz selection and pretty much every new release. I also use the mobile and desktop apps, windows, android and iOS, and they all work quite well. Everything is flac at CD quality or greater, which is very nice if one has the hardware to support it.
As has been stated above, go with a monthly plan to give it a try before committing to an annual plan.
I’m a classical music fan. I’m on my second annual Qobuz subscription, so that must mean I like it a lot. I have never had problems with it, although note that I only use it through Roon.
Yes, if your mother is okay with streaming — and that has nothing whatsoever to do with age or nationality — she will like it. It’s a thoughtful gift.
yes, Roon is very helpful in this, I like how Roon does find better tracks and suggestions, for my saudio I will favor Qobuz
Only one problem for me, half of time I stream music in a car and no Roon inside, no option to change the tracklist while driving. In my car I prefer for that reason Tidal.
Are you expecting to need lots of customer service, @Gigatoaster 
I had a few trial subscriptions over the years, and liked it very much. Eventually stuck with Tidal (and Spotify) because of the possibility of attractively priced family subscriptions and perhaps a slightly better suited selection of my listening needs. But I was very pleased with Qobuz, I have to say. I liked the interface and suggestions way better than those of Tidal.
But try it out, they offer those trials precisely for that reason!
After being a Tidal sub on and off for a few years, I switched to Qobuz and paid for the annual subscription.
To my ears, I felt Qobuz sounded a bit smoother in the high frequencies but that’s so subjective it’s probably inappropriate to mention it.
Sometimes I think I prefer Tidal’s mobile app but not sure.
Its very up and down as a service if you ask me, too many outages.
Yes, I am satisfied with Qobuz.
I highly recommend Qobuz (especially if you are comparing it to TIDAL). I love all genres but Classical is one of my favorite. Qobuz and TIDAL have very similar catalogs but with Qobuz you get a LOT more Hi-Res albums…a LOT!! The other big advantage of Q is they do not have a MAX. I’ve had TIDAL since its inception and reached their arbitrary maximum of 10,000 albums. Since then, I could not save any additional albums in My Library. Now I use Qobuz for almost all of my Library additions.
I do wish that Roon had a switch to allow you to see Qobuz or TIDAL FIRST when searching or browsing but that’s not too big a deal.
I had Tidal and Qobuz for several years. Over a year I studied what I’d be missing if I stopped Tidal. I figured I might miss about five good singles and an album or two a year. The smaller artists in R&B and some pop artists aren’t represented as well in Qobuz as Tidal. It is a fairly small difference, and I can now just buy what I miss from Qobuz at Bandcamp, where smaller artists have a place.
I haven’t regretted cutting the cord with Tidal. I have no problem with them, but I’d rather spend the extra hundred dollars on music and beer.
I live in the US and have had a Qobuz subscription since the days when you could only subscribe if you could set up a European account which I was fortunately able to do. I have never had any problem with it. I had a customer service question as I moved my account from the UK to the US Qobuz, and it was handled quickly and helpfully.
I still prefer to own the music that I particularly like, so have a Sublime subscription and really appreciate the opportunity to buy high res versions at prices lower than CD quality.
I do now access Qobuz almost exclusively through Roon, a combination that I find super easy to use and which provides a great way to enjoy music, but have no problem with the Qobuz direct interfaces.
I have been trialling Tidal, again through Roon, and for me it is much too pop oriented and makes it hard for me to stumble upon new music that I like. Something that Qobuz makes easy.
I wouldn’t hesitate to get a subscription for your mother.