Qobuz HR albums — for real? (E.g. ACT) [Never mind, false alarm]

Roon Software Discussion Qobuz
1

ACT Music generally isn’t very interested in high res, even their own download site has almost no high res, even their big stars like E.S.T. And other download sites don’t offer any high res ACT.

But Qobuz does, lots.

Is this for real? Does anybody know if the exclusively got access to high res content that even ACT themselves don’t sell, or did they just upsample the standard stuff? Has anybody run a frequency spectrum on it? On either the stream or downloaded content (I can’t download, beta subscription doesn’t seem to include that).

Upsampling was common in the early days of digital audio, lo these many months ago.

If Qobuz is doing that, it would immediately ruin my relationship with them (which is only 10 hours old).

2

Ask Qobuz I guess.

3

Pardon my ignorance, but what is ACT?

1 Like
4

It’s a German record label that specializes in Modern Jazz and Classical Crossover.

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5

A good question and perhaps best addressed to Qobuz, assuming you have confidence in their reply.

There is a thread on Audiophilestyle in which Qobuz do participate.
This question has been raised and, if I remember correctly, content may be down sampled if appropriate content is not supplied BUT no up sampling is performed.

You were not specific as to which content is not hires but I found that Presto Music offers a hires version of Ida Sand The Soul Kitchen, even though this format is not available from the ACT music website.

6

I didn’t Know you could download from the ACT webshop. The only thing I see are Cd’s and sometimes Vinyl…

I’m pretty sure that the Hi-RES from ACTMusic on Qobuz isn’t upsampling. Recording are mostly Hires, since along time.

7

I have at least one purchased Qobuz 96/24 download from the ACT label. I’ll run Spek on it later today and post an image.

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8

There are a lot of ACT albums available in HiRes. Even though there are still many upsampled fakes in the Qobuz catalog, I think, the ACT albums are OK.
If you want to assure that a specific album is available in HiRes in general, look for it at the Highresaudio.com homepage, HRA has a good quality control, in contrast to Qobuz.

9

Ok, I will look again. It was HRA that made me believe there are none, I have searched in vain.

But I admit I’m not overly fanatical about this. I’ll buy high res when available, but I’ll happily buy whatever format is available. It’s aboutthe music.

10

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/search/?label=ACT%20Music&sort=-releaseDate

When you click on “Advanced search” on top of the HRA Download page and search in “Label” for ACT, you’ll get all listed ACT albums.

Anyway, I highly doubt that ACT send upsampled files to Qobuz. What they offers as HiRes should be really HiRes. In case of doubt I recommend an analysis tool like Xivero MusicScope.

11

This is ACT

ACT
ACT.jpg1973×1183 518 KB

12

Yes, I see a lot more hires ACT on HRA than when I last looked.
Fewer on HDTracks, but some.

So I take it back, this is all legit.

I’ll just keep enjoying the music without suspicion. As I should.

Never mind. Sorry.

13

No. they don’t upsample. In short words: It’s real.

In longer words: I have 21 ACT-Albums, 15 are HiRes. I just did a test with Lossless Audio Checker (Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Summerwind)

The Album:

Lars%20Danielsson%20%26%20Paolo%20Fresu%20-%20Summerwind
Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Summerwind.jpg700×700 97.2 KB

The check says it’s clean. What means that it’s not upsampled.

Lossless%20Audio%20Checker
Lossless Audio Checker.jpg720×429 147 KB

The logfile:

Lossless Audio Checker 2.0.7 logfile from Thursday 24 January 2019 06:53:08 PM

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[01] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Autumn Leaves.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[02] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Saluto Dardamente.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[03] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Le Matin.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[04] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Stilla Storm.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[05] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Jag Lyfter Ögat Mot Himmelen.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[06] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Un Vestido Y Un Amor.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[07] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Drexciya.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[08] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Dardusó.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[09] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Stanna Tid.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[10] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Sleep Safe And Warm.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[11] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - April In Dardegna.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[12] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Amigos.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[13] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns Die Stimme.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[14] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - Dardodentro.flac
Result: Clean

File: D:\Musik\General Jazz\Lars Danielsson\2018 Summerwind[15] Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu - De La Solitude Mesurée.flac
Result: Clean

2 Likes
14

I would disagree with that comment, Qobuz is particularly careful about what it offers as hires and it’s authenticity, and yes ACT and ECM (both long term streaming detractors are hires on Qobuz

15

Qobuz may be careful in what they offer for hires - but then again -

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16

“Qobuz is particularly careful about what it offers as hires and it’s authenticity” Really?

Here as examples just two well known albums where Qobuz knows that they are selling an upsampled fake since I complained in 2015.

  1. Eric Clapton - Slowhand 24/192

    flac_report
    01-01-Eric_Clapton-Cocaine-SMRP.flac_report.png1104×945 166 KB

  2. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left 24/96

    flac_report
    01-01-Nick_Drake-Time_Has_Told_Me-SMR.flac_report.png1104×945 299 KB

I’ve downloaded both tracks from Qobuz again today for creating this charts. Do they look like being correct versions in the labled resolution?

2 Likes
17

that’s an 2L Label release, isn’t it? They offer many albums in MQA

18

“Qobuz FLAC 44.1kHz 16bit 2ch, MQA 352.8”

This makes no sense. Is Qobuz streaming the infamous “MQA CD’s”?? I suspect something broken on the Roon side, which begs hard questions about their MQA software implementation…like what exactly is the “MQA Core Decoder” doing here?

Both Roon and the “Qobuz team” who post here should clear this up for us

19

That’s very interesting, perhaps Roon got that deep acces they always said Qobuz wouldn’t give them and they are finding things in the files not seen before… they make no mention of MQA! :slightly_smiling_face:

20

Good grief I wouldn’t have the faintest idea, I just tend to listen to my music never thought of putting through that sort of analysis. Glad to know you’re on the case though Yoda… :relieved: