there is a source of truth. 
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Yes Audrivana streams both Qobuz and Roon. The difference I see is that Roon integrates music seamlessly into your library rather than just act as a player of a 3rd party stream. There is a huge difference here and maybe what Qobuz doesn’t want to give up.
@danny Curious on your opinion on the state of the streaming market and where you see them going specifically as it relates to Roon. You think they will become more closed off to focus on their own user interaction, opening up APIs to act more as a distribution pipe, …? Does it make sense for Roon to negotiate directly with the labels?
that’s a topic for a blog post or an evening after many drinks…
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I’ll buy the first round
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In the perfect world, Roon would have its own streaming service. Wishful thinking?
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It will probably bleed out of cash in a few months. None of streaming services I know actually break even or make profit out of streaming.
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After becoming a competitor as a new streaming service provider, the existing integrated streaming service provider may choose to end its support, and any integration with new services would be out of question. Extra resources also need to be allocated to develop free client software or strip down existing one for multiple platforms.
Alternatively, provided there is so much money to burn, the existing one can be purchased, and use other regular sources of revenue to subsidize it. Hopefully it can be sustained to become profitable in many years.
Neither of which makes sense to me, but of course I don’t actually know anything.
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Then it is wishful thinking
This is crystal ball stuff. But while we’re at it, can someone please give me 5 numbers between 1 and 69 and 1 number between 1 and 26… 
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I feel the major music labels benefited the most $$$, the more streaming services out there, the more they earn. They don’t really care whether the streaming services go bust or bankrupt. All they want is to get their music to the consumers. This may explain the fact the music labels themselves are reluctant to do streaming but engage to third party streaming partners like Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music etc.
That’s why the music labels are willing to take this risk; it is a sure money generator. At least they can’t earn as much they used to… where in the past CDs are their bread and butter!
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I see that besides one comment from Roon’s CEO there is no more input from their side. So they obviously think that Qobuz should approach them. But Qobuz doesn‘t and in the meantime they are finding more and more partners who agree to integrate Qobuz using the present API.
I wonder what will happen if Tidal in the middle of 2018 will realize that the business model will not work and my impression is that exactly this will happen.
If investors decide to close down the service Roon will be on a lonely island in the middle of nowhere just being able to store local music in it‘s database and add some rich content to it. My guess is that they immediately will lose half of their annually paying users then.
So if I were Roon I would integrate whatever is possible to integrate into roon even if i had to use an API that is not 100% up to my standards.
Just my 2 cents. I am at the end of my trial period and will use Roon in future too. But although I usually do I will not by the lifetime licence because the day after Roon lost it‘s only streaming partner I will not use it any longer.
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I really like Roon for it’s integration with Tidal and it’s relative ease of organizing one’s music. But I’m looking into Qobuz because of 24 bit streaming and discounted 24 bit download purchases.
I have a 30 day trial with Qobuz’s HiFi level, and haven’t determined yet if I think their 16 bit streaming is better, worse or more likely, about the same as the Tidal/Roon streaming.
But their 24 bit streaming is not available for trial-- you have to spend about $400 up front if you want to sample that. I’m just now planning to figure out if even downloaded 24 bit really provides meaningful SQ improvement, so I’m not willing to take the gamble on streamed 24 bit if I can’t hear it first on my system.
I can use Qobuz which is integrated into the Lumin app., but the usability is extremely frustrating compared to Roon. I can’t for the life of me figure out how catalog album favorites into the Lumin/Qobuz set up! (wklie, are you reading this?) (Does that have to be done on the Qobuz desktop app?)
And can anyone comment on their opinions of Qobuz SQ, particularly their 24 bit streaming?
Thanks
I don’t own Qobuz streaming but my colleague does. I’ve listened to 24/192kHz lossless streaming and I can said the SQ is remarkable transparent, it is like listening to a real performance compared to Tidal Master.
You need a high-end system to bring out Hi-Res streaming but it is just too expensive to invest that amount for Qobuz. CD lossless streaming is good enough.
I have a Qobuz 24 bit subscription.
It is my main source for listening now, via Audirvana and the destop app.
Sound Quality to my ears is the at the same level as my local library via Nas.
It is expensive with 340 € a year, but I enjoy discounts beween 30 and 60% when buying music.
As I buy a lot it is cheaper than Tidal for me. And it is lossless 24 bit PCM.
Also like the playlists in Qobuz a lot as Classic and Jazz have a high priority for me.
Roon Integration would be perfect, but to my surprise I learned to live without it…
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To make sure I don’t miss your post intended for me, please add a @ sign before my username.
Assuming Qobuz Sublime+ streams the same files as purchases (and I believe they are), you may perhaps consider buying a few to check out their quality first, but I guess it’s mostly album dependent. Reportedly some albums have discount pricing now:
http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=38665
Based on forum reports I’ve come across, Sublime+ subscribers are mostly happy with it, but I also read a few different opinion with purchases of particular albums. Do note that not all available hi-res albums can be streamed to every country - some are for purchase only.
If you’re asking about how to add a Qobuz album to favorite, please tap and hold the album art of a Qobuz album in Lumin app, then choose Add to Favorite. If for some reason Lumin app is not showing the latest status of your favorites, you can tap the Qobuz folder navigation button [in the figure below, the rectangular button near the center, labeled as Qobuz bold text, not the one in green] to the top-level “Qobuz”, and tap it for a second time at the top-level “Qobuz”.
Thanks Miklats, That sounds pretty encouraging.
But there is something I’m mystified by:
For three ECM artists: Chick Corea, Tomasz Stanko and Gary Peacock, that I’ve bothered to looks for so far, there is almost nothing in the Qobuz Desktop app or the Lumin app (which I’m using). However the full catalog (similar to what I have from Tidal is available on the Qobuz Download site!
Any idea what’s going on here? Could it be because I’m only on a trail membership at the moment? That would make no sense, but I can’t think of any other reason.
Hi there
Just cross checked my local database and Qobuz for Stanko and Peacock.
In 24bit resolution just a few records are available. They are on Qobuz.
All the 16bit is not there (yet).
My experience is that Qobuz adds these at their pace…but that is in part my guessing.
If you need certainty just contact their support via email.
I had the same question for Jan Garbarek and now the works, which are available only in16 bit res, are on Qobuz.
But it took time.
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Thanks for the reply, Miklats.
I’ll explain what I’m finding in more detail:
There is a huge disparity between the albums available for Download (16 bit and 24 bit combined) and what is shown in both the Qobuz Desktop App and the Lumin App for Qobuz.
Tidal (on the Lumin app) also shows many more selections than Qobuz (on the Lumin app).
I’ve put in an email to Qobuz. Hopefully, this is some sort of screw-up relating to being on a 30 day trail?
Surely, if they have the albums available for download, they should be available to stream.
Otherwise Qobuz is unusable for me and inferior to Tidal.
Here is a breakdown of available albums for 7 different artists:
Tidal (Lumin) - Q (Qobuz app) - Q (Lumin) - Q (download site)
Jan Garbarek -------------- 40----------------------- 1? ---------- ---- 1?-------------------------------- 30
Chick Corea------------ complete------ ---------- — 9-------------- 10-------------------------- complete
Tomsz Stanko-------------- 14----------------------- - 3----------------- - 3---------------------------------- 7
Gary Peacock-------------- 12--------- --------------- 1------------------- 1 --------------------------------- 9
Jack Dejohnette------- ? a mess-------------------- 1------------------- 1 --------------------------------- 14
Terry Riley------------------- 36------------------------ 13----------------- 13--------------------------------- 31
Benjamin Britten --------- 120 but a mess ------ 130---------------- 130 but a mess-------- huge catalog
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I tested a Qobuz Sublime+ account and got these album counts (regardless of resolution, and probably not all can be streamed) with Lumin app:
Jan Garbarek 30
Chick Corea 79
Tomsz Stanko 10
Gary Peacock 11
Jack Dejohnette 14
Terry Riley 25
I think people in different countries see different albums - I’m not totally sure about this for Qobuz, but it’s definitely true for Tidal.
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