Roon and qobuz, how (well) do they integrate?

@Michel_VdB, thanks - that’s good to know. I can now see all these advantages :slight_smile: .

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Thank you, Jérôme!

Such positive feedback is truly helpful. I plan to start my month’s free trial this week as a result of the feedback here.

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What I do hope will be done soon is possibility to access Roon core remotely from anywhere in the world. Also local copy of parts of library to phone or computer

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There is more: If you have several versions of a music track you can see it listed alongside with the qobuz versions and select you primary version as your favorite to play!

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I learned something that could be useful to some. I have quite a few owned hi-res albums on a local HD. I wouldn’t select (like, :heart:, favorite) these albums on Qobuz because I wanted to play my owned versions rather than the streamed version. This caused them not to be available to me when I was away from home, using the Qobuz app rather than Roon. So I gave it a test and :heart:ed a few albums that I also owned, Roon would show both versions as being available, but always seemed to opt for the owned version, not the Streamed version. This was great for me, streaming on the road, my own library at home, and didn’t have to do anything

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I am a new user. So far no issues, although I have not had long enough to know if it is perfect. I can say this, it worked right off the bat at 192K upsample/downsample rates. Something I could not get JRiver MC to do. I also have a layer of complication in that I am running Dirac Live 3 (DSP) at the same time all on an i7 laptop, and it is so far very stable. I think it is worthwhile. Plus the Remote app on my Fire HD 10 plus is a joy to use. Hope I still feel this way in a year. Anyways, you can pay by the month as long as you are satisfied if you want to be cautious.

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Thanks, Paul. I started my Qobuz subscription (the one month trial didn’t seem to be available) yesterday. So far the experience has been excellent :slight_smile:

Update: have been using the Roon app with Qobuz all day. Very good indeed.

Very many thanks to everyone who offered such useful help. You convinced me to do this - and I’m so glad I did. Just the solution I wanted.

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I had the same quest, since I listen mostly to Classical. Apple has a steep learning curve and I, too find it difficult. I got trials with Amazon, Qobuz, Tidal, and Apple. Amazon was OK but I had some hiccups here and there. Qobuz I liked but many album I searched for were missing from their library and I eliminated them early. Tidal surprised me because I thought it was all urban and pop. But it had most albums I sought and integrates well with Roon.

I bought Tidal through Best Buy….they have substantial savings for the hi res tier.

I still have Apple and I deleted Amazon. 90% of the time I have Tidal as my go to service.

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Thanks, @Dennis_Laslo - I am so far very happy with Qobuz. I thought the same about both it and Tidal (mostly pop etc).

So I did some searches, put in what I thought were obscure composers like Penalosa and Cardew. Qobuz had them all. Tidal was missing several. Since subscribing, I have found that Qobuz seems to have even more than PrimePhonic (now Apple) did.

Of course Idagio had them all. But its quality isn’t so good as Qobuz’s.

To think that in the past ten years such services can provide what was previously only available on ArkivMusic (which has declined markedly in resent months) and Presto. I feel very fortunate to have access touch a wealth of wonderful music - and from within Roon!

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I used to have Qobuz (trial) and Tidal in Roon at the same time and also had the Amazon family plan. If I played the same tract on all three, I found the sound was a touch better with Tidal, Amazon was in next and Qobuz had something about it that made it a bit flat. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I also played a fourth version…I have some tracts in Hi Res on my hard drive and it was the best by a tad.

I have a DAC with MQA decoding and DSD playback so everything was at the highest quality. As an aside, I found the highest quality prevalent in Amazon and Tidal the most. There were many cases where Qobuz and Apple had the album, but only CD quality.

All in all…I needed a very discerning ear to tell the difference so it wasn’t a big deal.

The pricing was similar for high res (Amazon $8/mo, Tidal $9.50 (annual average through Best Buy - $20 through Tidal directly), Apple $10, and Qobuz $10.80 (annual average).

However, after Apple and Amazon added Hi Res audio to their basic plan at no additional cost, Qobuz lowered their rates and Tidal changed their plans to three tiers…only the highest tier now has high res “Master MQA quality.” and it is a whopping $20/month. Probably a steep MQA license fee.

When Tidal changed from two tiers to three, I had been in “Hi Fi” the highest tier but now is the middle tier. When they made the change, they upgraded me to the new highest tier (Hi Fi plus).

I’m getting a bit nervous that Tidal will not keep me in the highest tier when I renew next year for the lower price. Nervous because I have added quite a few Tidal albums to Roon

So I may just test Qobuz again. Just in case. I also understand Apple is coming out with a new classical music only service next year modeled after PrimePhonic. Not sure if it is included in their base service pricing or separate.

In any case, for me, it comes down to Qobuz and Tidal because of Roon. I hope Roon integrates others in the future. The Amazon, Apple hi res wars may put the rest of the pack out of buisness.
And if Tidal puts me in the middle tier next year, I will drop them.

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Thanks, Dennis… that’s a pretty comprehensive roundup of things, isn’t it.

Although an Apple user for decades, I do feel their commitment to podcasts and serious music is sub-standard. So I decided not to wait for their PrimePhonic offering.

I also like the integration with Roon now that I’ve had chance to experience for myself what the good people in this thread have explained to me.

The searching and adherence to a ‘track/song’ model is a little awkward with Qobuz. But their customer support team (also quick and helpful) tells me it’s under review for improvement.

Overall I’m extremely happy with the combination :slight_smile: