Qobuz ... the end ?

[Pleyel]

Dear Devialet users,

I just read an article about Qobuz and the fact that they couldn't find any new investors since one year.
The consequence sounds like the company will disappear and so the high resolution streaming.

What is your experience with the other streaming companies (apple, spotify, deezer, tidal) in case I need to move away from Qobuz ?


Thanks ... and hopefully Qobuz will survive.

The stories about Qobuz disappearing have been around for some time (years) but somehow they always survive.  I would be sad if they do go as I really like their overall approach, their broad catalogue including plenty of French music, the link-up with Gramophone and the Gallic touch.

I have tried Tidal twice - once when they first launched and then again last summer (via Aurender N100). There service has definitely improved during that time.  To start with they a lot of problems with drop-outs but these now seem much rarer.  Their support team is very responsive and I will probably move to them if Qobuz folds. They have a pretty good catalogue (nowhere near as good as Qobuz on Classical) but SQ from album to album seems more variable than Qobuz.  They told me some time ago that their catalogue is about 70% 16-bit to 30% mp3 but that may have improved.

Not tried Deezer and am avoiding Apple

Read some stuff on the French forums last night, sadly it ain't looking good. Which greatly pains me as I thought it was the only acceptable streaming service, SQ-wise.

Guillaume

Beyond streaming, it is also the only acceptable CD / HD-quality download service I know, with a wide genre scope, since most HDTracks titles are still region-restricted to the US.

Do you know any other site to buy just lossless CD-quality albums, we could move on to? CDBaby has an interesting catalog, but not all in lossless, and no mainstream artists.

Although I may not be buying more than 10 records a year from Qobuz (the rest directly from the musicians), it would / will be a great loss to me.