Why Qobuz is your best streaming music value

Tired of Spotify? Here's a chance to try something a lot better for free.

I’ve spent a lot of time testing and writing about music streaming over the past few years. I tried all the major services and ranked them for TechHive. I pay for Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Qobuz. I also have a lot of experience with Tidal.

Qobuz is the service I use the most. You might be happy with what you’re using now, but I wanted to give readers a chance to find out for themselves why I like the service so much.

Qobuz is offering a free two-month trial to Stars After Stars After Stars readers. Click this link and enter an email address and they’ll send you a code. You’ll have to give them a credit card to sign up, so remember to cancel before your trial runs out if you decide Qobuz is not for you.

This offer is timed to coincide with the launch of Qobuz Connect, a new feature that vastly improves the playback experience for anyone who uses a streaming device that’s connected to a home audio system.

Most of Artists & Repertoire staff who used to be in charge of making rock records have been forced to seek other employment.

I’ll explain exactly what that is and why it’s such a big deal for the people who care.

First, I’ll break down the differences between how the major streamers deliver music and why the sound quality varies so much between them. Some of this will repeat points I made in my Stop Using Spotify post from last fall.

I’m going to compare how the various streaming services approach the challenges of streaming and talk about the pluses and minuses of each one. Then you can be all punk rock and think for yourself.

Bluetooth

No matter what any Android phone manufacturer wants to tell you, Bluetooth is not a lossless delivery format. You’re never getting full audio resolution from that kind of wireless connection, so you can’t enjoy the full advantages of the higher quality audio streams if you use a wireless connection to your earbuds, headphones, or speakers.

That does not mean you won’t be able to hear a different in audio quality between the different streaming services. Spotify streams at a lower resolution than any other major service, and almost everyone I’ve convinced to compare Spotify and Apple Music (or Qobuz or Tidal) has been able to tell the difference. Not everyone cared about that difference. If you think Spotify sounds fine, this advice is not for you.

Wired

If you want to take full advantage of the CD-quality (or better) resolution offered by Qobuz, Tidal, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, you’ll need wires that connect your audio source to speakers or headphones.

Anyone using a phone, iPad, or computer will want to bypass their device’s (terrible) internal digital-to-analog signal converter chip and use an external DAC. I wrote about this a while back in my headphones guide. Scroll down to the end for an explanation of why you want a DAC.

This is where you can really hear the difference in the superior sound delivered by Qobuz’s higher resolution audio. The service supports up to 24-bit/192 kHz audio. If those specs don’t mean anything to you, note that CD players reproduce audio at 16-bit/44.1 kHz. CD quality is the minimum resolution for Qobuz, Tidal, and Apple Music. It’s also the standard that Spotify fails to meet.

Apple Music is limited to 16-bit reproduction, allegedly because the company has committed to 16-bit conversion chips in its devices and doesn’t want to alienate the customers with older devices if Apple bothers to improve the chips in the next generation of iPhones, iPads, and computers. They seem to have decided that the audio upgrade is not worth the risk of sending the Apple (and anti-Apple) media into its latest round of hysterics.

Apple instead introduced “Spatial Audio,” a custom version of Dolby Atmos that generates an allegedly immersive experience for AirPods users. Like many people who’ve actually spent time in a recording studio, I loathe artificial effects that may not have anything to do with the artist’s original intentions. Spatial Audio is the worst.

If you’re an Apple Music and AirPods user, here’s how to turn off Spatial Audio in favor of a stereo mix. Click this link and scroll down the page to Stop using Personal Spatial Audio to get instruction. If you’re ever curious about an artist-endorsed immersive mix, you can always turn it back on.

Apple Music delivers an excellent CD-quality stereo stream. Qobuz and Tidal definitely deliver more detail on their higher-resolution songs, but the gap between their best sound quality and the Apple Music version is much smaller than the gap between all Qobuz, Tidal and Apple Music’s CD-quality files and the shrill and thin tracks you’re getting from Spotify.

Qobuz Connect

Here’s the big news: If you have a streaming device hooked up to your home audio system, you’re going to be excited about Connect, a feature previously available from Spotify and Tidal but not Qobuz.

Most standalone streaming units have apps that log in to user accounts for the various streamers. Those phone or tablet apps then communicate with the streaming device over WiFi. The best standalone streamer apps support dozens of niche streaming and internet radio services, wrangling the source at full resolution and routing it through your handheld device to the streaming box.

Unfortunately, you get a somewhat awkward experience when you use Qobuz from within even the best of the streamer apps (WiiM and BluOS, to name two). It works, but you won’t have the same browsing experience you’d have in the streaming service’s own app.

Qobuz Connect (like its competitors Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect) now lets you use the native Qobuz app to control the streaming device. Rather than routing music through your phone or tablet, the Connect feature hands off playback to the streaming device so that your phone is acting as a remote instead of a streaming source.

I’ve been testing this for a few months, and the difference is startling. I know several people who have long preferred Qobuz to Tidal but kept going back to Tidal because the Tidal Connect feature was so much better than using their streamer’s app to control Qobuz. I’d urge anyone who’s held out for that reason to give Qobuz a try.

The audio industry is excited to support this new feature. Here’s a list of manufacturers that are supporting Qobuz Connect at launch: Aavik, Arcam, Atoll Electronique, Audiolab, Auralic, Aurender, Autonomic Controls, AVM Audio, Axxess, Ayon Audio, B Audio, Burmester, Cary Audio, CH Precision, Convers Digital, Dan D'Agostino, dCS, Denon, Dynaudio, ElectroCompaniet, Esoteric, Eversolo, Focal, Gold Note, Hegel, Heos, HiFi Rose, Inklang, Innuos, JBL Premium Audio, Kalista, Libre Wireless Technologies, Lindemann, Lumin, Luxman, Lyngdorf Audio, Marantz, MBL Akustikgeräte, McIntosh, Metronome, Moon, Nagra, Naim Audio, Octavio, PS Audio, Rotel, Ruark Audio, Shanling, Silent Angel, SOtM, StreamUnlimited, T+A, Teac, Volumio, Wadax, Wattson Audio, WiiM.

Here’s a note: If you’re using a streaming device that has a software platform already built in, Qobuz Connect won’t apply to you. An example would be the excellent FiiO R7, which has a touchscreen and runs a modified version of Android. Qobuz, Apple Music, and all the other major audio apps run in their standard Android versions on that device.

I wrote about streaming devices a while back.

This brings us to the one bit of disappointing news. Qobuz Connect won’t work with the Bluesound Node or other devices that run the BluOS software. That may change in the future but, as of now, there are no firm plans to support Qobuz Connect.

For a very long time, the Node was the go-to home streaming device and didn’t much serious competition in the under $1000 price range. Other manufacturers have started making excellent streamers, so the lack of BluOS support for Qobuz Connect isn’t as disastrous as it would have been a few years back.

If you’re curious getting the best quality sound in a home stereo system, I’d encourage you to check out the $149 WiiM Pro or the $219 WiiM Pro Plus. These are both outstanding devices that cost hundreds less than the competition. Both devices allow you to bypass the internal DAC and make a connection to an even better DAC, so each can be upgraded if you’re ever itching to make an improvement.

I don’t think most people would ever want something better than the WiiM Pro Plus, so I’d stretch and buy that one if you can afford it. The WiiM Pro is still an excellent choice, and you shouldn’t hesitate to try one if you can’t justify the extra $70 for the Plus.

WiiM also makes the $329 Ultra, which upgrades the DAC and adds a touchscreen display but somehow loses the AirPlay 2 support that Apple users want. If you’re Android-only, you might want to take a look. Note that the $89 WiiM Mini won’t work with Qobuz Connect and you’ll definitely want to use a separate DAC if you’re interested in one of those. Go for the Pro instead.

I use the Node X in my main audio system, and it was incredibly frustrating that I wouldn’t be able to use Qobuz Connect. Then I figured out a workaround and decided to use a WiiM Pro as the main streamer and use its digital output to hand off the DAC duties to the Node X. It’s a bit of a hack, but I figure it’ll work until Bluesound gets on board with Qobuz.

Is Qobuz for you?

I know a lot of people love the automatic playlists that Spotify generates and that’s built up a lot of loyalty with users over the years. I understand that impulse, but I’ve also found that their algorithm is serving me a lot more garbage than it used to. Also, since I’ve taken advantage of the audiobook listening that’s included in my subscriptions, Spotify has transformed my home page into a million podcast recommendations. It’s hard to find music.

I think Apple Music’s algorithm has been degrading since the day they shut down Beats Music, a service that I really enjoyed because it seemed like its recommendations were generated by a person making lists. I know that “people making lists” is considered a dead business model, but computers have no taste (not bad taste but zero taste) and can’t make the kind of subtle cultural distinctions that make conversations about music (and movies and books) so much fun.

As I research my compilation projects (Young & Wild: A Decade of American Glam Metal 1982-1992 is out this Friday!), I play a lot of music that’s not necessarily what I want to enjoy later, but Apple Music just serves up more of the same of whatever I was playing last and ignores all the data they have about my listening habits for the past 25 years of iTunes listening. Playing one track from an obscure band that didn’t turn out to be very good doesn’t mean I want them to suggest dozens of similar but equally mediocre artists over the next few months.

Qobuz isn’t in the algorithm business. Your home page is full of recommendations from its staff about new music that they want to recommend to their subscribers. Unlike the “adventurous” playlists offered up by NPR, the New York Times, or President Obama, Qobuz editors have a special interest in music that’s going to challenge their subscribers.

Rumours, Kind of Blue, The Wall, and Come Away With Me may be permanently lodged in the Qobuz Top Ten, but the company wants to make sure everyone at least has the chance to broaden their horizons.

If you like something they’re pushing in a given week, it’s best to add it to your favorites. They offer up a “tailored for you” playlist each Friday called My Weekly Q that’s a mix of new and old songs. The result feels more like someone made you a mixtape than the computer-generated slop they’re serving over at Spotify.

There’s a curated list of the Qobuz Ideal Discography that includes descriptions pulled from AllMusic.com and a ton of genre, artist, and label playlists that are definitely the work of curators and not computers. There’s also a Magazine tab that features in-depth articles and reviews by Qobuz writers.

What you’re not going to get is a passive entertainment experience. Qobuz is definitely tailored for active and engaged music listeners who have a strong sense of what they want to hear. I write a lot here about strategies for more focused and engaged listening, and Qobuz’s insistence that I decide what I want to hear has been a big help for me.

I’m sure that Spotify marketers would claim this feature is actually a bug and that listeners don’t really care about sound quality or even the names of the artists who (allegedly) made the music that’s playing in the background.

If you’re happy with Apple Music or Tidal or Spotify (or even Amazon Music HD), I understand that each one of them has strengths that appeal to a lot of people. If you’re happy, you’re not wrong.

Qobuz is $12.99/month or $130/year for an individual account. Two people can share an account for $17.99/month or $180/year and a Family Plan (up to 6 people is $17.99/month or $263/year. Students get a $4.99/month deal.

The company is also a digital music retailer. If you’re interested in building a hi-res music collection, you might want to consider the $180/year individual Sublime plan, which gives you up to 60% off in the Qobuz Store.

Qobuz has agreed to let my readers spend a bit of time with their service so you can find out if you want to make a change. If you do give it a try, please comment below and share your experience with Qobuz.

For everyone who decides to make a permanent switch, there are services that can help you transfer your playlists from one service to another. None of them are perfect, but I’ve got some experience there and can share some recommendations if anyone wants to know.

I pay for my own Qobuz account and this is not one of those situations where I’ll get a small cut if anyone decides to subscribe after using this link. You can sign up to see if you hear a difference, use it for a couple of months to see if their approach works for you. I think that the better your headphones or home audio setup, the more likely you’ll be to keep using Qobuz.

If you’ve made it this far and don’t want to have to scroll up to find the subscription link, click here for the 60-day trial.

Used vinyl ethics, part 2

OK, I’m curious. Did someone who calls himself Gerald Barker read my Why record stores are fighting to survive post before sending a letter to The Ethicist column at the New York Times?

Is It Ethical to Buy Used Books and Music? (gift link)

The columnist Kwame Anthony Appiah mostly agrees with me, and adds environmental benefits to the list of reasons that it’s okay to buy used instead of new. The needs of art don’t always align with the goals of commerce.

8-track of the day