[runssical]

Not necessarily. Their stated goal is 1% of the market. Seems doable, given all the people here and on other forums responding well to this announcement by signing up for new monthly and annual plans. Before releasing the new pricing, they must have done the math. I'd worry more about Tidal.

For once I agree with you

 

[runssical]

I predicted this price drop by Qobuz a while back. Only way they can survive. But I do wonder how they can operate at this price. Their margins will probably shrink significantly.

 

[runssical]

I noticed this Qobuz deal is limited to 100,000 customers. So some people are rushing to sign up. It's brilliant marketing. But remember, when Qobuz went bankrupt 3 years ago court documents showed they had only 4,000 or so subscribers to their lossless service at that time.

Does anyone know how many subs Qobuz currently has in the USA? I'm curious.

 

[runssical]

Oh, and this goes without saying, time to cancel those Amazon HD trials and switch to Qobuz.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Isn't that just intro price?
I liked Qobuz SQ, but catalogue was quite shallow and app very spartan with little to offer with discovery or even specific genre selection. There were some randomv crashes on Android and Windows too.
But Amazon in current state not worth paying for either. They have one more trial month left to fix exclusive mode.

 

[Left Channel]

Does anyone know how many subs Qobuz currently has in the USA? I'm curious.

As of August 2019, six months after launch: 25,000 in the USA out of 200,000 worldwide. https://variety.com/2019/music/news...roads-six-months-after-u-s-launch-1203302742/

Isn't that just intro price?

The offer is open to the first 100,000 sign-ups or until January 31st, whichever comes first. The offer prices are then locked in, but of course all prices may go up in the future. USA only at this time. https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/music/streaming/offers

 

[stuartmc]

I have 4 different iPads, including a pro, an iPhone and an ipod touch, all of them show exactly the same behavior: after around 90s of playback, I would notice a very substantial decrease in sound quality, and when clicking on a yellow badge, it would show that playback is done at 'standard'. I have a fast 50mbps internet connection and perfect WiFi coverage at my home, so it's not my internet.

I wonder how you have a different experience, maybe amazon's servers serve different parts of the world differently (I'm in Germany). Downloading however works flawlessly, and at a max. data rate my internet provider is capable of. Only streaming is completely broken...

That must be frustrating as heck. I don't know what to make of it, but your suggestion that the feed in Germany may be different is a plausible explanation. If I experienced any of this downgrading behavior, I would drop Amazon like a hot rock and not try it again until I knew it was fixed.

Someone else mentioned that Ipads function a little differently as a USB streaming server and that they might not be "bit perfect." Using Apple's CCK adapter it will in fact be bit perfect provided your DAC works driverless and its usb input is powered in such a way that it passes the Ipad's power check (you can search Head-Fi and find plenty of threads on this). This is very hardware/firmware dependent, so that is why I listed my gear and the chain of connection very specifically. In my case, when I connected the usb cable directly into the Tanly DDC, it didn't work, but when I used the Regen before it, it functioned perfectly. I suspect that the Regen acted like a powered hub that so many Ipad users say they need to get their DAC working. When I then tried adding an Audioquest jitterbug into the mix, the whole thing was borked again. I then tried bypassing the Tanly and ran the Ipad's CCK feed into the Regen and then into the Gustard's USB input. Nope, nothing....then removed the Regen and much to my surprise, it worked fine again. I then added the Jitterbug back in and it continued to work perfectly. Zut Alors!!

This is maddening, folks, and the only reason I'm sharing this dribble is to impress upon some that not only is usb playback a persnickety matter that is VERY hardware/firmware dependent, but apparently, so too is the performance of Amazon Music HD. If you follow the DAP threads like I have, you will know that the functionality and quality of playback on various Fiio, Ibasso and Hiby DAPs varies widely. (We can reasonably assume that the same holds true for all kinds of playback devices). The Amazon and DAP forums are all over the place on what the real problem is. Some say the DAP software has to be fixed to work with Amazon HD because certain DAPs in their lineup work great with it and others don't. Then there are some DAP manufacturers (Fiio) laying the blame squarely on Amazon's shoulders and still others, like Hiby, that release a firmware upgrade for the R5 that fixes nearly everything.

So, in my (very) particular case, Amazon HD is working quite well in both functionality and sound quality -- enough for me to ditch Tidal and appreciate the savings. Obviously, your mileage may vary.

 

[Brava210]

I have done another evaluation of Qobuz vs Amazon today. The harshness on some of my favourite albums seems to have subsided quite a lot.
Flicking between the same track on the 2 platforms is very similar sound quality through my LG V40 and valve amp into Audio Technica M40 phones
Which I suppose is good news

 

[brianlg]

Amazon NEEDS to fix the fact that some albums have a mix-match of bit depths/sample rates where the same album has some tracks "ULTRA HD" and others just "HD". That's a huge mess. An album should never vary.

 

[GlennDS]

I am not really sure if I can hear the difference, but if you enable JRiver as a wdm device, you can play Amazon Music through JRiver..

Using the WDM driver does not bypass the Windows mixer. The audio goes out from Amazon Music HD to the Windows mixer, then it goes to JRiver MC. Unless you know of some special integration of WDM, then I would like to know it.

 

[Scarpad]

I dont know why everyone is so quick to give amazon yet another revenue stream. they already control almost all online shopping in the US, they put gorgeous bookstores out of business across the country, they now control most of the internet infrastructure game, eventually you will just be 8 of 18, tertiary adjunct to unimatrix zero, Amazon Prime Borg. Support some smaller companies for a change, especially if the service is controlled by the labels anyway and more or less the same.

yeah i was in the market for a new ereader and i went with a kobo i can convert my books and its not cluttered with ads

 

[GlennDS]

I dont know why everyone is so quick to give amazon yet another revenue stream.

Amazon Music does something that 99% of the other services don't do. They have a radio feature that can mix genres. Amazon's feature is called 'My Soundtrack' which plays various tracks based off of your library and listening history. I listen to several different genres (older and newer hard rock, country, jazz, smooth jazz,etc.) and Amazon & Deezer are the only services that will play an automated mix of tracks.

 

[3Putter]

Amazon Music does something that 99% of the other services don't do. They have a radio feature that can mix genres. Amazon's feature is called 'My Soundtrack' which plays various tracks based off of your library and listening history. I listen to several different genres (older and newer hard rock, country, jazz, smooth jazz,etc.) and Amazon & Deezer are the only services that will p

Never had a problem with the My Mix choices on Tidal which uses several of my selected/downloaded artists and plays other suggested artists. I don't stray too far off genres but if you want to get specific I tend to have multiple sub-genres of rock and country music.

 

[GlennDS]

Never had a problem with the My Mix choices on Tidal

Yes, Tidal's My Mix will make several different pre-made playlists, each based off it's own genre. I'm not looking for multiple pre-made playlists that each have it's own genre, I want an automated stream of tracks with varying genres.

 

[3Putter]

Yes, Tidal's My Mix will make several different pre-made playlists, each based off it's own genre. I'm not looking for multiple pre-made playlists that each have it's own genre, I want an automated stream of tracks with varying genres.

Pre-Made from what? Some of my tracks some are new artists. I don't think these are pre-made but maybe I don't fully understand. I wouldn't call the songs in each list from the same genre but I guess you could call it that. And I suppose I don't stray too far off Rock or Country. Enjoy Amazon, wish I could abide but this dude can't.