[Left Channel]

I will ride their horse to the bitter end, as for an alternative... I didn't much care for Deezer and I can't access Quobuz due to regional restrictions (although there is always the VPN trick)

Qobuz may be announcing a US service at CES this week. Announcements at CES usually target a fall launch. Meanwhile, as you probably know, from the US we only need VPN to sign up and after that can stream direct.

Qobuz treats high-res as a niche market, and for that tier charges accordingly. But that approach appears to be helping the company recover from past mistakes and move steadily towards profitability.

 

[captblaze]

Qobuz may be announcing a US service at CES this week. Announcements at CES usually target a fall launch. Meanwhile, as you probably know, from the US we only need VPN to sign up and after that can stream direct.

Qobuz treats high-res as a niche market, and for that tier charges accordingly. But that approach appears to be helping the company recover from past mistakes and move steadily towards profitability.

I just checked and their sublime level costs $475 US for a year... I pay $360 US a year for a Tidal family sub. I am definitely gonna ride Tidal to the bitter end

 

[DarwinOSX]

As a veteran I get Tidal for $11 a month but would pay the $20 for it. But I agree it is niche. I pay for Tidal, Apple Music, and Pandora.
I'll take it a step further and say any standalone streaming service is unlikely to be profitable long term. Spotify is bragging about 140 million users when 90 million of those are on the free tier they make practically nothing from and Spotify has never been profitable and shows no signs of it any time in the near future. Yet they are doing an IPO. I'm still surprised Pandora is still around but glad because I like their radio service better than anyone else. They are on life support though.
There is too much of a disconnect for what the service pay for rights to music and what people will pay per month.
I like MQA but doubt it will help Tidal in the long term.
Streaming may belong to companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google who can sell it as a value added service to their other products and afford to break even.

 

[Left Channel]

Yes Qobuz is not cheap for our niche, but that's a big reason why the CEO is able to say they will be profitable in a few years while Tidal is regularly in the news because of cashflow issues. Qobuz went broke once already, and came up with this new strategy since then.

The US service has been announced! I had to go searching for this, but as CES gets underway this week I hope to see more news. → CES: Qobuz High-Res Music Service to Launch in U.S. in 2018 http://www.etcentric.org/ces-qobuz-high-res-music-service-to-launch-in-u-s-in-2018/

There is a Qobuz thread here on Head-Fi. There you'll find as many complaints about the download service as you will compliments on the streaming, interface, and content. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/qobuz-lossless-streaming-service-thread.856101/

 

[captblaze]

Streaming may belong to companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google who can sell it as a value added service to their other products and afford to break even.

I doubt any of those 3 would offer a Hi Res option... In the mean time I would like to see MQA downloadable files expand in availability... I have a server at home and enough bandwidth to serve up some home grown streaming if need be

 

[DarwinOSX]

Probably not.
Spotify did a test of it but who knows if they will do it. I dumped Spotify when Apple Music came out because I never liked its interface, the many junk tribute band files, and with Apple Music I can combine streaming and all my many years of iTunes music from various sources.
If one of the big three did support MQA of course it would be a huge boost for the format and perhaps a differentiator as long as it is folded into the mobile app for at least the first decode. Then again most people listen to music with cheap earbuds so they might not even notice.

 

[DarwinOSX]

Yes Qobuz is not cheap for our niche, but that's a big reason why the CEO is able to say they will be profitable in a few years while Tidal is regularly in the news because of cashflow issues. Qobuz went broke once already, and came up with this new strategy since then.

Why would Qobuz be profitable when Tidal isn't?
Or when Spotify and Pandora aren't?

 

[Left Channel]

Why would Qobuz be profitable when Tidal isn't?
Or when Spotify and Pandora aren't?

Well they're not profitable now, and anything can happen between now and 2020-21, but that is when the new lead investor and CEO says they'll be in the black. (See the last line of this French article; I ran it through Google Translate.) Charging a very premium price for the audiophile tier is a key part of the road map for getting there.

 

[Left Channel]

MQA is supposed to be on Mobile in a week or so. See DarKo on this.
Also Roon is supposed to be close to working with MQA. If I can play MQA via Roon using their direct connect to my Kef LS50W speakers that would be amazing.
I do think the Meridian Explorer 2 and Dragonfly Red are bargains but I wanted a full decoder not a renderer which is why I chose the Meridian over the Dragonfly at the same price. I was interested in the iFi Nano iDSD BL until I found out it too is only a renderer. I'm very interested in the Mytek Clef which was just released I believe and is a full decoder.

Unfortunately Tidal does not appear to be announcing MQA for mobile apps this week. According to Darko, they're using CES to meet and firm up their partnerships. But Groovers has announced a mobile MQA service, and nugs.net is announcing MQA streaming as well. Meridian has also announced MQA for Roon, Amrarra, and Audirvana (including an Audirvana for Windows), and even a possible MQA upgrade on Sonore products among others. More here: http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/...ships-drive-master-quality-audio-availability

 

[DarwinOSX]

Well they're not profitable now, and anything can happen between now and 2020-21, but that is when the new lead investor and CEO says they'll be in the black. (See the last line of this French article; I ran it through Google Translate.) Charging a very premium price for the audiophile tier is a key part of the road map for getting there.

I'd say that is very unlikely to work for them.

 

[DarwinOSX]

Unfortunately Tidal does not appear to be announcing MQA for mobile apps this week. According to Darko, they're using CES to meet and firm up their partnerships. But Groovers has announced a mobile MQA service, and nugs.net is announcing MQA streaming as well. Meridian has also announced MQA for Roon, Amrarra, and Audirvana (including an Audirvana for Windows), and even a possible MQA upgrade on Sonore products among others. More here: http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/...ships-drive-master-quality-audio-availability

I've seen a number of articles and tweets saying different things so I guess we will see how it shakes out.
Audirvana has had MQA since August.
I haven't seen anything official from Roon and they usually don't comment on new things until it is actually released but various sources say soon.
Sonore would be interesting...

 

[Left Channel]

I'd say that is very unlikely to work for them.

I sure hope it does. In business, sometimes staying small and focused has its advantages while growing too fast will kill you. During the dot-com boom all the new web companies were chasing "eyeballs" on borrowed money. Eventually there was a shakeout. The same thing has been happening as Tidal and others chase ears. My fingers are crossed for Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, and others. Whether I'm their customer or not, long-term we'll all benefit.

I've seen a number of articles and tweets saying different things so I guess we will see how it shakes out.
Audirvana has had MQA since August.
I haven't seen anything official from Roon and they usually don't comment on new things until it is actually released but various sources say soon.
Sonore would be interesting...

The announcement is about Audirvana for Windows, sorry. Sonore and some of the others are staying quiet so far. Meridian went ahead and announced all this just because of CES. Some of the companies in their previous CES announcements have quietly disappeared from subsequent press releases.

 

[DarwinOSX]

I'm guessing those companies would have preferred to announce it themselves
People are already asking about it on the Roon forum.

 

[captblaze]

The announcement is about Audirvana for Windows

I wonder if they will do Windows better than Sonic Studio with Amarra for Windows. I am still disgusted with how poorly that software runs on my pc and dropped it for HQ Player and haven't looked back.

 

[Left Channel]

I wonder if they will do Windows better than Sonic Studio with Amarra for Windows. I am still disgusted with how poorly that software runs on my pc and dropped it for HQ Player and haven't looked back.

I considered Amarra for Tidal on Windows, but fled when I saw all the bug reports. And Amarra 4 Luxe apparently has library limitations and problems galore. But Sonic Studio has announced plans for a release that would rely on iTunes for library management while using Amarra primarily for sound quality.