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Amazon Unlimited or Qobuz for best sound quality?

H

Huck

Active Member
Hi: I now have Amazon Unlimited and Qobuz is now available in Canada,so which one would you pick and stay with regarding audio quality between the two services?....I listen to mainly Rock and Progressive Rock,so maybe these music genre choices sound quality wise won't matter which one??.Thanks,Huck
 
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Huck said:
Hi: I now have Amazon Unlimited and Qobuz is now available in Canada,so which one would you pick and stay with regarding audio quality between the two services?....I listen to mainly Rock and Progressive Rock,so maybe these music genre choices sound quality wise won't matter which one??.Thanks,Huck
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Try them both and then decide for yourself. They both offer free trials.
 
Since both support lossless streaming, the only difference can be in their source material. And that depends on who gets to choose what mastering is published, and what level compression is applied. Is it the record labels supplying media, or is it the streaming service? And, if it's the record label, to they supply all services with the same media? I've not seen any definitive answers to those questions, so judging for yourself is the only real answer.
 
Huck said:
I have tried both and I am staying with Amazon Unlimited. Can't tell an appreciable difference between the two.Thanks,Huck
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I recently did the same and stayed with Amazon, I couldn't tell any difference in SQ and as Amazon has better casting options and I'd already created a library decided to stay with it.
 
I have used Qobuz only to browse tracks for download, purchasing one. Qobuz labeled these particular tracks as "CD quality," which I take to mean 44.1 kHz, 16 bits.

The purchased track was in .wma file format. I don't want to use the Qobuz app to listen, so I had to find the file on my hard drive and convert it file to .flac for my system, which is built around Minimserver, BubbleUPnP, and via wi-fi into a good DAC, which in turn feeds an amplifier. The DAC confirmed the track was 44.1 kHz.

As for Amazon, IMO this monster is to be avoided.
 
cpt_paranoia said:
I suspect the 'monster' reference was more to do with the monopolistic nature of Amazon, and its various business practices, than anything to do with sound quality.
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That's what I thought and hence was asking .... must admit I'm really NOT a fan of theirs and how their business model has changed over the years and out of choice would use an alternative .... however they offer the best quality at the lowest price and easiest casting facility to the WiiM streamers, if someone else offered the same I'd swap in an instance and is the reson I trialed Qobuz recently.
 
cpt_paranoia said:
I suspect the 'monster' reference was more to do with the monopolistic nature of Amazon, and its various business practices, than anything to do with sound quality.
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I figured but just thought I would let him know if he would like more convenience in his life.

Amazon isn't what it used to be to the point where I often look elsewhere first before ordering from them.
However I do like AMHD
 
I do not use a streaming service, not Amazon, not Qobuz, not Spotify. Instead, I use Internet radio stations, which in many cases are the online version of long-existing FM radio stations. They are generally .aac or .mp3 qualtiy.
* Get the Web address and put it into an .m3u file. The website fmstream.org has many of these URLs.
* Local server serves the stream at the command of BubbleUPnP, the DLNA control app on a tablet; it reads .m3u and .m3u8 files.

When I hear something I'd like to hear it again, I try to find a .flac file on PrestoMusic.com (for classical and jazz) and similar websites. The price is usually less than US$2. Most files are 16-bit, 44.1 kHz; a few are 24-bit, 96 kHz. I pay in the hope that some of the money will get back to the artist. The files sit on a PC or a dedicated streamer box. Minimserver does well as the DLNA server program, working with BubbleUPnP.
 
Crazy Gnome said:
Amazon isn't what it used to be to the point where I often look elsewhere first before ordering from them.
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If you go back probably 8 years (maybe more) ... no such thing as Prime, order something, delivery included and it was there next day ... then it became min order value £20 ... and then came Prime to get the same level of service ... now Prime and it's often 2 day delivery.
Often goods advertised at one cost with Prime i.e. £50 and next day delivery .....keep searching on Amazon and you find the same product for say £46 with 3 day delivery ... so what am I paying a monthly fee for next day delivery for or does Prime now mean we just deliver when we feel like it and in you're paying a monthly fee for something we use every angle we can to not fulfill.

Smacks of beancounter / shareholders running it and their meetings must just consist of .... we haven't got enough of their money, how can we contrive ways to get more of it and give them a lesser service so we earn more of their money.

I also think it's ironic, ther original marketing was about online books infering it was saving the planet by not cutting down rainforests to print them ... hence the name ... but the amount of cardboard they use now for packaging ... with no send it back to be re-used policy, they're destroying 1000's of times what they initially promoted they'd save.

I could be totally wrong, this is just conjecture, but looking from the outside and the way it's changed very easy to get the impression that I have and not the "Caring Sharing Company" they initially promoted themselves as.

EDIT: Apologies if I slightly derailed a thread ... didn't mean to but it's a good reason to look at alternatives, I wish Qobuz realised it, if they offered a decent cast / connect I'm sure they'd get a huge following.
 
Prime is great. For us it has never been about something as lame as quick "free" shipping, it's about the streaming.
 
Amazon Music HD is cheaper here in the US at $8.99/month vs Qobuz $10.83 month paid annually $129.96. If Amazon Music HD was included with Prime I'd go that route. As a vendor selling large retailers in the past 25 years I like to support competitors to the big guys. That being said, I'd estimate that there would be no significant sound difference between the two.

By the way Prime started in 2005 as a way to get free two day shipping. Before you had to pay $9.48 for two day shipping.
 
Danddd said:
By the way Prime started in 2005 as a way to get free two day shipping. Before you had to pay $9.48 for two day shipping.
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I'm not sure when exactly when I started using Amazon but you used to buy goods without any postage cost and they'd be here the next day .... to me they did this as a way to capture an audience and once they had you find other ways to increase revenue by introducing a lesser service unless you paid for prime.
 
Witterings said:
I'm not sure when exactly when I started using Amazon but you used to buy goods without any postage cost and they'd be here the next day .... to me they did this as a way to capture an audience and once they had you find other ways to increase revenue by introducing a lesser service unless you paid for prime.
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:idea: :idea: :idea: thinking you were some how ordering thru Prime. It's all good, us old folks get confused sometimes :thumbsup:
 
I've been using Qobuz since 2019 and have never had a problem with it. I can't say too much about their interface though because I've always controlled it with Roon.
 
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