DSD coming to Qobuz streaming?

That would be awesome

The Boston album linked to is shown in CD quality, and if you select the option to buy the album download it only shows availability in CD quality.

DSD files are significantly larger than high res PCM, so this is quite the achievement! Thanks for letting us know!

bill_k

The Boston album linked to is shown in CD quality ...

It is now, but that wasn't the case previously. I think Qobuz may have jumped the gun in advance of the "announcement."

QOBUZ DSD UPDATE

I have now received new information from Qobuz. This is the message, in full:

Wonder if DSD will involve a new subscription tier above the current top tier? I'll give it a go regardless, although I imagine the DSD catalogue may be modest to begin with

That's nice but I'd rather they offered multichannel.

In any event the DSD library at one time was mentioned would be in the 100k+  region of classic music of all types ,I was have been patiently waiting for something 

I now seriously doubt will ever happen if you got even 500 ,mainly orchestral 

is just more hype,   Sort of like MQA the New game changer now 

just a different style lightbulb that failed to live up to its own hype !!

MQA is dead on Tidal. This was announced a few days ago. FLAC is pretty sweet and will fully displace it anyway. DSD is definitely nice, but have to have a DAC that supports it.

Not currently streaming, but DSD would be worth a game changer for me.  I would definitely sign up. 

I have Amazon unlimited music which my fiio K5 pro and k1 portable dac both show a input of DSD.. I tried apple music which did not 

Can anyone explain this

MQA is dead. It's dead, Jim.

Hallelujah. 

DSD files would be awesome but I doubt streaming it would be so easy. Not impossible but unlikely.

DSD downloads however sounds like a great match for Qobuz and I guess we're all sorry we didn't get that Boston download in DSD. That would been awesome.

Just shows you that even if Qobuz is performing an internal test (for purposes we can't conclude) users are likely to discover it. 

Bring on the DSD! 

romanesq

MQA is dead. It's dead, Jim. Hallelujah. 

MQA will be featured on the new HDTracks streaming service.

Qobuz hinted at this years ago. 

Precisely in July 2022, when they said ”wait for a year”. 

It's almost two years later, let the DSD flow! 

Can someone explain what the big deal is with DSD?

Given the file sizes, I wonder if DSD CAN be streamed via the Internet effectively?  I mean, it can't be larger than 4K video can it? Then again many Americans and others worldwide don't have access to 300Mbps Internet either.  Maybe DSD downloads would be a better fit. And I wonder exactly what catalog of DSD music is out there given that very few studios use it as a recording medium? Classical maybe? I mean if something is recorded in 24bit/192Khz and you convert it to DSD you aren't really gaining anything. So unless the files are native DSD I don't see the point. And like others have said, you have to have a DAC that supports it. Many don't. 

Streaming dsd64 will not be a problem, but most "audiophiles" will be disappointed with that.

nice, would be ironic if this

would not be offered as DSD ;-)

Just a naive question. Is there an advantage to DSD over high res PCM?  I can see the advantage of DSD if the original recording is in DSD (there are very few recording masters done in DSD … Boston included). However, if the original recording (the master) was in red book or high res PCM what does DSD bring to the party?  DSD can not add musical information to what is not already there in the original recording. Finally, does your DAC not covert your music files to PCM before doing analog conversion? I love the idea of DSD recordings but taking old PCM masters and converting them to DSD does not seem to offer much.  What am I missing?

What am I missing?

My perception has been that DSD has a slightly different character from PCM.  Much of this could be expectation bias.  And I don't mean to say it is necessarily better.  It would just be fun to have access to more DSD-originated and streamed recordings to understand if there is a difference. 

Part of this depends on how "deep" one wants to get into DSD. Correct that the number of native DSD is small in comparison (still a lot available though) even more so with the style/genre you like.

However, the vast majority of users? at least in what I see/experience, is upsampling PCM > DSD (128-512+) AND using HQPlayer with its fantastic modulaters/sampling.

So this workflow is where things get either a bit more involved, but not crazy complicated, to fairly in-depth / involved chain - but with great results. Using HQP along with some of the well known players (mainly used for library mgmt) and an HQP NAA endpoint > DAC (USB or I2s).

There are many threads on HQP + NAA that going beyond the scope here, but offer a lot of info. The advantages are solely personal preference and the ones doing PCM > DSD obviously prefer that "method" and SQ.  One has to experience it with the right setup/DAC.  It is very good, but again a little more "techy" involved. 

Streaming DSD or more DSD downloads made available to many in the DSD camp would be a very welcome addition

@redlenses03

I steam but is what you describe above a newer (to me) upscaling way?

128-512 is bit depth?

Truly a bit confused.

Wsrrsw

@wsrrsw 

Nope, my reference was pointing to a upsampling range that is most "popular", either 128 to 512 upsampling rates (higher is possible, but again getting into the weeds on this).  Much of this depends on the HQP modulators used which is very dependent on your dedicated hardware (e.g.processor) that is running only HQP (the embedded image is best IMHO).

@chilli42 

DSD sounds different to me.  Fuller Richer Smoother, I generally prefer it the Hi-Rez PCM.  I also have a tube pre-amp and DAC so maybe that's why.

I’ll be happy hear what Qobuz has to has to offer.

PS Audio has a small but interesting downloadable library of DSD albums on their Octave Records label. All these titles were mastered in DSD so you get the full benefit of what DSD has to offer. If you choose to pay and download, be sure the DSD file is one that your DAC can process … for example the max my DAC can handle is 256 DSD files.