Qobuz launches Sublime service, teases high-res streaming | What Hi-Fi?
Qobuz has rolled out its new 'Sublime' subscription tier to a number of new countries – it's now available in France, the UK, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – and hinted at the launch of a high-res audio streaming service.
Sublime combines Qobuz's Hi-Fi streaming service (CD-quality, 16-Bit/44.1kHz FLAC files) with discounted high-res audio downloads. For a yearly fee of £220, you get access to 24-bit high-res downloads with up to 60% off the standard price, depending on the tracks involved.
The UK pricing appears to differ to mainland Europe - over the water, Sublime will cost you €220, which works out at more like £160.
Quobuz has also obtained 'Hi-Res Audio' certification from the Japan Audio Society (JAS) so it can use the logo on on its site - it's the same logo used by the likes of Sony and Pioneer on its high-res hardware.
The press release also points towards the interesting possibility of a high-res streaming option coming to Sublime in the future, revealing: "Soon, Qobuz users will also be able to stream their purchases in Hi-Res within the framework of this subscription!"
Although there's no shortage of music streaming services to choose from, thanks to the likes of Spotify, Tidal, Deezer et al, we're still waiting for the first mainstream music service to offer real-time high-resolution audio streaming.
Meridian's MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology is a way of packaging studio master quality files more efficiently, paving the way for high-res streaming. The company recently revealed Tidal had successfully streamed high-res audio using the MQA format.
Could Qobuz be the first to offer this solution to its customers? We shall see.