Ongoing Beta Beta Test: Qobuz Connect

[azoriusmage]

Just had a new QC beta installed on my Android phone (qconnect-beta04). Interestingly, the Play Store did not update it automatically; I had to search in the Play Store for Qobuz to find and install it. I’ll put it through its paces later today (with fingers crossed that some if not all of my top 3 issues are addressed).

ETA:

• Distorted playback of CD-quality content on WiiM grouped devices was not fixed.
• One change I've noticed with beta04 is that WiiM devices show up as "Qobuz Connect" renderers from the start, rather than as "Network device" renderers as under beta03, switching to Qobuz Connect labels after having been selected in the app.

Distorted CD Playback must be a WiiM end issue and a shame they have not come up with any solution yet.

 

[huw]

Edit: from both tidal connect and my nas, 44.1khz files show as 44.1 on both dacs when two wiims are grouped, and everything else shows as 48khz even if both tidal and the wiim app show a higher (source) rate.
Exactly as I expected, and remembered.

Thanks for testing! So unless Qobuz Connect behaves differently then that's not the issue. I wondered if it was related to the recently "Resample Algorithm Enhancement" fix in the WiiM Ultra firmware (which was after the Qobuz Connect beta firmware release). I think that was to fix a problem when the Ultra resampled 44.1 kHz 16-bit to higher sampling rate.

 

[Balthazar B]

Thanks for testing! So unless Qobuz Connect behaves differently then that's not the issue. I wondered if it was related to the recently "Resample Algorithm Enhancement" fix in the WiiM Ultra firmware (which was after the Qobuz Connect beta firmware release). I think that was to fix a problem when the Ultra resampled 44.1 kHz 16-bit to higher sampling rate.

The problem occurs without an Ultra in the group mix, so unless the Pro firmware had the same problem, I'm skeptical that's the root cause.

 

[Balthazar B]

Just a quick note for any beta testers who don't visit the Qconnect beta site at Qobuz Club.

Someone pointed out that the new beta (04) now supports volume changes via the phone volume button. I hadn't noticed this earlier, but it's definitely working on the Android version of the beta app with a WiiM device.

 

[ans2015]

Unavailable track problem:
Qobuz displays "unavailable tracks" at least either when an album is not yet fully available (some tracks are , others not), or when on a playlist an album has been removed from the catalog : the corresponding tracks used by the playlist from this album are tagged unvailable and greyed. Qobuz skips these unavailable tracks when playing the album or the playlist. Fine.
When using QC with WIIM Pro Plus as a player from an iPhone or a MacBook as a telecommand, these unavailable tracks are a problem : the track immediately before an "unavalaible track" cannot play and QC tries undefinitvely to load unsuccesfully this track . QC is locked. The problem can be reproduced.
Note that the track after the unavailable track can be played without problem as well as the track before the track before the unavailable track.

 

[AlexFr]

Hello!
Does Wiim already tell about a date for update "qobuz connect" for all?
Sorry for my poor english

 

[azoriusmage]

Hello!
Does Wiim already tell about a date for update "qobuz connect" for all?
Sorry for my poor english

I doubt they have a date for general release the WiiM end of the integration has some serious issue that need fixing.

I am quite sure your English is better than my French so don't apologise

 

[huw]

So after a few weeks of flawless behaviour, yesterday I had to reboot my WiiM Pro twice to get Qobuz Connect to work and today I had to reboot it 8 times. In all cases it showed up as a target but refused to connect when selected. IP address of WiiM Pro hasn't changed since when it was working.

 

[azoriusmage]

So after a few weeks of flawless behaviour, yesterday I had to reboot my WiiM Pro twice to get Qobuz Connect to work and today I had to reboot it 8 times. In all cases it showed up as a target but refused to connect when selected. IP address of WiiM Pro hasn't changed since when it was working.

I have had the same issue

 

[azoriusmage]

So after a few weeks of flawless behaviour, yesterday I had to reboot my WiiM Pro twice to get Qobuz Connect to work and today I had to reboot it 8 times. In all cases it showed up as a target but refused to connect when selected. IP address of WiiM Pro hasn't changed since when it was working.

Happening a lot for me and once it is in that state I can't even connect with Spotify let alone Qobuz. Nearly 2 months and no update to the beta yes other manufacturers seem to be fine.

 

[DamagedGoods]

Too many posts to read through, so I will ask directly:

Which Qobuz clients are compatible? I installed the beta version that supports Qobuz Direct on my WiiM Ultra, but it doesn't show up as a device in my iPhone Qobuz client. Should it, or is there no support for iOS clients?

 

[Burnside]

Too many posts to read through, so I will ask directly:

Which Qobuz clients are compatible? I installed the beta version that supports Qobuz Direct on my WiiM Ultra, but it doesn't show up as a device in my iPhone Qobuz client. Should it, or is there no support for iOS clients?

Have you signed up for the beta iOS app with Qobuz? The beta firmware is only half of the picture.

 

[DamagedGoods]

Have you signed up for the beta iOS app with Qobuz? The beta firmware is only half of the picture.

When you say it like that, it sounds pretty obvious.

I'm already signed up for TestFlight, so I guess I will just have to look for Qobuz there...

 

[Burnside]

When you say it like that, it sounds pretty obvious.

I'm already signed up for TestFlight, so I guess I will just have to look for Qobuz there...

You’ll need to have contacted Qobuz with your login details and need to have been accepted on to the beta test programme before you’ll see the app in TestFlight. That’s the third half

 

[DamagedGoods]

You’ll need to have contacted Qobuz with your login details and need to have been accepted on to the beta test programme before you’ll see the app in TestFlight. That’s the third half

Haha, phew!

 

[azoriusmage]

If it stick to HiRes albums this beta works so well would be nice if they could sort the lower quality playback with multi-room or maybe communicate a little about the problem?

 

[Balthazar B]

If it stick to HiRes albums this beta works so well would be nice if they could sort the lower quality playback with multi-room or maybe communicate a little about the problem?

This is just a hunch, but given other renderer platforms do not appear to have this issue, it may be (mostly) WiiM's to solve. Qobuz has said they've been in touch with WiiM about it.

 

[azoriusmage]

This is just a hunch, but given other renderer platforms do not appear to have this issue, it may be (mostly) WiiM's to solve. Qobuz has said they've been in touch with WiiM about it.

Yes this only happens on my WiiM devices no my Marantz amp

 

[Balthazar B]

Android Heads-Up!!

Overnight my Qobuz beta 04 app was updated by the Play Store, and evidently replaced with the GA version of the app. Probably a Google glitch. I’ll try deleting data/cache, uninstalling the app, and reinstalling from the link Qobuz sent earlier. Will update this note later today on if that successfully fixed the issue.

I don’t know if I’m a one-off or if all the Android beta testers will be affected, so be careful!

EDIT: Deleting the GA app and reinstalling from the beta link did not restore the beta app. The version that was installed is 8.5.0.0 (although it has the beta icon and is labeled “Qobuz Bêta”). But no QC endpoints show up as renderers. Guess I’ll be dead in the water until this gets worked out — by Google I assume.

A couple of people at Qobuz Club reported they were impacted after I posted the above.