Qobuz Connect - Anybody Heard Any Updates

[Brantome]

Was there any statement regarding resolution or hi-res from official Qobuz side in this promised land of Connect Felicity? As so many are focussed on the digits their DACs show...

I wouldn‘t expect (nor would its users) anything less than full 24/192 for Qobuz Connect, assuming they can overcome the concerns they have with Chromecast beyond 24/96

 

[Guest1]

Certainly I would grant everyone who wants it...

 

[ratty]

I wouldn‘t expect (nor would its users) anything less than full 24/192 for Qobuz Connect, assuming they can overcome the concerns they have with Chromecast beyond 24/96

My understanding was a concern over the CPU impact of 192, Chromecast evidently being a somewhat onerous protocol. The bandwidth is pretty trivial either way, given where we are today.

They could perhaps adopt their own lightweight protocol, or simply piggy-back on DLNA by incorporating their own control point. On the other hand there are multiple alternatives. Didn't someone once comment that the best thing about standards was that there were so many to choose from?

 

[Witterings]

I wouldn‘t expect (nor would its users) anything less than full 24/192 for Qobuz Connect, assuming they can overcome the concerns they have with Chromecast beyond 24/96

I thought Chromecast couldn't go beyond 24/96 ... any idea what Amazon use?

 

[Brantome]

I thought Chromecast couldn't go beyond 24/96 ... any idea what Amazon use?

WiiM can support up to 24/192 over ChromeCast as I reported here around 9 months ago when I first got my hands on a WiiM Pro, but Qobuz caps it at 24/96.

Amazon uses AlexaCast

Edit: Qobuz aren’t consistent on ChromeCast though - this article still claims you can get 24/192 “on some devices” while in other places, they’ll state they deliberately cap it at 24/96

How do I experience Hi-Res on Android? | Qobuz Help Center

help.qobuz.com

 

[onlyoneme]

WiiM can support up to 24/96 over ChromeCast as I reported here around 9 months ago when I first got my hands on a WiiM Pro, but Qobuz caps it at 24/96.

Up to 24/192 I guess you wanted to say.

 

[Brantome]

Up to 24/192 I guess you wanted to say.

Well spotted, I’ll edit it

 

[ratty]

Qobuz aren’t consistent on ChromeCast though - this article still claims you can get 24/192 “on some devices” while in other places, they’ll state they deliberately cap it at 24/96

How do I experience Hi-Res on Android? | Qobuz Help Center

help.qobuz.com

This would be consistent with there being a device dependency, in terms of CPU horsepower.

 

[Balthazar B]

This would be consistent with there being a device dependency, in terms of CPU horsepower.

I'd have to think very hard to come up with any modern embedded CPU -- whether general purpose or audio-focused -- that can't deal with processing 24/192 FLAC streams. Heck, even a dirt-cheap Risc-V chip can do it without breaking a sweat. A good user experience will depend more on buffering capability, reliable network connectivity, etc...which pretty much every streamer out there, including homebrew RPi boxes, can achieve.

The main challenge for Qobuz is to make available a solution that can be implemented easily by all the CE manufacturers who already support Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect. Even though the latter has had the added burden of the MQA nonsense, adoption has been pretty good, so that should be an encouraging sign for Qobuz.

Still, I'd expect a deliberate rollout, targeting a couple of streaming solutions (I'm guessing WiiM and Volumio) at the outset, and starting in a few countries and expanding from there, to make sure everything is bug-free, reliable, and supportable. Would be great if they have something available by the end of the year, but I'd rather they do it right than do it fast.

 

[ratty]

I'd have to think very hard to come up with any modern embedded CPU -- whether general purpose or audio-focused -- that can't deal with processing 24/192 FLAC streams.

Absolutely, but decoding the payload isn't the issue. I'm sure I recall seeing somewhere that Chromecast is a rather 'expensive' transport protocol, and that the increased size of the datastream was a factor.

 

[Brantome]

Still, I'd expect a deliberate rollout, targeting a couple of streaming solutions (I'm guessing WiiM and Volumio) at the outset, and starting in a few countries and expanding from there, to make sure everything is bug-free, reliable, and supportable. Would be great if they have something available by the end of the year, but I'd rather they do it right than do it fast.

Well Qobuz did say in a joint YouTube video that they expected WiiM to be one of the very first, but again that was probably just schmoozing...

 

[Balthazar B]

Absolutely, but decoding the payload isn't the issue. I'm sure I recall seeing somewhere that Chromecast is a rather 'expensive' transport protocol, and that the increased size of the datastream was a factor.

But there will be -- almost certainly -- no relationship at all between Chromecast and Qobuz Connect, just as there is none between Chromecast and Spotify Connect or Tidal Connect. I'll hazard a guess that what's required to support Qobuz Connect is about as lightweight as for Spotify or Tidal Connect. Most of the heavy work will probably be on the back-end, but it shouldn't be rocket science.

Spotify has a developer site with a fair amount of information on all things techical with Spotify (including Connect):

Home | Spotify for Developers

developer.spotify.com

AFAIK, Tidal doesn't have anything quite as well-organized and -presented.

Re. Chromecast, Google did put a lot of technical documention online. I haven't visited it in quite a long time, but I would assume it's still available and findable.

 

[Pcryan5]

After a career in IT where early on I did my fair share of programming, I must admit statements like that and “it’s surely just one line of code” somewhat raise my hackles…

Agreed. However programming would be so much easier if we didn’t have - you know - end users.
Truly they are the hardest nut to crack of any go live I’ve run.

 

[cc_rider]

Spotify has a developer site with a fair amount of information on all things techical with Spotify (including Connect):

Home | Spotify for Developers

developer.spotify.com

AFAIK, Tidal doesn't have anything quite as well-organized and -presented.

Tidal just recently released their developer portal, similar to Spotify’s

https://developer.tidal.com/

 

[steadyshot]

I did various google searches / trawling through forums to compare the 2 a while back and generally people seemed think Qobuz's overall sound quality was better.

I hasten to add, I've never tried Tidal so it's not personal experience but seemed to be the concensus after doing research.

I managed to have qobuz in my unsupported country . You are right and the concensus is right about sound quality… Using it with the wiim app.

 

[Witterings]

Just wondering if anyone had heard any updates and if it's still in the pipeline?

 

[D1N0]

Just wondering if anyone had heard any updates and if it's still in the pipeline?

On the Qobuz forum someone said

On the Dutch Audio Event in October, the Quobuz guy promised it would be ready at the end of November. This year.

 

[Balthazar B]

Just wondering if anyone had heard any updates and if it's still in the pipeline?

On 27 October, David Craff, the Qobuz product manager, made the following statement about Qobuz Connect:

ETA is: from now to the end of the year; Technical validation with HiFi partners (beta phase)
Beginning of 2024, gradual roll-out in line with the capacity of our dedicated servers and the availability of HiFi partners

So other than the few early beta testers, I highly doubt any of us will see it available on our WiiM (or any other) devices before first quarter next year, and perhaps later than that, depending.

 

[Mrz7kN]

What ever the meaning of "ready" is...

Let's enjoy some music in the meanwhile

 

[Pcryan5]

This is a regular question ion the Qobuz Club forum. No response to date from the company.