Qobuz integration -- Qobuz Connect?

[kiwiscott]

I like to use the native applications Tidal, Spotify, Qobuz etc to do my streaming and using the 'connect' feature from the apps where the WiiM device then connects to the service for playing at the right resolution. Is there any chance we could change the Qobuz experience to that? This would mean for the majority of feature releases in services that the WiiM is unaffected from an application perspective. I'm not complaining about the app but I think being able to use the native app is really a great thing -- This might also have the positive experience of removing the demand from WiiM team to fix silly 'bugs' like the 500 trap limit in playlists from Qobuz.

Simply the WiiM should just show up in Qobuz as something I can play to. This isn't streaming from my phone but telling the device to go to Qobuz and dl the song, album playlist etc.

Thanks Scott

 

[Deleted member 404]

In the Photoshop

this reminds me of the Reddit post two years ago where a Spotify HiFi screenshot was posted... was a bad joke even then ;-)

 

[cc_rider]

In the Photoshop

Nope.

VERY rough beta of Chrome extension attached.

To install in the Chrome browser (desktop version), navigate to chrome://extensions/
Turn on "Developer Mode" on the right.
Click on "Load unpacked", navigate to where you unzipped the attached .zip file, and install the extension.
Click on "Details", "Extension options", and set the ip address of your WiiM (Mini or Pro)
Click the refresh for the extension a couple of times (it grabs a couple of things from your WiiM).
Have fun!

Note that the WiiM button will only be visible when you are at an album or playlist in Qobuz.

 

[onlyoneme]

Nope.

VERY rough beta of Chrome extension attached.

To install in the Chrome browser (desktop version), navigate to chrome://extensions/
Turn on "Developer Mode" on the right.
Click on "Load unpacked", navigate to where you unzipped the attached .zip file, and install the extension.
Click on "Details", "Extension options", and set the ip address of your WiiM (Mini or Pro)
Click the refresh for the extension a couple of times (it grabs a couple of things from your WiiM).
Have fun!

Note that the WiiM button will only be visible when you are at an album or playlist in Qobuz.

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I like "inject" word.

 

[Mike in NY]

Nope.

VERY rough beta of Chrome extension attached.

To install in the Chrome browser (desktop version), navigate to chrome://extensions/
Turn on "Developer Mode" on the right.
Click on "Load unpacked", navigate to where you unzipped the attached .zip file, and install the extension.
Click on "Details", "Extension options", and set the ip address of your WiiM (Mini or Pro)
Click the refresh for the extension a couple of times (it grabs a couple of things from your WiiM).
Have fun!

Note that the WiiM button will only be visible when you are at an album or playlist in Qobuz.

View attachment 539

View attachment 540

View attachment 541

Very cool even for a rough 1st effort, though I couldn't figure out how to play anything but Track 1 on an album, and I also couldn't make that track stop playing until it just ended on it's own.

Upon killing and relaunching Chrome, there were then two WiiM icons rendered:



The above is Chrome on macOS 11.7.4 (Big Sur).

 

[cc_rider]

Yeah, I don't even have a paid Qobuz account, but I can get it to play all the 30-sec snippets via my Chromebook. No Apple boxes to play with. The Qobuz website is quite bloated and slow to load; I still prefer the Allmusic integration I did earlier, though it's only for Deezer at the moment. I'll stick these things up on github at some point, so that they can be thoroughly tested and fixed by other devs with other PCs. Meanwhile, it's fun to poke around with the WiiM's UPnP interfaces.

 

[cc_rider]

Tried this again, this time put the WiiM queue button in the static header. Should work better now. Navigate to any album or playlist on the Qobuz website in the Chrome browser, this extension will queue and play to your WiiM upon clicking on WIIM, once the extension is configured as described above.

 

[cc_rider]

Borrowed an old (2014) MacBook to test. Working fine on the Chrome browser. Again, this will simply send the currently displayed album or playlist id from Qobuz to your WiiM, which will search Qobuz and play it. It will not in any way stay in sync with the Qobuz webpage.

 

[bradavon]

We're talking with Qobuz and their "Qobuz Connect" feature is still in-development. But we plan to integrate it when it's available.

Hi,

Did they say or do we know any rough ETA?

I'm currently subscribing to Spotify for its overall excellent music service, but music quality is lacking, and Amazon Music because I can stream 24/192 wirelessly, but as music service it's basic.

I'd like to switch to Qobuz but to get stream 24/192 wirelessly you must use the apps provided by the original device manufacturer. In my case Panasonic MusicCast or Wiim Home Apps. The experience is similar because both are using Amazon's API. Although Wiim have added a few features to improve the experiance.

The APIs these services expose to 3rd parties is perfectly functional but the official apps are better..

I gather Qobuz is a decent music service and I'd like to ditch Amazon Music for Qobuz, but having to use the ODM app or 24/96 over Chromecast is holding me back.

Amazon Music High Res Lossless sounds great but the app is only functional. Spotify is a tonne better.

The sooner Qobuz Connect can come the better.

 

[WiiM Team]

Hi,

Did they say or do we know any rough ETA?

I'm currently subscribing to Spotify for its overall excellent music service, but music quality is lacking, and Amazon Music because I can stream 24/192 wirelessly, but as music service it's basic.

I'd like to switch to Qobuz but to get stream 24/192 wirelessly you must use the apps provided by the original device manufacturer. In my case Panasonic MusicCast or Wiim Home Apps. The experience is similar because both are using Amazon's API. Although Wiim have added a few features to improve the experiance.

The APIs these services expose to 3rd parties is perfectly functional but the official apps are better..

I gather Qobuz is a decent music service and I'd like to ditch Amazon Music for Qobuz, but having to use the ODM app or 24/96 over Chromecast is holding me back.

Amazon Music High Res Lossless sounds great but the app is only functional. Spotify is a tonne better.

The sooner Qobuz Connect can come the better.

Sorry we don't want to set any expectations since it is really on Qobuz to finish the development of Qobuz Connect (however long that may be) and then our team can give a rough estimate in terms of what quarter we expect to release it.

 

[Brantome]

Hi,

Did they say or do we know any rough ETA?

I'm currently subscribing to Spotify for its overall excellent music service, but music quality is lacking, and Amazon Music because I can stream 24/192 wirelessly, but as music service it's basic.

I'd like to switch to Qobuz but to get stream 24/192 wirelessly you must use the apps provided by the original device manufacturer. In my case Panasonic MusicCast or Wiim Home Apps. The experience is similar because both are using Amazon's API. Although Wiim have added a few features to improve the experiance.

The APIs these services expose to 3rd parties is perfectly functional but the official apps are better..

I gather Qobuz is a decent music service and I'd like to ditch Amazon Music for Qobuz, but having to use the ODM app or 24/96 over Chromecast is holding me back.

Amazon Music High Res Lossless sounds great but the app is only functional. Spotify is a tonne better.

The sooner Qobuz Connect can come the better.

Re ETA, it’s been mentioned a few times in the forum that the Qobuz product manager for Connect estimates the end of this year for the first partner’s integration (whoever that might be, they didn’t say), with others following in 2024.

I’m surprised that only being able to ChromeCast at 24/96 is holding you back - it’s been estimated that barely 10% (or less) of the major streaming services’ catalog is 24/192, with the majority probably just 24/44.1. As has been said many times, the mastering of the source is often more important than the playing resolution. I admit we’ve all gone thru a period of chasing the numbers, but after a while we realise that’s not the be all and end all

Edit: see https://darko.audio/2023/07/tidal-adopts-flac-forks-mqa-again-what-now/ for the proportion of hi res content in the major streaming services.

 

[Staresyj]

Re ETA, it’s been mentioned a few times in the forum that the Qobuz product manager for Connect estimates the end of this year for the first partner’s integration (whoever that might be, they didn’t say), with others following in 2024.

I’m surprised that only being able to ChromeCast at 24/96 is holding you back - it’s been estimated that barely 10% (or less) of the major streaming services’ catalog is 24/192, with the majority probably just 24/44.1. As has been said many times, the mastering of the source is often more important than the playing resolution. I admit we’ve all gone thru a period of chasing the numbers, but after a while we realise that’s not the be all and end all

Edit: see https://darko.audio/2023/07/tidal-adopts-flac-forks-mqa-again-what-now/ for the proportion of hi res content in the major streaming services.

This A year ago I was drawn into all of the chatter about hi hi res. Now, with a better system, I get as much listening pleasure at CD quality. It is all about the recording.

 

[merifon]

This A year ago I was drawn into all of the chatter about hi hi res. Now, with a better system, I get as much listening pleasure at CD quality. It is all about the recording.

Not to mention that some files that were in 192khz on Amazon, were in 96khz on qobuz and (obviously) MQA on Tidal and sounded a bit strange while qobuz and Tidal were similar. I remind some remastered for Ramones or Doors but I'm sure there were other exemples.
Maybe the amazon proposal was upsampled to catch the eyes, not the ears...

 

[Brantome]

Not to mention that some files that were in 192khz on Amazon, were in 96khz on qobuz and (obviously) MQA on Tidal and sounded a bit strange while qobuz and Tidal were similar. I remind some remastered for Ramones or Doors but I'm sure there were other exemples.
Maybe the amazon proposal was upsampled to catch the eyes, not the ears...

I don’t necessarily think that anyone on Amazon really thought that deeply about that. I’d maybe agree if they themselves actually produced kit that supported the higher resolutions - the Amazon USA (but not uk/eu) website did say the echo link/amp did support up to 192khz in later firmware revisions, but its hardware was still constrained to 24/48 digital output. I’m coming round to the conclusion that none of their kit really supports better than 24/48, even their flagship Echo Studio, and that their MRM groups are similarly constrained. I wouldn’t see them championing 24/192 since I don’t believe they themselves can support that on their own kit.

 

[merifon]

I don’t necessarily think that anyone on Amazon really thought that deeply about that. I’d maybe agree if they themselves actually produced kit that supported the higher resolutions - the Amazon USA (but not uk/eu) website did say the echo link/amp did support up to 192khz in later firmware revisions, but its hardware was still constrained to 24/48 digital output. I’m coming round to the conclusion that none of their kit really supports better than 24/48, even their flagship Echo Studio, and that their MRM groups are similarly constrained. I wouldn’t see them championing 24/192 since I don’t believe they themselves can support that on their own kit.

I had for a while different subscription at the same time, just for test. Other difference was some album in Amazon with different sampling rates among the songs. I remember "Quadrophenia" motion picture soundtrack, where at least one song (don't remember which one), had lower sample rate than the qobuz one and sounded worst.
In the case of 192khz only on Amazon, I can't say was worst, just different. Who knows what was the choice that led to that difference?

 

[Brantome]

I had for a while different subscription at the same time, just for test. Other difference was some album in Amazon with different sampling rates among the songs. I remember "Quadrophenia" motion picture soundtrack, where at least one song (don't remember which one), had lower sample rate than the qobuz one and sounded worst.
In the case of 192khz only on Amazon, I can't say was worst, just different. Who knows what was the choice that led to that difference?

Maybe the cheapest available, or careless curation? Sounds like a good name for a band…

 

[Pcryan5]

Maybe the amazon proposal was upsampled to catch the eyes, not the ears...

Thats a great line.

 

[hopkins]

Sorry we don't want to set any expectations since it is really on Qobuz to finish the development of Qobuz Connect (however long that may be) and then our team can give a rough estimate in terms of what quarter we expect to release it.

I read that Qobuz connect is being beta-tested with partners now. Is WiiM involved?

 

[Brantome]

I read that Qobuz connect is being beta-tested with partners now. Is WiiM involved?

I don’t know if the beta testers are under some sort of NDA, but I know WiiM will be involved if they possibly can be.

 

[hopkins]

This is not new, unfortunately. The word "connect" has always been used (at least on the android app) to display AirPlay & Chromecast players.

 

[QuarryHunslet]

I have noticed that sometime within the last week, Qobuz Connect has been removed from the WiiM Pro and Pro Plus Roadmap, so whether that means more delays.