Finally received a invite to the US beta test.
What method of retrieval are our Linux guys using?
I find the UI a bit confusing but then I'm so accustomed to Spotify anything else will take a bit of getting used to.
Also find the catalog a bit thin, a couple of the popular albums I've already looked for are missing. Maybe the situation will improve when the beta is over?
Signed up for the high definition feed and after I get my OS paths straight I'll do some direct audible SQ comparisons between Spotify's 320 mbps and 16/44 and higher streams from Qobuz. Curious to see if any differences pop out but initially looks to be difficult to closely level match the two different feeds? SQ difference will have to be pretty obvious for me to justify spending over twice as much for the monthly service, well see.
Hello, I am using Qobuz in multiple ways, including on my linux desktop.
You can easily setup your desktop to play Qobuz without having to damage your "normal" audio user experience by disabling PulseAudio. PulseAudio is good at its purposes, which do not necessarily include hi-fi. It must guarantee you to be able to hear the "new email" notification when you are playing a youtube video. So the fact it might do resampling is not only expected but, in fact, it can be mandatory.
So, assuming you have your pc internal audio AND a DAC (maybe usb), what you need to do in PulseAudio is set your DAC to "OFF". I can post screenshot if needed.
Once you do that, the audio from your pc apps is unaffected (you can play youtube videos, and hear the new mail notification).
You need to install 3 apps and will likely need to open a terminal.
mpd
This is available on your distro repositories
On ubuntu and derivatives this is as simple as typing:
sudo apt install mpd
upmpdcli
Here is the download instruction page:
https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/downloads.html
On ubuntu:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jean-francois-dockes/upnpp1
sudo apt update
sudo apt install upmpdcli
upplay
https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upplay/downloads.html
On ubuntu:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jean-francois-dockes/upnp
sudo apt update
sudo apt install upplay
About the configuration.
Type:
cat /proc/asound/cards
Its output should be similar to this one:
Code:
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xe0320000 irq 32
1 [DAC ]: USB-Audio - X1S USB DAC
aune X1S USB DAC at usb-0000:00:1a.7-3, high speed
This is what comes out on my pc at work. The Aune X1S has a device name which is "DAC".
Now edit mpd.conf and instruct mpd to play on that device. On ubuntu use one of the following. "nano" is easier to use.
sudo nano /etc/mpd.conf
sudo vi /etc/mpd.conf
Scroll to find the "audio output" section for type "alsa"
Make sure it looks like the following snippet:
Code:
audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "DAC"
device "hw:DAC,0"
}
Of course in this snippet I use the string "DAC" because the name of my DAC is "DAC". You will need to adjust according to the output of the "cat /proc/asound/cards" command.
Save the file.
Restart mpd. On ubuntu:
sudo systemctl restart mpd
Now configure upmpdcli to use qobuz. On ubuntu:
sudo nano /etc/upmpdcli.conf
Scroll to find "qobuz"
Enter you username and password.
As qobuzformatid, I use 27 as mentioned in the qobuz API. The author was suggesting "7" for flac/hires, then I notified him of what I found. I don't know if he has updated the documentation. Anyway "27" does not hurt, 7 might work as well. I use 27 and can stream up to 24bit/192kHz.
Save the file.
Restart upmpd. On ubuntu:
sudo systemctl restart upmpdcli
Now you are ready! Just open Upplay, select your renderer (should be named upmpd) and the qobuz library (it should be named upmpdcli-mediaserver-qobuz or so).
Browse the library, populate the playlist, hit play.
Let me know if this works for you. There might be (hopefully small) mistakes.
Also keep in mind that you can use your phone/tablet with BubbleUpnp which has a great user interface. Upplay is quite useful on a "desktop only" environment. A different interface becomes almost mandatory when you create a dedicated device for say the living room and your main hi-fi set.
About the necessary hardware to build a dedicated qobuz-enable linux audio player, I use a Asus Tinkerboard as my "mpd/upmpdcli" boxes (3 of them!) and I am fully satisfied. The installation and configuration process is basically the same with minimal variation, mostly due to the use of debian respository for arm instead of the ubuntu ppa.
I hope this helps.