John Darko
Qobuz Connect landed quietly on WiiM, Eversolo and Marantz streaming products two weeks ago. Last Thursday, a big splash press conference at Munich High-End 2025 formalised its broader arrival.
What’s the big deal? Qobuz Connect works like Spotify Connect or Tidal Connect: it allows us to hand off a music stream started on a smartphone, tablet, Mac or PC to a Qobuz Connect-compatible streaming endpoint in our hi-fi system. Hi-res streams up to PCM 24bit/192kHz are supported. This allows us to sidestep the heavy compromises of Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay 2, which are a) lossy and b) see the stream travel through the smartphone en route to the streaming endpoint.
How does it work? Fire up the Qobuz app on a source device, push play on some music, select the destination Qobuz Connect device from the drop-down menu and watch the music move from the source device to the network endpoint. Turn off that source device, and the music will keep playing. Listen to something like Dark Side of the Moon or any DJ mix album, and you’ll hear no small gaps of silence inserted between each track a la Google Cast.
Qobuz Connect is now available free of charge to Sublime and Studio subscribers with an appropriately certified streaming DAC or streaming amplifier. After Qobuz’s High-End 2025 press conference, numerous hardware manufacturers began placing ‘Qobuz Connect’ signage in front of their Qobuz Connect-enabled gear. How soon this fresh functionality is added to that hardware falls to the manufacturer’s firmware update schedule, but here is the latest list of partners:
Aavik
Arcam
Atoll Electronique
Audiolab
Auralic
Aurender
Autonomic Controls
AVM Audio
Axxess
Ayon Audio
B Audio
Burmester
Cary Audio
CH Precision
Convers Digital
Dan D’Agostino
dCS
Denon
Dynaudio
ElectroCompaniet
Esoteric
Eversolo
Focal
Gold Note
Hegel
Heos
HiFi Rose
Inklang
Innuos
JBL Premium Audio
Kalista
Libre Wireless Technologies
Lindemann
Lumin
Luxman
Lyngdorf Audio
Marantz
MBL Akustikgeräte
McIntosh
Metronome
Moon
Nagra
Naim Audio
Octavio
PS Audio
Rotel
Ruark Audio
Shanling
Silent Angel
SOtM
StreamUnlimited
T+A
Teac
Volumio
Wadax
Wattson Audio
WiiM
There is no doubt about it: Qobuz Connect took several years to come to market, but with so many hardware partners on board at launch, it has landed with a good deal of industry muscle behind it. “Does it do Qobuz Connect?” Most probably, yes. And the arrival of the French streaming company’s Connect service means I am once again a Qobuz subscriber.
Further information: Qobuz
