As someone obsessed with sound quality, I’ve always loved Qobuz, but I’ve hated how hard it’s been to use on my gear. Between awkward app integrations and limited streaming support, enjoying hi-res music usually meant compromise. That’s why Qobuz Connect had me cautiously optimistic. Could it finally bring bit-perfect streaming and real convenience to my Denon, Marantz, and WiiM devices? After a few days of testing, I’ve got answers and a few surprises.
Qobuz Connect officially launched in May 2025 and arrived with support for over 50 brands, including Denon, Marantz, WiiM, McIntosh, Naim, Auralic, and more. It was introduced at High End Munich 2025 as a long-awaited feature that brings convenience and high-fidelity streaming together at last.
Qobuz Connect is the latest entrant in the “Connect” arena of streaming, finally allowing Qobuz (the French hi-res music service) to stream directly to compatible devices, just as Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect have done for those services. In practical terms, this means you can use the Qobuz app on your phone or computer as a remote control, and your music will play straight on your hi-fi device via the internet, without needing Bluetooth, AirPlay, Chromecast, or any third-party control apps.
For Qobuz users (myself included), this is a long-awaited upgrade. No more clunky workarounds or sacrificing quality – Qobuz Connect streams directly from Qobuz’s servers to your speaker or amplifier at the full resolution the track supports.
Why does that matter? Two big reasons: sound quality and convenience. Qobuz is known for its lossless, high-resolution audio (up to 24-bit/192 kHz FLAC) – a treasure for audiophiles. Before Qobuz Connect, playing Qobuz on a home system often meant using Bluetooth (capped quality, plus phone notifications interrupting music) or relying on manufacturer apps like HEOS or WiiM Home to integrate Qobuz, which was often less intuitive.
Now, with Connect, Qobuz joins Spotify and Tidal in offering a native cast – you simply hit play in the Qobuz app and the device itself pulls the stream from the cloud. During my testing, I found this not only preserved audio fidelity, but it also freed my phone – I could take a call or even turn the phone off, and the music kept flowing uninterrupted on the device.
Perhaps the best part: Qobuz Connect was launched with impressively broad device support. Over 50 hi-fi brands enabled the feature at launch, from mainstream names like Denon and Marantz to high-end niche players like McIntosh, Focal, Eversolo, Dynaudio, Naim, and Auralic. In fact, every modern Denon and Marantz model that uses the HEOS streaming platform received an update to support Qobuz Connect right away. This wide ecosystem integration means that whether you have a popular A/V receiver or a boutique audio streamer, there’s a good chance it either already works with Qobuz Connect or soon will.
Setting up Qobuz Connect on my devices turned out to be refreshingly simple. On my Denon AVR-X3800H home theater receiver, a firmware update had quietly arrived by May 15, 2025, enabling Qobuz Connect. Denon pushed this update across a range of models – from entry-level units like the AVR-S670H to high-end receivers like my X3800H, as well as their standalone streamers (e.g. the DNP-2000NE, which won our Highly Recommended Award) and even the Denon Home wireless speakers.
Likewise, my Marantz Model 40n (a network-integrated stereo amp) got the update, as did Marantz’s latest AV processors and other network-enabled models (from the flagship AV 10 pre/pro to the Model 60n amp and SACD 30n player). In short, if your Denon/Marantz device has “HEOS Built-in,” it’s now fluent in Qobuz Connect.
On the WiiM side, things were just as straightforward. WiiM is known for making affordable streaming pucks like the WiiM Pro that punch above their weight. I simply updated the firmware via the WiiM Home app, and suddenly my WiiM Pro appeared in the Qobuz app as an available output.
In fact, Qobuz Connect became available on all current WiiM streamers through recent firmware (with the exception of the original low-powered WiiM Mini). It was pretty exciting to see a $150-ish device like the WiiM Pro gain the ability to directly stream Qobuz’s hi-res catalog – a feature that used to be the domain of pricier audio gear.
With updates in place, using Qobuz Connect was nearly foolproof. I opened the Qobuz app on my iPhone and played a familiar album. In the app’s output device menu, my Denon AVR promptly showed up with a little Qobuz logo, as did the Marantz and WiiM units (each labeled with “Qobuz Connect”). One tap on the desired device and the music leapt from my phone to that system.
For example, I selected the Denon and heard the opening notes of Pink Floyd’s “Time” gracefully take over the living room speakers in full 24-bit glory. Switching to the Marantz upstairs was just as easy – the app seamlessly handed off the stream to the Model 40n in my study. There was zero fumbling with HEOS apps or Bluetooth pairing; it felt like a breath of fresh air to control everything from within the one Qobuz app I already know and love.
Even the WiiM streamer, which is connected to a pair of powered bookshelf speakers in my kitchen, performed like a champ. I could be streaming a hi-res jazz playlist to the WiiM in one room, then use the Qobuz app to redirect the playback to the Marantz in another room with a couple taps.
The devices would pick up exactly where the track left off when I swapped, a nifty synchronization feature that Qobuz Connect supports across mobile and desktop app. It reminded me of Spotify’s ecosystem, where you can seamlessly hop between controlling devices, except now I was doing it with Qobuz’s high-quality streams.
My first impressions were overwhelmingly positive. The convenience factor jumped out immediately: no more juggling different apps or connections. I also noticed how quick and responsive the control was – hitting pause/play or skipping tracks from the Qobuz app was reflected near-instantly on all three devices. On the Denon and Marantz, the song info even showed up on their front displays (and on the TV interface in the case of the AVR) just as if I were using their native streaming. This tight integration made Qobuz feel like a native part of my audio system rather than an external source piped in.
Of course, all the convenience in the world wouldn’t mean much if the sound quality suffered. Fortunately, Qobuz Connect truly delivers on the hi-fi promise. In my tests, the audio stream being pulled in was indeed the full-fat Qobuz stream at the highest quality available for each track, up to 24-bit/192 kHz FLAC for albums that offer it. There’s no downsampling happening via Connect; the devices receive the exact resolution that Qobuz provides, straight from Qobuz’s servers.
To put it to the test, I queued up a few familiar high-resolution tracks that I often use for critical listening. One standout was “So What” from Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue in 24-bit/192 kHz. Playing this through the Marantz Model 40n via Qobuz Connect was a delight – the double bass had a rounded richness, the trumpet solos were smooth yet brimming with detail.
I then played the same track via Spotify (which maxes out at 320 kbps Ogg Vorbis) and via Tidal. The Spotify Connect version, while certainly listenable, felt a bit flat in comparison – some of the micro-detail and spatial depth were missing, which is not surprising given the compression. Tidal’s HiFi tier streams in lossless CD quality, and the HiFi Plus tier now delivers high-resolution audio in FLAC, having phased out MQA starting in 2023.
While Tidal previously used MQA encoding for hi-res playback, the service now focuses on FLAC for broader compatibility and full-resolution playback without proprietary decoding. In my testing, Tidal’s hi-res FLAC streams sounded excellent — nearly on par with Qobuz. But I still give Qobuz the slight edge for its consistently large hi-res catalog and longstanding support for native FLAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz.
Another aspect I paid attention to was gapless playback. Many audiophile albums (live concerts, classical pieces, etc) require seamless transitions between tracks. In the past, casting Qobuz via Chromecast would introduce tiny gaps or slight hiccups between tracks, which was frustrating.
I’m happy to report that gapless playback is essentially solved. Playing Pearl Jam’s “ Ten” on the WiiM via Qobuz Connect, the tracks flowed one into the next without pause – 9 times out of 10, I got perfect transitions. I did catch one or two minor gaps on a specific live album (during my test on the WiiM Ultra, there was a random split-second pause between tracks where there shouldn’t be). However, these were rare and seemed like early-release quirks. For the vast majority of my listening, it was smooth sailing and fully gapless – a huge win for those of us who care about album continuity.
Dynamics and clarity were superb across all devices. Since Qobuz Connect hands off the untouched stream to the hardware, the sound quality largely depends on your DAC and amp as it normally would. My Denon AVR-X3800H did a fine job with Qobuz’s 24-bit audio – playing a hi-res recording of a Beethoven symphony was immersive, with a wide soundstage and crisp transients in the strings and brass. I didn’t perceive any difference in quality between using Qobuz Connect and playing the same file via a directly attached USB DAC. In other words, Qobuz Connect isn’t adding or subtracting anything audible – it’s bit-perfect delivery.
One personal highlight was streaming some hi-res jazz to the Marantz while hosting a small dinner. The Marantz 40n, known for its warm, musical character, sang beautifully with Qobuz’s 96 kHz releases from Blue Note Records. A friend casually remarked that the background music sounded “really clear, like a live performance,” which I credit to the source quality.
As an experiment, I briefly switched to a Bluetooth stream from my phone (to demonstrate the difference). The Bluetooth feed (though convenient for quick use) immediately sounded slightly muffled and lost some high-end detail. Going back to Qobuz Connect, the sparkle and nuance returned. It was a nice real-world validation of why we chase lossless audio in the first place.
Qobuz Connect clearly has the advantage of highest resolution audio. If you have the ears for it (and a system revealing enough), you’ll appreciate the extra depth and fidelity of 24-bit Qobuz tracks. Qobuz’s entire 100+ million track library is available in at least CD quality, with a huge number in hi-res up to 192 kHz.
Spotify Connect, by contrast, is currently limited to standard streaming quality (roughly MP3/320kbps-equivalent). Spotify has promised a HiFi tier for years, but as of 2025, it still hasn’t materialized, so Connect on Spotify can’t (yet) match the lossless quality of Qobuz or Tidal. That said, for casual listening or on modest speakers, Spotify’s audio may be “good enough,” but in a direct A/B on my systems, the difference was noticeable – Qobuz just sounded more alive and detailed.
Tidal Connect does deliver lossless and hi-res (Tidal’s HiFi Plus uses FLAC for hi-res). In terms of specs, Tidal and Qobuz are similar for CD quality (16-bit/44.1 kHz) content. For hi-res, I prefer Qobuz’s approach, but depending on your gear, Tidal Connect can sound equally excellent.
On my Marantz, Tidal’s hi-res FLAC streams sounded excellent and held their own against Qobuz’s offerings. Tidal used to rely on MQA encoding for high-resolution audio, which required specific hardware support to unlock the full quality. But since transitioning to FLAC in 2024, Tidal’s HiFi Plus tier now delivers hi-res audio without the need for MQA decoding. That puts it on much more equal footing with Qobuz in terms of compatibility. That said, Qobuz Connect still feels slightly more plug-and-play — it streams hi-res FLAC by default, with no format transitions or legacy codec concerns to think about.
Aside from audio quality, what makes Qobuz Connect a game-changer is the convenience and improved user experience. Previously, using Qobuz with devices like Denon/Marantz receivers meant dealing with the HEOS app or other intermediary steps. HEOS isn’t bad, but it’s one more app to install and its interface for Qobuz was functional at best.
Now, I can stay within the beautifully curated Qobuz app and control everything. This single-app experience cannot be overstated – it’s just so much nicer to browse Qobuz’s catalog, pick songs or albums, and send them straight to the device without juggling interfaces.
Using the Qobuz app as the controller also means I have access to Qobuz’s rich editorial content and organization while listening. For instance, while streaming to my Denon AVR, I browsed Qobuz’s hi-res playlists and artist bios – something not possible if I were just Bluetooth-streaming or using a limited interface on a receiver’s app.
The Qobuz app has improved a lot in recent years: it’s quite snappy and visually appealing, with sections for curated playlists, genres, and a magazine. All of that is now fully available as I cast music around. In my testing, I would add songs to my queue, change playlists, or explore new albums, all without interrupting what was playing on the device until I was ready to switch. It genuinely made the listening sessions more interactive and enjoyable.
I also noticed that multi-device synchronization is part of the Qobuz Connect experience. For example, if I’m playing music to the Marantz from my phone, I can open the Qobuz app on my laptop (logged into the same account) and it will show me what’s currently playing. I can then control the playback from the laptop or even transfer it to another device. This is very similar to Spotify’s device sync feature, and I found Qobuz’s implementation to work well. It’s great for those moments when, say, my phone’s battery is low – I can just continue the session from the desktop app without a hitch.
In terms of stability, Qobuz Connect gets a big thumbs-up. Over many hours of use, I encountered virtually no dropouts or glitches. One memory stands out: I had friends over for an evening and created a Qobuz playlist of favorite tracks. I streamed it to the Denon in the living room. The stream ran for hours flawlessly; not once did I have to intervene due to a stream stopping or the app losing connection with the device.
This reliability is crucial – it made Qobuz Connect feel as solid as my experiences with Spotify Connect (which is known for being rock-steady). It appears that Qobuz took the time to polish the software, possibly why it arrived a few years later than Tidal Connect. Their effort shows, the integration felt mature and robust in my trials.
Lastly, a quality-of-life observation: volume control and transport controls via the Qobuz app worked on all my devices. I could use the phone’s volume buttons to adjust the Denon AVR’s volume while it was in Qobuz Connect mode, for instance. The responsiveness was instant. This meant I didn’t have to hunt for the Denon remote or open the HEOS app to change volume – a small convenience that adds up. It made the whole experience feel cohesive, as if Qobuz Connect were an inherent part of the devices’ firmware (which, now, it essentially is).
No solution is perfect, and Qobuz Connect, while excellent, has a few limitations and quirks worth noting:
You cannot (currently) use the Qobuz app to stream one song to multiple devices at once via Qobuz Connect. If you have a multi-room audio setup, you’ll need to group zones using the device’s own ecosystem (e.g. group speakers in the HEOS app for Denon/Marantz, or in the WiiM Home app, or use AirPlay groups). Once grouped at the system level, you might be able to select the group as a single target in Qobuz (for example, HEOS lets you create a group and then that group appears as one “speaker” to cast to). But the key point: Qobuz’s app itself doesn’t manage groups yet.
By contrast, some proprietary systems (like Sonos or Bluesound) allow their apps to handle grouping and then show up as one target for Spotify Connect, etc. It’s a bit complex, but essentially if you need true synchronized multi-room from Qobuz, you might still rely on other methods for now. This is not a huge drawback for me since I typically listen in one room at a time, but it’s an area Qobuz could improve, perhaps by enabling a grouping feature in the future.
While 50+ brands are a lot, there are notable omissions. For example, at launch, I didn’t see Yamaha’s MusicCast platform on the list (Yamaha is a big player in receivers). Nor did I see Sonos, but Sonos has its own way of integrating Qobuz, so Connect might be unnecessary there. If you happen to own a device that isn’t supported, you’re out of luck with Connect on that unit.
The hope is that more manufacturers will join in. Given how enthusiastically the hi-fi community has embraced Qobuz Connect, I suspect we’ll see the supported list grow. But if you’re using, say, an older device that the company chooses not to update, that could be a limitation (but on the bright side, many devices that are a few years old did get updates).
Being an early adopter, I’m keen to see how Qobuz Connect evolves. One feature I’d love is the ability to hand off music between devices seamlessly with a prompt (Spotify does something like “Want to keep listening on your phone?” when you leave a WiFi network). Qobuz does sync play status between apps as noted, but maybe they’ll add an easier prompt to switch outputs proactively.
Also, integration with voice assistants could be improved – e.g., telling Alexa or Google Assistant to play something on Qobuz via a certain device (currently, Spotify and Apple Music have deeper voice integration on smart speakers than Qobuz does). These aren’t deal-breakers for me, but they’re on the wish list for an even smoother ecosystem.
After spending quality time with Qobuz Connect on my Denon, Marantz, and WiiM devices, I can confidently say that it has elevated my music streaming routine. This feature was a long time coming, but the wait has been worthwhile. Qobuz Connect manages to combine audiophile-grade sound quality with everyday convenience, and that’s a powerful combo. No longer do I have to choose between top-notch audio and a user-friendly experience – I get both in one package.
In my personal journey, Qobuz Connect transformed Qobuz from something I sometimes “put up with” for the sake of sound quality into something I genuinely enjoy using on a daily basis. The ease of firing up the Qobuz app, picking a device, and hearing pristine music fill the room is slightly addicting.
It also reaffirms the value of my audio gear – it’s as if Denon and Marantz unlocked a new capability years into owning these devices, essentially giving them a free upgrade (gotta love firmware updates!). And for a small device like WiiM, having Qobuz Connect puts it in league with far pricier streamers, at least in terms of functionality.
When comparing the broader landscape: Spotify Connect set the benchmark for convenience, Tidal Connect showed that hi-fi streaming control was possible, and now Qobuz Connect arrives with arguably the best of both worlds – the highest streaming quality and a wide initial device support. For anyone already in the Qobuz ecosystem, it’s a no-brainer to take advantage of Connect if your hardware supports it. If you’re contemplating which streaming service to go with for a new hi-fi system, Qobuz just became immensely more attractive.
Sure, there are still reasons one might stick to Spotify (huge user community, playlists, etc.) or Tidal, but from my perspective as an audio enthusiast, Qobuz Connect has tilted the scales. The playing field of streaming has been leveled – convenience is no longer Spotify’s unique selling point; Qobuz can play that game too, and play it in hi-res.
In summary, my experience with Qobuz Connect has been resoundingly positive. It’s easy to set up, works reliably, and delivers phenomenal sound. It made my Denon and Marantz feel like new toys again, and even gave my budget WiiM streamer a superstar moment.
There’s a new sense of freedom in how I can enjoy music at home: I’m listening more attentively and also exploring more, because everything is just a tap away with no compromises in quality or convenience. Qobuz Connect firmly cements Qobuz’s place in the modern streaming landscape, not just as the audiophile choice, but as a user-friendly audiophile choice. And that, in my book, is music to everyone’s ears.
