Can Qoboz Connect sound better than Qobuz viz Aurender Conductor?

Without a doubt QC sounds different than Conductor. Is it better? That’s based on your preference. In my experience QC sounds more direct and incisive with a bit more sparkle in top end. If your system is voiced to sound optimally with your streamer native app the QC can push it over the top slightly. But the beauty of all this is that you can use QC when you feel that a recording can benefit from it.

I have commented on Qobuz Connect before and wasn’t convinced at the time it was best sounding but I am convinced now it is best after upgrading to a more revealing system((Magic A3 with Playback Designs MPD-8).  Not relating to your question as I don’t have N150 but just to give you my experience in case it helps. I have compared Roon, DLNP, and QC on my SOTM streamer and everytime I can hear more microdetail with QC.  I didn’t realised this until I hit one of my favourite albums where I can clearly hear the breath between the singer’s note more clearly on tQC, making vocal sound much more realistic and engaging.  In order of sound quality Roon->DLNP->QC (to my ears on my system).

Qobuz connect sounds better than Qobuz going thru Roon even when running Roon on a Linux server. This is when I was running straight data formats 48/96/192 files.

But with a new dac, I’m up sampling everything from Roon to dsd256 and it actually sounds better than Qobuz connect, but this required running Roon on a more powerful server than a 6 core Xeon server with 64g ram.

 

How do you access Qobuz Connect?  
I stream through Conductor with the Aurender N200.

 

Greetings!

First, in Conductor, go to Settings, Streaming Services. In that window, in the External Control Services section, enable Quboz Connect.

Conductor may prompt you download the Qoboz app to your device. I think you can ignore this if the Qoboz app is already installed. Somewhere in the process you may also be prompted to provide your Qoboz username and password.

Open Qoboz app. Play any track. In bottom left of window that appears when you are playing a specific track, you will see an icon indicating to what device Qoboz is sending its digital stream. Click on that icon. Your Aurender should show up as an output choice. Select it. Done.

Well. For that instance. In my case, I have to redo the Qoboz app part of the process each time I open the app afresh.

The sonic advantage is still worth this small inconvenience. Plus, the Qobuz app is better in some respects than the Conductor app. More recommendations/features that are present in native Qobuz space, access to liner notes, and better graphics.

A bit less control of queues and similar than in Conductor. And some control features that I had to Google to navigate. When the individual track play window is up, you can only get to the queue by swiping left. You can get back to the track play window by swiping right. An inconvenience is that you can’t see track play window and queue at same time. At least not on my iPhone or that I can figure out.

Enjoy testing this option.