Looking for advice: stream Qobuz over USB cheaply

Greetings,

apologies if this does not merit a dedicated thread, please move to 'All-Purpose Advice Thread' in this case.

My situation is as follows: I have this thing from Audiophonics (DDI) - https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/digi...i2s-aes-2x-tcxo-otg-24bit-192khz-p-10547.html it takes USB input and converts it to a number of digital interfaces, of which I am currently using 2, coax and optical, one thing I like about this Audiophonics box is that it sends the output signal on all interfaces simultaneously, which is convenient for A/B testing and otherwise. At the moment I am connecting my MacBook to the DDI via USB cable and streaming Qobuz from the app, that's basically it.

So, what I would like is some sort of solution which will allow me to replace the laptop as a streamer, and as cheap as possible. Ideally I'd like some sort of box, which I could connect to the Audiophonics DDI via USB, which then can stream Qobuz via WiFi connection without issues. Also, I would prefer the streaming to happen 'on the box', so that I could use iPad or MacBook as a sort of remote, via app or Web interface, to control Qobuz playback, search etc. I would like to avoid any sort of 'casting', like Roon say, but I am trying to keep an open mind, so feel free to make a case for 'casting' if there's one to be made.

Right now I see a guy on classifieds in Finland selling a used Allo USBridge Signature for 150 EUR, without PSU or WiFi dongle however. I am wondering if I may be able to go even cheaper - the Audiophonics box is supposed to be covering the things like re-clocking, noise reduction, power for USB, so I am wondering if I really need to go for an 'audiophile' solution like Allo, or iFi Zen Stream say (way over my budget anyway, even used). So perhaps I could get away with a vanilla RasPi 3 or RasPi 4: board, case, PSU, and Bob's my uncle. What do you think? There is the question of software too: from what I am seeing, Qobuz support on Volumio for example seems to be beset with issues.

Thank you in advance.

 

A couple of suggestions for low cost streamers:

Chromecast Audio has been discontinued by Google, but can be found new and used on eBay. Cast to it from the Qobuz app (mobile or computer). Chromecast Audio pulls the music stream directly from the server with the Qobuz app as a remote control, and has a Toslink optical output for connection to a DAC. The biggest negative is that it doesn't support gapless playback (a showstopper for me because some classical music albums split continuous music into multiple tracks). It streams Qobuz bit-perfect at 44.1 and 48 kHz resolution, but I find that it stutters when I try to use hi-res.

WiiM Mini. I have no personal experience with WiiM Mini, but it has been getting a lot of attention and high reviews. It is like an updated Chromecast Audio with more features (but it doesn't support the Chromecast protocol). You would need to play Qobuz using the WiiM app (Andriod/iOS). You can access your favorites, playlists, and the rest of the Qobuz catalog, but the interface is not as rich as the Qobuz app.

 

thanks for the info, Chromecast Audio is not an option really due to resolution limitations and gapless playback issues you mentioned, WiiM Mini looks more interesting, but with no USB output it's also not an option for me.

 

Yes, a vanilla RPi 3 or 4 will work, using their USB output and built-in WiFi. You won't need an audiophile HAT card because your Audiophonics does much of the same things.

When I was starting out with Raspberry Pi, I used Volumio with Qobuz and it worked fine for me. Volumio is the simplest way to get going with Qobuz on RPi; however their native Qobuz integration requires a paid Volumio subscription.

Without native Qobuz integration, you can also play Qobuz using UPnP protocol, which is supported in most RPi software (Moode, free Volumio, DietPi, RoPieeeXL, etc) and it generally works well. It is used in combination with a separate UPnP player app, such as BubbleUPnP on Android. Basically the app controls the RPi endpoint (a UPnP renderer) and directs it to get and play streams from the source (Qobuz). Compared to the Qobuz app, the UI is very basic but it provides access to favorites, playlists, and the Qobuz catalog.

I started using an RPi streamer because, like you, I wanted to untether my laptop from the USB, and I wanted ability to control audio from phone and tablet. However I wanted a more complete UI interface and ended up with Roon, but it is a big additional step.