Have a DSjr w/Bridge II. Can successfully stream from Quboz to it using mcontrol and the Lumin app from my Android phone. Consider both of these to have second rate user interfaces, much less robust than Spotify.
Would like to be able to control streaming from my Windows PC. I don’t run Roon as I have no locally stored music or server. I installed the Windows Quboz app, but it cannot find my Bridge II. It works to my PC speakers and to Chromecast.
Any suggestions?
I am able to stream Qobuz with BubbleUpnp and MControl LITE. Both can see the Bridge as renderer. I have not tried the paid MControl.
My understanding is that you will want to use “mconnectControl”, the free one. There are other apps out there with similar names that have been problematic.
FYI.
I am using “mconnectControl” on my Android phone and it does work, albeit clumsily. Is there a Windows version of this software? I haven’t been able to find one.
I downloaded BubbleUpnp and installed it. It does find the BridgeII but haven’t found a way to stream Quboz.
select your library by tapping the upper left corner > local & cloud > under the cloud list, pick Qobuz. It will prompt you to sign in to your Qobuz account,
What you describe is exactly how BubbleUpnp works on my Android phone.
But not on my Windows PC. Are you running it in an Android window on a PC? Like BlueStacks?
For Bubble I only use the Android app to stream Qobuz to JRiver on my PC, Pi or Bridge. I could also use it to control JRiver directly, but usually just use JRemote.
I have Qobuz on my Dell desktop with Windows 10. I just click on the icon, and I can listen for hours. Between the Dell and the P S Audio Direct Stream DAC is my Innous Phoenix USB convertor. Qobuz says it offers CD quality music. But with the Phoenix, the sound is rated as 24 bits and not 16 bits according to the Direct Stream DAC. What is going on? This is a wonderful surprise!
I expect that I could stream Qobuz to the DSjr via USB. I would need about a 15’ cable to do that. But I would much prefer to stream via the Bridge II. I can stream to the Bridge II through the MControl app, Lumin app, and BubbleUpnp app on my Android phone. But have not yet found a way to do so under Windows, which is what I would prefer to do.
Previously I could stream to my Sonos controller from several PC programs, but none of them can locate the Bridge II, which is connected via wired Ethernet just as the Sonos was.
The Android Quboz app cannot locate the Bridge II either.
I can use JRiver on both Windows and Pi to stream to the Bridge. In JRiver, the Bridge appears as a zone to play to, but I believe you have to enable network playing first. But one thing great about enabling network, is that from that point every controller I’ve tried has been able to both play to it AND find it as source/storage.
On top of that, you can also use JRiver’s own JRemote app. JRiver also has a setting to automatically start full window or minimized whenever the computer is turned on.
Once you have the settings to your liking, you don’t even have to turn your monitor on. I just turn my PC or Pi on and start playing with the app of my choice. Note that JRiver (the software and JRemote app) does NOT integrate Qobuz/Tidal streaming (controversy on their forum), but because their software also operates as a network player, it’s no problem when using another controller.
Here is a screenshot of Bubble that shows that it sees JRiver on my Pi as renderer (along with Bridge). Note my PC is not on, otherwise it would also appear.
What’s interesting to me is mconnect Lite can see JRiver as renderer:
But mconnect Control cannot:
All the apps can find the JRiver as sources.as well as my Synology NAS (which is also not on at the moment).
Forgot to mention. If I have the default player on JRiver set to USB, I can switch to the Bridge by just switching zones. If I am using JRemote, the app allows me to play to either “player” which would be the default USB, or Bridge II.
When using another app, playing to the PC or Pi would result in output from the default player - Bridge showing up as a separate renderer directly,
One more thing. I found that using the Qobuz windows app or web player, you can only play to a device attached to the computer (such as DS via USB). There doesn’t seem to be a setting to play to a network device.
It’s ashamed that they don’t appear to bother with that capability and just relies on third party apps/software, yet their business model IS streaming,
A few months ago I tried out JRiver on their free demo period. It did find the Bridge II and I was able to stream their limited number of streaming radio stations to the DSjr. But was unsuccessful in getting anything else to stream through it. I certainly could have overlooked some of its features.
It has been disappointing in coming from my antique Sonos streamer (through an external DAC). I was easily able to stream to it from the Sonos software, Spotify, Deezer, Quboz and Tidal Windows apps. A $350 controller. But now with a $4000 DAC/Streamer, I can’t get any of those to work.
I will see if I can try another free trial of JRiver. The only thing I want to do is stream Quboz. One would think that would be a simple task, given that streaming 24/192 through the DSjr would be something a lot of owners would desire to do. Of course, I can do this, via my phone and tablet. Perhaps I will need to learn to be happy with just that.
The owner/devs at JRiver has emphatically stated that they will NOT integrate Qobuz/Tidal/etc. Something to do with having been burned by some streaming service in the past (I don’t know which). It’s somewhat of a controversy on their forums too.
Their official position is that their WDM driver makes the player available over the network, and there are sufficient third part apps that can connect streaming services to the software, which I can confirm.
Although it has bothered some users, it never bothered me, as I didn’t stream from Qobuz until recently. I signed up for the free trial because someone asked me about streaming to my Pi/Iancanada/i2s setup. I liked it enough sign up for it.
It still doesn’t bother me, as I find Bubble sufficiently effective for my purposes to stream from Qobuz to either Bridge or JRiver running on my PC and Pi.
There are free software out there for both Windows and Linux that you could run on either so apps like Bubble can play to them. I’ve been a JRiver user for many years now, and have a Master License which allows the use of the software across platforms, so for me it was a no brainer when I set up my Pi to try i2s.
For my Pi setup, there is one setting that I just could NOT find in other software. The ability to “play silence at startup to allow for hardware synchronization.” Without the setting, I found that the Pi would drop the first few milliseconds of higher rez tracks. Note - it does not happen when streaming to the Bridge.
I have not found any other Linux players that can do that - of course, I have not tried stuff like Roon (through Ropieee) since I’m too tight@ssed for that.
I just got Spotify working through my DSjr. Had to go into the Windows Control Panel, into Network & Internet, then into Network & Sharing, then Advanced Options, click a box to enable Network Discovery & save changes.
After doing that I launched Quboz, but still didn’t work. Then launched Spotify and now the Bridge II shows up as a playback device. A minor victory, but a victory all the same.
Tried the Quboz app on my Android phone, in hopes that it would now discover the Bridge II, but no dice.
As stated, from what I can tell, Qobuz Android and Windows app cannot stream to a renderer unless it’s directly connected to the device with the app. I’ve only been able to do so with third party apps such as Bubble or mconnect.
Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.
No solution in sight. Must admit that I’m extremely surprised that PS Audio provides no software solution to streaming 24/192 music services from Windows, outside of the very expensive option of Roon. I had just assumed that since Sonos has been providing support for Windows streaming for a decade for their hardware, that this would be readily available.
Paying $10/mo for Roon to gain the sole feature of connecting Qobuz to my DSjr. I may try the free trial to see how well that works. Otherwise, it looks like I’m stuck using my phone apps.
Installed the free trial of Roon. It works perfect. Streams Qobuz out through the Bridge II easily. Easy to use.
But will not be purchasing it. $120/yr for a user interface is too steep for me. If I had any purchased music on my PC, or even any ripped music, it just might be worth it.
mconnect Control and Lite can both do Qobuz to Bridge, and they are both free. Bubble has a free version and paid version (I recall 10 bucks for life), which is what I use most of the time. I think the only diff between the free and paid are plugged ads, but it’s been so long since I used the free version I don’t recall.
It’s not Roon - but we’re talking FREE/MINIMAL COST here versus $120 per year. I won’t pay for Roon either.
