Android TV gets a big audio upgrade, as Hi-Res Spotify rival arrives for the first time

Qobuz finally arrives on Android TV to deliver CD and better-than-CD streaming quality

Android TV running the Qobuz app
(Image credit: Qobuz)
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Qobuz has brought its app to the Android TV platform, with all the features you'd expect.

That includes high quality streaming, personalised recommendations, and Qobuz Connect support.

Qobuz has finally released an Android TV app for its Hi-Res Audio streaming service. This enables you to stream directly from its entire music catalogue, on a Smart TV or streaming device running Android TV or Google TV.

The app features Qobuz Connect, which enables you to control playback from your phone or tablet while the TV plays the audio. And it delivers all the features you'd expect from Qobuz, including playlists, curated recommendations, personalised recommendations, and favourites.

The app previously appeared in beta form last year, but this is the first officially supported version and should have steamrollered any bugs discovered during the beta period.

Qobuz streams in hi-res format on supported hardware.

(Image credit: Qobuz / Reddit)

Qobuz on Android TV: can you get it?

Qobuz was previously only available for Samsung Smart TVs, but the new app is available to a much wider range of Android TV or Google TV sets and devices. It's free to all Qobuz subscribers.

It's worth noting that Android TV outputs at 24-bit/48kHz to hardware such as soundbars, so you're not going to get the maximum Hi-Res Audio quality from the Qobuz app – certainly not of the calibre of a dedicated audio streaming device / DAC. But better-than-CD quality is still an excellent upgrade.

The big benefit here is that the Android TV app enlarges the Qobuz ecosystem to embrace more of your hardware, which is also what the growing support for Qobuz Connect in high-end and mid-range Hi-Fi kit delivers.

By having the same instant, easy access to your library, favourites and recommendations, irrespective of which device you're listening on, Qobuz becomes better able to be your constant soundtrack.

Qobuz says that this app has been developed in part because lots of customers wanted it: "Our users have been asking us for Android TV for a long time," claims chief product officer Axel Destagnol.

"This app embodies our desire to be accessible wherever people listen to music, from headphones to the living room, while preserving what makes Qobuz unique: audio quality and editorial richness."

The Qobuz app is available in the Google Play Store now.

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Carrie Marshall
Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).

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