Qobuz has announced its partnership with Sonos, allowing users in the US to stream in CD quality via its $19.99 Hi-Fi tier subscription.
Growing its presence in the US, the French streaming service made its hi-res Studio and Sublime+ packages available last month, offering wireless playback of FLAC files up to 24-bit/192kHz and discounts on hi-res downloads via the latter tier at $299.99 per year.
Sonos, one of our two Award-winning multi-room systems in 2018, doesn’t accommodate hi-res streaming, but this latest partnership will ensure you’re pushing its celebrated wireless speakers and hi-fi products to their upper limit.
One of our favourite Sonos features is the ability to control all music playback via the company’s control app, and as long as users have the latest version installed on their smartphone or tablet they can connect to Qobuz by following the ‘More’ and ‘Add Music Services’ menu options.
We still prefer Tidal for hi-res streaming, but at CD quality there is much to like about Qobuz. Awarding the latter four stars a year ago, we labelled it the class leader for sonic performance at this level, though the service’s library is perhaps not so exhaustive as some of its rivals.
For those new to Sonos and hoping to make use of both companies’ offerings, we’re most fond of the One and Play:1 wireless speakers – the former integrating Amazon Alexa Voice Control – and the Beam soundbar, while the Sonos Amp was also received favourably when we tested it this year.
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