Qbz icon
Qbz icon

Qbz

QBZ is a free and open source high-fidelity streaming client for Linux (with experimental macOS support) with native playback. It is a real desktop application — not a web wrapper — with DAC passthrough, per-track sample rate switching, exclusive mode, and bit-perfect audio...

Qbz screenshot 1

Cost / License

  • Free
  • Open Source (MIT)

Application type

Platforms

  • Linux
  • Mac  This app is a Linux App first, MacOs support is experimental.
Qbz screenshot 1
Qbz screenshot 2
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Features

Properties

  1.  Support for Themes

Features

  1.  File Tagging
  2.  Dark Mode
  3.  No Tracking
  4.  Personalized Recommendations
  5.  Chromecast Support
  6.  Ad-free
  7.  Works Offline
  8.  Lossless Audio
  9.  Hi-Fi Sound
  10.  MIT License

 Tags

Qbz News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent activities

  • phil-james liked Qbz
  • blitzfc added Qbz
  • Qobuz icon
    blitzfc added Qbz as alternative to Qobuz, muffon and Spotfy + 3 similar activities

Qbz information

AlternativeTo Categories

Audio & Music, File Management, Video & Movies

GitHub repository

  •  719 Stars
  •  55 Forks
  •  48 Open Issues
  •   Updated  
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Qbz was added to AlternativeTo by Victor Rodriguez on and this page was last updated .
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Official Links

AppStores & Other Links

What is Qbz?

QBZ is a free and open source high-fidelity streaming client for Linux (with experimental macOS support) with native playback. It is a real desktop application — not a web wrapper — with DAC passthrough, per-track sample rate switching, exclusive mode, and bit-perfect audio delivery.

QBZ uses a native playback pipeline with direct device control so your DAC receives the original resolution — up to 24-bit / 192 kHz — with no forced resampling.

QBZ is not a streaming ripper, you need a valid subscription to use the Qobuz services.

Audio and Playback

  • Bit-perfect playback with DAC passthrough and per-track sample rate switching (44.1–192 kHz)
  • Four audio backends: PipeWire, ALSA, ALSA Direct (hw: bypass), PulseAudio
  • HiFi Wizard — guided bit-perfect configuration with real DAC capability detection
  • Native decoding: FLAC, MP3, AAC, ALAC, WavPack, Ogg Vorbis, Opus (Symphonia)
  • Gapless playback on all backends
  • Loudness normalization (EBU R128) with ReplayGain support
  • Two-level audio cache with next-track prefetching
  • Streaming playback — start listening before download completes

Queue and Library

  • Queue with shuffle, repeat (track/queue/off), and history
  • Favorites and playlists from your Qobuz account
  • Qobuz playlist follow/unfollow — subscribe natively, syncs across all Qobuz clients
  • Local library — directory scanning, metadata extraction, CUE sheets, SQLite indexing
  • Tag editor with sidecar storage (preserves original files)
  • Virtualized lists for large libraries