Ran

The non Roon users in Canada use Deezer HiFi, Apple music, Amazon music and some even Qobuz.

Hopefully Apple will provide an open API so application developers can integrate this service.

It's official: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/

Anyone familiar?

It looks like the NP5 supports DLNA so you can use various apps to stream Qobuz without the need to cast or Roon.

The streamer inside the H390 is very basic. If you want to use it for Spotify or AirPlay it will work just fine but it lacks support for other protocols and the DLNA implementation is lacking. Also, you will wait forever for new updates (Hegel does not make their own network modules). Depends on your system and needs, an external streamer will provide greater flexibility and potential better sound.

Is there anything audiophile are not onboard with?

Moode uses the old API and probably a revoked API key to connect to Qobuz.

You do not need a PC / Mac. Just a phone or tablet. That's all.

BubbleUPnP allows you to stream gapless and it works very well :-)

BubbleUPnP allows you to sort by artist and it works very well.

@peter73 Budget?

Are you looking for a DIY project or a consumer product? What is your budget?

Removing UPnP will obviously NOT add to the security of the streams. I really hope this is a BS marketing answer rather than technical perceptive.

In what way? It takes 10 seconds to route Qobuz audio from the browser to any interface.