System Requirements

System Requirements

Supported Platforms

Architecture	Status
x86_64 (Intel/AMD 64-bit)	Fully supported
aarch64 (ARM 64-bit)	Supported

QBZ runs on Linux only. There are no plans for Windows or macOS — the project is designed specifically for the Linux audio stack.

Qobuz Account

You need an active Qobuz subscription to use QBZ. Any plan works, but:

Plan	Max Quality
Studio / Sublime	Hi-Res 24-bit / 192 kHz
Standard	CD Quality 16-bit / 44.1 kHz

If you care about bit-perfect Hi-Res playback (the main reason to use QBZ), a Studio or Sublime plan is recommended.

Audio System

QBZ supports the following audio backends:

Backend	Description	Best For
PipeWire	Modern Linux audio server (default)	Most users, general use
ALSA	Direct kernel-level audio	Users without PipeWire
ALSA Direct (hw:)	Bypass all mixers, direct hardware access	Bit-perfect / exclusive mode
PulseAudio	Legacy audio server	Older systems

Recommended: PipeWire is the default on most modern Linux distributions (Fedora, Ubuntu 22.10+, Arch, etc.) and works well out of the box.

System Dependencies

Required

These are typically already installed on most desktop Linux systems:

• WebKitGTK 4.1 — Tauri rendering engine
• GTK 3 — UI toolkit
• GStreamer (base plugins) — media framework
• OpenSSL or compatible TLS library

Audio (at least one)

• PipeWire + pipewire-audio (recommended)
• ALSA (alsa-lib, alsa-utils)
• PulseAudio (pulseaudio)

For Flatpak Users

If you install QBZ from Flathub, all dependencies are bundled — you don't need to install anything extra.

For Package Manager Installs

Debian / Ubuntu:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 libgtk-3-0 libgstreamer1.0-0 \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-base libayatana-appindicator3-1 \
  libasound2 pipewire pipewire-audio

Fedora:

sudo dnf install webkit2gtk4.1 gtk3 gstreamer1 \
  gstreamer1-plugins-base libappindicator-gtk3 \
  alsa-lib pipewire pipewire-utils

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk-4.1 gtk3 gstreamer gst-plugins-base \
  libappindicator-gtk3 alsa-lib pipewire pipewire-audio

Display Server

QBZ works on both Wayland and X11.

• On Wayland: runs natively by default
• On X11: runs natively
• If you experience graphics issues on Wayland, you can force X11 mode with QBZ_FORCE_X11=1 qbz

Hardware

• Storage: ~100 MB for the app, plus cache space (configurable, default ~1.2 GB total)
• RAM: ~200-400 MB during playback
• GPU: Optional hardware acceleration (can be disabled if problematic)