Hi fellow GOS users,
As a music enthusiast and user of Qobuz, the current only way to get bit-perfect playback using Qobuz is using an app called USB Audio Player Pro, which can be linked to Qobuz and bypasses Android's flawed audio mixer to provide hi-res bit perfect playback, and a direct connection to a connected DAC.
The app as a whole is amazing and there are little to no alternatives for bit-perfect playback in general, especially direct connections to a DAC (to my knowledge, at least).
The issue is that the main way to get the app is through the Play Store, and a small purchase is required. The app uses Google Play Services in order to validate your purchase, and will refuse to start up otherwise.
Looking on the forums, the devs have given people an alternative way to install the app without use of Play Services: https://www.extreamsd.com/forum/thread-1599.html
But this method is still awful because instead of giving your information to Google, you now require use of the Huawei App Gallery. Installing the application on my Owner profile, and then pushing it to a profile without Play Services prompts me to install the 'HMS Core' application in order to purchase the product. Without installing HMS Core I can only use the free trial, and the purchasing option doesn't work.
If there's anyone sharing my pain here and found an alternative, or a way to make this work while giving up the least amount of privacy please do share.
I have emailed the eXtream dev team about this issue and will update this thread if I have found anything or if they come back to me with news.