A new third-party Android player now lists Emby among its supported music sources. Morph Audiophile, built by a single developer, plays music from your Emby library alongside local files, SMB shares, UPnP, Jellyfin and Navidrome. The developer announced the Emby integration in a forum post and is looking for people with real libraries to try it.
What the app does
On the Emby side, it browses your music by album and supports favorites, play history, playlists (create, edit and delete) and instant mix. Files are played at their original quality, including hi-res, without transcoding, and no Emby Premiere is needed on the phone because the app talks to the server API directly.
The playback layer is where it differs from most Android clients: it ships its own USB audio driver for external DACs, with bit-perfect PCM up to 1536 kHz, native DSD and DoP up to DSD1024, and multichannel output, bypassing Android's resampling. There is optional DSP (parametric EQ, AutoEq, room correction) that can be switched off entirely, plus Android Auto, Chromecast and DLNA output.
Who it affects and why it matters
This is mainly interesting for self-hosters who keep a music library on Emby and listen through a USB DAC on Android. The usual weak point in that chain is Android's audio stack resampling everything it touches; an app that drives the DAC itself is the difference between a hi-res collection and a downsampled one. Emby support is new and lightly tested, though: the developer says it was checked against Emby Server 4.10 with a small library, which is exactly why testers with larger, messier libraries are wanted.
How to join the beta
In the current test build, you connect through the server section of the app, pick the Jellyfin option (it uses the same API) and enter your server address by hand, for example http://192.168.1.10:8096, with your Emby username and password. A dedicated Emby entry with automatic discovery is planned for the next update.
The beta is free and open, with no approval step. The developer's forum post contains the Google Group for testers and the Play testing page where you tap "Become a tester" and install the app from the Play Store; follow those links from the announcement thread. Google requires testers to stay enrolled for 14 days, so the developer asks that you do not leave early even if you stop using the app.
Commentary for self-hosters
A few practical notes before you install. Hand-typing the server address means you need a stable LAN IP or a proper hostname for your Emby box, so check your DHCP reservation first. If your library is large, expect the first browse to be the real test, and report what breaks rather than working around it, since that feedback is the point of the beta. Keep your existing client installed; this is a test build, not a replacement. And if you care about bit-perfect output, verify the DAC's actual sample rate on the device rather than trusting the label.
If you are weighing Emby against Jellyfin for your music setup, our Emby plugins cover the server side of that decision.