Listening to local music files on a USB memory stick attached directly to the Pro-ject streamer sounds smoother, clearer and with better musical flow than the same track via Qobuz.If the files are actually the same, then this is likely due to the chipset implementation being used on the ethernet/LAN side, particularly in the final processing stages before the packets are delivered to the memory buffer.
However it's also possible that the provenance of the files on your USB flash media are closer to the original (or just better sounding) master. It may not have anything to do with the chipset implementation at all.