This is a great chart! It's a bit odd that Apple's own support page makes no mention of being able to stream Apple Music lossless on MacOS by Airplay 1 & 2. On the contrary, it says a wired connection is needed.
This is a great chart! It's a bit odd that Apple's own support page makes no mention of being able to stream Apple Music lossless on MacOS by Airplay 1 & 2. On the contrary, it says a wired connection is needed.
Yes it makes sense and as it has remained this way through a number of iterations of iOS, seems intentional. There are any number of ways to get lossless anyway - all my listening is lossless via AirPlay or the Apple TV which is an excellent streamer + device (well apart from on Sonos which sounds fine using AAC anyway!)I’m pretty sure Apple chose to default to 256 AAC for Airplay 2 because of the multi-room capabilities that were added. The typical Apple customer who might be running perhaps a Sonos speaker in one room, a HomePod or two in another, and a Google or Amazon smart speaker in the kitchen is not likely to have the high bandwidth WiFi needed for streaming lossless and hi-res to 3-4 rooms without causing dropouts. From Apple’s perspective, it makes much more sense to downsample to 256 AAC (which let’s be honest, is fully transparent for almost all normal listening) to avoid their support lines being inundated with calls due to network dropouts that are beyond their control.
I do believe that 256 AAC would be totally fine in ideal conditions over Wifi. What I'm trying to figure out now is whether the transcoding involved in transmitting AAC 256 over bluetooth makes it audibly inferior to AAC 256 over Wifi. Nobody seems to know for sure and I don't have the equipment to do a direct comparison.From Apple’s perspective, it makes much more sense to downsample to 256 AAC (which let’s be honest, is fully transparent for almost all normal listening) to avoid their support lines being inundated with calls due to network dropouts that are beyond their control.
Have you got any links explaining this?Airplay always use Apple lossless codec called ALAC and for music it is always at 16-bit 44.1kHz CD quality. This is explained on Apple developer documents.
I would be surprised if Apple Music wouldn't integrate perfectly with Apple products. Apart from that it is the worst supported streaming service on platforms other than Apple.Hello,
Am contemplating changing from tidal to Apple Music
Read a lot about Apple Music being better in terms of sound quality in comparison to Tidal.
Also i dont like tidal’s approach to mqa and their deceiving tactics.
Additionally is half the price where i live and it would integrate perfectly with my Apple products.
That being said, i have a hegel amp and I dont see a way to stream to it lossless…
Does anyone know a way?
If there is not, would it be worth to switch to apple
Music and stream to hegel via airplay considering that airplay is fairly good on hegel?
Is apple music lossless that much better to justify using airplay instead of tidal?
Tidal Connect has been stuttering for me. Spotify connect has been smooth and no issuesI would be surprised if Apple Music wouldn't integrate perfectly with Apple products. Apart from that it is the worst supported streaming service on platforms other than Apple.
You already have a problem to integrate it into your rig.
To get bit perfect and lossless Apple Music to your hifi, the only way at the moment is camera adaptor from iphone or ipad to dac and it's got to stay on that cable, so operating it - say - from your sofa wirelessly isn't going to happen.
Why not get Tidal streamer with Tidal Connect? Their CD Quality service is for $10, same as Apple.
Do you hear any difference? When we’re talking about perceptual codecs that’s all that really matters.I do believe that 256 AAC would be totally fine in ideal conditions over Wifi. What I'm trying to figure out now is whether the transcoding involved in transmitting AAC 256 over bluetooth makes it audibly inferior to AAC 256 over Wifi. Nobody seems to know for sure and I don't have the equipment to do a direct comparison.
As I said, I don't have the equipment to do a comparison. So I don't know.Do you hear any difference? When we’re talking about perceptual codecs thats all that really matters.
That’s not surprising since Tidal is streaming much larger amounts of data than Spotify. Apple lossless and hi-res would likely also stutter on the same network.Tidal Connect has been stuttering for me. Spotify connect has been smooth and no issues
My point is that it’s not possible for someone else to tell you what is or isn’t audible when listening to perceptually coded audio, you’ll have to listen for yourself in this case. This isn’t like testing hardware.As I said, I don't have the equipment to do a comparison. So I don't know.
I simply don't have any airplay supporting hardware. So how do I listen to it?My point is that it’s not possible for someone else to tell you what is or isn’t audible when listening to perceptually coded audio, you’ll have to listen for yourself in this case. This isn’t like testing hardware.
Well, you don’t. But again, no one else can provide a meaningful answer to this question, you have to listen for yourself. Until then, it will have to go unanswered.I simply don't have any airplay supporting hardware. So how do I listen to it?
I can't find any info from Apple saying Airplay (1 or 2) or Airport Express (1st or 2nd generation) is lossless.I remind members of the great article below. The only way to get Apple Music (streaming service) lossless over Airplay 2 is from MacOS. Won't work from iPad or iPhone. If you have an Airplay 1 device, it will be different.
Apple Music Lossless Mess Part 2: AirPlay - Bits and Bytes - Audiophile Style
I don't think another streaming service will sort this problem for you.Tidal Connect has been stuttering for me. Spotify connect has been smooth and no issues
Have you got any links explaining this?
Thanks, but this is Wiki. Have you seen anywhere Apple saying Airplay (1 or 2) or Airport Express (1st or 2nd) are lossless?AirPlay - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org