Recent content by as286

You can see it as a less convenient approach, yes, I would agree with you completely and would prefer an "Apple Connect" solution any time. I use both Tidal and Qobuz with different audio devices and they are so much simpler than the uncertainty of what you get with Airplay. Having said that...

That used to be the case, you are absolutely right. You always had some control over it in that you could have the fortune of using Airplay 1, which was always lossless, see here and here (although, bit perfect is a better term to use, I think). The debate above is whether we can now be sure...

Thanks, Andrew, that is helpful. I agree with you, the fact that you cannot tell the difference on your good equipment probably means that it is finally lossless. Do you remember what your streamer was showing previously? This has been a problem for a lot of people for a while. A reasonably...

Reports are circulating that Apple Music now finally streams lossless over Airplay 2 (as opposed to AAC 256 as used to be the case). See here. If so, this would a new and welcome development. Is there anybody who could convincingly (i.e. on the receiving end) test whether this is true?

Nope. Even on Apple's own Airplay 2 with Apple Music, the signal will be converted to AAC256. This is not a problem for Qobuz, though, which will happily go to the max (16/44.1) Airplay 2 allows. There are two possibilities, though. One, if you have a Mac and you set your system output to...

You can use any streamer, e.g. Wiim Mini. This will bypass iPhone's internal DAC. Remember, though, you cannot stream lossless from Apple Music If you want lossless, you need a wired connection.

Rotel RA-1572 MKII is an excellent piece of kit. You can connect iPhone or iPad with a charging cable into Rotel's USB and you will get not only lossless but also hi-res from Apple Music. For Bluseound, set system output to Airplay on your Mac and you will get lossless on Apple Music. See also...

It is not possible yet, may never be. Only Sonos has Apple Music streaming (probably pays for it) but it is not lossless. If you use Airplay 2 it will be converted from lossless or hi-res to AAC256. It would still sound fine but lossless it is not. Only Apple Music has this problem, Qobuz etc...

No, there is no difference. Digital is digital and lossless is lossless. Older versions of iPhones cannot run newer iOS which enables lossless in Apple Music but we are talking iOS 14.6 and earlier. You will not gain anything if you buy a newer phone.

When you stream from Apple Music on a Mac, the MIDI App controls the source and the bit depth. It does not do so automatically, you have to manually enter it and change the bit/hertz settings every time your source quality changes. That means - when you switch from an album in 16/44.1 CD quality...

You get auto switching with Vincent Neo's brilliant Auto Switcher on GutHub. It will display sample rate and switch it automatically on your Mac. https://github.com/vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher

Roon has its own version of "Airplay" called RAAT. See here. Content decoding is taking place on the server, so your No. 1 is closest to it but neither is entirely correct.

This is nonsense. Something either is or is not bit perfect, i.e. an exact copy of the original. It is a series of naughts and ones. If they are the same, they get converted in your DAC in the same manner irrespective of whether they come from a CD or online. Some services, like Tidal, use lossy...

Can you borrow a good DAC from a store or a friend and see how that goes? Currently, you are using Node's internal DAC, which is a TI Burr-Brown 5242, I believe. This is not bad, by any means, but will be outperformed by Qutest or Mojo 2. Chord often does wonders to audio, especially in a system...

It is CD quality at the source which gets downscaled to AAC 256, that is why you see both 44.1/16 and AAC. The latter is rather good, mind you, so I am not surprised that you do not notice the difference. I do not know whether you have TidalHiFi or HiFi Plus. This matters as CXN does not have...