Apple Music Lossless High Res

MarraJ

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I would like add a music streamer capable of streaming Apple Music lossless high-res but I am struggling to find anything in a reasonable price range. Amongst quite a few others I have looked at the Node from Bluesound and Audiolab’s 6000N but neither seem to be able handle Lossless streaming from Apple. Any help greatly appreciated!
 

Tinman1952

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I would like add a music streamer capable of streaming Apple Music lossless high-res but I am struggling to find anything in a reasonable price range. Amongst quite a few others I have looked at the Node from Bluesound and Audiolab’s 6000N but neither seem to be able handle Lossless streaming from Apple. Any help greatly appreciated!
Hi. You could ask Apple why they introduce a music service that has virtually no hardware support...? 😣
Seriously the best solutions at the moment are an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV !
 

manicm

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Apple TV is the way to go if you're hell bent on getting Apple music in high res, it's also the best for TV streaming - for example the Disney+ app is horrendously inconsistent among devices, you're probably guaranteed the maximum audio and visual quality from Apple TV.
 
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as286

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Option 1 for full HiRes: Apple iPhone into Apple's Camera Adapter Kit (about €30) into USB DAC such as Zen DAC V2 (about €200) into your HiFi analog AUX. Gives up to 24/192.
Option 2 for full HiRes: An amp with a built-in DAC which gives access to it trough USB, such as Rotel MK1572MkII, Gato 250 or older models of Marantz (MCR603). This is Apple iPhone - USB cable into amp. Also up to 24/192.
Option 3 for Lossless (but not HiRes): any device with an Airplay 1. Airplay 2 is capable of lossless but in case of Apple Music converts ALAC to AAC256. Go figure.🤷‍♂️
No device natively supports anything other than Airplay 2 for Apple which is, for now, Apple's preferred system for wireless music distribution. This means that there is no way of getting lossless into a hifi wirelessly from Apple Music other than through Airplay 1.
 
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as286

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The problem is that Airplay 2 source (Mac, iPhone, iPad) will report that it is streaming at 16/44.1 (at the bottom of the song on the main screen) but Airplay 2 would then convert the stream to AAC 256 without reporting to anyone. There is ample evidence of this taking place (see this site for report on Airplay 1 vs 2 in terms of bit perfect streaming) on this and other forums (Naim Community). The only way to check what your amplifier is receiving from Airplay (1 or 2) is to have a device that reports the stream quality (like Topping) or an amplifier/streamer that display streaming quality.
There is one workaround to get Airplay lossless through a Mac and that is to set Mac's sound output to Airplay on the Mac itself (upper right corner) and not through the Music app or iPhone/iPad. This ought to ensure lossless and is officially supported and recommended by at least Bluesound. In JPLyman325's case, I guess if he streams through the Music app, the app will report 16/44.1 but will degrade to AAC256. If he streams Airplay 2 through Mac's sound output, it ought to end up lossless.
Vincentneo at Github has a nifty Mac app which automatically switches the output. It is free and it works flawlessly. Can be obtained here: https://github.com/vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher
 

slounio

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Apple TV is the way to go if you're hell bent on getting Apple music in high res, it's also the best for TV streaming - for example the Disney+ Mod APK app is horrendously inconsistent among devices, you're probably guaranteed the maximum audio and visual quality from Apple TV.
 
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Boozemun

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Unfortunately not the Apple TV is the only Apple device that does NOT at present support hi-res audio, only lossless audio. I just had this post deleted by Apple in their discussion about it, they really do not deserve my years of loyalty to them....


Apple obviously added hi-res audio as an afterthought. They are playing catchup. Even their support pages have a tone of "AAC was good enough for you, you can't tell the difference... but here it is anyway peasants", ... all in good fun Apple, don't hurt me. When you think about it, what is their one product that would most likely already be connected to a DAC or a Receiver capable of decoding higher-resolution audio? DUH... the Apple TV, the only device that it doesn't work with? Usually, I'm not a huge critic of Apple but they failed here miserably, and I'm the sucker who canceled Qubuz and Roon because Apple was going hi-res.
 

AndrewF

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I just went through this exact same thing. My own solution:

1) Dedicated older Ipad, connected by USB cable to streamer (split cable so I can charge and stream at the same time). I use this for "serious" listening.
2) Airport 2, streaming whatever it is that Apple streams through it, for multiroom audio, background music while cooking etc. It sounds quite good to my ears, unless I am really paying attention.

I figure this workaround is fine until Apple decides to allows lossless streaming, which I imagine will happen one day.
 

richwhite08

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I just went through this exact same thing. My own solution:

1) Dedicated older Ipad, connected by USB cable to streamer (split cable so I can charge and stream at the same time). I use this for "serious" listening.
2) Airport 2, streaming whatever it is that Apple streams through it, for multiroom audio, background music while cooking etc. It sounds quite good to my ears, unless I am really paying attention.

I figure this workaround is fine until Apple decides to allows lossless streaming, which I imagine will happen one day.
What does your iPad connect to?
 

twinkletoes

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Macs to this date still don’t output hi-res Without intervention within the midi settings. The only way to get bit perfect playback with auto switching is either the iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. If you’re happy with red book playback you could simply purchase a Mac mini.

The only streaming platform that currently has “apple connect” is Sonos, don’t know if they still offer a standalone streamer or not.

if you’re not wedded to apple muisc there a plenty of other options for Cambridge audio, bluesound and many others
 

richwhite08

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Macs to this date still don’t output hi-res Without intervention within the midi settings. The only way to get bit perfect playback with auto switching is either the iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. If you’re happy with red book playback you could simply purchase a Mac mini.

The only streaming platform that currently has “apple connect” is Sonos, don’t know if they still offer a standalone streamer or not.

if you’re not wedded to apple muisc there a plenty of other options for Cambridge audio, bluesound and many others
Apple TV also doesn’t support hi-res, its settings max out at lossless
 

as286

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Macs to this date still don’t output hi-res Without intervention within the midi settings. The only way to get bit perfect playback with auto switching is either the iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. If you’re happy with red book playback you could simply purchase a Mac mini.

The only streaming platform that currently has “apple connect” is Sonos, don’t know if they still offer a standalone streamer or not.

if you’re not wedded to apple muisc there a plenty of other options for Cambridge audio, bluesound and many others
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
 

as286

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What’s the benefit of the switching?
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 to a HiRes one, the latter will still output as CD quality. If you are using Apple Music to stream from your Mac, and the settings in your MIDI app are set for lower quality, the output will be of lower quality. Now, that may not matter for casual listening but it begins to matter with high-quality HiFi equipment (and I do not mean here the eternal HiRes vs CD debate but simply not accidentally downgrading your signal with wrong settings). The Switcher app solves this problem permanently.
This is only an issue with Apple Music app. Qobuz, TIDAL, etc. do not have this issue.
 

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