Streaming Apple lossless

[Kulfon]

Dear all,
I am trying to solve a streaming story. I am testing Spotify, Tidal and Apple. I initially settled for Tidal because of lossless. However I see that tracks that are marked Master are being removed for my artists. Spotify doesn’t have lossless. I have NODE for streaming but BluOS app doesnt have Apple music.

So how do I stream Apple lossless music?

 

[jjbomber]

You can try Qobuz Hi-res for 3 months on their current offer. That is compatible with the NODE.

 

[abacus]

Does it have Chromecast or Apple Air play on-board, as you can then use the app on your phone or tablet.
Also is Amazon Music available as this also has a lossless tier.

Bill

 

[Kulfon]

Did anyone crack how to truly stream Apple Hi Res Lossless to home Hi-Fi speakers? I have Bowers and Wilkins, have Rotel amplifier and have Node for streaming. It works with Tidal and Spotify, but will not work with Apple. I am trying to read things on-line, but cannot find a solution to truly stream Apple Hi Res Lossless to my Hi-Fi home system. Any ideas?

 

[nads]

The only, current, way is to steam it from your apple device to the Node.

apple is not one of the services provided by this version of the software.
there is a late update to version 4 that was meant to be released in Spring that may support Apple Music.

 

[as286]

Did anyone crack how to truly stream Apple Hi Res Lossless to home Hi-Fi speakers? I have Bowers and Wilkins, have Rotel amplifier and have Node for streaming. It works with Tidal and Spotify, but will not work with Apple. I am trying to read things on-line, but cannot find a solution to truly stream Apple Hi Res Lossless to my Hi-Fi home system. Any ideas?

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. can stream lossless via Airplay 2 or directly.

The way to get lossless on HiFi with Apple Music is to feed the signal via cable from mobile or PC into a DAC into HiFi or, directly into Rotel. Not sure which Rotel you have but many allow direct iPhone USB input. If so, your Rotel's internal DAC would do the job. If you have a DAC, that would be a better option.

There is one more option. If you own a Mac, you could Airplay 2 from system-wide audio output on Mac. That way you would get 16/44.1 lossless from Mac. It only works if you Airplay from system output, not if you Airplay from Apple Music app. Vincentneo's excellent Lossless Switcher (https://github.com/vincentneo/LosslessSwitcher) solves the problem of having to do switch the settings manually (again, this is only the problem with Apple Music).

Mind you: a) Qobuz and Tidal can stream lossless and hi-res and b) Airplay 1 (surprisingly) also streams lossless.

 

[Kulfon]

THANK YOU for the answer.

My Hi-fi system is:

1. Rotel RA-1572 MKII
2. Bowers Wilkins 704 S3
3. Rotel RCD 1572 MKII
4. Bluesound NODE

On top, I use Apple ecosystem (iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc).

I tried Spotify, Tidal and now Apple music. I need to say that I like Tidal the least for several reasons, but the biggest problem for me is that the music I listen (e.g. Chicane) is not available in Masters (lossless). It used to be, but it is removed by the label. I cannot understand what is the problem, but the fact it is not on Tidal anymore. It is on Apple hi res lossless though. I also see that the cost of Apple One (Apple music, Cloud, Arcade and TV+) is less than Tidal alone.

In this case an idea solution for me would be to stream Apple hi res lossless to my hi-fi system. Potentially I can use iPad for this if I would only knew how to connect it to my hi-fi system so that it would play lossless.

Would you know if I need DAC or I can just get an additional cable and that would be it?

 

[as286]

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 here.

Concerning Tidal, I agree with you but for different reasons. Tidal MQA is not lossless (see here) and I decidedly dislike MQA. With Tidal it is never clear what you get when you stream (i.e. not lossless but MQA with metadata removed 😣). This may change with their policy on FLAC but I prefer Qobuz or Apple any time round.

As for cable, if you use cable, your Rotel will be your DAC. Rotel's internal DAC is good (I seem to remeber it is a TI, not sure which) but can be beaten by the likes of Chord's Mojo 2 or Qutest. I suggest you borrow a DAC and give it a try.

A final note on streaming. Rotel supports Roon and if you have Qobuz or Tidal you can stream either and get bit perfect. In my view it is expensive but it is also very good.

 

[daveh75]

Dear all,
I am trying to solve a streaming story. I am testing Spotify, Tidal and Apple. I initially settled for Tidal because of lossless. However I see that tracks that are marked Master are being removed for my artists. Spotify doesn’t have lossless. I have NODE for streaming but BluOS app doesnt have Apple music.

So how do I stream Apple lossless music?

You'd be in a very small, exceptional group to detect any difference between lossy and lossless formats under properly controlled conditions.

So, personally I wouldn't fret to much about it and go with convenience rather than contrive a way around Apple's control freakery

 

[Oxfordian]

My solution when I had Apple Music was to connect my I-Pad directly to my amplifier using a USB-B to USB-C cable, my amp has a USB-B connection and this worked fine. My amp limited the input to 24/96 but the music sounded just fine.

Don’t know if this helped or not.

 

[Kulfon]

You'd be in a very small, exceptional group to detect any difference between lossy and lossless formats under properly controlled conditions.

So, personally I wouldn't fret to much about it and go with convenience rather than contrive a way around Apple's control freakery

Not sure what you mean by Apple’s control freakery in my case.
1. I went with Tidal and it has removed a 30% of what I listen from Master (lossless)
2. Tidal alone costs more than Apple One (Apple Music with lossless, TV+, Arcade and Cloud)
3. Spotify promised lossless 2 years ago still nothing

I indeed go with convenience. Apple is just more reliable and is cheaper. Not sure what you mean

 

[daveh75]

Not sure what you mean by Apple’s control freakery in my case.

Spotify, Tidal and others are widely supported, Apple Music not so much

 

[Kulfon]

Spotify, Tidal and others are widely supported, Apple Music not so much

I think you are generalizing, not referring to this specific case. I was against Apple Music, used Spotify for years, then Tidal….but cannot hide the fact that Apple just did an amazing job

 

[daveh75]

I think you are generalizing, not referring to this specific case. I was against Apple Music, used Spotify for years, then Tidal….but cannot hide the fact that Apple just did an amazing job

But other than Sonos, has little support...