Apple‘s ALAC 24/192 via AirPlay2
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Official comment
At this time, Apple AirPlay only supports up to 16/44.1 playback. All Bluesound Players manufactured after 2018 (with the 2i designation or higher - this includes the SOUNDBAR+ and NODE N130 along with the POWERNODE N330) will support this once Apple launches their lossless service.
CORRECTION: Tested and verified as 16/44.1 -
Hoping to find out about this too. I almost feel that with apple getting into the hifi lossless game they should open up Apple Music to play natively on 3rd party devices such as Bluesound products. Sonos has had exclusive access long enough.
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Which Bluesound products will fully support Apple’s 24/192 ALAC via AirPlay 2?
Which Apple products will fully support Apple’s 24/192 ALAC via AirPlay 2? :-D
Best, KriHad
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Which Apple products will fully support Apple’s 24/192 ALAC via AirPlay 2? :-D
Apple:
You can listen to lossless audio using the latest Apple Music app on an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV.7 Turn on lossless audio in Settings > Music > Audio Quality. You can choose between Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless for cellular or Wi-Fi connections. Note that Hi-Res Lossless requires external equipment such as a USB digital to analog converter.
Nothing different with other manufacturers/streaming services. The question remains: 24/192 ALAC via AirPlay 2 on Bluesound products? Also be aware that Android smartphones are limited to 44.1kHz sample rate output. You need additional hardware too.
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I can't see in your quote where it says 24/192 ALAC via Airplay 2?
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I never claimed it does. The reason I'm here is because I want to know. At the moment it seems that AirPlay2 is limited to 24/44.1. Probably things are going to change with Apple Music Hi-Res lossless streaming.
"So technically speaking, Airplay 2 is capable of Hi-Res audio but sampling rate is limited to that of CD. More common 96kHz or 192kHz are not supported." Read here
"Hi-Res Lossless" is what Apple calls 24/192. Read here
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I was hoping you were in the know. Better to ask Apple support, then.
Best, KriHad
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Now that Apple has released Apple Music High-Resolution Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz), I'm wondering whether anyone has tested whether this works via AirPlay 2 on a Bluesound NODE.
Can anyone confirm whether AirPlay 2 supports 24-bit 192 kHz on a Bluesound NODE?
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At this time, Apple AirPlay only supports up to 16/44.1 playback. All Bluesound Players manufactured after 2018 (with the 2i designation or higher - this includes the SOUNDBAR+ and NODE N130 along with the POWERNODE N330) will support this once Apple launches their lossless service.
CORRECTION: Tested and verified as 16/44.1
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Will Bluenode support Apples Hi Res in the short term?
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If you read this new Apple Support article about Apple Lossless Audio there is absolutely NO mention of Airplay.
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT212183
It would appear that if you want anything in their lossless format you're going to need to hardwire a Mac via USB (lossless and hires) or Apple TV 4K to a TV and then TV to audio device, both via HDMI (lossless only).
this currently sucks for the audio crowd like us. There is a little encouraging wording in the article, however, with use of such terms as "Support for lossless is coming in a future software update" and "currently doesn't support", so one can still hope.
Ideally, Apple needs to open up their API so that 3rd party manufacturers, such as Bluesound and NAD, can simply add Apple Music as service like Tidal. Outside of that happening I would have to assume Apple is trying to expand their Airplay protocols to support higher resolution audio.
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So basically, nothing supports Apple lossless above 48khz! Even Apple products. What’s the point then? Lol
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Keith Gibson,
You are correct.Apple's own products do not support High Res audio such as Airplay, Airpods, Apple BT Headphones (Beats), iPhone, and the HomePod.
With that said, you can still get Apple High Res music into your Bluesound product, even if it's a bit clumsy. You can connect a USB DAC that supports 24/192 to your iPhone or MAC and run the analog out to the analog in of your Bluesound device. This is not the ideal way, but for those of you who want to use Apple high res. in your Bluesound setup that is the only why to currently do it.
To me, it feel as if Apple did this as an "Us Too" type of thing in order to stay relevant since a lot of other music streaming services offer High Res and have for a while. In announcing the addition of a High res catalog they did not highlight any partners offering hardware to support their endeavor not even Sonos.
I am not saying that nothing is coming in the future, but for Apple to not have the infrastructure to support a service, not only at the time of announcement, but at the time of launch is huge mistake.
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I'm considering getting a 4K AppleTV and connecting it to our Samsung QLED smart TV with HDMI. The Samsung TV is already connected to my Node 2i via an optical cable. I'm wondering if the digital audio signal would go through from the AppleTV to the Node 2i unaltered through this chain without the DAC in the Samsung TV changing it.
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Apple Music has already launched the API https://developer.apple.com/musickit/?fbclid=IwAR0Q1Moca041xCwvEzw8kl04eBdpSPif4KHQ-nYsV0h5njZLqzWnI9GW-YY
so come on guys
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Awesome. Thanks for that Vincent...
Yes, come on guys :-)
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As far as I understand Apple Music API can only be implemented in software coded with Swift. I don‘t know if the BluOS app for iOS is Swift based.
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As a universal app written for both iPhone and iPad, my guess is yes it is written in Swift.
As for the API, it’s also available for Android and Web. Here’s hoping it can be added to BluOS soon 👍🏻
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It's not about the Apple API being used in the BlueOS App, it's about the actual BluOS software within Bluesound, Bluesound Professional, NAD, Dali, etc.
Can/Does the actual hardware from the Lenbrook Group support any flavor of Apple's API? Obviously, Apple's API must be implemented into the hardware before it can be available on the app. It's the hardware that is going to do all the authentication, token exchange, db management, etc.
I think a lot of those who are asking for Apple Music support are being unrealistic in regards to the undertaking that's required to add Apple Music. Apple released it's High Res music less than a month ago and people want it now. Who's to blame when something goes wrong? What about when Apple makes changes to their API? We have seen issues with TIDAL and their API and it's not in beta. It takes time to GET IT RIGHT. I would not expect to see support for Apple High Res until 4thh Q 2021 or 1st Q 2022 at the earliest.
For those who say they will have to find other streaming hardware if Bluesound doesn't support Apple High Res. where are you going to go? What streaming hardware platform from a major company currently supports Apple High Res?
Be patient, the high res. streaming music world does not revolve around Apple as we can see by Apple jumping into it this late in the game, behind Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon, etc.
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I don't think people are expecting this to be implemented immediately as that is completely unrealistic. Would be good to know that it is, at the very least, being considered in the roadmap.
I agree that the streaming world does not revolve around Apple but they are a very influential player as they have a huge user base with sales of the iPhone alone.
I am a Qobuz subscriber currently but, due to their app being awful, I was excited to hear that Apple were entering the Hi Res market as Apple Music just works. It will be interesting to see where Apple take the Hi Res streaming in terms of hardware support from both their own and 3rd party platforms but for now, regardless of whether I can stream their music from the BlueNode devices, it is nice to use a service/app that doesn't crash every 5 mins and work flawlessly in my car (unlike Qobuz).
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Hi all
@Keith Gibson Completely correct saying
I'm definitely convinced, that Apple users will Apple Music and leaving Tidal asap
I motivate my words
Tidal, not flawless works with Apple Car > after some tracks it stops playing, some people say also it happens with Bluetooth headphones, I can't say if it is because I am not using headphones.
Tidal Fam plan cost € 29,99, Apple Music cost € 14,99. > that is €180,- yearly less, for some people is that allot of money. Qobuz even more €249.99 annually for 1 user or fam ? I can't see that on the website
Tidal not 100% integrated with iOS are always there are always hiccups
and there are many more issues with Tidal to Apple users, I am not
I have today made contact to Roon, and yes they have approved that they are making Apple to Roon, ETA is not say in time, but their promised to build in, so the promise was enough for, yes we know it will take some time, but I can not believe that it takes 6 months or longer to build the api.0 -
Am I missing something, but, there is no hi-res 24 but, only lossless 16 bit via AirPlay?
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Hello can anyone say how Apple Music sounds via Apple Play2 to their Node over their two channel setups? I know about Apple play2’s limitations. I have the Node 2 which doesn’t have Airplay.
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Hello everyone! Adding to the topic. I know AirPlay 2 is limited to 24 bit-48Khz. But I was listening to Apple Music now with NODE connected, and AM’s quality label (which shows what quality it’s streaming over, not its source quality) was showing a 24b-96Khz!
I wonder if there has been an update to AirPlay2? Or it’s a BlueSound exclusive feature or it’s just a glitch and indeed there’s some down sampling happening somewhere in between? Thanks!
also my phone doesn’t feel warm when sending AM songs to another device, meaning it doesn’t seem like it’s working hard re-encoding the songs to send the aac’s over AirPlay…
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Hi, Seppi, Oh ok, thank you for the clarification. Is just for example when I switch from listening Lossless or Hi-Res on iPhone to my AirPods Pro (which can handle only AAC), the quality badge text changes as well (from Hi-Res to "empty": meaning Lossy aac), that's why I thought it was representing the endpoint stream or the quality that it sends to the device...
Hopefully one day they at least allow a 96 khz :) Thanks.
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