Your amp may well show a 44.1 pcm stream, but that doesn’t mean it’s lossless.Just me silly enough to ask then!
I know that when I do use Apple Music via WiiM Pro, my amp tells me I’m receiving 44.1, but I’m sure I read elsewhere that Airplay over WiFi this way does not achieve this resolution and is a much lower lossy format?
Yes, albums with bonus tracks or other, usually came in that form directly from productions and have such variations on any platform.
That’s exactly what I was saying. Plus in the original post it mentioned listening to Apple Music via Airplay 2 in 16/44.1 which I was querying.
No it’s AAC so doesn’t have a bit depth as no lossy encoded formats do. It’s encoded at 44.1khz sample rate though.
WiFi has nothing to do with Airplay quality it works over wired or wireless it’s a network transport stream, something people seem to not grasp. It’s the same quality regardless of your network connection. For apps using Airplay 2 and low latency streaming it only outputs AAC 44.1 256kb/s streams. For apps using legacy realtime streams (Qobuz) it’s lossless ALAC at 44.1/16.Just me silly enough to ask then!
I know that when I do use Apple Music via WiiM Pro, my amp tells me I’m receiving 44.1, but I’m sure I read elsewhere that Airplay over WiFi this way does not achieve this resolution and is a much lower lossy format?
Thanks for that explanation. My previous system (Kef LS50W2) could achieve 24/48 Lossless streaming Apple Music via Airplay 2.
So can you tell me definitively whether or not I receive ALAC when streaming Apple Music to my WiiM Pro via Airplay 2 please?
You don’t. Here’s the link I probably have posted umpteen times here and elsewhere ( I did a search, this is the 16th time I’ve posted this
)
audiophilestyle.com
darko.audio
Not for Apple music it would not it’s only ever been available at 44.1 AAC via Airplay 2 on any device no exceptions, this is set by the app itself not the receiving device and had been covered to death over the last few years since it launched. The end device might decode and upsample the AAC stream to 48/24 but the source certainly isn’t for AM. Apple TVs only accept 48/24 so any file is decoded/resampled to it by default over Airplay.
You get AAC same as every other device on the planet when using Airplay 2 it categorically doesn’t use ALAC for streaming.
It wholly depends on what streaming type the decode to use. Low Latency is what Airplay 2 developed for to allow stable multiroom and less network dropouts which legacy Airplay suffered from. Airplay is generally used from a phone which has pretty poor spec networking and will have issues with multiple streams of lossless audio. Low latency streaming uses AAC and not ALAC to help alleviate this load on mobile devices. AM uses Low Latency mode. If the app decides to use legacy Realtime streaming it uses ALAC but is very susceptible to all the issues associated with original Airplay. It will work for mulitroom the same but your putting a lot more pressure on a small device, likey more battery drain and it will get a lot hotter.
I actually contacted Kef direct and they were adamant that the LS50W2 upsampled to 24/48 when using Airplay 2, when used in wired mode.
Thanks. So the earlier post that stated that Airplay 2 can use ALAC to achieve 16/44.1 lossless is incorrect.You don’t. Here’s the link I probably have posted umpteen times here and elsewhere
Apple Music Lossless Mess Part 2: AirPlay
Earlier this month I dug into Apple Music's Lossless and Hi-Res offerings, running several bit perfect rests on the audio output of my Macs and iOS devices. The results were less than stellar (link). This week I dug into Apple Music lossless over AirPlay. One would think that the results would be...
And this Darko blog where it seems more optimistic but only when Airplay 1 is involved
Apple AirPlay isn’t always lossless. Sometimes it’s lossy — but why? | Darko.Audio
According to the diligent work of Darko.Audio Patron Brother Thomas.
From what I read, I believe so
Airplay 2 can use ALAC as I have said and that article says if it they use low latency it is AAC, if not it’s ALAC. Both are delivered by Airplay 2 both can do mulitroom one is likely more reliable than the other.
Clue being upsampling which is done on the Kefs and has nothing to do with the stream it’s receiving which is lossy AAC. Upsampling is converting one thing to another your not getting any better source it’s still streaming AAC to the speakers. All devices can decode lossy mp3 or AAC to whatever rate they like that’s a design choice but has nothing to do with Airplay2. Roon decodes all lossy formats to 24bit it doesn’t mean the source is 24bit.
Thanks again. I’ll be honest I’m not really any the wiser. But it’s now irrelevant as I’ve let my Apple Music subscription lapse.
So when Kef say they upsample to 24/48 ALAC it’s still lossy? I appreciate what you’re saying about the source being lossy aac still. But they say what I heard was definitely lossless 24/48.
