Will lossless audio work via Airplay 2 and my receiver?

I don’t understand why from my iPad I would have cruddy AAC 256 yet from my MacBook I would get ALAC. I don’t want to be running my MacBook all the time. If Apple can’t fix this, I’m going back to Tidal.

I think that’s fair comment - I’ve bought an external DAC as Apple suggests and it works but a wired connection from my iPad to achieve true HI Res Lossless seems such an obvious gap that they need to resolve and pretty quickly.

If would seem it’s protectionist to facilitate streaming in Hi Res to HomePod but not to other devices.

if Airplay 2 can support Hi Res video why not audio !

Hi there - I don’t believe any leads / adaptors on their own will work.

Apple make it clear on their website that only an external DAC can resolve the problem and playing about with cables alone is futile.

I purchased a Topping DS10 USB DAC and an Apple branded USB-C to USB Female adaptor. The Topping has an USB-A/B lead and this facilitates the connection to the iPad via the adaptor..

The output from the Topping can be CoAx or S/Pdif. However the S/Pdif input on my Naim Uniti Nova limits the internal DAC conversion of a 24bit/192khz stream to 24bit/96khz. I suspect your NAD will be similar.

Consequently I use CoAx leads between the Topping and the analogue ports on my Nova

Hope that’s of some help ? 🤷‍♂️

Yep, I’ve just terminated my Apple Music trial for Qobuz/ MconnectHD/ ifi Zen Stream in order to remove my MacBook out of the Audio system. It would have been great to have discovered Chromecast native in apple devices for their music app. I doubt even in the near future in spite of the recent updates, there is likely to be any server control app options either. Shame as my new subscription elsewhere can.

Yes. Apple wants to exclusively own. I have both SONOS and Airplay systems. In terms of flexibility, SONOS and Airplay are both ok. But SONOS has S1, S2 incompatible issues. For wifi sound transmission, the sound quality of both two is very close unless you have a pair of dog ears. Not sure Chromecast sound quality compared with these two. My understanding is Chromecast > latest Airplay > SONOS. To be honest, In terms of sound quality, speakers also matter. UIW RCS II is much better than the Speakercraft AIM Wider series. At the end of the day, it's all money talk if you really need the best sound quality. To me, both airplay and SONOS are good, and looking forward to the Chromecast Sound transmission only product.

Clear insight Marco. Question to you, I hope you can answer: Suppose I connect an active Airplay2 HiFi speaker (KEF SL50 w2, capable of streams up to 24/320KHz) through Ethernet/CAT6 directly into my WiFi router and I stream a 24/192KHz sourced song from AppleMusic to it using Airplay2, then these speakers are the necessary DAC you mention, correct? Or... (hope not)... is the bandwidth of the physical Ethernet connection overruled by lossless2lossy conversion by Airplay because I use my iPhone as control? Do you know?

What a mess. Want to make messier can’t help myself.

what about CarPlay? What if you’re hooked up to your bangin system via USB?

“This high-class audio system is developed specifically for Volvo Cars with the hi-fi specialists at Harman Kardon. Powered by a multi-channel digital amplifier with up to 650 watts output, the 14 speakers are tailored to the acoustics inside your Volvo and deliver a powerful, captivating surround sound experience. A unique sound processing software – Dirac® Unison Tuning – optimises the response of each individual speaker as well as the combined output to ensure a performance of perfect harmony.”

thanks for this forum- the only area “close” to my topic so I am posting my question here…I have an external DAC (Fiio M11) connected to my Mac Air running Monterey. The DAC is connected to my receiver with SPDIF digital cable. I set MIDI on Mac to 24 bit 192 kHz as that is the max of my Pioneer receiver (as well as the highest res on Apple Music). When I play streams from Apple Music from Mac directly I’m pretty sure I have the max capability for my systems- as much as 24 bit 192 …but.. my primary question is… If I play Apple Music on my iPad but choose the Mac (and it’s DAC and receiver) under “Speakers and TV” Airplay setting on the IPad, am I actually controlling the Mac’s Apple Music app and still listening in say 24 bit 192 if a song has that capability (such as Neil Young). In other words- I think I’m not actually streaming a local file via Airplay from iPad to the Mac, but rather playing Apple Music stream from the Mac using the IPad almost as a remote or handoff controlling the Mac . Am I correct here??

Hi in this instance you are airplaying HiRes to the Mac. Usually airplay is limited to CD Quality. This is a new feature update on the Monterey platform.

Only draw back is the manual Mac sample rate switching due to the Mac midi controller.

Hi.

I’ve been trying to figure this out but haven’t found anything that would confirm this. Can you be a little more specific? What sources? I would like to read about this issue more.

I am currently streaming Apple Music from my iPhone using Airplay 1/2, to my Node 2i. If what you’re saying is true, I won’t be getting lossless this way. I can hear a difference when I am playing from Apple TV, using it’s own Apple Music App. This way I should be getting the lossless quality. The difference that I am hearing doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better or worse, just different. The difference can be because of different pre amp that I am using, but that’s another matter.

by the way.

I called Apple about this, and they DID NOT confirm or deny that Apple Music would play lossless when played through Airplay. To me that confirms that it doesn’t.

An for other people reading this, in my opinion, the fact that Airplay supports lossless ALAC, does not automatically mean that Apple Music via Airplay is lossless.

If they are local files, then they are sent as ALAC to AirPlay.

So guys,

help me. If i stream lossles audio from iPhone to Apple TV gen 3 via airplay 1, do i really getting this quality???

thanks, i know about it, but if AirPlay and Apple TV receving 44.1 KHz …

…and Apple lossles is:

I am in fact listening to Apple lossles on my Apple TV 3 ?

If your receiver is AirPlay 1 you could probably get ALAC. If it’s AirPlay 2, maybe not and get AAC instead.

My receiver is the Pioneer 1131 which is an older model with airplay 1. When I choose it at Apple Music airplay settings on MacBook the lossless icon disappears.