How to play Hi-Res Lossless through my AVR

Very messy in my mind, all while by-passing (most likely) a very decent DAC inside the AVR probably an ESS Sabre that can sample at up to 24 bit/192 kHz.

The unkept secret is out, we are trying to use hardware gadgets to deliver hi-res lossless .....The serious question remains, what are Apple's plans to make their current hi-res loss music stream work over Air Play to the Wi-Fi equipped AVR's ?

Hi StevenLyall,

I didn’t realize you want to play from your mobile devices.

I haven’t tested this (yet ?), but I would do something like this :

• Get the Apple Lightning to USB 3.0 Camera Adapter
• Get a USB 3 DAC such as the iFi Zen DAC (very affordable, don’t know about the quality though)
• Get a USB-A to USB-B 3.0 cable (I think it is included with the iFi Zen DAC)
• Get a pair of RCA cables (one in red and one in white for L/R output channels)
• Connect the lightning camera adapter to your iPhone, optionally connect the adapter to a power source to power your iPhone while listening
• Connect the apple lightning camera adapter to the iFi Zen DAC using the USB-A to USB-B 3.0 cable
• Connect the iFi Zen DAC to your AVR using the pair of RCA cables to one of the analog input pair in the back of your AVR

That should do the work.

For your iPad, if it has a lightning port it’s the same procedure. If it’s an iPad pro with a usb-c port, you don’t even need to get the Apple lightning camera adapter, just get a USB-C to USB-B 3.0 cable then connect your iPad pro directly to the iFi Zen DAC.

I've been investigating this and, without getting a USB DAC and then two cables to connect to the aux port of your AVR, you can't do the Hi-Resolution lossless.

But, if you go for the 24bit/48kHz option you lose almost nothing and you can do it with something like. this:

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-3-5mm-2-Male-Adapter-Stereo/dp/B01D5H8JW0

Thanks for the remarks. So I have a similar class AVR and got the following remarks from a Yamaha audio technician in recent days. In a separate note he indicated that I was being choked to 48KHz sampling rate. Apple has some iOS work to do.

' The "choke" is caused by the software that runs in these devices(Apple & Windows) which do not pass-through their proprietary connectors.

"The USB port and HDMI ports on your RX-V1079 are all capable of decoding 192hz signals but the input signal coming from these units are limited. This is not a problem with the receiver.

If you have an uncompressed 192hz audio file on a USB stick and you insert it into the USB port on the RX-V1079, I assure you that you will get the full bandwidth audio.

Same goes for a Bluray player connected via HDMI to the RX-V1079 playing back a DSD high res file.

This is all this proprietary licensing stuff from these "Software" companies. They prioritize playback from their own devices."

I think you just need to use a standard lightning to USB cable (like the one that came with your iPhone). I have a Denon mini system (M39) that is connected to the front USB port via a standard lightning cable, and it is happily playing high-res lossless.

I have a headless Mac mini, connected to my Yamaha AVR via HDMI.

I mainly use it to play hi-res music with Audirvana, including multi-channel hi-res music.

I believe you can play hi-res music from the Apple Music app this way through HDMI to your AVR.

Launch the “Audio MIDI Setup” utility:

• Select your HDMI device
• Right click then select “Use this device for sound output”
• Then on the right, in the « output » tab, select the format of your hi-res music e.g. 8 channels 24 bits 192 kHz, depending on the source for at and the capability of your AVR DAC.

After this setup, Music will output sound through the AVR not through the internal speakers of the mac mini anymore.

P.S. You can also play hi-res lossless music through your AVR if you have an Apple TV 4K, but only up to 24 bits 48 kHz.

PS... the Denon is the DAC in this configuration - no need for any other equipment.

Where did you get the 48 kHz spec for the USB port? My Denon mini system (RCD-M39) seems to be playing 96 kHz and 192 kHz streams over USB with no trouble. I can't say for sure because it doesn't display that information, but I am pretty sure I can hear the difference in the streams versus 44.1/48. I also will often see the Music app start playing a stream that says "Lossless" then switches to "High-res Lossless" after what seems like some kind of negotiation between the iPhone and the Denon. There are also a few high-res tracks that it seems to struggle with and "glitch".

I don't think that iOS devices are "choked" to 48 kHz if it's connected to a USB port labelled "Made for iPod/iPhone" such as on my Denon mini system. The OS switches the rates based on what is playing. tvOS is limited to 48 kHz for now, and macOS always plays the rate selected in Audio MIDI setup and resamples regardless of what the source is. This video was helpful to understand what is going on with Apple's OSes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOVIfKpbwxg

No, the USB- 2.0 port has a sampling limit rate of 48KHz max. And, Apple does not support Hi Res such as 96kHz over any wireless either.

You are correct, USB 2.0 supports upto 480 Mbps = easily handle any hi-res track.

Correct but we want higher direct connect sampling rates of 96kHz or more from the iPhone Lightening port to the AVR USB or perhaps HDMI input port.

High Sampling Rates with USBPre 2 - Sound Devices

That’s only applicable to the USBPre 2 device, not to be confused with the USB 2.0 interface standard. @xyzlorenzo has a Denon, it’ll go as far as it’s built-in DAC goes.