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Apple Music, Audiophiles and Streamers.

Super (audiophile) niche topic.


I want to thank Apple for single handedly turning me into an audiophile by introducing Hires streaming and Spatial Audio to its services.


I have since spent tens of thousands in pursuit of a "perfect" sound system, and as any audiophile knows, a signal free of electrical noise is a necessary step towards audio heaven.


The dilemma: a computer has a very "noisy" environment, and as a streaming source, it is less than ideal. We also know that Apple Music will only connect to 3rd party dedicated streamers via Airplay, which will compress any lossless signal. Also not ideal.


This is not the case with streaming services like Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon which allow you to login to your account on these streamers apps, unlike Apple which is sandboxing Apple Music into its ecosystem for wired playback and potentially turning away audiophiles.


Curious to know how others are using Apple Music in their audiophile rig.



iMac Pro

Posted on Jan 2, 2023 5:14 PM

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44 replies

Jan 3, 2023 5:18 PM in response to Dudedelux

There’s no way to do it. I spent an hour and a half in the phone with Apple support asking me questions that demonstrated they don’t have a clue. There’s no way other than using the 3.5mm out. I am all but done with Apple Music it’s a waste of time for lossless - I will move to another service like Tidal. Apple have really screwed up its a complete mess - they must realise that if the go after consumers that aren’t price sensitive those consumers are likely to have decent hifi and expect a lossless source to be just that. In apples case lossless is really little more than a gimmick.

Jan 17, 2023 11:42 AM in response to Dudedelux

Using it via Apple TV 4K, with a "good" HDMI-Audio extractor doing 24bits at 48Khz on SPDIF (Coax or Fiber)

on a NAD M10 with Dali Rubicon 5 speakers. Use Apple Music App as remote to the ATV.


Hi-res up to 192Khz not possible from ATV limited till 48Khz, but still lossless!

Sound is rich, open and natural, I even like it better than Tidal. Sound comes close to Qobuz in my perception.

However I agree, native streaming on third party Audiophile streamers is still preferred.


Waiting for Apple to embrace the world of Audiophiles, as it seems that even a populair streamer like BlueSound e.g. can/may not integrate Apple Music, other then supporting Airplay 2.



Feb 12, 2023 12:03 AM in response to Dudedelux

Same here, I’ve been searching for a way to get lossless to my receiver for years now. It is so frustrating and honestly I cannot understand why Apple refuses to allow third party media players to access Apple Music. With the right set up of the system you can get decent sound, but still it is limited to the compressed input to the receiver. I am still hoping that one day Apple will allow this.

Feb 13, 2023 9:11 PM in response to PompeyRob

Yes there is, however not ideal. Using the lightning to USB adapter from an iPhone or iPad to a USB DAC you can get full lossless from Apple Music. Many tutorials online. You can also do this with a computer but, the Sample Rate will not Change dynamically, thus using the iPhone or iPad does this. Airplay does in fact use lossless ALAC compression not Lossy AAC when streaming but is limited to 48khz sample rate.

Feb 14, 2023 7:58 AM in response to aldo_ellul

Apple Music is a small segment of the streaming market share. Apple is making strides by releasing a Music app for Windows and Android. They have also allowed native integration into the Tesla cars without car play. That's the first indicator to me that Apple is aware of the market desire to have the Music app on your favorite device. My hope is they allow Blue OS to have a native Apple Music app. That would be a deal maker for me to buy a BlueSound streamer. They have built-in high-end DACs and AMPs. Combine that with native, non-airplay, Apple Music and you have high resolution digital without compromise.

Feb 25, 2023 2:13 AM in response to Mr. Mobius

When I want better than CD quality I connect my iPad to a USB C to Toslink adapter and then Toslink into the back of my active speaker setup (other ports are in use and DAC is better than many affordable externals).


I don’t mind the setup apart from the fact that I have no control over the system from my seating position other than volume through a remote.


I really wouldn’t mind having an iPad mini in this setup all the time provided I could control it from an app on my phone. It is that part that is missing for me. It’s only a software issue.

Mar 10, 2023 9:57 AM in response to Dudedelux

I’ve also been super curious for years now to make this happen, not just audio quality, but also simply having a device play rather than having it tied to your phone, which I resolved for a while with HomePods throughout the house until I replaced them with Genelecs. The first step Apple actually made was integrating Apple Music into the Porsche Taycan entertainment system back in 2019 https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2019/products/porsche-taycan-apple-music-integrated-music-streaming-experience-entertainment-18405.html

looking forward to seeing it open up further to streamer/DACs where they belong ✌🏻

Mar 11, 2023 2:31 AM in response to Dudedelux

i suffered dearly last time I posted to an audiophile forum. But I feel a bit safer because you are accepting of PCM. I don’t identify as an audiophile, but I’ve spent a similar amount of money on an amateur critical listening system. The good thing about having spent 10k+ is that the next part is a small percentage. Unless you are so audiophile you believe only unadulterated DSD 256+ will do, you are in luck. All the modern music you listen to - even classical - will likely have been through a computer for at least mastering if not recording and mixing as well. Quality external ADC/DACs are how it was made, so using a quality DAC out of your Mac/ iPad is absolutely fine. Industry standard. Do not fret about “the insides of a computer not being ideal”. The music has already been there. There are some really expensive DACs (like Merging) but there are excellent options around 1K if your preamp doesn’t have its own USB port to use it’s built in DAC. (Quite a few mid tear preamps have these). Then grab a dedicated HiFi iPad or Mac slave. I know a Mac Mini as a dedicated streamer sounds like overkill, but it’s cheap for a hifi component. Or pray AirPlay 3 does HiRes. In five years. Or accept that 48khz sample rate is all you can actually discern and use an Apple TV through an hdmi splitter/ARC to SPDIF. I know technically this is true (48K already being overkill), but I’m with you on imaginary magic ears and wasn’t satisfied. My ears become more magic the older I get and the more gear I can afford. When I could actually hear at 20k I was never bothered by anharmonic Nyqvist reflections from poor low pass filtering at the recording stage, or poor filtering of quantisation noise at the DAC stage. Now they haunt me like never before. A terrible thought…

Mar 31, 2023 2:52 PM in response to Dudedelux

I was hoping Apple would allow Apple Music to be streamed via Apple TV4 via USB or SPIDF at a decent bitrate to a DAC but alas they don’t. Can’t use BlueSound or anything else for Apple Music that I can tell. And like others I am not interested in paying for an iPad tethered to the DAC. Currently use a Zen Mini and stream from Qobuz but too many systems. Ideally I just want one box for streaming that feeds a DAC/amp.

May 4, 2023 6:28 PM in response to Dudedelux

I just wanted to thank all of you for the extremely informative posts. I’ve spent many, many hours in pursuit of the 192Khz from Apple Music holy grail and you folks have saved me further effort, at least for now. However, I will say that listening to classical Dolby Atmos audio from an ATV4K through a good Marantz 11.2 receiver — or even through a stereo pair of original HomePods — is already a viscerally transporting experience, far exceeding anything that came before in my 68 years on this earth.

Apple Music, Audiophiles and Streamers.

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