Apple Music, Audiophiles and Streamers.

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.

Thx Mr.Mobius. I have external DAC which is Yamaha CD-S3000 connected via USB to MiniMAC. I downloaded Yamaha Steinberg USB driver to MiniMAC. It is true what you say. MiniMAC will not change the sample rate automatically. Yamaha always recognizes the sample rate which I preset in MiniMAC Audio Devices settings. I can choose between 44 48 96 172 or 192 kHz. The Yamaha DAC recognizes the preset sample rate. Sample rate will not follow the resolution (sample rate) of the recording. It means that MacMini will perform up or downsampling, depending on the settings of Audio devices. Why is that? Can up/down sampling be done without some degradation (jitter?) ?

I'm having a somewhat different issue, though what I'm looking for amounts to a similar solution.

Problem I have is that when pushing Apple Music to e.g. a Bluesound Node using AirPlay2, I get drop outs. The Node is hardwired to ethernet, so the dropouts are occurring between the iPhone and the Node. My wifi is extremely robust (Ubiquiti mesh, excellent coverage, speed, etc) but it doesn't matter how much they've improved AirPlay2. I still get dropouts from time to time.

So, I need a streamer with a built in Apple Music app that will pull music from the internet rather than have it pushed from my iPhone.

I looked at the Astell & Kern ACRO CA1000 someone mentioned but...it doesn't have an ethernet jack? So I'd be subjecting myself to wifi drops on the network-supply side.

I may just grab a Sonos box since they *do* allow you to connect your Apple Music account and 'pull' music to the Sonos box. It's not hires AFAIK. But at least it'd be stable.

I have a question to those that have been using a Mac Mini as a streamer. Set up is a 2014 Mac Mini 2 TB to a Micromega MyDac into a SR7008 Marantz. Sound seems really good to fantastic through Martin Logan speakers. I'm using Apple Music. When I try to add in Homepods in other parts of the house the sound will cut off for a second connecting to Homepods. When the music resumes on the main system theres a very discernible difference in the sound. A little bit of , through a tin can, change in the sound. Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone know what the @#&% causes it? Is there a fix?

The Eversolo streamer seems to play with the Apple music app. Even with the so called high res streaming services I get a better sound with Apple because of the quaility of my stuff.

Have you looked at wiim instead of sonos? Still no full rate airplay2 though. Thats apples fault not wiims i believe.

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.

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.

You are right! It is possible. As far as I know the only third party integration that has been allowed by Apple was with Sonos. I can easily play Apple Music through the Sonos app - but i don’t think it is lossless in the native app. All frustrating 🤪

This is interesting bith my amp and network reciever have decent DACs.

However firmware doesn’t support ALAC. I have a bunch of stuff sat on a server in FLAC and I beg to differ with your synopsis of - its already been through a computer. Theres A big difference in the quality of components and the firmware that actually does the processing. Not all DACs are the same and the level of processing at the interpolation / low pass point.

theres a marked difference between the 3 methods inhave tried the biggest difference is between an Apple Lossless track coming from the MBP ocer 3.5 and a FLAC track coming over eathernet. In the secind scenario the only DAC is in the hi-fi equipment and it sounds so much better.

The MBP DAC is not good by comparison.

Back hauling from TIDAL+ was also better but less marked

I am using octavio stream (perfectly integrates with apple music on my iphone) + Ifi zen one dac, connected to 1976 Luxman R-1070, the sounds you hear, were there never before on any other audio system

Astell & Kern ACRO CA1000 is currently on sale at Crutchfield's for $1699... There are newer products like Eversolo and Fiio F7 for less. Is Apple Music HiREs really the Holy Grail, or just accept Tidal, Qobuz or Amazon Music until Apple either supports 3rd party streamers or makes one of their own? Is Dolby Atmos that good?

I'm using an android samsung phone (S24 Ultra) or an android samsung tablet to stream Apple Music/Apple Music Classical to my Node X streaming device.

yesterday, Day 1 of trying to do that, it worked well. no drop outs.

today, Day 2, every so often, roughly every 1-2 minutes, there is a short period of drop outs for a few seconds.

there are two streaming rate options on Apple Music: Lossless or High Res Lossless.

considering that i'm streaming via bluetooth, which setting should i use? i am thinking that if the limitation is with the bluetooth, wouldn't it be MORE work for the electronics to have to DOWNSAMPLE or down convert the High Resolution Lossless to a lower bitrate, and then stream it via bluetooth to my Node X?

so my questions are:

1. what is the best bitrate setting to select for streaming via android device using bluetooth to my Node X (located in an equipment rack in a media closet)?
2. why do i have drop outs on Day 2 of trying this whereas yesterday, on Day 1 of trying this, there wasn't any drop outs?

thank you all in advance! much appreciated.