So here's some info I've found relative to this.
Airplay and Airplay 2 should be able to support at least stereo 44.1K/16b or 48K/24b. They say they support ATMOS which would imply they can handle 7.1 (with ATMOS metadata) @ 48K/24b. If this is true, then I think that I would say the answer to my question is yes.
However, there are (were?) apparently some issues with iOS Airplay 2 downgrading 44.1K/16b ALAC to AAC (lossy). Also with macOS doing the same if you don't set the system airplay device to whatever streamer you are using. https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/apple-music-lossless-mess-part-2-airplay-r1026/ In my case, I have would have more than one airplay device (the AVM 70 for ATMOS, and a Bluesound Node 2i for stereo in another room). So this is a bit klutzy to switch back and forth. A later article says that iOS is downgrading 48K/24b apple music to 44.1K/16b https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/apple-homepod-24-bit-lossless-audio-airplay-2/. So its a bit unclear as to what support exists on which platforms at which level of software. Hopefully these are just issues to be fixed in pending future enhancements.
There is also an issue with Apple support for spacial audio (binaural on headphones) in that it uses the DD+ JOC codex instead of the AC4-IMS codex which supports additional Dolby renderer metadata for headphone mixes.
https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/production-expert-1/why-your-atmos-mix-will-sound-different-on-apple-music
I'm also not sure if the "ATMOS" support for Airplay 2 is just for binaural vs multi-channel ATMOS (7.1 - 9.1.6).
I'm looking for info on what macOS Monterey (or above) supports with Airplay 2 relative to stereo, binaural, and multi-channel ATMOS vs lossless/resolution/codex. I supposed I also would expand this to info relative to using Apple Music vs other streaming services - for example would Amazon HD on macOS support ATMOS multi-channel over airplay 2 with 48K/24b (x 7.1 + metadata).
