Does AirPlay support 24bit/192 hires? Thanks in advance.
Nope.
AirPlay from iPhones (and similar) is usually limited in the range of lossless CD equivalent.
(And casting their own Apple Music service, they even seem to limit to AAC.)
Nope Airplay supports 24bit/48kHz only.
But that’s a technicality, only 16/44.1kHz for iPhone/ipad to devices.
Isn’t that limited to between their own devices?
Yes as I said above, it’s just a technical detail. Must have been mid edit
Thanks. Was considering 30 day trial. Will stick with Qobuz.
It’s possible to use Chromecast for 24/192 streams so that could be an option if your devices support it. To be honest it barely copes with high res streams, so might not be such a great option, but if you can get a free trial of Amazon Music it might be worth testing for a few days.
Personally I would stick with Qobuz though, or maybe Tidal.
I do 24/96 streams from my LMS library to a ChromeCast Audio puck all the time. A negligible number of hiccups. Really no more that 16/44.1.
I don’t believe the puck supports 24/192, and I suspect that would be pushing my luck.
It is technically possible to stream up to 24/192 on Chromecast, even though it was really aimed at mass market lossy streaming. Using a Chromecast Audio puck as opposed to Chromecast integrated into a Naim streamer might add further limitations, especially if using an optical connection.
Of course that isn’t to say that it can’t work, or be a reliable option for some users.
You stated:
I replied that it does quite well with high res up to 24/96 into a ChromeCast Audio puck. I know this because I use two pucks every day, not distinguishing between high res, CD quality and lossy.
Or do you not consider 24/96 to be high res?
Not sure what you have in mind here. And I can’t think of a reason I would want to plug my ChromeCast (which is a streamer/DAC) into another streamer. Unless the puck did something better than the Naim product.
Also AFAIK - what comes out of the puck when using the optical connection has been “de-ChromeCasted.” It’s just an ordinary digital signal to an optical input. I have one plugged into a headphone amp that dates back to before ChromeCast was created.
I was suggesting the use of Chromecast to the OP as an alternative to Airplay as a way to access Amazon Music as it would theoretically allow access to high res streams. He wouldn’t need a Chromecast Audio puck because his Nova supports native Chromecast.
That I agree with.
It’s just that I’ve come to question statements I’ve seen on this forum critical of how ChromeCast works with high res (at least up to 24/96). I don’t generally use ChromeCast with my Naim products for serious listening.* But I use it all the time with the audio pucks into powered speakers and have had minimal problems even at 24/96. I assume ChromeCast would work equally well with my Naim units.
- Really, the only time I use ChromeCast with a Naim product is when I’m in the midst of doing three things in the bedroom, and it’s easier to call out, “Hey Google, play WFUV on my Muso,” than to drop everything to find my phone.
Chromecast is theoretically better than Airplay in that it sends the stream directly to the client, rather than using two wireless legs to stream to and from an iPhone, in addition to supporting up to 24/192.
In practice I’ve found it to be somewhat lacking in sound quality. Last time I tried it, I found the equivalent 16/44.1 stream to sound consistently better than a 24 bit stream of the same track via Chromecast. Still a good option for convenience in some situations, although using iOS, I tend to stick with Airplay.
This post by Steve Harris might explain a bit about how Chromecast compromises sound quality despite its hi-res ability:
Thanks. I’ve read that post, and it has certainly caused me to avoid ChromeCast into Naim for serious listening. But it’s also true that I haven’t had any technical problems with chromeCast into the pucks at 24/96.
As I mentioned in an above post, I generally use the Lyrion Music Server with the ChromeCast and Qobuz plug-ins. That gives me access to my entire music collection via the pucks.
Following morning edit:
When @Stevesky refers to buffer sizes being too small, to whose buffer sizes does he refer? Does the fact that in my case the stream to my pucks is not coming from Qobuz, but from my server (I believe), via the ChromeCast plug-in to LMS, mean a different buffer is involved?