You‘re right. Bandwith and bitrate shouldn’t be an issues with modern mobile devices and 802.11ac WiFi. Even battery shouldn’t be an issue any more. Most probably the only reason for not supporting High Res is missing customer demand, because the majority of customers do not have the equipment to hear differences between a good mastered AAC, ALAC and High Res audio and Apple might just following the industry trend Tidal, Amazon and Spotify started.
AirPods Max although with interesting technical features might be too expensive but not expensive enough for the audiophiles and as John Darko recently remembered us, Bluetooth - even with AptX HD - is not lossless. And then there‘s the design …
Anyway, I am curious to compare Apple Music HiFi with Qobuz HiRes on Naim streamers. Therefore the question to Naim about the potential limitations of AirPlay 2 on Naim streamers.
Tested that of course. So far there is a substantial difference between „native“ streaming of Qobuz through the Naim app - sounds best - and the Qobuz app streaming via AirPlay.
What even surprised Damien Plisson is that Qobuz streamed with the Naim app sounds better than streamed through Audirvana which decodes Hires FLAC to PCM and streams PCM through UPNP to the Unity Nova.
Hi @Joamato
As of v3.6 release we are on the v2.0.4 version of the Airplay2 library, so we are ready if Apple decide to do lossless buffered streams from Apple Music. We have a full blown implementation in the products.
Regarding Airplay2 not all implementations are born equal. One dilemma of Airplay is that one of the devices on the network that is Airplay2 enabled is elected as master clock reference for the PTP clocking system ( Precision Time Protocol - Wikipedia ) and then all other devices have to track. This means the hifi clock needs to precisely track the external clock based on this protocol.
In Naim’s solution we use a programmable fractional clock generator so we can dial the audio clock in to match the calculated rates down to fractions of a PPM. Quite a few manufacturers use software SRC to make player clock match external clock which is quite destructive on sound.
Best wishes
Steve Harris
Software Director
Naim Audio Ltd.
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Hi @Stevesky,
Thank you for the response (especially on a Sunday 
). Good to hear that the Naim streamer software is prepared for AirPlay 2 lossless if Apple decides to use that in Apple Music.
Could you please comment on the maximum supported resolution? Is it 16 bit / 44.1 kHz, 24 Bit / 44 kHz or more? Is FLAC supported or just the Apple codecs AAC and ALAC?
Would it be possible to display the resolution and codec in one of the Naim app‘s next versions?
Best regards,
Joamato
Hi @Joamato
RE: Max supported resolution. There are two answers to this.
- In its current form Apple will deliver a 16/44.1 stream to the AIrplay2 enabled device. The phone / computer may implement a sample rate convertor to achieve this.
- Protocol wise Airplay2 can go up to 24/96, but in current implementations this is not enabled and it’s unlikely that Apple will start doing multiple native sample rate support.
So summary: 16/44.1
Best wishes
Steve
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Thanks for the answer.
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Haven’t seen the sales figures but would not want to wear something on my head that looks like a brassiere or a handbag (with case anyway).
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First thing I thought when I saw pre-release pictures.
New rumors (based on Apple Music Android-app beta information) and some hints for a release already next week. (See e.g. MacRumors.)
Terms like “high efficiency/quality”, “lossless”, and “hi-res lossless” are mentioned; ranging from current AAC/256kbps to 24bit/48kHz and also mentioning 24bit/192kHz.
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Yes, saw that earlier. I think it’s probably inevitable at some stage.
What I do find odd is that consumers are generally disinterested in hi-res audio but are taken in hook line and sinker (not in a bad way) by AV things like HDR/4k(+) and Dolby Vision. Odd disparity really.
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Hmhh, the TV industry has successfully used the advance-through-resolution as selling point for about 2 decades now? And screens get bigger, computer displays and phone screens have ever increasing resolutions, digital cameras increase all the time…
… so consumers are used to this “feature creep”. Also with PCs, video consoles, graphic cards, … the more pixels, the merrier.
Plus the massive increases in TV size the last 20 years as well - it sound “logical”, you need higher resolution, shiny colors, etc. pp.
Plus the usual marketing hype about any soccer championship (here in Germany, maybe other sports in other countries); the hunt for the perfect “home cinema”.
And, admittedly, until Full-HD, it’s pretty obvious visible improvements. I don’t have experience with 4K, HRD/Dolby Vision and surround yet at home - pretty conservative, looking mostly DVD-rips in stereo (it’s decent, I enjoy the content, and I try to only buy new things, when hardware breaks); but the screen I’m typing on currently is 5K on my desktop. (You get used to “Retina”, …)
Or: the gap between possible visual reproduction and what your eye can see (I do think, 8K for a home TV takes it too far - but let’s not talk about eye dynamic adjustment capability vs. todays cameras/screens) was huuuuuge and to a point still is.
With CD-quality, you are close to what most humans will ever discern - so there is intrinsically much more information in the visual than in the audible domain. So tech caught up 30 years earlier or so… 
PS: Surround sound is obvious to anybody - super-hires-audio is not. 
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The next generation of sound on Apple Music is coming to subscribers June 2021 at no additional cost
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced Apple Music is bringing industry-leading sound quality to subscribers with the addition of Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos. Spatial Audio gives artists the opportunity to create immersive audio experiences for their fans with true multidimensional sound and clarity. Apple Music subscribers will also be able to listen to more than 75 million songs in Lossless Audio — the way the artists created them in the studio. These new features will be available for Apple Music subscribers starting next month at no additional cost.
I thought AirPlay was limited to 16/44 the press release stated that will offer 24 bit
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Dolby Atmos may well be the thing that gets consumers excited, I have Airpods Pro but have not tried any of the spatial audio features on movies yet. May be popular or just a gimmick I suppose.
I thought Spotify was only going to offer CD Quality and not Hi-Res?
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I’m unsure as I don’t use Spotify - if so they may need to reconsider!
And just read, Amazon is dropping the prize for HD; respectively including it in the normal tier (just as Apple will do starting June).
Good effect of competition: Amazon USA dropped the price for Music HD to 9.99$ a month (7.99 for Prime Customer) according to Billboard.
Can’t include link, but you could find on Billboard site /articles/business/9573513/amazon-music-hd-unlimited-hi-fi-price-streaming
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I agree Tidal at £19.99 pm for their top tier is looking rather expensive. What will Tidal do now
I think they will sale 24/192 albums as well
Apple is focusing on sound 