All the Bluesound range of speakers do, HEOS might do, KEF LSW50 do as the Smaller versions loads of Chromecats speakers do, my JBL link supports HiRes. Any heaphones that support APTXHD or LDAC can also support higher bitrates and sample rates albeit it is compressed but both are very good, LDAC sounds exceptionally good.
I truly hope that Qobuz will remain a viable service and I suspect niche audiences/labels /audiences may be crucial for that - ultimately I enjoy supporting the underdog, but I know that my subscription alone wonāt keep them afloat.
Thatās a real shame. I didnāt know that was the case on the later models. Thanks for clarifying.
I plan to remain a subscriber for the foreseeable future. Iām not interested in abandoning Roon for Apple Music, and the Naim app (which I think has a pretty awful user experience as a music controller). Roon on an iPad is so much better.
I also have Qobuzā¦
Same here going nowhere, nothing can give me my local music and streaming in such a good package. I am not converting my collection to something else either. As I already have Spotify for out and about. I will likely use that more for times when I cant find something via Qobuz but for all other uses it will be Roon and Qobuz. I have signed up for free trial of AM interested to try it, but not enamoured with it so far. Be interesting if it will run hires on my Android DAP likeTidal and Qobuz apps do.
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Itās a big advantage of older Macs and one of their attractions in yesteryear.
Current Intel or M1 Minis for example have no optical outputs.
I was comparing to smart speakers not active speakers and specific hifi products. They are much more expensive. I would pitch the big HomePod against many other smart speakers even with lossy playback. I think sometimes the implementation matters more than the resolution. My current system sounds better streaming lossy than my last one playing hi res from a MAC. Yes my current system sound better with hi res. As for the headphones. I have used LDAC on my Sony noise cancelling headphones via a Sony hires player and I can tell you that the AirPods max kick their arse streaming from Apple Music.
This summary from Mac Rumors is quite helpful:
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My comment was about the HomePod having better audio quality than cheap Bluetooth speakers most people are using.
A Gyrodec ā¦
Yes, thanks, Iāve just tried that now and it shows the artwork. This must have come as a new feature through Airplay2 or an update to the streamers, as I only used to get the Airplay symbol.
Interesting that they describe spatial as the more important announcement.
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Exactly. It is the quality of the file or stream that counts. Apple revolutionised music distribution and the (mobile) listening experience way back when (solid state) storage and fixed line and mobile bandwidth were limited. We are now in a different world and they are catching up with high-res streaming and still probably the best user experience. No discussion so far whether or not they will offer high-res downloads in FLAC or WAV or Apple Lossless.
Time for Naim to update their streamers to stream Apple Music as I suspect they will have a big market share - they already do and that was when they only offered lower quality streaming and .mp3.
We already happily stream Apple Music (via AirPlay 2), and are talking to Apple about other options.
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Hi Clare, Is there a possibility it could be integrated in to the app so not relying on airplay do you think? I appreciate you probably cannot say much.
Apple arenāt known for having the most open of architectures, but never say never! As soon as we know more that we can share, weāll do so. I expect much more will come out of Appleās WWDC event next month re the evolution of AirPlay and many more aspects re how they intend to make their expanded service more readily available. And remember, the ānewā Apple Music isnāt even available yetā¦
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Isnāt it?
Not for me or you, but for the masses. HiFi is really a niche, the majority of people donāt care past decent MP3. Also thereās a few alternatives.
Spatial is a differentiator the others (except maybe Tidal with 360) donāt offer and one they can possibly āsellā to the masses as changing the way they listen.
Yes, thatās why I called it out. We focus a lot on lossless because of our niche, it was interesting to see that view.
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Iāve got this setup on my Sony WH-1000ās in Tidal. I had to take photos of my ears to enable it!
Need to revisit this, not sure how it works entirely or if itās even a good thing.