Apple Music HiFi Tier incoming?

Evening Clare. Will it work on my UQ2?

Still working out how Apple plan to implement Lossless via external DACs etc. AirPlay 2 not an option in this scenaio.

Iā€™m still comparing it again roon/Qobuz on my Uniti Atom HE. One thing I donā€™t like is the volume rocker changes the volume 5 levels and volume slider is sensitive in the Apple Music app. With Spotify, the volume works as expected, just one level at a time.

Also, how do you connect to AirPlay before you start the first track? I donā€™t see the icon in the app until that point. Spotify Coonect allows you to choose endpoint ahead time. Surprised they didnā€™t release lossless yet.

That is very cool. I have 1400+ albums on Apple Musicā€¦

Itā€™s selective - roughly 20% have been upgraded from my library

That will probably be expanded with time.

1 Like

I connect to the Naim through Airplay. Then the artwork shows up on the Naim.

I was pretty surprised, when I heard it through NDX2. The separation and sound stage was greatly improved. Then I tried listening from IPHONE to my IEM. Music was seriously good. Is like I have pair of $4000 iem. The best part is it doesnā€™t cost me anything. Those Hires players will be obsoleted soon.

2 Likes

And a usb-c to usb adapter to connect the iPad to the usb input on the Nova to play from iPad library if not connected?

But I was having trouble seeing where you connect to AirPlay before you get to the album view. I see if I swipe down in control panel I can get to to AirPlay menu. But you donā€™t see AirPlay menu option from main screen in Apple Music.

I have it all working fine and see the artwork. I also see if stays connected even after I go back to roon and the unit switches flawlessly between the two.

Are you on an iPad? I open Apple Music, choose, and yes, go to the upper right, swipe down, then choose the unit you want to play through.

Itā€™s great. I have a large set of powered Mackie 450s. With just an iPhone I could blast a large party. Iā€™m anxious to hear how they sound with the Nova as pre-ampā€¦

Yeah, I figured it out.

As far as sound quality, Iā€™m finding even with cd quality roon/Qobuz sounds better. There is more air and detail. Soundstage is kind of compressed with Apple Music.

I am liking the Apple Music app. While trying to test an album, I was waiting for roon to load up. It sometimes gets hung up lately.

1 Like

Hi Clare,

is this downloads done from Apple Music (the streaming service) or the ā€žiTunes Storeā€œ (the old buy-and-download)?

As far as I can tell older iTunes Store purchases that you redownload stay as compressed 256 kbps AAC files or protected .m4p 128kbps files.

I think it is only ā€˜Apple Musicā€™ subscription downloads that come in lossless hi-res flavours, and of course those downloads woul not be available if you stopped subscribing.

1 Like

From Nova just stream in hires lossless. Use iPhone will do. The sound was superbā€¦

How do you know what quality stream you are Airplaying to the Nova? Iā€™m assuming itā€™s currently CD quality but as my app doesnā€™t list the stream quality I have no idea.

Thatā€™s my expectation, actually.
(I cannot imagine Apple not adding another carrot for people still unwilling to subscribe to AM. :wink: )

Though with the movies you get ā€žfree upgradesā€œ, but those are DRMed (as opposed to most iTunes Music downloads) and TV+ isnā€™t competitive (on amount of content) anyway so farā€¦

As for spatial audio itā€™s certainly an effect but everythinhg seems quieter so beware if you turn it off to A/B as the extra volume can be quite a jump.

I have always been frustrated that they have not let us upgrade older SD TV and Movie purchases to HD if available for a nominal price given current free 1080p>4k upgrades for movies and the old option to upgrade those DRMd 128kbps audio files (where possible) to 256kbps.

1 Like