I mentioned a few days ago that Apple encourage 3rd parties to produce items like this and adapters (I referenced ‘dongles’) where they’ve created a gap in their lineup (given up on optical as far as I can tell).
Unfortunately it’s only up to CD quality, I was hoping to see something that could output better than CD quality over optical - if it said better than CD it would give us a hint Apple are updating Airplay 2, but it doesn’t.
Maybe the music companies are insisting on ‘hoops to jump through’ to reduce the chance of consumers copying music, but in this day and age I can’t see many people being bothered to do that.
The problem is that it has no digital out so it will be no use as a bridge to a hifi system.
The larger and more expensive WXA-50 has digital out and works well for this purpose.
Yes, I believe it does, it was the Yamaha I was referring to, which is a shame as it would make a great low cost digital transport it it just had an SPDIF out.
If that’s true, streaming FLAC with the Qobuz app or ALAC with VLC over AirPlay should not be converted to AAC. @Stevesky could you please verify that - or give us the possibility to do it on our own? I.e. to see what Codec and resolution is streamed to the Naim streamer in the Naim app, the streamer‘s website, or on a REST service we could call.
That’s what I’m using for streaming. The only thing that lets in down is no digital out and a rubbish app. But for £150 I’m not complaining. Sound wise it beat my CD5XS
That‘s surprising because the best the Qobuz app with AirPlay can do is streaming in CD quality. The reason might simply be better mastering of the title in Qobuz than the CD - especially when mastered during the loudness wars. Might be worth comparing the lossless rip from the CD and the CD5XS, where I would assume that the CD5XS sounds better.
Regarding showing the internal stream format, unfortunately we have to stick to strict certification requirements and we can only show user facing metadata, not internal stream info of Airplay.
Thanks again @Stevesky. This makes it clearer that the lossless issue is not in the AirPlay 2 implementation but in the AppleMusic app which should be much easier to fix (by Apple).
That means that currently the options for streaming on an iPhone are:
AppleMusic App: High Quality AAC → AirPlay as AAC => sounds good
Qobuz App: CD Quality or HighRes FLAC → AirPlay as ALAC => sounds better
If showing the Codec and Resolution in the app isn‘t allowed by Apple, is it possible to access the debug screen through a secret URL or is that only available on the console.
One question on the aac issues. Is this both from IOS and MacOS? In other forums, they’re trying dispute the aac claim. Believe you are saying it’s both but I’m not sure.
On the iPhone, Amazon clearly sound better than Apple. And with Apple, I couldn’t hear any difference between high quality and lossless setting. Both sounded compressed.
Oh you forgot a 4th option, using iPhone with roon and Qobuz. Then can see all the versions, pick the best resolution, and even confirm the stream is actually what the metadata claims it should be.
I don’t have Roon because I don‘t like subscription models for software. Therefore, although I am a long time Audirvana user I won‘t use Audirvana Studio.
Good point. I bought a lifetime membership about 6 years ago when they offered a Black Friday special. Think it was $150 or $200 off the original $499 price. At the time I was out of work but knew it was too good to pass up.
i assume you are talking about AirPlay?
If you connect a USB DAC to your iOS or MacOS device you get wonderful lossless PCM upto 96/24 from the AppleMusic app - might go higher but that is all I have seen from the tracks I have played.
I have confirmed and measured this on iOS and MacOS - and jolly good it sounds as you would expect. The biggest issue is the lack of such content on AppleMusic right now - but that is changing day by day.
When you listen with the Apple Music App on the Mac you still have to change the resolution in the MIDI App, while the Audirvana and the Qobuz app automatically change this to the title’s original resolution. That should be improved as well.
Just been listening to Qobuz through Roon comparing the sq with Apple Music same bitrate. When listening to 44/16 Qobuz Roon is more to my liking. Apple sounds a bit closed in. Doesn’t really make me feel the flow as much as with Qobuz. When hires I think the difference is smaller.
Anyone else tried this? Listened with Chord mojo and Hifiman Sundara.
