Your bottleneck in an Apple ecosystem is the Apple hardware itself. Even the current Apple TV 4K can only output up to 24/48 audio over HDMI regardless of what service/content you have access to.
1 Like
24/48 is all I’m trying to achieve,
Well in that case!
Did you check all the audio settings on the TV?
Importantly make sure it’s set to PCM stereo rather than any multichannel/Dolby option.
Also try connecting the HDMI cable at different ends either TV or Nova.
If you haven’t done yet, power off the TV completely and power it up again rather than it just being in standby.
HDMI can be a bit hit and miss, ARC requires a degree of manual setup, there may be multiple menus on the tv conflicting with each other for example.
1 Like
Audi settings - yes
PCM - yes
HDMI swaps -yes
TV off at the mains/back on/reconnected
I’d agree about conflicting menus - the Samsung menu system is dire and unintuitive.
I’ve looked in all the places I can think of.
I assume you’ve tried HDMI from the ATV to the TV and optical from TV to the Nova with PCM set on the TV? That’s how I do mine.
1 Like
That was the last thing I tried - didn’t realse the separate I/O box for the TV had optical out! It has some proprietary looking audio out on the back. Later noticed there was an optical out hidden on the side next to a USB stick input!
Trouble is apart from saying 48 kHz, the Naim app gives little more info. Now maybe that would be the case if I successfully managed to connect via HDMI ARC too, I just don’t know - it would be interesting to know what those have managed this to devices get in now playing in the Naim app.
Apple TV 2 onwards always resampled stereo audio (video aside where surround was available over HDMI) to 16 bit 48 kHz (lossy or lossless source).
This is primarily about to establish if I can play hi-res Apple Music to the Nova.
While in Apps > Music on the AppleTV I can select hi-res or lossy AAC.
What I don’t know thereafter is how the TV processes the audio before outputting over optical. It’s all too fiddly Apple could really do with a small Apple Music enabled audio only box you could control via an iOS device, Mac or maybe even AppleTV.
1 Like
Well woohoo!, squee!, whatever!
Result!
Having tried so many different HDMI cables including recent ones bundled with Oppos, games consoles, monitors etc as well as Amazon Basics HDMI cable with ethernet support from around 2014 (product descriptor no longer viewable) I decided to take a punt on a 4.5m Amazon Basics braided HDMI cable.
Far too late having chucked boxes in recycling, but decided why not give it a shot.
Plugged cable into Nova first then into the HDMI ARC socket on the Samsung I/O box- I suddenly got some kind of ‘connected’ graphic for the HDMI input I’ve never seen before which rapidly disappeared. Audio unplayable via Nova. Nothing detectable in Anynet CEC+ menu despite searching.
Plugged/unplugged a few times, no good, could not get audio to Nova.
No idea if there is a dodgy HDMI socket at Samsung or Nova end, but first time I ever saw the odd graphic of a rectangle with some kind of connection coming down from above on Nova’s screen - unable to replicate.
Now is this just luck, but I turned the TV off and for the first time realised that the upended I/O box which has an odd connector to the panel must get power from the panel itself (rather than vice versa) as there is no mains in.
Unplugged this panel > I/O box connector, reconnected and out of the blue audio selected for TV was not volume controllable and playing to ‘Receiver’.
Accidentally changed to TV as source and TV audio also went to the Nova.
HDMI cable, panel to I/O box cable, luck or withcraft I have no idea but it’s sounding pretty good!
3 Likes
It would be nice to consider this a result for £9.37!
Very smart looking cable, suspect non-braided would be a bit more flexible for the cable run, but nice to have covering/colour options to differentiate cables, even cheap ones.
Assuming it’s cable related, I could have saved 8-10 hours of strife yesterday getting a newer cable for less (£7 to £30) at PC World but specs on their website were unhelpful for HDMI ARC.
A bit of decluttering, spring-cleaning, many wasted hours but maybe saved £10-20 towards the Statement product fund 
1 Like
Bass on this is very very good (was on optical too) oddly can’t find the album on Amazon ? Apple compilation?
Should’ve checked Qobuz first!
Good stuff, we’ll done.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.