Hive mind,
I have a Nova and Apple Music on my Mac, an iPad, my phone, and have various HomePods dotted about the place.
I have been using AirPlay to send music to the Nova and am happy with that, but understand from reading around the forum that AirPlay is not currently able to stream the new hi res music option from Apple.
So…so what is the best way for me to get to try hi res? Do I need additional hardware etc?
HALP
I’ve been listening to Apple lossless on my Nova via HDMI from my Apple TV 4K via my actual TV. The limit is 24/48, but it sounds very good. Until AirPlay gets upgraded, to go beyond that, you can connect your iPad or iPhone to the Nova with a USB to Coax/Spdif converter. On my computer desk, I use a Topping D10s to connect my Mac Mini to my Atom HE.
I was wondering if I needed hardware to do this and it appears that some kind of DAC is needed. The Topping stuff gets really well reviewed. What output are you using to connect your Topping to the Atom?
You don’t need a DAC as such, just something to convert USB to COAX/OPT. With the Topping, I connect the COAX to my Atom HE. I also have another similar but cheaper converter that has no DAC capabilities temporarily connected to the OPT so I can test it with my iPad.
I connected an Apple TV to a UnitiQute via an HDMI to Coax/Opt adapter
Something like this , you can get them in all flavours , such as HMI to USB
Thanks for all the suggestions. Just pulled the trigger on a Topping D10s so will be able to take the signal from my desktop to my Nova directly. Should be interesting to see what, if any, difference this makes.
Can you explain the chain here? How does the Topping solve this?
Does this mean you’d be using the Topping DAC or the Nova DAC?
In this case the Topping is sending the digital signal out, so its DAC is not being used to convert the signal to analogue. Even if it was, the Nova DAC would still be used as it converts any analogue signal to digital (to enable it to be used in multiroom setups) and then back to analogue through the internal DAC.
I wonder what the conversion rate is? If the internal DAC on the Nova is not getting to hi res then is the unit capable of it under any circumstances?
48/24 is the rate of the Nova ADC. You want to avoid this as you can’t get back what you throw away, negates the point of hires. Also going through two DAC stages will lead to some degradation of the original signal.
I do it this way*, just to see if it works, which it does.
But as posted in another related thread I actually prefer Qobuz in Roon from my Innuos Zenith. Both for SQ and definitely for user interface.
How about connecting directly lightning to USB cable into the USB input of the amp?
So iPhone/iPad > lightning to USB > USB male to male > uniti USB input
I wouldn’t even bother trying until Apple can actually come with an Airplay system that actually works with their own hi-res formats on Apple Music……
No won’t work it’s not a USB audio input it’s for sticks and disks only.
And if they don’t do this within the next year I will be severely irritated and probably ditch AM. All I want is confirmed CD quality via airplay. Not much to ask really.
So all you have is two adapters essentially?
I have a lightening to HDMI adapter, but that won’t work somehow with anything?
But again, it seems to me that Airplay is improved dramatically now, maybe with yesterday’s or last week’s updates. Anyone notice that?
Yes, two adapters as pictured.
I’ve returned to using Qobuz though. This time from within the Innuos Sense app, and abandoned Roon.
There’s been an Airplay update this week ?
