At the moment I use Apple Music on my MacBook, with the digital output going from the MacBook to one of my two DACs via a USB cable.
My DACs are Naim DAC-V1 and Chord Qutest.
Simple question:
What I do NOT want or need: a streaming device which allows streaming from Tidal, Qobuz, Roon etc etc. I have zero interest in any streaming service other than Apple Music. I don’t want or need multi-room or anything like that. I don’t, and will never, stream from my iPhone/iPad; I only want to stream from a MacBook. I don’t need a solution which contains a DAC as I already have a choice of two DACs which, as far as I am concerned, do what I need and very well.
What I DO need: All I want to do is simply to replace the USB cable with a wireless solution, ideally with sound quality equivalent to a USB cable, if that is possible. It could be that it isn’t possible.
Does such a device exist? It would have to connect to the MacBook (or perhaps my wifi network) wirelessly then sit near to the DAC-V1 or the Qutest and have a digital (not analogue) output, so that it could feed one or other of these DACs. Anything that would have to plug in to the MacBook would not take me any further forward than I am now.
I know that there are devices which will do what I want but which also are also fully-specified streaming devices (for services that I will absolutely never want to use), but is there a wireless way to replace my USB cable, and nothing more? I just want a wireless USB cable!
I really would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.
Keep in mind that any Airplay 2 streaming solution will be resampled to 16/48 regardless of the Apple Music file. So you won’t get the bit-perfect Apple Music stream, if that’s important to you.
Just buy an Airport Express on ebay and connect it to the DAC optical input. You’ll need one for each DAC, but they are cheap as chips if you shop around.
Well I was hoping to retain as much detail as possible. I will stick with a cable if any resampling will inevitably cause a significant reduction in SQ.
it’s actually not that complicated, there is a ropieee website which provides the detailed instructions. I am using the raspberry pi/ropieee to stream services such as upnp, spotify, airplay, plus some other lossless services to my chord hugo 1.
So I’d be able to stream Apple Music losslessly from my MacBook to my DAC? If so I’ll certainly look into this solution, although I have no idea what a Raspberry pi can do nor how to start learning.
I would expect sound quality to be worse using Airplay over WiFi from experience of using an Airport Express in the past.
Given that sound quality seems to be a priority for you, I would suggest that you consider a service that offers 24 bit streaming (probably Tidal or Qobuz rather than Apple Music) whether you use a computer as a streamer or a dedicated HiFi box. The advantage of the latter is that it will accept the stream over a wired or wireless network rather than trying you to a direct point to point USB or SPDIF connection which you are trying to avoid.
No - I am staying with Apple Music for all sorts of reasons that are important to me. I think I am clear now that lossless streaming over the air with Apple Music is impossible. So I will forget that. I assume that a wired connection from my MacBook to DAC will indeed allow lossless streaming from Apple Music? I have been using that set-up for several years and am happy with the sound. All I was trying to achieve by asking was to find out if I could achieve the same thing wirelessly and it is clear that I can’t, with Apple Music. I am not going to consider any other streaming services.
No, it is not lossless or bit-perfect. Everything is converted to a fixed streaming sample rate. In the picture below, you can see that your music will be sent to the USB cable with 44.1/24 format even your Apple Music tells you that you stream at 192/24.
You can stream via USB from Apple Music at whatever rate you want using the Audio Devices utility - so if you play a HiRes track you need to manually change the output rate to match. It’s not ideal and I am hoping one day Apple fix this to auto select the output resolution so it is automatically bit perfect
It’s a 10-minute job for Apple developer(s), not sure why they do not want to do it? I know that Qobuz auto-delect the stream sample rates and stream losslessly thru USB cables on every Mac computer that I’ve tried.
I thought that was the case - via USB, that is. I too can’t understand why Apple aren’t more helpful in this regard. I suppose their target market is folk streaming from their iPhones to ear-pods, not from a Mac to a high-quality DAC. I know that I might have an easier time if I subscribed to another streaming service but I am in the Apple ‘walled garden’ and find it convenient and easy to use.
