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    The Computer Audiophile

    By The Computer Audiophile •

    Apple Music Lossless Mess Part 2: AirPlay

     

     

    Earlier this month I dug into Apple Music's Lossless and Hi-Res offerings, running several bit perfect rests on the audio output of my Macs and iOS devices. The results were less than stellar (link). This week I dug into Apple Music lossless over AirPlay. One would think that the results would be similar if the only thing changing is the method of transporting the music. However, it's still the Wild West and Apple has made the waters even more muddy with AirPlay. 

     

    Before I get to the details, I want to thank the Bluesound team. This team was very helpful while I was testing and researching AirPlay and Apple Music Lossless. These guys really know what they are doing and are on the leading edge of supporting and developing solutions that may seem simple to the end user, but are quite complex behind the scenes. 

     

    NOTE: Be sure to read the UPDATED parts below, suggested by @Marco Klobas


    Let's Dig In

     

    Just like my previous article, I want to start with some basics. 

     

    What is bit perfect and why should I care? In the simplest terms, bit perfect means that the audio hasn't been changed. The music sent, in this case from Apple Music, into the playback device hasn't been altered. The source is what has been delivered to Apple by the record labels. Apple is just the delivery company.
     
    If you care about high quality, getting the lossless streaming you're paying for from Apple Music, Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon Music, etc... then you should care about bit perfect because without it you have no idea what's happening to your audio. If this isn't a concern for you, no worries. 

     

     

    Testing Methodology 

     

    Testing AirPlay was much more difficult than straight USB connected audio devices. There are AirPlay 1 devices, AirPlay 2 devices, Shairport devices, and a host of applications that don't follow any specific set of standards when sending audio via AirPlay. 

     

    My bit perfect testing consists of a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference Series 3 that identifies and decodes HDCD on all sample rates from 44.1 up through 192 kHz. When an unaltered HDCD music track is played, the HDCD indicator on the DAC is illuminated. The HDCD flag is on the 16th bit for lossless CD files and the 24th bit for high resolution files. Any alteration, DSP, volume leveling, etc... changes this least significant bit and won't enable the HDCD indicator to illuminate on my DAC. Apple Music's lossless audio that I tested was 16 bit / 44.1 kHz and the Hi-Res audio was both 24 bit / 176.4 kHz and 24 bit / 192 kHz. That's the hardware piece. 

     


    Feeding the DAC I used four devices.

     

    • A Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB. This converts USB audio to AES or S/PDIF on BNC. This device doesn't use AirPlay, but it helps set a baseline for testing.
    • A Bluesound Node 2i that supports AirPlay 2 and uses the newest version of Apple's AirPlay 2 chip. 
    • An Apple AirPort Express 802.11n (2nd Generation) serial number C86HV7S1DV2R. This device supports AirPlay 2 and features optical S/PDIF output over Toslink. 
    • An Apple AirPort Express 802.11n (1st Generation) serial number 6F94552G2U6. This device supports AirPlay 1 and features optical S/PDIF output over Toslink.
    • A Sonore signatureRendu SE Optical. This device supports ShairPort, an open source version of Apple's AirPlay 1.

     


    Sending audio to the above devices I used the following.

     

    • An Apple iPhone 12 Pro running iOS 14.6 and the Apple Music app.
    • An Apple Mac Mini (M1) running macOS 11.4, and Apple Pro Display XDR.
    • An iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (2nd Generation) running iOS 14.6.

     


    With respect to source files, here's what I do. 
     
    I have a list of roughly ten known HDCD albums (although I could use more if needed). Many of these albums were only released as HDCD encoded CDs/files. There is no alternate lossless version. For example, Reference Recordings only releases CDs that are HDCD encoded. Pearl Jam's Live On Two Legs was only released as an HDCD master for its lossless CD version. 
     
    I set a baseline by playing my own local copy of the albums and make sure the HDCD indicator illuminates. I played some Reference Recordings albums through Apple's Music desktop application on macOS and made sure the app could handle bit perfect playback. All was good there. On iOS, I used other apps such as Qobuz, to play the identical music through the identical hardware. All was good through the Qobuz app. Again, there are no alternative versions of these lossless albums. It's the same music on all the services that offer lossless streaming.
     
    Absolutely there are possible holes in my methodology, but I believe I've minimized them as much as possible. If anyone can identify a hole, please let me know and I will retest. 
     

     

    Results Without Context

     

    Here is a list of the results, straight up without any context. 

     

    On iOS

    1. Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 1 to AirPort Express 1st Gen - bit perfect at 44.1.
    2. Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 1 to Sonore Rendu (ShairPort) - bit perfect at 44.1.
    3. Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to Bluesound Node 2i - NOT bit perfect at 44.1.
    4. Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to AirPort Express 2nd Gen - NOT bit perfect 44.1.

     

    iOS Notable

    1. Qobuz, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to Bluesound Node 2i - bit perfect at 44.1.
    2. Qobuz, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to AirPort Express 2nd Gen - bit perfect at 44.1.
    3. Tidal, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to Bluesound Node 2i - NOT bit perfect at 44.1.
    4. Tidal, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to AirPort Express 2nd Gen - NOT bit perfect 44.1.
    5. Tidal, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 1 to AirPort Express 1st Gen - bit perfect at 44.1.
    6. Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, USB output with CCK - not bit perfect at 44.1.
    7. Qobuz, lossless streaming content, USB output with CCK - bit perfect at 44.1 and 192.

     


    On macOS

    1. UPDATED: Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 1 to AirPort Express 1st Gen - bit perfect at 44.1 only if the system-wide AirPlay device is set. If AirPlay device only selected in the Music app, the output is NOT bit perfect.
    2. UPDATED: Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 1 to Sonore Rendu (ShairPort) - bit perfect at 44.1 only if the system-wide AirPlay device is set. If AirPlay device only selected in the Music app, the output is NOT bit perfect.
    3. UPDATED: Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, Airplay 2 to Bluesound Node 2i - bit perfect at 44.1 only if the system-wide AirPlay device is set. If AirPlay device only selected in the Music app, the output is NOT bit perfect.
    4. UPDATED: Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, AirPlay 2 to AirPort Express 2nd Gen - bit perfect at 44.1 only if the system-wide AirPlay device is set. If AirPlay device only selected in the Music app, the output is NOT bit perfect.

     

    macOS Notable

    1. Apple's Music App, lossless local content, AirPlay 1 to AirPort Express 1st Gen - bit perfect at 44.1.
    2. UPDATED: Apple's Music App, lossless local content, AirPlay 2 to Bluesound Node 2i - bit perfect at 44.1 only if the system-wide AirPlay device is set. If AirPlay device only selected in the Music app, the output is NOT bit perfect.
    3. UPDATED: Apple's Music App, lossless local content, AirPlay 2 to AirPort Express 2nd Gen - bit perfect at 44.1 only if the system-wide AirPlay device is set. If AirPlay device only selected in the Music app, the output is NOT bit perfect.
    4. Apple's Music App, lossless local content, USB output - bit perfect at 44.1.

     

     

     

    Setting the system-wide audio device to an AirPlay device is done by selecting the following item in the system menu at the top of the screen.

     

    2.jpg 1.jpg

     

     

     

     

     

    Once selected, it will appear in the Music app this way.

     

    Display in Music App.jpg

     

     


    Results With Some Thoughts And Videos

     

    Please see the UPDATED notes above!

     

    Sending Apple Music lossless content from an iOS device to an AirPlay version 1 device was surprisingly bit perfect, when all other methods were not bit perfect. My original guess was that this is because the AirPlay version 1 Express only accepted Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC), so the sending app had no choice. However, this doesn't square with the fact that the Music app on macOS doesn't send bit perfect lossless audio to the same 1st gen Express. I retested this multiple times to make sure the results were identical on every test. The bottom line is that AirPlay 2 isn't currently receiving bit perfect lossless audio unless the system-wide output is set to an AirPlay 2 device, otherwise it's likely converting it to AAC at 256 kbps. Strangely, the Music app on macOS says it's streaming lossless audio only when sending via AirPlay 2 even if it is lossy because of the output selection only being done in the Music app, but the audio isn't bit perfect this way. The same app when sending via AirPlay 1, doesn't even pretend to send lossless, so it doesn't even display the lossless logo will display the lossless logo only if the system-wide audio device is set to the AirPlay 1 device.

     

    Currently, the only way to stream lossless audio from a streaming service, bit perfectly, over AirPlay is to use an AirPlay version 1 device and use Apple Music, Tidal HiFi, or Qobuz, or an AirPlay 2 device and Qobuz. It seems like Qobuz doesn't care what the device supports, it just send the lossless audio without changing it. Apple Music sees AirPlay 2 and dumbs the music down to lossy AAC.

     

     

    VIDEO One

     

    Here is a video of my testing Apple Music streaming lossless 16 bit / 44.1 kHz audio from an iPad Pro to an AirPort Express (1st gen) via AirPlay 1. You can see several things in this video.

     

    1. Shortly after I press play, the sample rate on the DAC changes to 44.1, the Lock light on the DAC turns green to indicated a solid signal is received, and the HDCD indicator illuminates blue to indicate the DAC recognizes the HDCD flag on the 16th bit of the audio signal. 
    2. At 0:25 into the video you can see the app shows its sending Lossless 16-bit/44.1 kHz ALAC content.
    3. At 0:35 into the video you can see what happens when I adjust the volume. As soon as the volume is not at 100%, bit perfection is lost and the HDCD indicator turns off. When I increase the volume back to 100%, the indicator illuminates blue once again. This is but one example of anything that changes the audio, destroys bit perfection and the HDCD indicator goes off. 
    4. At 0:47 into the video I change tracks. Shortly thereafter you can see the HDCD light go out, while no audio is playing for the split second, then come back on as soon as the track starts. 
    5. At 1:03 into the video you can see as soon as I press pause, the HDCD and Lock indicator lights go out.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    VIDEO TWO

     

    Here is a video of my testing Apple Music streaming lossless 16 / 44.1 audio from MacBook Pro to a Bluesound Node 2i via AirPlay 2. You can see several things in this video.

     

    1. The sample rate and Lock indicator are already good because the Node 2i had previously played this content. 
    2. When I press play, the HDCD indicator remains off, indicating something in the audio has changed, destroying the 16th bit.
    3. At 0:23 into the video you can see when I click the Apple Music lossless logo. The app indicates it's receiving lossless audio from Apple Music. The fact that it isn't sending this lossless audio to the AirPlay 2 device is not indicated anywhere for the consumer to see.
    4. Note: When sending this same audio to an AirPlay 1 device from the MacBook Pro, the lossless logo doesn't appear in the now playing window and the app says AAC if you click Get Info.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    VIDEO THREE 


    Here is a video of my testing Apple's Music application streaming LOCALLY stored  / my own CD rip lossless 16 / 44.1 audio from MacBook Pro to a Bluesound Node 2i via AirPlay 2. You can see several things in this video.

     

    1. The sample rate and Lock indicators are correct. 
    2. The HDCD indicator never illuminates, indicating the audio sent is not bit perfect. 
    3. I also adjust the volume up and down to make sure it's at 100%. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    VIDEO FOUR


    Here is a video of my testing Apple's Music application streaming LOCALLY stored  / my own CD rip lossless 16 / 44.1 audio from MacBook Pro to an AirPort Express 1st Gen via AirPlay 1. You can see several things in this video.

     

    1. The sample rate and lock indicator correctly adjust upon playback.
    2. The HDCD indicator correctly illuminates upon playback, indicating bit perfect audio.
    3. At 0:50 into the video you can see the track is local 44.1 AIFF file. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    VIDEO FIVE

     

    Here is a video of my testing Apple Music streaming lossless 16 bit / 44.1 kHz audio from a MacBook Pro to an AirPort Express (1st gen) via AirPlay 1. You can see several things in this video.

     

    1. Sample rate and Lock indicator adjust correctly.
    2. HDCD indicator doesn't illuminate upon playback.
    3. At 0:40 into the video you can see the Get Info screen showing AAC audio being sent. This appears to be the audio sent from Apple Music, not what is sent behind the scenes to the AirPlay device, even though AAc is in fact what's sent to the AirPlay 1 device as well. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    VIDEO SIX

     

    Here is a video of my testing Apple's Music application streaming LOCALLY stored  / my own CD rip lossless 16 / 44.1 audio from MacBook Pro to an Alpha USB via USB. This is just a baseline video showing Apple's Music app is fully capable of bit perfect output via USB.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    VIDEO SEVEN

     

    Here is a video of my testing Apple Music application streaming lossless audio 16 / 44.1 audio from MacBook Pro to an Alpha USB via USB. You can see several things in this video.

     

    1. The video shows all my settings correct in the app. 
    2. At 0:40 into the video I hit play and the HDCD indicator goes on for a short period, then continues to blink on/off periodically throughout the video. This indicates the audio fluctuates between bit perfect and not bit perfect. 
    3. At 0:50 into the video you can see the lossless logo clicked and Apple Music displaying Lossless 16-bit 44.1 kHz ALAC as the audio stream.  

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


    Wrap Up

    There you have the complete soup sandwich that is Apple Music lossless streaming over AirPlay versions 1 and 2. 

     

    I'd like to note that some people have said my bit perfect testing isn't really that big of a deal because Apple is streaming lossless audio and they don't care if it isn't bit perfect because it's better than the lossy stuff. After doing my research, I can tell you the "lossless" may be the exact same thing as the lossy, so people really should care about bit perfect playback. If we don't know where the digital signal processing is happening, we don't know that it's even lossless. 

     

    If you see anything in my tests that you think isn't right, please let me know. The last thing I want to do is cause even more confusion with misinformation. I believe everything here is 100% correct. 
     

     

     

     

     

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    Telecastermds

    I have an Airport Express 2nd Gen.  Is Airplay 2 firmware 7.8.1 lossless from IOS 15+ on iPhone yet?  Do I need to downgrade to 7.6.9 for Airplay 1 for lossless?

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    MgP2804

    Well, I am in the same situation and think that FW Downgrade would just be a logic step. However myself using Qobuz, so not really needing it according to the measurements here. Right now experimenting with Shairport-Sync on a Pi too. https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync 

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    MgP2804
    18 hours ago, MgP2804 said:

    Well, I am in the same situation and think that FW Downgrade would just be a logic step. However myself using Qobuz, so not really needing it according to the measurements here. Right now experimenting with Shairport-Sync on a Pi too. https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync 

    did downgrade to 7.6.9 (just hold option key on fw version in airport utility program). took five minutes. so, little 2nd gen is not able for airplay 2 anymore. But for my usage scenario airplay 1 seems to be better. anyway give Shairport a try too. It has a lot of great options imo and runs very fine on  Pi :) by adding a toslink/coax hat you may avoid usb too, if you want to. :) +++ maybe you read about the new AI for Youtube compression. If I remember correct, Youtube saves 4% bandwith requirement in their datacenters by using the new AI. Guess, for Apple it is just the same, when their algorithms decides to stream in aac instead of ALAC....But do not know...

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    Crunchynut

    This is a really interesting thread that shows the complexities of ‘knowing what you are getting’ when connecting to a service and streaming into your system.

     

    Can anybody help me understand something related that I have observed with Apple Music? It is that, an album may be advertised at a certain resolution - let’s say 24 bit / 192 KHz  or 24/48. What I mean by advertised, is when you click on the lossless logo and it displays the resolution available. But, when you starting playing said album, and then click on the logo for the track playing, it is often (but not always) a lower resolution. So, 24/192 might suddenly say 24/96, or 24/48 might say 16/44.1, or 24/44.1 etc.

     

    I know my set-up (IOS Apple Music app>iPad mini 6 > CCK > USB >RME DAC) can handle 24/192, and indeed a few tracks do play at their advertised resolution, suggesting there is nothing wrong with the set-up, but many tracks do not.

     

    With all that has been discussed in this thread, is there a reason for this? Anybody else observed the same?

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    leonn

    "Apple's Music App, lossless streaming content, USB output with CCK - not bit perfect at 44.1."

    I'm gutted.. Then again when I see apple music 192/24 on my WM1A I tell myself it sounds transparent. Could always go back to Bluetooth AAC for convenience *Shudders*

    I'll just tell myself the USB 3 CCK is bit perfect so I can sleep at night.

     

    Glad to see someone doing thorough testing on this though. Interested in seeing other types of iOS and iPadOS connections like lightning USB 2 or 3 and direct to USB C.

    If USB C with a dumb OTG is not bit perfect I'm going to lose my shit.

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    MgP2804

    Airplay 1 with Airport Express: well it seems you need FW 7.6.1, which is available for Gen 1 but not for Gen 2 using the utility program. Using 7.6.1 with Airport Express Gen 1, I do not have any stuttering. (Pls. note that later FW fix some security issues. So, Shairport-Synch running with Airplay 1 might be the better way.)

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    taynos

    Incredible thread and discussion here.  Question - there were 3 versions of Airport Express

     

    A1392 / A1088 : 2004-2008 (Plugged Directly into Wall)

    A1264  : 2008-2012 (Plugged Directly into Wall)

    A1392 : 2012-2018 (Base station with power cable)

     

    Does "1st Generation" group together the first 2 models that plugged directly into the wall? Wikipedia does calls both 1st gen but thought I would confirm here for clarity.

     

    I have multiple A1392s that I use for Airplay2 around the house for multi-room synchronous audio using the onboard AKM dacs where fidelity isnt as important then I use my original A1084 2004 model > DAC to plug into my main system on separate input when I want higher fidelity. Confirming the 2004 Airport Express is still "1st gen" and is therefore bit perfect via iOS > Apple Music > Airplay 1 > A1392 > DAC . Thanks in advance

     

     

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    MgP2804
    On 3/12/2022 at 6:31 PM, taynos said:

     

     

    Does "1st Generation" group together the first 2 models that plugged directly into the wall?

     

    Well it is A1264, also here https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_AirPort (Take a look at Airport Express table)

     

    I am using it with FW 7.6.1. to avoid stuttering.

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    great04

    Great efforts! Did you get a chance to test Amazon Music on iOS and MacOS? Thanks very much!

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    bruceanz

    Hi folks - thank you for the helpful info on playing lossless bit perfect music from my Mac to my Airplay devices!!! I have spent months trying to understand this.  I have a Sonos 5 and a Denon 250 in different rooms. In NZ, Sonos devices do not support Sonos Radio HD or Amazon Music Hi Res format. My question is - does this method of streaming lossless music from my Mac to the Sonos 5 work? It sounds great, but might be all in my mind.... The Denon 250 does support Amazon Music Hi Res using the Heos app, but it is not user friendly. When I Airplay Apple Music from my Mac to my Denon amp/Usher Diamond DMD speakers using this method the music quality sounds awesome (and the house shakes!). Again many thanks and regards.

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    MgP2804
    On 5/26/2022 at 12:49 AM, great04 said:

    Great efforts! Did you get a chance to test Amazon Music on iOS and MacOS? Thanks very much!

    well, did test some month ago. Amazon Music streams all the time with highest sample rate. So, it is not bit perfect at all. Even if you put via the app on Mac the speaker in "exclusive" mode, it still streams upsampled everything to highest sample rate, as you DAC will show. Did not check, if Amazon did fix this meanwhile. Maybe Amazon ist waiting for something from Apple to fix in Mac OS? 

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    MgP2804
    15 hours ago, bruceanz said:

    Hi folks - thank you for the helpful info on playing lossless bit perfect music from my Mac to my Airplay devices!!! I have spent months trying to understand this.  I have a Sonos 5 and a Denon 250 in different rooms. In NZ, Sonos devices do not support Sonos Radio HD or Amazon Music Hi Res format. My question is - does this method of streaming lossless music from my Mac to the Sonos 5 work? It sounds great, but might be all in my mind.... The Denon 250 does support Amazon Music Hi Res using the Heos app, but it is not user friendly. When I Airplay Apple Music from my Mac to my Denon amp/Usher Diamond DMD speakers using this method the music quality sounds awesome (and the house shakes!). Again many thanks and regards.

    That is what myself is doing pretty much with Sonos: streaming from iOS or Mac OS to the Sonos speakers. As most services do not provide lossless or hires streams to Sonos Controller. Exceptions that I know for Sonos Controler: Tidal, Qobuz (best quality but special limitations), Amazon Ultra (best quality - in Europe, bad UI in Sonos imo). Hope this helps a bit. So Apple Music I am streaming via Airplay to Sonos. So, not using Sonos App. (I believe Amazon is bit perfect on Bluesound devices. Could not check)

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    loop7

    It would be nice if the Apple Music price increase coincided with some improvements but I guess that's asking too much.

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    brisko

    This seems to be accurate based on my experiments with shairport-sync as an AirPlay receiver. I was getting delays with play / pause / skip, etc when using AirPlay at a system wide level and according to the sharport-sync documentationshairport-sync/AIRPLAY2.md at development · mikebrady/shairport-sync

    * Two types of audio are received by Shairport Sync – "Realtime" streams of CD quality ALAC (like "classic" AirPlay) and "Buffered Audio" streams of AAC stereo at 44,100 frames per second.The selection of stream type is made by the player.

    * Realtime streams generally have a latency of about two seconds. Buffered Audio streams typically have a latency of half a second or less.

    * In AirPlay 2 mode, Shairport Sync reverts to "classic" AirPlay when iTunes on macOS or macOS Music plays to multiple speakers and one of more of them is compatible with AirPlay only.

    When I switch to using AirPlay directly from the Music app it becomes much more responsive, which correlates to the AAC / buffer comments in the documentation.

     

    Any updates on this later into 2022 or 2023? It's been a while since the last comment.

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    Bigreddog

    Quick question. Article says MacBook Pro to Node 2i using AirPlay 2 is bit perfect. Can a newer MacBook AIR achieve the same thing or does it have to be a Pro? Thanks!

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    The Computer Audiophile
    12 minutes ago, Bigreddog said:

    Quick question. Article says MacBook Pro to Node 2i using AirPlay 2 is bit perfect. Can a newer MacBook AIR achieve the same thing or does it have to be a Pro? Thanks!

    Air should work just fine. 

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    tgp-2

    First post here on Audiophile Style 😀 ... See attached summary ... I recently looked at various combinations of Airplay-enabled apps, receivers, etc. to verify for myself which support lossless vs lossy transmission ... a lot of overlap with info from the original article here and the discussion thread, but I thought it might be useful for some to see a summary of how things look as of May 2023 ... I tried most of the combinations listed here, and those that I didn't try, I indicate with a "?" (I'm sure folks here can point out any errors or help me fill in the blanks).

    Airplay vs Airplay 2 for audio streaming May 3 2023 tgp-2.pdf

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    Bevok
    3 hours ago, tgp-2 said:

    First post here on Audiophile Style 😀 ... See attached summary ... I recently looked at various combinations of Airplay-enabled apps, receivers, etc. to verify for myself which support lossless vs lossy transmission ... a lot of overlap with info from the original article here and the discussion thread, but I thought it might be useful for some to see a summary of how things look as of May 2023 ... I tried most of the combinations listed here, and those that I didn't try, I indicate with a "?" (I'm sure folks here can point out any errors or help me fill in the blanks).

    Airplay vs Airplay 2 for audio streaming May 3 2023 tgp-2.pdf 58.08 kB · 9 downloads

    Thanks for that useful study.

    I actually plan on doing some benchmarking soon on Airplay battery use - I’ve always heard that as a negative feature but haven’t particularly noticed it myself. Will advise on my findings if I get time to do it (compare phone airplaying Qobuz for 1 hour vs sitting idle).

    I was interested to see that ALL airplay 2 is AAC as I had understood it could take Redbook quality and had thought the aac was a specific choice by Apple Music. How did you determine that? I did a recent data throughput test using an Apple TV (comparing playing a track losslessly using the built in app vs playing the track via Airplay from my phone) and noted over twice the amount of data via the built in app backing up your summary. 
     

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    tgp-2
    28 minutes ago, Bevok said:

    Thanks for that useful study.

    I actually plan on doing some benchmarking soon on Airplay battery use - I’ve always heard that as a negative feature but haven’t particularly noticed it myself. Will advise on my findings if I get time to do it (compare phone airplaying Qobuz for 1 hour vs sitting idle).

    I was interested to see that ALL airplay 2 is AAC as I had understood it could take Redbook quality and had thought the aac was a specific choice by Apple Music. How did you determine that? I did a recent data throughput test using an Apple TV (comparing playing a track losslessly using the built in app vs playing the track via Airplay from my phone) and noted over twice the amount of data via the built in app backing up your summary. 
     

    Use of a Mac as an Airplay 2 receiver helped ... on the Mac, it's relatively straightforward to observe the incoming network traffic (using System Monitor ... or better still, using an application like "bmon" which puts a numbered scale on the Y axis of the data vs time graph ... System Monitor just shows an unlabeled graph) ... try this with an Airplay 2 enabled app like Tidal

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    Rijckholt

    Hi all, 

     

    Also first poster here. Have been reading this thread with interest. Trying to get the best out of my Dynaudo Focus 50 speakers (Wireless Active Speakers, so not able to connect via cable easily) and was expecting Apple to play ball with their lossless offering.

     

    I was assuming I get 44.1/16 bit lossless (ALAC) wirelessly from my iphone/ipad using the ios apps "Apple Music" and "Apple Classical" when streaming to my focus speakers using airplay2. This thread made clear that is not the case, and i am listening to an AAC stream instead. 

     

    OK, so I dug up an old gen 1 airport express  (A1088 currently on firmware 6.3) and was able (using the old windows laptop) to configure it as a speaker in my network. It is connected to a switch via ethernet and via the mini jack using toslink to the Focus speakers. 

     

    And yes, I can now select this airport express gen 1 speaker (named: Focus Lossless ;-) from the Apple music and Apple classical app. The focus speakers even wake up when I start and the Focus app is indicating it is receiving music on the optical in (Toslink).

     

    Success..... at least that is what I think and hope, but sceptical for Apple tricks ;-) also would like to confirm. With my current setup I cannot easily check what my phone is sending and what the Focus is receiving ( @DYNAUDIO if you are reading along.. it would be really nice if you can see in the Dynaudio app what the speakers are receiving from their active source) 

     

     

    Is it possible that the iOS Apple Music or iOS Apple Classical App when it sees it has to use legacy Airplay (Airplay 1) streaming that it compresses the music before it hands it over to the Airplay service on the phone and this whole setup does not gets you a wireless ALAC stream from your idevice to a receiver. 

     

    I am trying to look at data usage in my network to answer this, but have not been able yet. 

     

    @tgp-2 Could you be able confirm this?

     

    Thanks in advance for any efforts in this. 

     

    Regards,

    Onno

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    tgp-2

    hi @Rijckholt ... when you select the Airport Express device from the Airplay dialog on your iPhone/iPad, the uncircled check mark next to the device name means it only supports legacy "Airplay 1" mode ... so Airplay2-enabled apps (Apple Music, etc.) have no choice but to send a real-time 16/44.1 ALAC stream (and when you select an Airplay2-capable receiver, you'll see a circled check mark and an option to select other devices for multi-room playback)

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    Rijckholt
    20 hours ago, tgp-2 said:

    hi @Rijckholt ... when you select the Airport Express device from the Airplay dialog on your iPhone/iPad, the uncircled check mark next to the device name means it only supports legacy "Airplay 1" mode ... so Airplay2-enabled apps (Apple Music, etc.) have no choice but to send a real-time 16/44.1 ALAC stream (and when you select an Airplay2-capable receiver, you'll see a circled check mark and an option to select other devices for multi-room playback)


    Hi @tgp-2,

     

    Thanks for your reply. While the icons are indeed a tell tale of the protocol that is being used (AirPlay 1 at 44,1 kHz ALAC ) it does not necessarily mean that what is inside that ALAC wrapper is the original (lossless compressed) content. Based on my network traffic I suspect that the Apple Music and classical app are compressing in lossy way BEFORE it is handed over the the AirPlay service of the phone. Resulting in sending less data wrapped in the ALAC AirPlay1 stream (like playing an MP3 via Airpay 1 in the old days).
     

    This would have been introduced in the either iOS 15 or 16 as in iOS 14 (if the testing done as described in this article is correct) the input and output are identical. 
     

    I am suspecting Apple made changes and this is no longer the case. However I cannot test it in my setup. Except by looking at network traffic that sits well below the 1000 kbps that I would expect when a lossless compressed music file (CD quality) is streamed. 
     

    In order to confirm this you need to know what is sent and what s unpacked in the DAC and compare the two. Maybe @The Computer Audiophile or @Marco Klobas can help here.

     

    cheers

    Onno

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    The Computer Audiophile
    16 minutes ago, Rijckholt said:


    Hi @tgp-2,

     

    Thanks for your reply. While the icons are indeed a tell tale of the protocol that is being used (AirPlay 1 at 44,1 kHz ALAC ) it does not necessarily mean that what is inside that ALAC wrapper is the original (lossless compressed) content. Based on my network traffic I suspect that the Apple Music and classical app are compressing in lossy way BEFORE it is handed over the the AirPlay service of the phone. Resulting in sending less data wrapped in the ALAC AirPlay1 stream (like playing an MP3 via Airpay 1 in the old days).
     

    This would have been introduced in the either iOS 15 or 16 as in iOS 14 (if the testing done as described in this article is correct) the input and output are identical. 
     

    I am suspecting Apple made changes and this is no longer the case. However I cannot test it in my setup. Except by looking at network traffic that sits well below the 1000 kbps that I would expect when a lossless compressed music file (CD quality) is streamed. 
     

    In order to confirm this you need to know what is sent and what s unpacked in the DAC and compare the two. Maybe @The Computer Audiophile or @Marco Klobas can help here.

     

    cheers

    Onno

    If I can find some time I’ll look into it. I may wait for iOS 17 as it’s right around the corner. 

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