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Article: Apple Music's Lossless and Hi-Res Mess


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Another confirmation about Apple Music lossless turning to AAC via AirPlay comes from Shairport Sync (open source AirPlay receiver project):

 

https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync/issues/1199

 

I can confirm as well that AirPlay to HomePod shows curiously as lossless streaming. 🙄

 

AirPlaying to Shairpot Sync, LUMIN T2 or AirServer (an AirPlay receiver app for Mac) show AAC lossy instead.

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7 hours ago, keeper said:

Strange LUMIN confirm it’s lossless and it sounds very good.

 

Yes, usually LUMIN handles AirPlay in lossless and works fine.

 

In this specific case is Apple Music that converts to AAC before sending the AirPlay stream.

 

I expected the issue with manual sample rate switching on Mac with a DAC. Disappointed to see that AirPlay is treated by Apple Music this way. I hoped at least to have a lossless stream at 44.1 kHz wirelessly.

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1 hour ago, miguelito said:

Did you try using Audirvana legacy mode, where it takes over playback tasks of iTunes but otherwise uses iTunes as front-end?

 

I've tried with Audirvana legacy mode and got the same result.

 

Now, this is interesting:

 

If I choose AirPlay in Music app, then the stream is converted in AAC, as said. If I choose AirPlay system wide (through volume icon on the menu bar) the stream remains lossless!

 

Why Music app (specifically) turns lossless AirPlay into AAC is beyond me.

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6 minutes ago, wklie said:

Current firmware for all models of Lumin network streamers only supports ALAC and does not accept AAC in the current implementation of AirPlay 1.

 

Thanks, @wklie.

 

Strange that Music app shows AAC while streaming via AirPlay to my LUMIN T2. As said, when AiPlay is chosen system wide (not from Music app) it shows ALAC.

 

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9 hours ago, Isn S said:

Does the BitPerfect v3.2.0 app no longer work with Apple Music?

 

It's working here – macOS Big Sur 11.4, Music 1.1.5.74.

 

Minor cosmetic issue: since Big Sur the menu bar icon is offset to the top resulting partially cropped. Everything else is working as usual. Remember that auto sample rate switching works for local files only.

 

I have no idea if/when it will be updated. I wrote to them about that minor graphical glitch and never got a response.

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7 hours ago, Neil Lavitt said:

Has anyone done any true testing on AirPlay 2 streams of Apple Music. Is it a lossless(bitrate) stream or is it being transcoded to AAC?

 

I'm interested in this as well.

 

It seems to me that results are mixed, generating confusion. In my previous posts in this thread I summarized what I've found and what have personally experienced on this topic.

 

I'm a little disappointed at how AirPlay is handled by AppleMusic. I was confident that it'd have provided lossless experience (within its 44.1 kHz limit, of course).

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On 6/11/2021 at 2:05 PM, wklie said:

On iPhone and iPad, after enabling lossless in settings, and use the built-in iOS device speaker to play, we can see Lossless logo in the list of tracks for an album.

 

My question is, when you bring up the playing screen where you see a larger album art, and only the current playing track name is shown (instead of a list of tracks), do you see the Lossless logo?  I cannot for most of the albums I tried (over a dozen, including Taylor Swift).  I suspect this is a regional thing, or perhaps I did something wrong.

 

Thanks.

 

Usually the lossless icon is shown. This happens most of the time.

 

Sometimes it happens that the icon isn't shown, despite the album being lossless (tested with album Lover by Taylor Swift).

 

With and external DAC connected, this inconsistency doesn't happen.

 

Tested with iPhone and iPad.

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57 minutes ago, Stereo said:

 

Thanks.

 

I posted the link on another forum where someone replied to my concerns about forced mixing with "No one’s forcing anything on recordings.".

 

I'm not completely convinced about Dolby Atmos. It can be done for new productions – only if the artist agrees of course and, anyway, it has to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

For past productions I'd be very cautious.

 

I'm worried that it could be widely adopted for three reasons:

 

  1. Apple is believing in it and pushing it
  2. Sonic differences are noticeable by anybody. It's not like hi-res which only audiophiles with golden ears say they perceive the improvement
  3. It's easily reachable with headphones. Most people listen today with headphones. It's already there: available for everyone

 

The third point means that even if audiophiles are interested in Dolby Atmos, then they can't enjoy it on their current 2 channel systems. They would have to update their system to how many speakers? 4, 5, 7?

 

If a new 2 channel Hi-Fi system costs from ~ 2 grands up, how much would it cost a multichannel system (I'm not talking of cheap home theater)?

 

Not to mention the proper space to host 3x or more speakers. Sure, not all enthusiasts have cramped rooms. Still, I don't think the majority would upgrade to multichannel.

 

Luckily, the stereo isn't going away. Dolby Atmos and stereo currently coexist.

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Thanks for your insight.

 

I've tried with shairport-sync with various verbose modes (-v, -vv and -vvv) and I didn't spot references about AAC/ALAC. Maybe it's just my poor knowledge of shairport-sync.

 

Recently I've discovered that on Mac with Xcode it's possible to activate a debug mode in Apple TV to show on screen what's streamed to the device. It's specific for Apple TV, of course.

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Just to complete the shairport-sync talking. I've found a recent interesting comment by its maintainer Mike Brady:

 

https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync/issues/1205#issuecomment-859679508

 

Basically, shairport-sync (which uses AirPlay 1 protocol) handles the stream in ALAC mode, similarly as LUMIN streamers do like @wklie pointed out recently many times.

 

If Apple Music playing a lossless track from its catalogue provides an AAC stream to the AirPlay receiver – thus, "degrading" the whole lossless thing – then it's another story. The culprit is the Music app itself – the sender, not the receiver.

 

It's like receiving a lossless PNG previously generated from a compressed JPG.

 

Let's hope Apple fix it soon to guarantee every AirPlay user (either 1 or 2) to get ALAC stream.

 

Hoping furthermore for hi-res coming to AirPlay is another dream...

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I apologize to everyone, especially to @wklie and @new_media who quoted my post.

 

Reading again my sentence I realize I should have paid more attention to my writing.

 

When I wrote:

 

Quote

If Apple Music playing a lossless track from its catalogue provides an AAC stream to the AirPlay receiver – thus, "degrading" the whole lossless thing – then it's another story.

 

What I really meant was:

 

Quote

If Music app playing a lossless track from its Apple Music catalogue provides an AAC stream to the AirPlay receiver – thus, "degrading" the whole lossless thing – then it's another story.

 

I never believed that Apple servers are providing AAC instead of ALAC. In fact, subsequently I said:

 

Quote

The culprit is the Music app itself – the sender, not the receiver.

 

Tracks are coming lossless to the Music app from Apple – if it's configured for lossless in its preferences – regardless how are they then used (headphones, AirPlay, USB DAC...). What it's happening is that sometimes when an AirPlay stream is started, the app convert them on the fly to AAC.

 

I tend to believe that the conversion happens in Music app.

 

The worst scenario is the one described, for example, by Naim users where the AirPlay 2 receiver shows AAC instead of ALAC.

 

@wklie has proved many times that LUMIN devices, which are accepting only ALAC AirPlay 1 streams, are getting ALAC as it should be.

 

The same goes very likely with shairport-sync.

 

Now, I don't know if Music app treats lossless streaming differently according to which protocol is used (AirPlay 1 or 2) or what. I own only two AirPlay 2 devices: an Apple TV HD and a HomePod. I don't know whether they receive AAC or ALAC.

 

Then, specifically for Mac, there's the strange AirPlay behavior where AirPlay kicked inside the Music app apparently is different than the one started system-wide. The latter seems to provide always ALAC.

 

Hope I have explained clearly my thoughts.

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The "latest evidence" shows that probably Music app handles lossless differently between AirPlay 1 and 2, as I assumed in my "cheat sheet".

 

The "old" AirPlay 1 seems to send ALAC, while AirPlay 2 AAC (maybe due to multi-room or buffering).

 

Your Airport Express should therefore provide ALAC, as you said. The same goes for my LUMIN.

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Apple says that Apple TV 4K already support lossless using HDMI or an AV receiver.

 

Keep in mind that all Apple TV models output at fixed 48 kHz, so a 44.1 kHz song will be upsampled and a 96 kHz will be downsampled (not bit perfect).

 

Interestingly, Apple states (my emphasis): Apple TV 4K currently doesn’t support Hi-Res Lossless (sample rates greater than 48 kHz).

 

The "currently" maybe could mean that in the future this will change.

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Are any Apple Music subscribers here who uploaded/matched their CD-ripped albums before Apple Music lossless was introduced?

 

My albums streams in AAC (without the lossless icon). Even if I download the songs I can't get the ALAC version.

 

I even tried to delete a song from my library, add it again and wait for uploading/matching. It still streams as AAC.

 

It's as if the "old" AAC version is kept on Apple's servers without replacing it with ALAC.

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Just to add that at least Apple Music allows now to upload hi-res music (tested up to 192 kHz).

 

Prior to the lossless introduction, any song over 88 kHz wasn't accepted. I had to create a temporary 88 kHz (or less) file, wait for uploading/matching, quit Music app and replace locally the temporary song with the original counterpart in the library's folder structure.

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Thanks @new_media. Usually I listen to lossless at home only, so I play directly my local files (either through Music app or Roon).

 

I just wanted to compare the streamed version with the local counterpart with shairport-sync and unfortunately with this issue I can’t.

 

Who knows, maybe Apple will rematch our songs again in the future with ALAC versions.

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