Airplay 1 vs. Airplay 2 streaming quality?

Audio Gear Talk
23

Very, very interesting !!!

many thanks,
LD

1 Like
24

Hi friends.
A question:
I have an Apple Music subscription.
So, If I understood correctlyā€¦ to stream to my dac at the bestā€¦ i have to buy an Apple TV 4K and stream to it from Apple Music app on my iPhone orā€¦
i have to use a device like a Raspberry and install an old release of sharepoint-sync to have AirPlay1 and stream to it from Apple Music app on my iPhone
It is correct?
Now I have a WiiM pro and i think which has airplay2 soā€¦ it is lossy
Can you confirm?

25

For best out of Apple Music you need to connect a DAC to a Phone or iPad and use them as streamer this will get you lossless and hires. If using Apple TV your limited to 48/24 and it will internally upsample or downsample everything to do this. Airplay 1 is limited to 44.1/16 lossless so all others are resampled to it, Airplay 2 will give you lossy AAC.

26

Thanks for the reply.
Soā€¦it is very unusefull.
With a little computer like Raspberryā€¦only lossless with airplay2
With a streamer like WiiMā€¦the same
With a server (roon, lms etc) nothingā€¦
If I buy an iPad or an old iPhone i have to use a cable to wire it to my dac and it would become totally useless
Soā€¦i dont see a valid solution. I have Apple Music with Apple one but to play lossless to my hi-fiā€¦ i have to pay Qobuzā€¦ very bad
If you have another solutionā€¦you could make me happy

27

You chose the wrong music service to subscribe to nothing anyone can do about that. Other alternative is to but an Android streamer from Eversolo or FiiO they use the android Apple Music app and will pass hires other than that you have no other alternatives. Thatā€™s Apple Music for you!

29

I already said that. Still not the best from Apple Music.

31

Thank you very much.
So, AirPlay 1 being lossless (but limited to 16/44.1) is better than AirPlay 2 which is lossy (aacā€¦like Spotify). Is it correct?
16/44.1 is like a CD?

33

My friendā€¦soā€¦ I didnā€™t understand Iā€™m confused

34

He means Airplay 2 isnā€™t always lossy but you can ignore this as it depend on the app you use to send music via Airplay 2. In your case for Apple Music it always is lossy so, using Airplay 1 is better but as I said earlier your not getting the best out of Apple Music as it can go higher quality/resolution using an Apple phone or iPad connected to a DAC via USB. But the best you can get not using this method is using Airplay 1.

1 Like
35

I seem to remember this was a useful explainer, as Apple has made a complete mess of it. I think it might even have a follow up video :man_facepalming:

1 Like
36

Ok!
Iā€™m trying to use ā€œAirConnectā€.
It is a little software developed by philippe44 which transform an upnp player in an airplay1 player. I installed it in my home server and now I see my upnp players (for example Wiim pro) like a airplay1 players. it seem to workā€¦ 16/44 losslessā€¦ I will try well todayā€¦