Apple Music HiFi tier to be announced

Mac Rumors has lots of post on this.

Not so. There are tons of device manufacturers with AirPlay licenses. Spend a second on Google or Amazon if you want to see them.

I donā€™t know (just not knowledgeable about this). I asked because I was under the impression that the advertised bit-perfectness of RAAT is an important feature to Roon users. Or is that not correct?

Hi Andrew, yes there are lots of airplay devices, but your missing my point entirely. You canā€™t airplay from non apple gear.

Sure you can.

and this, for Android devices.

You can airplay from Roon on any server gear.

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It does seem to be important to some users.
It seems super important to Roon themselves.

AirPlay 2 IS bit-perfect, and is also capable of 24/192 max.

Itā€™s a hack and they donā€™t work reliably at all from my experience tried them all and a lot require you to Root your device thus invalidating it.

And none of those listed work at all with protected content so not music streaming apps.

Since when? Show me this please. Does anything support it. Also itā€™s still limited to Appleā€™s eco system.

Dat is true and one of the fee exceptions, but it doesnā€™t support Apple Music.

Martin [Moderated] Itā€™s 16/44.1 only.

So unless you are pre announcing
somethingā€¦?

16/44 is the limit of AirPlay 1.

AirPlay 2 is a completely different thing.

Martin Iā€™m pretty sure there is nothing on the market that does 24/192 over Airplay 2.
If so please point it out.

I understand it might well be able to do this but I am not aware of anyway of playing anything above 16/44.1 up to now.

I Airplay from Roon to my Cambridge Audio CXN controlled by Android, Nothing Apple in sight

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Actually, stereo was invented by Alan Blumlein in 1931

According to what I just researched, AirPlay 2 downsamples audio files to 44.1/24. Still high res, just not 192/24.

You might be right Neil :grinning:

I thought Iā€™d read somewhere that it was capable of 24/192, but it looks like weā€™ll have to wait until June to see what Apple announce then (if anything!)

From the horseā€™s mouth:

Up to 48kHz, up to 24-bit.

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I have lived with Apple Music extensively over the last two years. Think travel, commutes, daily workouts, mobile offices, home office. Even with Covid leading to more time spent at home, most of my music listening is still done outside of my main audio system.

I think the iOS & iPadOS apps are great. Its macOS counterpart is a dog. That said ā€“ Apple Music is the only streaming service offering a basic idea of a library (with editable metadata, beit only from the Mac app). Music of your own is uploaded to the cloud and becomes part of your cloud library. Itā€™s seamless.

And then thereā€™s the niceties. Now playing integration with all devices, Watch included. Autoplay (think Roon Radio with a lot more data to work with) is excellent. Playlists curated by actual people. Workflow scripting. Iā€™ll stop here, but thereā€™s more.

And it all sounds fine. Just fine. My current system (KEF LS50 Wireless II + KC62 sub) eats anything I throw at it:

  • Roon > RoonReady
  • Qobuz > Chromecast
  • Tidal > Tidal Connect
  • Spotify > Spotify Connect
  • Apple Music > Airplay 2
  • Audirvana > UPNP

I have listened to them all over the last few weeks and to be honest ā€“ for how it sounds, I could live with all of them (perhaps with the exclusion of Spotify, but I donā€™t think Iā€™d do well when tested blind). I donā€™t know if the thought of Apple going ā€˜losslessā€™ (I take this to mean ā€˜CD-resolutionā€™, since itā€™s really not very lossless compared any high-res master) will make for a better experience. Weā€™ll see.

So as far as Apple Music goes: Iā€™m using the iOS/iPadOS apps quite happily and use the Mac app only for library maintenance.

And when the sun has set, thereā€™s Roon. And a bottle of booze.

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