If I select a track on Roon on my Mac and it streams to my Kef, will the resolution be hi res, assuming the Tidal or Qobuz track is hi res, or will Airplay reduce it to CD level?
The confusion is because under audio preferences on my iMac it says Airplay. I don’t know if this means everything that gets transmitted from the Mac goes through the limited path of Airplay or if this does not impact Roon selected files.
If Airplay is degrading the file, how do I turn it off?
I would check the signal path in Roon when you play to the KEF. Since they are “Roon Ready” You “should” be able to stream directly to them. Do you see the KEF under setting/audio Roon Ready section and are they enabled there?
How is the network set-up?
Are the KEF wired to ethernet? USB? Wireless?
Is the Core (iMAC) wired to ethernet? Wireless?
Are you playing to the KEF zone or to the iMAC system output (are the KEF the iMACs system output?).
Anecdotal, but a few years back, before I got my Allo DigiOne Signature (since replaced with a Roon Certified NAD C399) I used Airplay and I would swear it sounded worse.
But I am told that Roon does not go via Airplay but a different route. If I use the KEF Connect app, just because my Imac says that the KEFs are using Airplay2, do I bypass Airplay in this fashion? I thought maybe the Imac only would be using Airplay with other audio programs. This is all very confusing. And I have searched for how to disable airplay on my IMac using Big Sur and nothing seems to work.
Yes, my setting/audio shows the KEF speakers and they are enabled.
Not sure about how the network is set up. I have a wireless router and it works well.
At this point the KEF’s are not wired to the ethernet. Unfortunately, the WIreless II’s don’t have a USB port and I haven’t figured out how to go wirelessly from my Imac to the speakers. Any suggestions welcome. I guess I need some kind of USB to coax adapter. My Imac has no HDMI or optical outputs. So I am going wirelessly.
The Imac is also connecting wirelessly to the ethernet. If it helped, I suppose I could get it wired pretty easily. In fact, this could be a solution to all this wireless mess.
The audio settings on my Imac show Airplay2 next to the entry for my KEF speakers. However, when I run Roon I believe I may be able to leave the settings at “internal speakers” which say “built in,” next to them.
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my issue!!
As @bearFNF suggested you have two options to use the KEF LS 50 Wireless II with Roon: via AirPlay or directly via Roon.
Via AirPlay the signal goes forcefully through a 44.1 kHz downsampling (in the case of hi-res music). It’s the “nature” of AirPlay. Roon or anything else can’t modify the Apple’s protocol. It’s manipulated as already described and it appears like this (here I played a 44.1 kHz song – not hi-res):
Via direct Roon connection the AriPlay isn’t used. The KEF LS 50 Wireless II are Roon Ready so they are managed directly by Roon. In this case you can play up to 192 kHz. The Roon-Speakers connection doesn’t alter the signal. It appears something like this:
As said, what is altered is the 192 kHz upsampling that the KEF LS 50 Wireless II applies to anything goes through the internal DAC, regardless the connection/protocol used (wired, wireless, HDMI, optical, Roon, AirPlay, etc.). It’s a featured of the KEF LS 50 Wireless II.
I have the impression you are using your iMac as an endpoint for where you are connecting to the KEFs.
As mentioned before, the KEFs are Roon Ready. This means Roon can stream to then directly. To configure this in Roon go to Settings > Audio. You should find the KEFs in the Roon Ready section, where you can enable them.
You should then switch the zone in Roon that corresponds to the KEFs.
According to many of the responses, if you use a Roon enabled device such as my KEF LS 50 wireless II, and you make sure Roon is pointing to this device, Airplay2 will be bypassed in playing files (see Marco and Sven’s replies above) so there will be no downsampling issue as Airplay is out of the signal path.
I think I am going to go for a wired connection to my KEF’s anyway, just to be completely sure.
Yes. I have the cable between L and R speakers. Not so easy to connect to the main speaker with a cable because my router is on another floor of my house. But I think I am going to contact Fios and have them put in a wire to my listening room from the router. That way I won’t have to obsess about this issue any longer!
Sorry. I think this is a repeat. I have roon on my imac and want not to degrade to CD quality because Airplay shows under audio preferences on the Mac. Or does this matter? Does roon bypass this?
You’ll probably need to supply a little more information about your system, Core, and how everything is connected. What matters is how Roon says you’re connecting.
I have an Imac and Roon app is on it. When I go to the audio settings in Roon it says Roon Enabled and shows the KEFs as the output. At this point everything is wireless but I am tempted to get the whole thing wired by contacting my provider and having them extend a cable from my router, which is downstairs.
If it’s not a pain, I’d 100% go wired, but your iMac is probably just referring to how it generally outputs. Without knowing what the rest of your system is outside of “KEF” it’s hard to say. You didn’t fill out any of the requested information in your first post.
I have a similar setup.
If possible see if you can run the Ethernet cable yourself (save a lot of money). My KEFs are in my office and used some space from the ac vent to drop the cable to the basement.
Anyway if you do get a cable, consider a small switch in the room and attach both the key and Mac
