So, streaming music from Apple Music to an Airplay 2 device such as the MuSo 2 seems to result in only lossy 256 AAC… bit of a bummer. Is this a bug Apple will likely fix, or is it a bandwidth thing and as such a “feature” to facilitate multi room audio?
Honestly can’t hear a difference between 256 AAC and hi-res via Tidal Connect, but still, something irks me about being told by the app music is playing lossless music while it’s being compressed.
I get 44.1 kHz recognized on my DAC (Topping e30) when streaming via Airplay2. From the Apple Support forum:
AirPlay 2 currently supports streaming audio wirelessly at 16-bit/44.1 kHz in the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec). Many songs downloaded through Apple Music are downloaded at 16-bit/44.1 kHz ALAC, but AirPlay 2 technically isn’t lossless streaming by definition of lossless, although it will be higher quality than AAC 256 kbps (the High Quality setting in Apple Music).
AirPlay 2 does not support 24-bit/44.1 kHz ALAC or anything higher than 44.1 kHz. It’s possible, but uncertain, that Apple could add support for this in a future update to AirPlay.
Apparently it’s just AAC in a 44.1 kHz audio container. Look at the Darko audio article. It’s only lossless if airplay 1 is used by at least one of the devices.
How is it AirPlay 2 not lossless streaming by definition?
“AirPlay 2 currently supports streaming audio wirelessly at 16-bit/44.1 kHz in the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec).”
That definition sounds like lossless
My DAC also reports 44.1/16 when using Airplay 2. My understanding is that 44.1/16 is the definition of lossless, any thing higher is defined as high res.
This is definitely not the definition of lossless. You can have 48/24 or higher lossy and you can have 22/8 lossless.