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Olllie
Contributor I
July 9, 2020
Answered

Am I getting high resolution sound?

So I’ve upgraded to the S2 app and have a Beam, Sub gen 2, 2 x sonos one surround setup.  I use my iPhone 11 to stream music via AirPlay from Qobuz, which as I understand has a compatible high res format with Sonos (FLAC).  

In this article - https://support.sonos.com/s/article/79?language=en_US, it states ‘Sonos supports the following audio formats when streaming from your local music library, Android device, or Internet radio stations’.

And it supports ‘24-bit (44.1kHz/48kHz, FLAC/ALAC)’.

So my questions are:

  • Is streaming from Qobuz via AirPlay considered my local music library?
  • If I’m playing a 24-bit high res track at 96 kHz, how is the quality of the playback affected, assuming anything above 48 kHz is lost?
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melvimbe
melvimbeAnswer
July 9, 2020
  • Is streaming from Qobuz via AirPlay considered my local music library?

 

 

No.  Playing from local libary means you have the music files stored on a computer or NAS on your network that your Beam is reading directly, no airplay or streaming service involved.

 

  • If I’m playing a 24-bit high res track at 96 kHz, how is the quality of the playback affected, assuming anything above 48 kHz is lost?

 

Not exactly sure on this as I don’t use local library, but I’m not sure it matters for you since you aren’t using a local library either.

Danny
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mistermuse
Lyricist I
October 8, 2020

Can someone please clarify? If I stream music directly the Sonos app (IPhone 10) through Qobuz not using airplay could I be streaming high res, compared to playing from the Qobuz through Airplay to my Sonos play SL’s?

John B
October 8, 2020

You cannot play hires (24 bit) streamed music service content on Sonos in any way currently.  (Well, the tracks may play but not as hires.)

mistermuse
Lyricist I
October 8, 2020

Well thank you for that! Perhaps coming soon.

Kumar
October 9, 2020

You cannot play hires (24 bit) streamed music service content on Sonos in any way currently.  (Well, the tracks may play but not as hires.)

I suppose those that upgraded kit and moved to S2 to get just this are disappointed at the wait. I also suppose those using HiRes on local NAS are a very small minority, so unless this feature is enabled, we will not know how stable wireless play of large groups is for these streams, even using Sonos net.

Bruno92
Trending Lyricist I
January 13, 2021

Hi-Res are either 24 bit/96kHz or 24/192kHz, and less commonly 24 bit/48kHz. But even 24 bit/44.1kHz is considered Hi-Res as bit depth is above the CD while sampling rate is same as that of CD.

Apple’s AirPlay 2 protocol downsamples audio files to 24-bit 44.1 kHz. 

The same file will be downsampled to 16-bit 44.1 kHz by Sonos in Airplay 2 protocol or within S2 application. 

Bruno92
Trending Lyricist I
February 22, 2021

"Sonos supports the following audio formats when streaming from your local music library, Android device, or Internet radio stations."

 

So iOS users are not concerned… 😡 

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