So, Airplay 2 can definitely handle 16bit 44.1, and S2 speakers can do up to 24bit 48, but during Airplay2 playback Roon’s Signal path thing (see screenshot) always shows the playback as being “High Quality” and not “Lossless” because Roon can’t guarantee what the Airplay2 device is doing on it’s end. Some AP2 devices will always need to convert to 48khz before playing etc. , so that’s understandable.

This is not the case with Sonos Streaming, it shows as lossless in Roon signal path, but roon and sonos streaming have not played well together for some time, whereas Airplay 2 has been rock solid.

So my question is, does anyone know for fact if The Sonos speaker is ever taking a 16/44.1 Airplay 2 signal and manipulating it (bringing it up to 48Khz etc.)

If the answer is that it’s playing 44.1 16 bit with no manipulation, then Airplay 2 is the clear winner over Sonos streaming when it comes to playing off Roon. Otherwise, struggling with Roon to Sonos Streaming direct might be worth it to keep the source to the Sonos speakers properly lossless.

It’s more of an OCD thing than anything else but want to set it as either AP2 or Sonos Streaming and forget about it and need help deciding. I have Sonos doing room correction anyway so the signal is being manipulated anyway to account for the room, christ I even turn loudness on sometimes lol. Again just curiosity/OCD, not a complaint.

Here’s some context from Roon as to why they don’t show Airplay streams as lossless: