I can tell the difference with the higher frequecies over the lower ones, the detail is important....24 bit 96 or 192 needs to be implemented to give the user the choice

Consistently, in a double-blind test? Such superhuman ‘golden ears’ would surely be hugely valuable…

But setting aside the ‘faith’ vs ‘science’ debate for the moment, Sonos is a business. They will address users’ demands for ‘choice’ only if (a) they're technically feasible and (b) profitable to do so. 

Thanks ratty!

Happy listening to music and enjoy your Sonos kit

MQA rules - https://www.mqa.co.uk/

'fingers crossed"

Tidal is the best streaming service.....

MQA? This discussion started off from Sonos’ recent introduction of 24-bit lossless decode.

A proprietary codec, implying licence costs, to squash ultrasonics into a 24/48 stream. One has to ask oneself: why?

The discussion is to do with 24bit and higher frequencies..... And in turn total Tidal achieves this by streaming greater than 16bit frequecies by using MQA techniques to wrap and unwrap those higher frequencies.... Nice way of doing things I say!

Higher frequencies which are only audible to pets in a domestic setting? MQA is also an encoding technique which has thoroughly divided industry opinion. Many argue that, if one really wants higher sampling rates, internet bandwidth is now sufficiently plentiful that MQA is a solution to a problem that no longer exists. Personally I’d reckon the chances of Sonos supporting it are even lower than for 96kHz lossless.

By the way, it’s well understood that the ‘night and day’ differences between such ‘higher resolution’ material and the original can be entirely accounted for by the careful remastering that’s typically part of the equation. A down-conversion preserves all that. Sit back and enjoy it.

There’s no such thing, but I understand what you meant to say.

And they may well have been, along with all the other comments relating to this request, which are regarded by many here as pure snake oil.

As ratty has already pointed out, the network overhead caused by the increased file sizes would give Sonos severe problems, as they support up to 32 devices per system. Consequently, this is not a simple software fix, but would affect the capability and reliability of the  system, and would therefore probably also cause Sonos a massive support headache.

As you’ve already pointed out, there is kit around that will do what you want, although I have severe doubts that it can do it and provide the capability that Sonos does. As usual,TANSTAAFL applies.

It’s also not a universal software fix because, despite later hardware quite possibly including a DAC capable of handling up to 192kHz (as indeed does the Port), there just isn’t any way of rendering the resulting ultrasonics without a supertweeter. Indeed if ultrasonics were present they’d quite probably degrade the sound owing to audible intermodulation products.  

No, if Sonos feels a burning compulsion to tick the ‘hi res’ box and get that monkey off its back my bet would be on a tweak to the Port firmware, as I sketched earlier. Whether they’d also include down-conversion to 24/48 in the Port so it could group with regular players, in the same vein as AirPlay requiring a capable ‘target’, is an interesting question.

First of all I appreciate both your replies ratty/amun, but the support “headaches” that you think Sonos would endure, are more down to the user(s) having the necessary bandwidth to deal with the larger file sizes especially if they’re using WiFi and not a hardwired connection!

In my world, and yes, it’s about giving the customer the choice, pointing out to them about the connection issues, and the speeds that are needed to enjoy the larger file sizes that come with the higher frequencies.Audiophiles understand this…

As for me and a lot of other users on here, what software would you recommend that would adapt the 96/192kHZ albums that we have, to say 48kHZ, so it’s compatible for the current setup? thanks 

The “down-conversion to 24/48 in the port” - would be great see in a future update as a last resort!

dBpoweramp Music Converter is often regarded as the gold standard, but there’s lots of free software available.