Not a fan of the new app, but I listened to a playlist on Apple Music this morning. And a saw a Lossless logo on one of the songs. It came and went and hasn’t showed up for other songs, but thought it was interesting.
Is lossless playback coming? Was it already here and I missed it?
Best answer by Nollind
View originalThe recent system update (to your speakers, not the app) added Apple Music lossless support but you need the new app updates to see the lossless indicator.
That said though, if you launch an Apple Music song from the old app, it will still play lossless but the indicator just won’t show on the old app (but will be seen on the new app).
PS. BTW the lossless indicator may not show immediately. A workaround to force it to appear is to scrub the song progress forward or backwards a few times and then it will kick in. Not sure why.
The recent system update (to your speakers, not the app) added Apple Music lossless support but you need the new app updates to see the lossless indicator.
That said though, if you launch an Apple Music song from the old app, it will still play lossless but the indicator just won’t show on the old app (but will be seen on the new app).
PS. BTW the lossless indicator may not show immediately. A workaround to force it to appear is to scrub the song progress forward or backwards a few times and then it will kick in. Not sure why.
Literally signed up for Amazon Music like 20 minutes ago just for lossless music. I can also confirm that lossless is showing up for me.
For the indicator, I’ve read that for Amazon Music at least, the system needs time to check if the internet is fast and reliable enough to stream HIFI. After the initial check, it seems to stream lossless for the next songs instantly.
+11
I can’t believe that with all the negative furore about the new app, Sonos didn’t make any noise about the very welcome addition of Lossless audio for Apple Music. I only just found out it was on 80.00.04 [also requiring the firmware update] when I happened to read the release notes while updating to 80.00.08..!
It is weird…
Does anyone know whether only certain speakers will play Apple Music Lossless? When I play on my Ray soundbar the lossless symbol shows up but not on my symfonisk lamps?
+11
Does anyone know whether only certain speakers will play Apple Music Lossless? When I play on my Ray soundbar the lossless symbol shows up but not on my symfonisk lamps?
My Symfonisk lamps are my surrounds, connected to my Arc and Sub, and I get the Lossless symbol there, so it must apply to all the speakers. I didn’t get the Lossless symbol at all on my speakers until I scrolled back and forth on a song a few times (which strangely is a solution advised on here), so maybe play through your Symfonisk while scrolling back and forth for a bit to see if it helps?
Does anyone know whether only certain speakers will play Apple Music Lossless? When I play on my Ray soundbar the lossless symbol shows up but not on my symfonisk lamps?
My Symfonisk lamps are my surrounds, connected to my Arc and Sub, and I get the Lossless symbol there, so it must apply to all the speakers. I didn’t get the Lossless symbol at all on my speakers until I scrolled back and forth on a song a few times (which strangely is a solution advised on here), so maybe play through your Symfonisk while scrolling back and forth for a bit to see if it helps?
Thanks. This may sound like a daft question but how do you scrub back and forth? I can’t figure out how to do it 😂
+11
Does anyone know whether only certain speakers will play Apple Music Lossless? When I play on my Ray soundbar the lossless symbol shows up but not on my symfonisk lamps?
My Symfonisk lamps are my surrounds, connected to my Arc and Sub, and I get the Lossless symbol there, so it must apply to all the speakers. I didn’t get the Lossless symbol at all on my speakers until I scrolled back and forth on a song a few times (which strangely is a solution advised on here), so maybe play through your Symfonisk while scrolling back and forth for a bit to see if it helps?
Thanks. This may sound like a daft question but how do you scrub back and forth? I can’t figure out how to do it 😂
When playing a song (in full screen), the line which shows how far into a song you are (the circle moves along the line as the song plays) - slide the circle forward to a point further into the song, let it play, then slide it back again to earlier in the song, then repeat a couple of times. Miraculously this worked for me and the Lossless symbol now appears on all speakers.
The recent system update (to your speakers, not the app) added Apple Music lossless support but you need the new app updates to see the lossless indicator.
That said though, if you launch an Apple Music song from the old app, it will still play lossless but the indicator just won’t show on the old app (but will be seen on the new app).
PS. BTW the lossless indicator may not show immediately. A workaround to force it to appear is to scrub the song progress forward or backwards a few times and then it will kick in. Not sure why.
So apart from not showing the lossless indicator, are you saying that the old 16.1 app works for you without issues with the latest 16.2 (80.00.04) firmware, and update to the latest “greatest” app is not forced with the latest FW?
I’m eager to get Apple lossless audio on my Sonos ASAP but I definitely want to stay away from the new buggy app for now.
This is a good and surprise addition. Kudos to Sonos for finally adding this.
I’m eager to get Apple lossless audio on my Sonos ASAP but I definitely want to stay away from the new buggy app for now.
You would be wise to do that, for different reasons:
For many years till 2021, Sonos did not offer high bit stream audio, because they felt that the science did not support claims for audibly better sound quality from it. Further, when Apple started lossless services, the head of Apple Music - no less - said in an interview that neither he nor his engineers could hear anything different from it compared to Apple lossy 256k streams. However what Apple has done is the old trick of making lossless play a little louder than lossy, because even a little louder seems better in a side by side comparison.
I can’t believe that with all the negative furore about the new app, Sonos didn’t make any noise about the very welcome addition of Lossless audio for Apple Music. I only just found out it was on 80.00.04 [also requiring the firmware update] when I happened to read the release notes while updating to 80.00.08..!
Total agree. Sonos, make some positive noise!
It requires a fast internet to be able to play lossless without hickups.
And I listen to lossless via the old S2 app, but without the lossless badge, therfore this sound update has nothing to do with the new app.
So playing Apple Music via the new Sonos app is now lossless quality. Does anyone know if the signal to the speakers via Airplay is now lossless quality for Apple music?
It requires a fast internet to be able to play lossless without hickups.
That’s true by historical standards, but not so true by 2024 standards.
AFAIK “Apple Lossless” is usually CD Red Book encoding, which is 1,411,200 bps or (rounded) 1.5 Mbps. That’s not so fast by modern standards. 1,000 Mpbs is often available in major cities, and in rural areas Starlink typically delivers 1-200 Mbps.
(Apple also offers a “hi-res” lossless option, which would have a higher bitrate.)
Does anyone know whether only certain speakers will play Apple Music Lossless? When I play on my Ray soundbar the lossless symbol shows up but not on my symfonisk lamps?
Yes Sonos has only added this for certain speakers. Not supported on Playbase and “a few others”
+2
It would be good if Sonos could provide a list of supported devices, I’ve been unable to get lossless to work with a Era100 stereo pair and Gen 2 Sub. Remove the Sub and lossless works, could be the gen 2 sub just isn't supported.
It would be good if Sonos could provide a list of supported devices, I’ve been unable to get lossless to work with a Era100 stereo pair and Gen 2 Sub. Remove the Sub and lossless works, could be the gen 2 sub just isn't supported.
Yeah you would think they could provide that, put it in the release notes etc.
I’m also having a lot of issues with Apple Lossless. I can get it to play but initial issues: pausing, skipping tracks are delayed. Can’t use the slider to advance in the song reliably. Lots of audio glitches. Would prefer to use lossy while they fix the bugs tbh.
It would be good if Sonos could provide a list of supported devices, I’ve been unable to get lossless to work with a Era100 stereo pair and Gen 2 Sub. Remove the Sub and lossless works, could be the gen 2 sub just isn't supported.
I’m also having a lot of issues with Apple Lossless. I can get it to play but initial issues: pausing, skipping tracks are delayed. Can’t use the slider to advance in the song reliably. Lots of audio glitches. Would prefer to use lossy while they fix the bugs tbh.
Brave.
Brave.
Got it, thanks.
Haven’t you tried the latest 16.2 firmware with the 16.1 app?
Or does the FW update force the app update as well?
Just noticed this today when I was listening to some ATMOS mixes… put on a song I know is NOT Atmos encoded and was like hmmmm glitch…. great surprise as I was going back & forth about Amazon Music - AirPlay of same song NOT showing lossless
One thing I DID notice while I was trying to confirm lossless/HD…. if I play FLAC from NAS it no longer plays with the HD tag…. what gives?!?! :-)
Brave.
Got it, thanks.
Haven’t you tried the latest 16.2 firmware with the 16.1 app?
Or does the FW update force the app update as well?
I’m on the latest firmware. If you are still on 16.1 with the s2 app DONT UPDATE- not worth it yet.
Brave.
Got it, thanks.
Haven’t you tried the latest 16.2 firmware with the 16.1 app?
Or does the FW update force the app update as well?
I’m on the latest firmware. If you are still on 16.1 with the s2 app DONT UPDATE- not worth it yet.
Yes, I’m still on the 16.1 FW and the old 16.1 app (downgraded it after playing with the latest “courageous” app for a while).
I keep the FW auto-update off, so it wasn’t forcibly updated to the latest version.
What I was thinking about is to upgrade the FW to enable Apple lossless but stay with the old 16.1 app until they get the new one into shape.
But it’s not clear whether this combination would work, and there’re no way to downgrade the FW in case of trouble - so I’d rather stay with the current config for now.
Does the update to the speakers allow lossless via Airplay 2? I would prefer to use the Sonos app but I’m a victim of the ‘not encoded correctly’ bug that has rendered a number of my purchases from Apple unplayable via the Sonos app.
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