audio format display when streaming music?

  • 9 January 2022
  • 14 replies
  • 1394 views

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Hello,

New to Sonos. I have a pair of One SLs being delivered this week, an Arc on order and an S3 sub sitting here still in the box. I plan on using the SLs as a stereo pair in my office strictly for music.  When streaming high resolution music from the Sonos app via one of the music services, (Qobuz, Apple Music, etc.) does Sonos provide you with the audio format details such as the bit rate, sampling rate, etc. or does it simply just indicate HD or something along those lines?  Thank you. 


14 replies

Also, I think that the Sonos V1 app and system whilst they support HD does not show the HD indicator on the V1 app. But I understand despite this, it is playing HD and UHD quality at least.

 

Userlevel 7
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There is no such indicator for the macOS app right?

Correct. The Desktop apps (PC too) don’t get any new features, such as this.

Whoops, wrong thread.

There is no such indicator for the macOS app right?

 

 

The Amazon quality is set dynamically depending on network conditions and some heuristics.

https://tech-blog.sonos.com/posts/happy-music-streaming-with-mpeg-dash/

Userlevel 6
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Thanks Mr T - yes it takes a little time and I wasn’t giving it that time. Thought it would show instantly like the TV audio on my Beam 😁

Userlevel 7

@Mr. T - so do I need to try it out on my Beam then rather than my Fives? On my Fives it does not say at all on the right hand side. 

It should show on your Fives too. Let the track play for 1-2mins as it can take a bit of time before it calibrates to the highest stream possible for the speaker/group.

If you’re just playing to the Fives, it may start with no audio badge showing, then show HD, then Ultra HD, depending on the track. Once it’s calibrated then subsequent tracks are in the highest quality available.

For some reason, soundbars don’t seem to require the same calibration and immediately start with the highest quality.

Userlevel 6
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Guys - Just tried another album on my kitchen Ones and it’s showing now 🙂 - thanks for your help

Looks like it takes a minute to pop up on the screen so likely I wasn’t giving it enough time. Unlike the Beam where the audio type shows up straight away. 

@SarahN 

Yes, it should show a label as seen in @Mr. T ‘s screenshot. Here’s another example showing HD audio: 

 

Userlevel 6
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@Mr. T - so do I need to try it out on my Beam then rather than my Fives? On my Fives it does not say at all on the right hand side. 

Userlevel 7

@SarahN - it will show it on the right hand side, like the example below.

 

 

Userlevel 6
Badge +14

@Ken_Griffiths  - Hi Ken, regarding your answer saying the using Amazon music unlimited will show the audio format for any given speaker, in the ‘now playing’ screen, mine does not seem to do this?

I have this subscription with Amazon, but if I pick my amazon playlist via the sonos app (which I know contains all HD or Ultra HD tracks, I can see the song artwork etc, but cannot see where it says the format (unlike if I watch TV where it does say the audio format). This isn’t much of an issue with me but it would be nice to have confirmation of the format/file size.  Am I missing something ? 😀

Deezer has for many years displayed the format on Sonos: FLAC (16/44) or MP3 (320k). 

 

My understanding is that the display ‘HD/UltraHD/Atmos’ that appears on the Sonos App ‘Now Playing’ screen is a fairly new thing and it currently works with Amazon Music Unlimited, but hopefully the same info/display may get implemented later for some of the other MSP’s a little further down the line.🤞

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