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I’m pretty confused here and am struggling to get an answer. A long time ago I had a Deezer 1 year trial of their Hi Def audio service. It played through all my SONOS equipment at that time - certainly pre S1/S2 split on an original Play 3 and a number of Connects which all became defunct later. I didn’t maintain the subscription as I didn’t want the cost, and have used Spotify since.

Now I’m looking at Apple Music. It offers a Hi Def option on music files - lossless - and even though I’m on S2 and have upgraded all my SONOS equipment to latest models, I may or may not be able to play the Hi Def audio through any of it. Really? We’ve gone backwards over the last 10 (?) years. 

I’d be interested to get a clear answer. I’m struggling to believe that SONOSNET is incapable of running a Hi Def stream around it.

If it works, then I’ve got a reason to swap over from Spotify (who won’t offer Hi Def) to Apple. If it doesn’t work, then there is no reason. So Apple if you are listening, then it would help if you too joined in the conversation and tried to make this clear.

(BTW I ripped my CD collection to FLAC many years ago and store it all on my NAS. No problem playing that through SONOS - it trundles through SONOSNET no problem. So can I or can I not use Apple lossless. And if not, why what’s the problem? And if not, is there anything I need to do to make it work?)

Apple Music lossless streaming is not supported through Sonos at this time.  Why is a question for Apple, not Sonos, because Sonos has no control over the Apple implementation in the Sonos app.  Sonos only supplies the API, the implementation of features is all done by Apple.  

OK thanks that’s a nice clear answer. Since it is Apple that benefits from my sub to Apple Music, not Sonos, it makes sense for them to need to do a bit of work to gain it. 

I guess what I heard about it working through Apple TV is a myth then. 

I’ve also put the same query to Apple through their feedback mechanism. 

I would love for Sonos to answer this specific question. 

Sonos just announced spacial audio compatibility with Apple Music: https://www.sonos.com/en-us/newsroom/sonos-apple-spatial-audio

 

But it specifically does not mention that hi-def audio will be supported. I agree that I have a hard time believing that hi-def audio has a bandwidth limitation compared spacial audio so I would imagine it is either something with licensing or with the Apple Music API not supporting the ability for third party apps to stream this type of content. 

 

To answer the poster above on Sonosnet, 24-bit FLAC is not a limitation as it’s supported for local files on both S1 and S2: https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/supported-audio-formats-for-sonos-music-library

 

Apple CarPlay over a wired connection supports 24-bit lossless but wireless Apple CarPlay only supports 16-bit. This leads me to believe it’s an Apple Music API issue and they prioritized adding spacial packets before hi-def. 

Sonos not supporting lossless seems to be inaccurate. About 85% of my Apple Music library is lossless and works fine. However, lately, sometimes I get “music not coded properly” errors, and the music works fine via Apple Music on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone.  In addition, Sonos needs to be more proactive in being ready for Apple updates.  Apple does an excellent job releasing the beta of their OS and updates for developers ahead of schedule.  Apple also released its major updates in October annually. Am I missing something?

I don't know if this is correct and a lot of people here on this forum says that this is not the case, but when I use the Apple Music app and AirPlay  music directly to my Sonos Port, the sound quality is much better than when I play the same piece off music via the Sonos App.

I have a feeling that the AirPlayed music from the Apple Music app is lossless, I don't know if this is correct, but I experience the sound quality as much better when I listen via the Apple Music app.

This sound improvement cannot be heard on the small Sonos speakers and for many Sonos users, everything is ok, when just sound comes out of their speakers.

 

The Apple Music App on iOS over Airplay 2 is not lossless, it gets converted from ALAC to AAC. The Apple Music App is unaware of the conversion done further down stream.

The Apple Music App on iOS over Airplay 2 is not lossless, it gets converted from ALAC to AAC. The Apple Music App is unaware of the conversion done further down stream.

 

I can only repeat, that for me, the music played directly from the Apple Music app via Airplay, sounds much better, than music  played via the Sonos app.

Now I am only waiting for all those who want to write, that this is because the volume of the Apple Music app is played higher than the sound from the Sonos app 😉

But now I have written what I feel in terms of sound quality via AirPlay from Apple Music, so now I'm out of this discussion.

 

  In addition, Sonos needs to be more proactive in being ready for Apple updates.  Apple does an excellent job releasing the beta of their OS and updates for developers ahead of schedule.  Apple also released its major updates in October annually. Am I missing something?

Developers have been burned in the past. Yes, Apple will release everchanging beta’s and 3rd parties will burn a lot of time keeping up, but the real bummer can be a very late change prior to Apple’s release. As a result the 3rd parties don’t have enough time to respond, something doesn’t go well (of course the Apple stuff mostly works), and the 3rd parties are derided on social media as being inept. 

The SONOS approach offers more value to consumers. Any service is welcome to use the API. As a result. many dozens of music services are available to SONOS systems compared to a very small handful for other platforms. I have a friend, a one man programming shop, who is contemplating adding his very unique content as a service.

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