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Playing FLAC via airplay

  • February 5, 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 374 views

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Hello,

I have a very bad ADSL line, no fiber, and therefore my internet is max 8Mb

I want to move to the High Fidelity music with Deezer (FLAC music), but my wifi won't be strong enough to do this on my Sonos system. 

Could a solution be to play the FLAC music using the Deezer app and transferring to Sonos via Airplay?

Will my wifi still be needed or just my phone data (I have unlimited data)? Would this enables me to listen to FLAC despite my very slow wifi network?

 

Best answer by 106rallye

As I understand Airplay 2 the Sonos devices will only get the link and your log in and fetch the stream themselves via the internet. So whatever you do, you will be hampered by your internet stream. Only solution would be if you’d play music that is on your phone via Airplay. If you’d be able to download songs from Deezer and play those from the phone you’d be okay, but then you’d run in to the problem @ratty describes.

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7 replies

ratty
  • 31405 replies
  • February 5, 2022

Your WiFi would still be needed, as Airplay is a local network protocol.

In the case of Deezer, the app streams in using FLAC then transmits to Sonos over Airplay using ALAC. 

Just fix your WiFi. It has nothing to do with the fact that your internet connection is limited to only ADSL. 


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  • Author
  • Avid Contributor I
  • 25 replies
  • February 5, 2022

Your WiFi would still be needed, as Airplay is a local network protocol.

In the case of Deezer, the app streams in using FLAC then transmits to Sonos over Airplay using ALAC. 

Just fix your WiFi. It has nothing to do with the fact that your internet connection is limited to only ADSL. 

My wifi works well. The problem is that I have a very slow ADSL line so the output is max 8Mb while FLAC music will use 5Mb per speaker…
So my line is much too weak to support FLAC music. This is why I am trying to see how I can use my phone as I have unlimited data. 


ratty
  • 31405 replies
  • February 5, 2022

Have you actually tried FLAC on your ADSL line? The 5Mbps figure is to allow for buffering bursts. The sustained rate is no more than 1.5Mbps or thereabouts. 

By the way, when you have multiple speakers in a group there's only 1 incoming stream. This gets distributed locally within the system. 

 

As for using your phone on mobile data, this won't work. It can either be connected to the mobile network or your WiFi, not both at the same time. You could however look into getting a 4G router, which both your phone and Sonos would connect to. 


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  • Author
  • Avid Contributor I
  • 25 replies
  • February 5, 2022

Thanks Ratty. 

I don’t have FLAC yet as I was concerned by my internet rate. 

Is there a way to increase the buffer?


106rallye
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  • 6584 replies
  • Answer
  • February 5, 2022

As I understand Airplay 2 the Sonos devices will only get the link and your log in and fetch the stream themselves via the internet. So whatever you do, you will be hampered by your internet stream. Only solution would be if you’d play music that is on your phone via Airplay. If you’d be able to download songs from Deezer and play those from the phone you’d be okay, but then you’d run in to the problem @ratty describes.


ratty
  • 31405 replies
  • February 5, 2022

As I understand Airplay 2 the Sonos devices will only get the link and your log in and fetch the stream themselves via the internet. 

No, with Airplay the iDevice pulls the stream and then sends it to Sonos, so always remains in the loop. (As I understand it, for some content Apple HomePods are able to fetch the stream themselves.)

 

Is there a way to increase the buffer?

 

The buffer size is not relevant to the sustained rate requirement. You’d still need an average of 1-1.5Mbps to keep up with the music. The buffer merely rides out temporary interruptions in the incoming stream. In the case of Deezer FLAC, Sonos speakers attempt to buffer as much of the track as possible at the start of play.

I recommend you just try things. If you’re on Deezer Premium you should get FLAC anyway. If not you could simply upgrade for a month as a test. I seem to recall that back in the days when I had an ADSL connection I was able to stream lossless without problem. 


skullc
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  • Prodigy III
  • 582 replies
  • February 5, 2022

What country are you in?

Have you considered 4g/5g broadband?

I use 5g and get great speeds in the UK