S2 app and Qobuz Hi-Res

You mean the enhanced audio quality is not startlingly obvious? 

(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

AirPlay is not capable of 24-bit playback, it’s limited to 16 bits at 48Kbps.

If you mean via the PC then no. As noted, it would be converted to analog in the PC then redigitised at 16/44 by the Amp. You’d need to use the Sonos S2 app to get 24 bit.

I don’t believe Qobuz offers a ‘direct casting to Sonos’ option in their mobile app.

You can get up to 24/48, as described in the linked support page above and numerous announcements and press articles.

What good would a frequency response extending up to 96kHz do for you anyway? The Sonos speakers are incapable of reproducing it. Even if they were, it would only be the household pets who could appreciate it.

I would also like to request this as a feature. Similar to now how you show what tv audio is playing, it would be nice to see how the various music services play. 

Like it says in the Sonos support article, if the original Qobuz file is 24/96 the version delivered to Sonos would be at 16/44.

You won’t get 24bit sampling from line-in on the Amp, no. To get 24bit playback on the Amp, you will need to use the Sonos app to play it from the service.

I hate to say this, but any audible difference is almost certainly due to remastering rather than the extra 8 bits. The extra room does however allow a remastering without clipping or truncation.

A Line-In is analog, which is then digitised at 16/44. Irrespective of the digital make-up of the original stream it will end up as 16-bit once input to the Amp via Line-In.

I’m not Sonos, but the answer to this is surely no.  Using the line in, your desktop has to convert the audio to analog, which will surely not be high res at that point.  Not 100% sure, but I think Sonos converts back to digital within the amp  as well.   Regardless, it’s not at all the same as the amp streaming directly.

To be clear, the app is just a controller, not the source of the audio stream.  If your Quboz desktop app has the abilty to cast audio to Sonos, than that would work.  Or any other cast/control method.  And of course, Sonos has their own desktop controller.

Yes it would. Depending on the Sonos device (just about everything except Play 1s) that is playable on S2. If it fits you would hear 48/24. However, the organization that officially designates hi-res states it has to be 96/24 for it to be officially labeled that way. The Qobuz file is 96/24 but Sonos can only manage 48/24. 

Isn’t it known by how it sounds? On my TV there is the option to know the stream quality, but the eyes can tell it right away without invoking that information.

It’s on my SONOS ARC

Everything above 24/44 or 24/48 will be played at 16/44 however all Qobuz tracks at 24/44 or 24/48 will be played at that rate through the Sonos S2 app which is still Hi-Res and a decent upgrade if you have good speakers. Also most newly released albums coming out the now are available at 24/48 so some good future proofing done by Sonos. 

I have a Sonos Amp connected to 2 x Fyne Audio F501 speakers so I was thrilled with the news. However I'd like to know if I can only get the new 24/48 resolution through the app to my amp or am I able to get it through Qobuz desktop app on my Intel Nuc which is used as a line in to my amp. 

Is anyone from Sonos able to confirm if this is possible? 

Thanks for the answers everyone, I have the ability to stream from the Qobuz desktop / mobile app as well as the Sonos app so the 24/48 can still be achieved that way. 

Does anyone know if it has to be through the S2 app or can I still get the 24/48 streaming to the amp through the Qobuz app?

I guess I really need to find out if Airplay 2 will be streaming from Qobuz to the Amp at 24/48

Yeah it looks like they only cast via Airplay. Would really need something similar to Spotify or Tidal connect. 

 The problem with this is there are many albums on Qobuz that are listed multiple times. 1 in Hi-res and 1 in CD quality. unless you go into the app you have no idea whether you playing at the highest available quality.

Its really frustrating no knowing the playback rate.. can you please look to add this.. would save a lot of issues for us!

Hi @Johnsalmon 

Thanks for your post.

Not at this time, no, though you should be receiving 24bit sound if you have the correct subscription from Qobuz. I’ll mark this topic as a feature request and it will be considered.

Okay explain in layman’s terms...I’m a quick study. My Qobuz app says I’m playing Hi Res / 48 KHz and I’m on my headphones at the gym. If I go home and play Qobuz through the SONIS app, same song, what will it play at?

I’m really confused. I thought the whole point of this Qobuz thing was that we WOULD now finally get hi res music to play on SONOS

So are you saying we cannot get hi res tracks through SONOS?

So it’ll be delivered to Sonos at 16/44.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1782

Tracks with a sampling rate above 48 kHz will be delivered to your Sonos hardware as 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC (CD lossless quality).

You can’t cheat the system by putting the track on a Qobuz playlist.

On the Quboz app the song shows 24/192

If the track has a sampling rate over 48kHz it will still be delivered as 16/44.

One “work around” would be to go on the Qobuz app and add songs to your created playlists that you can see are High Rez. Then when you are on the SONOS App you can play from your created playlist that you know is Hi Rez 

It is just one aspect of that which is not entirely straightforward, which is the perception of reality.

As to sound quality, many people will tell you that the sound from a better looking speaker/hifi kit is better; others, that the more expensive ones sound better. All these foibles are taught to marketing folks that then exploit these to collect more money than may be objectively deserved.

In this case, the other problem is the lack of a robust baseline for comparisons, done via blind listening test under controlled conditions. Since that is not practical at home, I suppose paying as much as you can afford for music that sounds good to you is a good guideline.

Or are you saying that if you knew how many bits were in the stream, the music would sound better?