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Lossless via Apple TV 4k to Sonos speakers

  • September 18, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 1797 views
M
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Trying to understand how some of this works. Here is what I know:

  • The Sonos mobile app now supports Lossless audio when playing Apple Music as the source (to supported speakers). It will display a “Lossless” badge to confirm this.
  • Airplay does not support lossless audio, so playing from the Apple Music app and airplaying to Sonos speakers will be lower quality

My question is… If I play the Apple Music app on my Apple TV 4K (connected to Sonos Beam), it shows that it is playing Lossless (on the tv screen - the sonos app simply just shows that the source is TV HDMI audio).

  • Is the Beam getting lossless audio?
  • More importantly, if I then group the Beam with my other Sonos speakers, will they all then get lossless audio?
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3 replies

MoPac
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  • MoPac
  • Headliner II
  • 1104 replies
  • September 18, 2024

 Sonos will play 24/48.  Some WAV 24/48 will not play.  Those WAV files that will not play can be converted to FLAC.  Sonos does not do any down conversion of higher sample rates.  Sonos also does not report the sample rate of the track playing.  My guess is the Apple Music service in the Sonos app is setup so that any music you choose will not be over the sample rate limit of 24/48.

 AirPlay usually streams 16/44 Red Book CD quality in ALAC lossless.  Not much difference between 24/48 and 16/44.  FLAC & ALAC are lossless.  Now if Apple was still streaming AAC at 256 then you would possibly notice a loss in SQ.  AAC is better than MP3 but it’s still lossy.

M
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  • mowgli-san
  • Author
  • Avid Contributor I
  • 14 replies
  • September 18, 2024

@MoPac Thanks for your response. I’m still pretty confused (feel free to explain like I’m 5) but are you essentially saying that you don’t know whether or not Sonos is receiving lossless audio from the Apple TV, but Sonos does not downconvert, so it should?

MoPac wrote:

  AirPlay usually streams 16/44 Red Book CD quality in ALAC lossless.  Not much difference between 24/48 and 16/44.  FLAC & ALAC are lossless. 

 

I could be wrong, but I thought I have read that AirPlay 2 streams at 256kbps AAC. And therefor not lossless.

MoPac
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  • MoPac
  • Headliner II
  • 1104 replies
  • September 18, 2024

https://darko.audio/2023/10/apple-airplay-isnt-always-lossless-sometimes-its-lossy/

 It’s more confusing than I thought according to  John Darko.  I never use AirPlay so never really cared about it’s capabilities.

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