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24bit support only goes upto 44,000khz/48,000khz


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Good afternoon

I’ve recently purchased the ARC, Sub (gen 3) and Move and have discovered that you only support 24bit streaming up to 44,000hz or 48,000hz. I have a lot of music that’s in 88,000hz, 96,000hz or 192,000hz (.flac container format) and I can see that this isn’t supported!

This is real shame and I’m sure many other customers will feel the same? It would be great if your developers could implement this as soon as possible via a support update?

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Best answer by Krishma M 8 August 2020, 01:28

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36 replies

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Hi @HiRESrules, welcome to the community! Yes, Sonos S2 system supports up to 24-bit (44.1kHz/48kHz, FLAC/ALAC) and we'd be happy to share your interest with the team. Please let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with.

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Hi Krishma

 

Thanks for your reply.

It would be good if Sonos can make this change as it will improve the hi-resolution audio experience…

I used to have Bluesound and they support the higher resolution format and they support MQA streaming as well when you're using Tidal.

Looking forward to Sonos implementing this real soon.

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I am dubious whether can hear sound quality difference between hi res and cd quality given can’t hear difference between cd and apple llossy on reference headphones but I am certain  I can hear the difference between being able to play  and not play a file. Hopefully S2 will allow Hires streaming soon consistent with most competition. 

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I can hear the difference, as there is more detail in the overall sound....like the volume doesn't need to be up as much. It can't be much of a tweak for the engineers to up it from 44.1/48 to 88khz to 96khz/192khz as a lot of artists record in different 24bit frequencies! Sonos, please, you're nearly there!

That way you will be providing and catering for the full support that the record industry is giving the consumer...

 

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I haven’t listened to hi res so don’t know if I could hear the difference but would like the option as available on my DAC and most equipment while still having the convenience of Sonos. At the same time would like Apple to make hires available as all my music is historically on Apple and Apple does have hires masters. I think with S2 and increasing bandwidth it is only a matter of time before Sonos and Apple make hires available as they are smart enough to know that even if only marketing for most people it is where market heading. 

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Thanks TTT15 and that's where we're heading. I live music quality and very impressed with the S2 app. Sonos is class leading and hopefully they'll just tweak things to make it 💯 perfect! Fingers crossed.

I've got a lot of 96kHZ and 192kHZ that just doesn't play...and most artists where they release their new records in hi-res format are choosing as a minimum the 96kHZ format and 192kHZ is getting more and more popular!

What-Hifi did mention with that there might be more updates coming soon to cater for what I am talking about and the MQA streaming that Tidal offers....

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Given the upgrade for atmos and that most streamers on the market offer hi res I’ve no doubt that Sonos have capability and mkt incentive to offer hires. Qbuz recommends 10Mbps for hi res. As broadband and hi res streaming becomes increasingly available the reasons for not offering hi res no longer apply. I fully appreciate a lot of people don’t have the interest or equipment for hires to make sense but I would certainly pay for a hires port as rest of my equipment is Designed for hires.

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 Not playing 24bit at 96kHZ

 

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  Not playing 24bit at 192kHZ

 

 

Hi @HiRESrules, welcome to the community! Yes, Sonos S2 system supports up to 24-bit (44.1kHz/48kHz, FLAC/ALAC) and we'd be happy to share your interest with the team. Please let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with.

Given the statement by the Sonos rep, I’m not sure why you would expect them to. 

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Given that Sonos have provided support for 24bit, but only up to the frequency of 44.1/48kHZ, then this is only a half measure. Anyone that cares about sound quality and where the recording industry is going, would welcome the need for 96/192kHZ hi-res frequency!

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Given that Sonos have provided support for 24bit, but only up to the frequency of 44.1/48kHZ, then this is only a half measure. Anyone that cares about sound quality and where the recording industry is going, would welcome the need for 96/192kHZ hi-res frequency!

Sonos has been against hi res in the past. But it

isn'tthat they are against sound quality, they make good sounding devices. Top notch sound quality at any price point.

I read they didn't think it mattered or was needed (or something like that). 

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Good afternoon

Do you know when you're updating the 24bit frequency so it works with 96Khz/192Khz encoded tracks please?

Hi @HiRESrules, welcome to the community! Yes, Sonos S2 system supports up to 24-bit (44.1kHz/48kHz, FLAC/ALAC) and we'd be happy to share your interest with the team. Please let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with.

24 bit music with local hard drive files is a wonderful thing.  Thank you.  How large a priority for the Sonos Team is it that we will be able to stream 24 bit music like Amazon HD?

Thanks!

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Thank you for your reply.

The real point I am making hear is that Sonos isn't supporting at the moment 96kHZ or 196kHZ, which is kind of half baked...I am really hoping that this is supported real soon! Please support this soon Sonos, as Bluesound support it as well as the MQA technology when sending the file to be unpacked at the hardware end.

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Do the Sonos engineers have any idea when there will be a software update to allow the 24bit frequency 96kHZ or 192kHz to be supported?

Thank you

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Hey Sonos

 

Please support 24bit frequency 96kHZ or 192kHz as this will allow everyone the ability to play their own collections as they were intended, or listen to Tidal that streams in master quality using mqa! Bluesound offers this.... By only giving us 24bit 48kHZ or 44.1kHZ it is only a half baked option!

Thank you

By only giving us 24bit 48kHZ or 44.1kHZ it is only a half baked option!

It’s the option which embraces the range of human hearing, as has been well established in science and in listening tests. Higher sampling rates have their place in the production chain, but are quite unnecessary for final delivery.

Moreover doubling or quadrupling the bandwidth requirements would strain a wireless network, for no obvious gain. 

I appreciate that those who’ve bought so-called ‘hi res’ music may feel a bit miffed to have to down-convert, but it’s a one-time exercise. And you won’t be able to tell the difference.

Bumping this thread every month is, I venture to suggest, a bit of a waste of time and effort.

Hey Sonos

 

Please support 24bit frequency 96kHZ or 192kHz as this will allow everyone the ability to play their own collections as they were intended, or listen to Tidal that streams in master quality using mqa! Bluesound offers this.... By only giving us 24bit 48kHZ or 44.1kHZ it is only a half baked option!

Thank you

If you truly must have support for higher sample rates, then I’d suggest selling your Sonos kit and buying Bluesound, or any other make that offers what you want at the moment.

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You're missing the point I'm making and I don't agree with your comments.

There's plenty of other users who are looking for this ability as this is where the standard is in my opinion! Sonos should be listening to their user base and not suggesting and making things personal.

 

This is constructive criticism and should be passed along to the engineering teams and technical teams as I'm sure this could be implemented very easily through a software update!

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Also other users here, are creating new threads based on this topic all the time, and Sonos don't seem to be listening.

All I'm asking for, is that my comments, along with others is passed to the relevant team.

 

OverallI am impressed with Sonos and it is better than it's competitors, but it's just missing that last little bit of fine tuning.

Thank you

You’re clearly entitled to your opinions. However despite all the hype over many years we’re still waiting for clear evidence that sampling rates above Red Book produce any audible benefits. Indeed a recent large-scale listening test, conducted by a widely respected industry expert, found there to be no perceptible fidelity improvement.

Of course there’s a strong commercial imperative within the recording and equipment industries to try and convince users otherwise, so they’re motivated to go out and replace their existing music collections and playback equipment.

The marketing pressure for Sonos to comply, whether or not it makes sense technically, may become insuperable if for no other reason than to be able to tick the pesky ‘hi res’ box. If that ever did come to pass though I’d expect it to only affect the Port, with its digital output -- and maybe only for a wired or 5GHz network connection. There’d be zero logic in extending such support to the speakers, since they lack ultrasonic transducers. 

There’d be zero logic in extending such support to the speakers, since they lack ultrasonic transducers. 

Who would benefit from ultrasonic transducers? By definition itself, not humans?

There’d be zero logic in extending such support to the speakers, since they lack ultrasonic transducers. 

Who would benefit from ultrasonic transducers? By definition itself, not humans?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_range 

Right, so this would be useful IF the pet dog/cat likes the kind of music we do, with the higher frequency extension meant to deliver more of it’s content to them.