24 bit on Play 1

Yes the HT setup will support upto 24bit/48kHz audio when using the S2 App - see these useful links:

• https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/supported-audio-formats-for-sonos-music-library
• https://support.sonos.com/en-us/services (See HiRes 24 bit)

Theres no way to override the internal DAC for your HT setup.

The only confirmation I’ve seen is the ‘badge/label’ on the ‘Now Playing’ screen in the S2 Sonos App when playing from the Amazon UHD streaming music service, which shows a label of ‘UltraHD’, or ‘Atmos’ when playing 24/48 Amazon Music UltraHD/Atmos audio to the ‘room’.

You might have to otherwise checkout the approx size of file delivered to each speaker for the streaming audio track(s) to get an approximation that it’s HiRes - although I’m not sure how you might go about doing that🤔?

I would just look for the badge when streaming from Amazon Music - note it may take a few moments for the correct badge/label to appear and also be mindful that a poor network connection end-to-end can affect the audio resolution/type of audio sent to the main player.

If you have a local music library, then you could also encode some tracks in 24/48 .flac format and test playing that to your Sonos setup to ensure it plays (Note: no badge/label is displayed in the Sonos App when playing audio from your local library, but at least you will already know the format in use). HTH

Each speaker has it’s own DAC and internal processing has been 24bit for all products since inception in 2005. However, early products would not play 24bit source files.

There is a lot of controversy over the ability of end users to discern 24 vs 16bit files while playing the same original recording session. In the studio there are very real benefits for 32bit high bit rate recordings while the tracks are being prepared for distribution. In this environment 192 is considered lame by some studios. So far there have been no peer reviewed studies proving that end listeners can discriminate between 16/44.1 and higher resolution/bit rate files for the same content. I’ve done some informal comparisons with listeners. If I announce that “this is a HiRes version” it always sounds “better”. It’s a big giggle for me because the “audiophiles” usually have more difficulty discriminating when I don’t announce. I attribute this to them having more personal esteem invested in the outcome. When informed that they failed, they always blame this on inferior playback equipment. I’ll compare much lower resolution MP3 files with FLAC 16/44.1 files of the same source track. Unsophisticated “off the street” listeners usually rank these files in the correct order, while Audiiophiles struggle to discriminate between the higher resolution versions. I’m very careful not to give any hints along the way.

Tracks that are sold as “HiRes” often originate from higher quality master files and these can sound better than the typical retail release (when played in quality environments) for reasons not related to raw bit rate and resolution. Retail tracks are processed to sound “better” when played in difficult conditions out in the street -- this is what sells music. These processed versions don’t always sound “better” to more sophisticated listeners using high quality equipment, playing in a high quality environment.

Bottom line for SONOS users: If the file plays (192 files will not play), don’t worry too much about the raw uncompressed bit rate. Processing along the way is much more important. I realize that it’s an annoyance if you bought a 192 version and you’ll need to down sample it in order to play on a SONOS system, but this is a one time conversion. Note that a sloppy down conversion could result in some unnecessary lost quality.

If the Play:1s were capable of doing all the necessary processing reliably then why would Sonos not implement it? Other speakers, such as the gen 2 Play:5, received a free upgrade. I suspect the answer lies in the small amounts of memory in the Play:1 compared with the current range of products. 

I am running S2. The confusing thing is that when I look at what devices are listed as being 24 bit compatible, the Play 1 is not on that list. Does this change when paired with a Playbar because Playbar is on the list of compatible devices?

Please see my first post on this thread.

Using Amazon Music Unlimited the Playbar (and surrounds) is limited to HD (16-bit) playback, not Ultra HD (24-bit)

However, I’ve read elsewhere the Playbar is capable of playing 24-bit from Qobuz, but I’ve never used Qobuz.

The original post mentions Arc, but then he mentions Playbar in the text I’ve quoted. I assumed he had both?!

I have this set up.  The app says Ultra HD.

I don’t have a precise explanation for this, but I would point out that the nature of the connection is different.  Sonos talk of the Sub being “bonded” in a HT setup, where direct routing over 5GHz is used for the connection.  When the Sub is connected to music speakers it is said that the Sub is “paired”, and it doesn’t use 5GHz direct routing.  I am not sure whether direct routing over 2.4GHz is used, or WiFi, or SonosNet (if applicable).

Ah, forgive me @Mr. T, I had forgotten about that matter with the Sub (gen2) and wasn’t sure if it was with older, or newer surrounds, but you have just jogged my memory.

I know that master devices decode and play the audio to their surrounds/slaves, whereas grouped speakers all get the same stereo file from the GC, but just play their own audio channel only, even though both channels are sent to all.. In fact I’ve coincidentally discussed that topic recently with ratty. I just wasn’t entirely sure if the bonded older surrounds might drag down the master to request the 16bit track only - although I had it in my mind that 24bit audio would play in this situation. 

So I will go another few months now and try not to forget this fact again.. (thankyou too @John B🙏, for bringing certainty to this discussion). I was hovering on the fence about what ‘might’ happen with this sort of setup.

Apologies to OP for digressing this thread!

Anyway, quick Search for “Bonded” and the first thing that comes up under Support is:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/create-a-stereo-pair

Admittedly, despite that articles wording, I agree with @John B, many experienced users and Staff in the community here tend to use ‘bonded’ when discussing HT’s and describe the Surrounds and Sub as being ‘bonded’ with/to the master Arc/Beam etc… whereas same/similar Sonos speakers are (stereo) ‘paired’ to each other and Sonos rooms (same/different) are ‘grouped’ (often that’s a temporary configuration). I see that linked article wording as ‘just an exception to the usual rule’ 😀 ha ha.