iPad Air 2 to denon Avr-x1700h - Apple Music

[rwnano]

Anyone use a Dedicated Audio Player DAP - like an old smartphone with a 3.5 mm jack or some such solution...?? Whats the best way to get the best sound through this - I have a OnePlus 5 as a DAP .

And how would this compare with say a dedicated laptop running Spotify outputting through a topping d10s DAC. are different Dac outputs merely academic?

 

[mbhangui]

Thta

That doesn't sound right to me

Airport Express and the older macbook did something innovative. The 3.5 mm jack had analog output as well as Digital output using SPDIF (Sony Philip Digital Interface). So you connect a 3.5 mm jack you got analog output. If you inserted a mini toslink jack you got optical Digial SPDIF output. I know you have a old macbook. Just insert a mini toslink and you will see the other end of the digital cable emitting a red light. If you have an AVR with optical input, just connect your AE to it and listen to the magic. It is much better than Apple TV and also macbook in case you don't have to run the Audio Midi setup (I have all these apple devices).

This is how a 3.5 mm mini toslink looks like

For some reason, Apple disbanded their entire network engineering team and along with that died Airport Express and Airport Extreme routers and the time capsule devices


Apple also made this lovely Apple HiFi speaker to which you could connect the optical cable from the Airport Express. You could also connect a 3.5mm audio analog output and also mount the now discontinued IPOD at the top to play music. My Apple Hifi, IPOD and AE is still being used as shown here. My speaker is running now for around 17 years. IIRC, I got it for < Rs 15,000 in 2006. It can run on D cell batteries too and sounds better than Bose. Also my AE connects to it using a optical digital cable. It has a remote too and the new Apple TV remote too can control it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Hi-Fi

 

[rwnano]

Really appreciate your kindness and generosity of guidance sir

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Really appreciate your kindness and generosity of guidance sir

Hope now you believe.

 

[MichelP]

It will be lossy if you select AirPlay from within the Apple Music app in your Mac. However, it will be lossless if you select the speaker globally from the menu bar at the top of your Mac.

that can be useful, do you have some link with more info about this?

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

that can be useful, do you have some link with more info about this?

There were some links I’d seen in other threads on this subject, but can’t remember them now. @mbhangui, can you help? However, if it helps, my DAC (Cambridge CXN) shows the format. When I select Airplay from Apple Music App, the CXN display shows AAC, while if I select Airplay globally (from the top bar in MacOS), it shows ALAC (lossless).

 

[mbhangui]

There were some links I’d seen in other threads on this subject, but can’t remember them now. @mbhangui, can you help? However, if it helps, my DAC (Cambridge CXN) shows the format. When I select Airplay from Apple Music App, the CXN display shows AAC, while if I select Airplay globally (from the top bar in MacOS), it shows ALAC (lossless).

Here is the link to the article. This is the second part of a two part article written on the apple music lossless mess that folks have to struggle with if they don't use a iOS device (iphone or ipad). Even apple's own products macbooks and apple tv are messy when playing lossless content.

Apple Music Lossless Mess Part 2: AirPlay

Earlier this month I dug into Apple Music's Lossless and Hi-Res offerings, running several bit perfect rests on the audio output of my Macs and iOS devices. The results were less than stellar (link). This week I dug into Apple Music lossless over AirPlay. One would think that the results would be...

audiophilestyle.com

 

[rajivaryan1984]

You are right. And that’s why the AirPort Express option outlined above. It plays lossless bit perfect via Airplay unlike when you Airplay directly from iPad to AVR. The only other way to Airplay lossless to your AVR is from a MacBook by selecting the AVR in the global settings.

So Sachin are you saying that using AirPort Express, we can play Hi-Res Apple Music wirelessly ?

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

So Sachin are you saying that using AirPort Express, we can play Hi-Res Apple Music wirelessly ?

No. The cap is at 16 bit/44.1 KHz (so CD quality uncompressed). Anything above that would get downsampled. Rumours say that there’s a provision for 24/192 on Airplay 2, but hasn’t been implemented by Apple yet.

 

[mbhangui]

So Sachin are you saying that using AirPort Express, we can play Hi-Res Apple Music wirelessly ?

16/44.1 kHz bit perfect. Bit perfect is something even the macbook and apple tv cannot do. Apart from Airport Express, only the IOS devices (iphone and ipads) can do bit perfect natively. To have macbooks do bit perfect, you need to switch the sampling rate every time the song bit rate changes using audio midi app or install a 3rd part app called lossless switcher. Apple TV can never do bit perfect like android version 13 and below. Android 14 will come with the capability when it gets released with few issues to be resolved - https://github.com/androidx/media/issues/415. Google announced that bit perfect playback (Lossless USB audio) will be available on the pixel 8 and any android once OEMs support it. But it also requires app developers to support this new API as well