John Darko
In this post, I hope to tackle some of the issues raised in the comments section of my recent video about Apple Music’s leaky hi-res plumbing. Apple certainly doesn’t make it easy for us to get CD-quality and hi-res audio from its streaming service and into our hi-fi and headphone systems. And today I want to add a few extra points of interest to the conversation before firmly drawing a line under the matter.
Let’s start with my almost-dead iPad. The battery no longer holds a charge for more than a couple of hours. But the iPad – an Air 2 – had a good run. I bought it back in 2014 for around AU$600. Kindly remember that fact as we’ll be coming back to it. Also impressive is that this iPad Air 2 received regular software updates from Apple right up until the battery’s full demise last month. Almost ten years of updates isn’t bad. Remember this as well because we’ll also be coming back to it.
One comment that continues to surface is how we (apparently) don’t need to worry about Apple AirPlay when Bluetooth powered by Sony’s LDAC codec on an Android phone can handle hi-res audio’s carriage just fine. And that, audio friends, is flatly untrue. LDAC will carry a hi-res file over a Bluetooth connection but it can only do so by first discarding some audio data. Ergo, it’s not lossless. Per Sony’s website explainer, LDAC isn’t even lossless in its handling of CD-quality audio. The only way to carry CD quality content losslessly over Bluetooth (at the time of writing) is to pair an iFi Neo iDSD 2 DAC – or the Bose QC Ultra headphones – with a smartphone equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound chipset and its aptX Lossless codec. And even with those bits of Bluetooth hardware in play, lossless hi-res remains very much out of reach.
Another common area of confusion relates to the Apple TV 4K. I’ve seen some commenters assert that it sends hi-res audio out of its HDMI port, when in reality it does not. Well, not the hi-res that most audiophiles think of i.e. 24bit/96kHz or 24bit/192kHz. How do we know this? Firstly, Apple’s own website tells us that the Apple TV’s hi-res support tops out at 48kHz. Secondly, a quick dive into the Music app’s settings panel on the Apple TV allows us to bump up the audio output from AAC 256kbps to Apple Lossless – but only to 24bit/48kHz. This means anything higher will be downsampled to 48kHz – which my Mytek DAC confirms. That same DAC also tells me that CD-quality streams are upsampled by the Apple TV 4K to 48kHz. So the Apple TV is not bit-perfect. From a personal point of view, I don’t mind because I’m not so much of a hi-res enthusiast or a bit-perfect diehard but I can see how it might rub some audiophile idealists the wrong way.
Sonos devices operate in a similar manner where hi-res support tops out at 48kHz on all of them but I don’t think CD-quality streams are upsampled to 48kHz. Sonos is an important part of the Apple Music conversation as it is the only company to be given permission by Apple to integrate Apple Music into its app. Sonos gets this special treatment because it’s an enormously popular streaming platform; and the likes of WiiM and Roon much less so. They are plankton to Apple’s blue whale. And this should be all the explanation we need to understand why we won’t see Apple Music integrated by Roon or WiiM anytime soon, if ever. The trick yet to be mastered by some audiophiles is to fully realise just how narrow is our audiophile niche.
There have been some murmurings of late of Android 14 dispensing with its 48kHz sample rate conversion. From the Android Developers Blog: “Android 14 gains support for lossless audio formats for audiophile-level experiences over USB wired headsets. You can query a USB device for its preferred mixer attributes, register a listener for changes in preferred mixer attributes, and configure mixer attributes using a new AudioMixerAttributes class. It represents the format, such as channel mask, sample rate, and behavior of the audio mixer. The class allows for audio to be sent directly, without mixing, volume adjustment, or processing effects. We are working with our OEM partners to enable this feature in devices later this year.”
Before we get carried away: we should consider which smartphone models have received an Android 14 update. At the time of writing, it’s only the last few generations of Pixel devices that seem to have gotten in on the good stuff. Early access to new OS releases is a Pixel privilege. I own the Google Pixel 7 Pro, which recently received its Android 14 update. That brings us to our next question: does Android 14 still resample all digital audio streams to 48kHz? Yes, it does. So whatever the Google engineers have in store for Android’s SRC, it isn’t with us yet.
There are two caveats to this. USB Audio Player Pro circumvents Android’s SRC but doesn’t integrate Apple Music (and likely never will) — and it doesn’t let us offline content. Roon ARC running on Android optionally loads in its own USB driver for bit-perfect playback between it and a USB DAC but Roon doesn’t integrate Apple Music (and likely never will). ARC’s key advantages are its ability to offline content from local libraries – but not Tidal and Qobuz – and an extensive new DSP feature set called MUSE. The crossfeed settings for headphones inside MUSE are most welcome.
Remember my iPad Air 2? Its settings panel tells me it’s running iPadOS 15.7.9 – an update released by Apple last month for older iPhones and iPads. Apple seems to really care about the long-term support of its devices. So we have to ask: for how long will the likes of FiiO and Eversolo issue software updates for their Android-based network streamers? The R7 runs Android 10 because, according to FiiO, it comes tied (by their supplier) to the Snapdragon 660 SoC used inside the R7. Unfortunately, Google ceased issuing security updates for Android 10 in March of this year. The Android 11 running on the Eversolo DMP-A6 is still supported by Google — but for how long?
We don’t need to ring the alarm bell just yet. An absence of security updates doesn’t render the device unusable overnight but it could, in time, open a security hole in your home network. At that is a maybe. And even if we do eventually decide to cut off the FiiO or the Eversolo from the internet due to security concerns, both units would still function as DACs. The R7 would also continue to operate as a file server thanks to its SDcard slot. And it’s also a very powerful (3+ Watt) THX headphone amplifier. The FiiO’s headphone amplifier is one reason why I think it bests an iPad as a source for Apple Music – which brings us to my final point.
I now have to buy a new iPad. If I want one with USB-C to sidestep the Lightning adapter, I’m looking at at least $450. If I then wanted to turn my new iPad into an Apple Music streaming source, I’d also need a USB-C dongle adapter to keep the iPad fed with power whilst simultaneously pulling digital audio from its USB socket. That’s another $10-20. I could then add an iFi Zen 2 DAC for another $200, which would give me decent D/A conversion and balanced headphone drive – just like the FiiO. Only now my running total sits at $650 – but I’m still short the SD card reader and the adapter cable needed to turn the iFi’s 4.4mm Pentaconn socket into XLR connectors. From iFi, that’s another $100 – which then pushes my spending well north of the R7’s asking price.
My point? iPads and their accessories don’t come for free. They cost money. Just like the FiiO and the Eversolo. And yes, I can definitely appreciate the irony of recommending Android devices to solve an Apple problem.
Further information: Apple Music
