Want to play apple high res lossless. Yamaha HQ tech say no way to do this!? R-N2000A

[Mtnbikerva1]

I spoke with 3 tech people at YAMAHA AND GOT 3 different answers!
1 said it was impossible to play any Apple Music. 1 said I had to buy a Apple TV 4K to play Apple high res Lossless/HRL. Another said I have to buy a Apple TV and a actual tv.
This seems very odd to me.
There must be a way.
Couldn't I buy a separate DAC and plug it into the ANALOG/RCA inputs?
with all those inputs there must be a way.
I am interested in sound quality over quantity, this is why I do not want surround sound.
I can get the Yamaha R-N2000A for $3k so 1k savings initially felt like a bargain.
Is there a far better and less expensive way to take full advantage of apple HRL music?
The YPAO room correction sounds interesting, but is it not good?
I will be listening with Sennheiser HD 589/599/600 headphones, I really like wired headphones. At least initially tower speakers the Defenitive Technology BP-8 speakers, that were kindly given to me along with their Powerfield 1500 sub. Not sure I want to listen to the sub.
I listen to non auto tuned and non gridded music, like country western, bluegrass, rock till the mostly mid late 90's, pipe organ, melodic jazz, new age, progressive, R&B,
a cappella, bag pipes, practically no rap.
Room is 15 X 13 and 8 foot ceilings.

Thank you for your wisdom.

 

[lovinthehd]

What do you have for pre-amp/processor/amp now? Surround can be very high quality, 2ch is just limited....to 2ch.

ps Why apple particularly for a source?

 

[Trebdp83]

Apple hi-res is a mess. It cannot be accessed but from an iOS device or Mac connected to an external DAC.

 

[TLS Guy]

I spoke with 3 tech people at YAMAHA AND GOT 3 different answers!
1 said it was impossible to play any Apple Music. 1 said I had to buy a Apple TV 4K to play Apple high res Lossless/HRL. Another said I have to buy a Apple TV and a actual tv.
This seems very odd to me.
There must be a way.
Couldn't I buy a separate DAC and plug it into the ANALOG/RCA inputs?
with all those inputs there must be a way.
I am interested in sound quality over quantity, this is why I do not want surround sound.
I can get the Yamaha R-N2000A for $3k so 1k savings initially felt like a bargain.
Is there a far better and less expensive way to take full advantage of apple HRL music?
The YPAO room correction sounds interesting, but is it not good?
I will be listening with Sennheiser HD 589/599/600 headphones, I really like wired headphones. At least initially tower speakers the Defenitive Technology BP-8 speakers, that were kindly given to me along with their Powerfield 1500 sub. Not sure I want to listen to the sub.
I listen to non auto tuned and non gridded music, like country western, bluegrass, rock till the mostly mid late 90's, pipe organ, melodic jazz, new age, progressive, R&B,
a cappella, bag pipes, practically no rap.
Room is 15 X 13 and 8 foot ceilings.

Thank you for your wisdom.

Just forget Apple for music. It is a proprietary scam.

I installed the app on my LG C3 OLED TV, and the quality was awful by any standard. I found this was the only way to get Apple high res audio:-

You can listen to Lossless Audio through an Apple TV or Mac.

On a Mac running macOS 11.4 or above, you must click on Music > Preferences in the menu bar when running the Apple Music app. Click on the Playback tab, and switch on Lossless under Audio Quality.

Yes, those are your only options.

Worse I cancelled my trial period after a couple of days. However they charged my anyway, and I had a horrible time stopping the charges for their awful system.

My HTPC is Windows 10, and I'm not getting a Mac.

Do yourself a favor and forget the Apple universe. I do use an Apple phone, but that is as far as I'm going into their universe.

 

[Trebdp83]

There is still far too much confusion over Apple Music and it is mostly Apple's fault. So, to clarify...

1. Apple hi-res is only currently available using Apple iOS devices or Mac OS devices connected to external DACs.

2. Apple Lossless is delivered via ALAC to iOS, Mac OS and Android devices. Any other platform is most likely receiving a lossy AAC signal.

3. Airplay 2, while supporting bit perfect lossless signals depending on the sound settings of the source device, does not support Apple Music hi-res.

4. Apple Music's Dolby Atmos tracks are only supported on the Apple TV 4K using HDMI outputting Dolby MAT(Audio enhanced Metadata Transmission) . Macs do not support Dolby MAT or bitstream of Dolby Atmos over HDMI. However, the Atmos/DD+ 7.1 tracks can be had in LPCM 7.1 sans metadata when the Audio MIDI Setup Output Format is set to 8 channel 5.1.2 or 7.1 configuration. Applying the Dolby Surround up mixer works wonderfully with those signals and two channel signals with those configurations do not require Dolby Center Spread to be active in the AVR as the Mac will sorts vocals out itself before signal is sent. Neat trick that.

5. Airplay 2 does not support Apple Music's Dolby Atmos and any Dolby Atmos tracks sent over Airplay 2 will be delivered in two channel lossless formats.

6. ALL streamed Dolby Atmos tracks from any service are lossy DD+ 7.1 based signals and only discs and downloads support Dolby TrueHD based Dolby Atmos. The Apple TV 4K does not support Dolby TueHD.

Anyone interested in streaming Dolby Atmos music can check into Amazon Music, Apple Music, or Tidal. There is info out there that Spotify, while still working on getting lossless service out there, will also offer Dolby Atmos tracks. One must check for the supported devices for Dolby Atmos for each service. It's a mess out there.

While I love my LG C1, there are known issues with audio output via ARC and eARC in LG TVs. They can do their own re-encoding of signals before sent out to ARC/eARC supporting devices and potentially screw things up if not set up properly. But, no, Apple Music lossless and Dolby Atmos will not be had from their Apple Music app.

Those with Yamaha processors and receivers need look no further than Qobuz for hi-res music. Even their lossless, non hi-res tracks sound fantastic. It is a quality service and the Yamaha MusicCast app is second to none. A free trial of Qobuz can be had easily enough. I think music streamed through Qobuz/MusicCast on the Yamaha R-N2000A connected to quality headphones or speakers would be quite the good time. Results will vary of course. Marty Robbins' "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs" sounds perfectly delightful streamed from Qobuz/MusicCast on my Yamaha RX-V6A.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I have streamed Apple Lossless files to my Yamaha AVR and AVP many times using MusicCast.

Only question is, why buy a $3K Stereo Receiver w/ 90W into 8 ohms when you can just get a Yamaha AVR like the RX-A4 or A6 (150W x 2CH 8-ohms, 0.001% THD+N) with more power output?

Unless you are doing it for aesthetics?

 

[Trebdp83]

Lossless files downloaded from one outfit or another and played from storage on a local network to a receiver on that same network is one thing. Streaming from the Apple Music service is another thing. Apple Music is not a supported service in MusicCast. Hi-res streams can be had from Amazon Music and Qobuz through MusicCast but Apple Music is not supported at all.

Now, there are those that believe hi-res streams offer no benefit that can be heard. I'm more inclined to believe that these days as lossless streams using Airplay 2 sound every bit as good as hi-res streams. Results and opinions will vary of course. But, one could simply stream Apple Music tracks from an iOS or Mac OS device using Airplay 2 to an Airplay 2 capable receiver and be perfectly happy with the audio presentation. As I've mentioned in other threads, Airplay 2 has no zone restrictions and can be sent to multiple zones in multiple receivers. I've sent music from one iOS device to eight different zones using four different receivers. One of those receivers was a Yamaha and the others all Onkyos. A robust wi-fi network is a must in trying to pull something like that off.

 

[fmw]

I spent some time testing music compression some time ago comparing CD's to 320 MP3's to find out if the compression removed any audible content. To make a long story short I found that, for the most part the compression removed inaudible content. There were a few instances with some types of music that I thought I could hear some differences but the differences were trivial. Without a direct side by side comparison they would be non existent.

The test was to determine how to encode my CD's for use on a hard drive. I decided to use 320 MP3 instead of WAV for FLAC. I don't play CD's any longer. Instead I stream the MP3's from a computer to any of my 3 systems in the house. I'm surprised anyone is concerned about high quality compressed formats. They do a great job.

I have nothing to add about Apple anything here. I don't allow Apple products in my house unless a guest brings his or her Iphone and then leaves with it..

 

[Trebdp83]

Many do think 320 MP3 is sufficient. But, it is lossy and some will turn to ALAC or FLAC for lossless compression of their CD rips instead of it. Those who do not believe in any kind of compression of their CD rips can use AIFF or WAV if they have the space available for storage of such files.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Streaming from the Apple Music service is another thing. Apple Music Service is not a supported service in MusicCast.

Oh, didn't know that.

Yeah, all my lossless Apple files are on my network.

 

[snakeeyes]

The CD quality of 16bit 44.1kHz is good enough. AppleTV 4K is a convenient way to enjoy Apple Music even though it can only do up to 24bit 48kHz. Also the Spatial Audio music is included for Atmos. $10 a month is cheap.

Perhaps on future models they can increase the bitrate and sample rate for lossless, but only dogs and dolphins will know the difference. LOL

 

[Trebdp83]

The 24bit 48kHz is fine for those who are not opposed to output that is not bit perfect. Some want no tampering of signals at all. The Apple TV 4K and Macs using an HDMI connection will output lossless tracks in 24/48. Even when using USB port to an external DAC, the Macs will not keep the signal the same on its way out and some use a third party app to switch things on the fly.

Apple Music hi-res is a bigger mess than Tidal's MQA. As was mentioned in another thread, Tidal may very well be gearing up to use FLAC for hi-res and be done with MQA as its future is now unknown. Again, for those wanting a trouble free hi-res streaming experience from a subscribed service using the MusicCast app with their Yamaha receiver, Amazon Music Unlimited and Qobuz are the two best options and require no additional hardware to use.

 

[snakeeyes]

MusicCast is cool. I use it for zone 2 in my garage where my treadmill is. But I just use my free Deezer account or my free Pandora account for that. Apple not supported obviously.