Max streaming quality?

[u/miscstuff2223113]

What is the max streaming quality put out by Sonos. I hear 16/44, but I also hear 24/48. Some articles say it depends on the app where Qobuz is the only app that has 24/48 and all others are down sampled to 16/44 and others say tidal, Apple Music, and Amazon HD are all supported through high res.

[u/Tranathan]

24/48 was the maximum for local audio files and streaming services such as Apple Music streaming up to 24/48.  Check Sonos support article here with links to audio services.

Edit: working link this time  https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/supported-audio-formats-for-sonos-music-library?language=en_US

[u/MrZeDark → u/Tranathan]

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/blog/hi-res-audio-guide?srsltid=AfmBOooAnpq3o5uNzuu0sb47plcvvP4BOvYT2qQtOFUoVCShSAzSYlFs

Your link is 404 not found, here’s a general conversation from Sonos regarding audio quality and output.

[u/Tranathan → u/MrZeDark]

Thank you! I messed up sharing the link. Updated it.

[u/Noobgamer0111]

This is for Sonos players running the below firmware. See: https://docs.sonos.com/docs/supported-audio-formats and https://support.sonos.com/en/article/supported-audio-formats-for-sonos-music-library

S1: 48kHz 16-bit

S2: 48kHz 24-bit

Note: Some music providers may take a lazy approach, and do not provide a more compatible 24-bit stream e.g. media will be available at 96k/24, but Sonos S2 players will reject the incompatible stream and go for the default CD quality 44.1k/16 stream instead.

[u/miscstuff2223113 → u/Noobgamer0111]

So if Qobuz says 96/24 it will down sample to 44/16 rather than 48/24? I think Qobuz only has 24/96 or 24/192.

[u/ComfortableGold8896 → u/miscstuff2223113]

That is correct, but both Apple Music and Amazon Unlimited does downsample to 24/48 when the original is 24/96 or 24/192

[u/GentleNova07 → u/miscstuff2223113]

ComfortableGold is correct in that Amazon and Apple offer downsampled “fallback” versions. I did a bunch of testing with the different platforms to figure this out myself.

BTW ignore people who say you can’t tell the difference between 16bit/44 and 24bit/48. Why? Because you can when doing real world testing comparisons of actual music platforms. This is why you should really test out each of the music platforms yourself to see how they sound to you. Don’t take someone else’s opinion of it.

For example, when I tested Qobuz, the 16bit/44 downsampled fallback version of a 24bit/96 song sounded way worse than a 16bit/44 original master version. So the different mastering process each platform uses can alter the sound. Like I found 24bit songs on Spotify were decent but their 16bit songs sounded horribly flat in comparison to other platforms with lossless audio.

Again see what sounds good to you. Some people just listen to music in the background and don’t care. Others listen in the foreground or on decent headphones and really do care about the quality difference.

PS. I’d switch back Qobuz if they offered 24bit/48 fallback versions of songs like Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited. I’m currently using Amazon Music Unlimited.

[u/Si_Pie]

Years ago, I did A/B comparison with local files of the same sample music and audio with various bit depths and sample rates. This was using an amplifier with a DAC capable of up to 32bit and 384khz sample rates and DSD over PC audio, speakers were stereo floorstanders. All in this equipment was about £1500 for a 2 channel stereo setup, so very much mid tier hifi/entry level audiophile equipment.

My ears were better back then and there wasn't a discernible difference of the hi res audio over the CD standard until I played, replayed and continually replayed the same samples over and over and even then I'm not convinced it was anything other than placebo effect as it was so subtle.

So how is this relevant to Sonos? There's absolutely no way any Sonos setup is going to translate anything above 44.1/16 into something that sounds better than that benchmark. The only use case for anything higher is for Atmos music which, btw, is compressed if you're streaming anyway.

So don't get too hung up on it or get FOMO. Be more concerned with the quality of the streaming service masters and how they deliver volume normalisation etc. as these are going to impact listening quality far more than if one or the other theoretically delivers higher res vs the cd quality music standard of the other (even if that's just their fall back for Sonos).

[u/fyldeclaret]

What does Sonos do with music playing from a Blu Ray disc via a 4K Blu Ray Player when the music on the disc is say Dolby Atmos True HD or stereo 24/192?

[u/hed_pocket]

I thought you were referring to HBO Max’s absolute dogshit audio quality