Apple Music in high res on my Ultra
- Thread starter Bozzz
- Start date
-
- Tags
- apple music
EddNog
Major Contributor
DIRAC Live, which absolutely crushes RoomFit™.
There are also a good number of us that wanted the LFE downmix for movie watching, which WiiM does not do either.
In addition to that, I did not yet mention three additional movie watching features that work well and WiiM lacks, which are Night mode (dynamic compression for low volume listening), a speech enhancement function with 5 different levels, and a non-gimmicky Virtual surround filter that simulates surround sound from a 2-channel system. The M1 significantly exceeds the WiiM’s performance for movie watching. This of course won’t matter to people who only use their WiiMs for music listening, which is understandable.
Oh yes and many people have wanted WiiM to support third party/universal remotes like Sofabaton. Well the M1 does, as it has IR remote control learning. I use a One-for-All universal remote with my M1 which also controls my Apple TV 4K and my Sharp television.
-Ed
Last edited:
EddNog
Major Contributor
Danny Linguini
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2024
- Messages
- 140
Ol’ decisive me kept going back and forth on this, and I finally too the plunge. The little (and I mean little) Cubilux adapter is working great plugged into my iPad. Listening to some Pink Floyd now, will give it a good thrashing over the next few days as time and cohabitants permit. So far, so good - everything is working as it should, and sounds pretty nice. I’ve bookmarked that Lyconic page and will splurge on that if it looks like this setup will be a keeper. Also have an optic switcher in my shopping list to be able to flip between music and tv into the Amp Ultra.
So far, I don’t know if it’s placebo, but Wish You Were Here is sounding pretty clear and detailed. Definitely seems to be more dynamic range. Other than the convenience of only needing a couple of taps on my phone to get things making noise, it all seems good.
So far, I don’t know if it’s placebo, but Wish You Were Here is sounding pretty clear and detailed. Definitely seems to be more dynamic range. Other than the convenience of only needing a couple of taps on my phone to get things making noise, it all seems good.
Danny Linguini
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2024
- Messages
- 140
Questions about Lysoniq, just to make sure I’ve got this right. At first I thought this was just a highly functioning remote control app that mirrored Apple Music from the source device, but I see that it’s almost a clone of Apple Music with the addition of cross-device connectivity. Very cool, and I’d have to assume they have Apple’s blessing(I’m surprised), or it would never have been allowed in the App Store. Anybody want to take bets on Apple acquiring this and incorporating it into Apple Music natively?
Now, as far as actually using it, it appears that:
1, you need the app installed and running on both the controlling and source devices.
2, the ‘source’ device apparently is defined as the one playing first. Which seems important because I accidentally got the roles reversed by hitting Play on the iPhone first, thinking it would automagically play on the iPad, but it didn’t do that. Instead it ended up playing on the phone with the iPad controlling it. I restarted the app on both devices, hit Play on the iPad, then was able to control it from the iPhone from there. I did not see anywhere in Settings to assign a role to a device, so I’m assuming this is how those roles get established.
Do I have this about right? Anything else I need to know?
Now, as far as actually using it, it appears that:
1, you need the app installed and running on both the controlling and source devices.
2, the ‘source’ device apparently is defined as the one playing first. Which seems important because I accidentally got the roles reversed by hitting Play on the iPhone first, thinking it would automagically play on the iPad, but it didn’t do that. Instead it ended up playing on the phone with the iPad controlling it. I restarted the app on both devices, hit Play on the iPad, then was able to control it from the iPhone from there. I did not see anywhere in Settings to assign a role to a device, so I’m assuming this is how those roles get established.
Do I have this about right? Anything else I need to know?
EddNog
Major Contributor
Everything sounds right to me. I did not realize that the one playing first is established as master, as I hit play on the iPad before the phone when I went to use it the first time and have done the same since, since it works.
-Ed
Mike in NY
Senior Member
But will Apple actually include support for either the LDAC, or LC3plus codecs that are necessary for hi-res playback? Don't be surprised when they ignore every question posed about this topic and quietly stick with the AAC codec only.
Apple sells lots of AirPods, they will never enable those hi-res codecs in iOS until such time as support for them is included with some future version of the AirPods, and that might not ever happen due to battery consumption concerns. Hi-res Bluetooth chug-a-lugs battery due to the inherently larger files sizes being processed.
Danny Linguini
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2024
- Messages
- 140
Good question. Everything I’ve read says the technology ‘supports codecs like LC3+ and LDAC for audio up to 32-bit/96kHz.’ But I haven’t seen anything about these new devices taking advantage of it yet.
As for AirPods, I don’t understand the point of hi-res audio in them other than bragging rights on the spec sheet. Personally I think they absolutely suck for listening to music. Making them hi-res capable will only make them bit-perfectly suck.
Mike in NY
Senior Member
I would think it more likely Apple would develop an "AACplus", or "AAC-HD" of their own before ever paying to license LDAC from Sony, or LC3plus from Ericsson.
The rub for Apple there is that while there is no license fee to use LDAC on the source/transmit side, there is a license fee to use it on the decoder/playback side. Apple will most likely never make the AirPods LDAC compatible for that reason. I'm not sure how LC3plus works from a licensing perspective, butI'm guessing it's the same, as is Qualcomm's aptX lossless.
So long as they don't adopt lossless Bluetooth codecs for the AirPods or HomePod, they will also omit it from iOS too.
Another clue lies with the AirPods Max, which are larger over the ear headphones that have space for a larger battery, however Apple elected to make those compatible with lossless only over a USB-C cable connection, they lack support for lossless over wireless.
Danny Linguini
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2024
- Messages
- 140
All good points. Apple does have ALAC, which currently requires a wired connection. I’m guessing they’re waiting to be able to address the concerns you previously noted before releasing any listening devices that could support it. In the meantime (or in lieu of), we have the next best thing with this Lysoniq app, as long as you have a second iOS device to anchor to your DAC/amp.
Being able to even do that is an unexpected surprise for me; all I wanted was to Bluetooth Apple Music from an i-device to an amp and sound half way decent when I threw this rig together. Being able to get hi-res at a very modest additional cost is icing on the cake. Being able to get that all over Bluetooth would be a whole added investment in new gear that could support it anyway, so I’m good now.
Danny Linguini
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2024
- Messages
- 140
You can manually set the source device. I contacted the developer (info@lysoniq.app) with my suggestion, and he got back within an hour with the steps that are already in the app.
Tap on the song playing in the play/pause control to bring up the full screen song display. At the bottom of the screen, tap the WiFi symbol.
This brings up the Lync list of devices on the network currently running the Lysoniq app. Just tap the one you want as the source (the one connected to your amp or/external DAC. The device list is dynamic - if you start the app on another device while you’re in this list, it will pop up in the list. This guy is good.
And now y’all know Danny Linguini isn’t my real name (as if there was ever any doubt).
Must admit I recoil a bit when I see Bluetooth and 32/96 in the same sentence, which some could take as suggesting it’s lossless. Unless they have developed some super-duper lossless compression algorithm, the bitrates of the newer codecs are still a fraction of a losslessly compressed FLAC file.
Understanding Bluetooth codecs
Want to know more about wireless audio? Take our crash course in Bluetooth codecs, bitrate, standards, and uses from SBC to LDAC and more.
www.soundguys.com
Danny Linguini
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2024
- Messages
- 140
Found another interesting feature in Lysoniq - BACKGROUND MODE in Settings. When switched on, it basically makes that device the dedicated source device. The app still needs to be running on the source device to play music and be controlled from another, even though it shows up in the Lync device list as the source when the app isn’t running on it.
Scenario: I set BACKGROUND MODE to On on the iPad, then closed the app. In the app on my iPhone, both iPhone and iPad show up in the Lync window, with iPad set as the source. Selecting an album or track and tapping Play on the iPhone did nothing until I started the app and initiated album/track selection and hit Play on the iPad first.
From what I can see, BACKGROUND MODE serves two purposes: establishes one device as the source for the current and all future sessions; and, it ensures uninterrupted connectivity when the screen times out on the source device. Although I didn’t experience any interruptions when my screen shut off, I guess it’s a possibility that it could happen with that setting turned off.
Scenario: I set BACKGROUND MODE to On on the iPad, then closed the app. In the app on my iPhone, both iPhone and iPad show up in the Lync window, with iPad set as the source. Selecting an album or track and tapping Play on the iPhone did nothing until I started the app and initiated album/track selection and hit Play on the iPad first.
From what I can see, BACKGROUND MODE serves two purposes: establishes one device as the source for the current and all future sessions; and, it ensures uninterrupted connectivity when the screen times out on the source device. Although I didn’t experience any interruptions when my screen shut off, I guess it’s a possibility that it could happen with that setting turned off.
