Hi Paul. When the Airlens was first introduced, there was no Apple Airplay support because the required chips were not available. At least that’s what came out of the chat at that time.
Has this been resolved? You are saying Airplay is now supported by the Airlens?
Is this a relatively new upgrade?
When in the Apple Music app on my iPhone, I do not see my Airlens as an available end point.
Regards
Mark
From the website, AirLens connectivity:
• DLNA 1.5 & UPnP AV 1.0 Digital Media Renderer
• Spotify Connect
• Roon Ready
• TIDAL Connect
• Qobuz (through Roon)
• Dropbox (through Roon)
• MQA
Given the complexity/availability of the Airplay chip, never understood why they didn’t implement a software workaround like Shairport (AirPlay emulator). Might be a reason.
It’s not the Airlens, but the Holo Audio Red supports Airplay 2 and Roon and a bunch of others.
I have one and I can confirm that I can stream from the Music app to the Red.
It also has PSAudio compatible I2S digital out.
Bonus!
You will still have the same issues regarding bitrate mangling and general non-bit perfectness you and others have described.
Agree, the Holo Red is the better solution to what you are trying to do and as a bonus half the price.
I guess I could always connect the Mac to the DAC via USB and switch to that when I want to stream Apple Music. For some reason I thought the Stellar DAC didn’t even HAVE a USB input, but it does. It would just be nice to do it over ethernet through the AirLens, and maybe that is possible somehow, but it’s only about once every 3 months I need to stream from AM anyway.
I use the Bit-Perfect plug-in which takes over from Apple Music when it plays your own digital files. But it doesn’t work with the streaming side of AM. And it sucks when it comes to gapless playback.
Otherwise, the MIDI utility has to be used
Will the MIDI utility find an ethernet device? if so, it might be able to connect to the AirLens.
Good question. Currently I don’t have any ethernet connected Apple hardware so I am unable to test.
No problem, I appreciate all your help anyway. When I get all this hooked up, I’ll report back.
Replying to myself I guess, but I do have an update on Apple OS and AirLens. In short, it doesn’t work. I knew the Sound app (part of System Settings) wouldn’t see it, but was hopeful I might be able to create a “bridge” using the Audio MIDI Setup app. Nope. So I’m back to USB for whenever I want to stream something on Apple Music through my new Stellar Gold DAC. I guess what’s disappointing is knowing there are a LOT of Apple computer users in the audiophile realm who would want to stream data via ethernet and not have to be tied to Roon, who are Apple Music subscribers and would want AirLens to be seen by Mac’s Sound app. It can be done, as told by Mr. AI when Googling “can Apple OS Sound see an ethernet-connected device?”
Yes, if an audio-capable ethernet-connected device is set up correctly, macOS “Sound” settings will typically be able to recognize and select it as an output device.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
This refers to using an Ethernet-based network to distribute digital audio, which is a common technique in professional audio and broadcast settings.
When an AoE compatible device is connected to your network, macOS’s “System Settings” > “Sound” section will typically recognize it as a potential audio output, like other connected devices.
Apple’s Audio Video Bridging (AVB) protocol is a standard that allows for efficient and reliable audio and video streaming over Ethernet networks, which can be used by many devices to stream audio to a Mac.
While not directly tied to general ethernet devices, the AirTunes protocol (RAOP), which is used by Apple’s iTunes/Music application for streaming audio, can operate completely over ethernet as well, requiring an Apple AirPort Express base station as a target.
To ensure macOS can detect your audio device, you’ll likely need to enable AVB in your device’s network configuration and ensure it is set up correctly
So I’m guessing that the AirLens setup supports AoE the way Roon wants it, but not the AVB part that Apple wants…? And an indication of where PS Audio stands on this is the fact that when I type “Roon” it magically generates a link, but not one for Apple Music. So when was it that Apple decided to get into higher-level audio? 1986? I bet the designers of Roon weren’t even born yet.
Airplay 1 doesn’t compress data, and is lossless at 16/44.
Airplay 2 does.
I have a Shanling ET3 digital transport, it uses Airplay 1, and I can zap across Apple Music streams at 16/44 lossless, which bypasses the AppleTV hardware limitations.
Confirmed 16/44 by display on my DS Dac.
Sounds amazing, more than “good enough”, especially with the Transport connected over i2s.
Don’t know of any other i2s enabled Airplay 1 endpoints, this was a big reason I bought the Shanling.
Also as a CD Transport it rocks, WAY better than my modded Oppo 203 into the same Dac.
Reckon the Shanling the way to go atm for Apple Music, albeit at CD quality only.
Linear power supply, shielding, all the audiophile nervous boxes ticked.
Thanks for your insights. Sounds to me like you use Apple Music a lot. I like it for its much larger catalog and ease of use, but hate that they are not more forthcoming on how bit-perfect they are - just saying “lossless” doesn’t quite do it for me compared to Qobuz.
But if I understand correctly, you are able, by using Airplay 1, to pass through full 16/44 data from Apple Music to your DAC and it reads 16/44? That would certainly in my mind be better than Airplay 2 to any DAC. However, I can achieve whatever resolution Apple Music outputs, even higher than 16/44 by going USB to my new PSA Stellar Gold DAC. The trade-off would be any difference in noise going this route vs ethernet through the AirLens. Maybe if I did a LOT of Apple Music, your scenario might make some sense, but I only do AM when I can’t find it on Qobuz. And if I’m THAT serious about a particular selection, I could usually download a hi-res digital file for not too much. Just one of those “different strokes” kind of things I guess.
Yeah,
I use Apple Music a lot, the curated playlists there are some of the best around, plus they have a shed load of music videos too.
Apple being Apple I guess, always cagey on the specs!
And yeah, 16/44 lossless from the AppleTV (via the Shanling transport) to the DS Dac.
Wouldn’t use it if it wasn’t lossless.
USB out from a Mac is a different thing of course, but with all the mitigation (imo) that you need to get good USB out of a computer source.
As you say,
As always theres many ways to skin a cat, and get music, so one size doesnt fit all.
Qobuz and Apple Music are my main two services, have Spotify which I mainly use for "Shazam"ing as song to a playlist when I’m out and about.
Then I find the track elsewhere at better quality.
Lost track of the new stuff I’ve discovered when outside at a bar or whatever!