Bluetooth STILL can't do HI-RES AUDIO (and iPads aren't free)

The point you miss is that the iPad can be used for so many other things and you might have an old one lying around so far less to invest than a one trick pony that might lose support for its primary purpose in a year or two!

Not really a fan of Apple Tea Trays with visuals but Mr. Darko you're the man when it comes to reviews :)

Lossless hires on phones etc would seem more of a marketing gimmick. The limitation of the whole system that you would tend to use it for masks the improvement. That is generally this will be more of a portable rig than a home hifi. For a home hifi your generally better off sound wise buying a dedicated streamer/dac than fudge a phone or ipad. As you alluded to the mastering plays a far more significant impact. However if you have a really good system having lossless hires will give you they extra cherry on top so if you can have hires lossless then it makes sense to use it if that is how you are giving to consume that music. As your other piece found and also as I have also found that mastering on all formats is not equal sometime digital sounds better and sometimes the record. However you don't know till you try and I don't have the time money or breath to waste finding out partly why I just use cd and streaming now.

The support problem isn't about security. You're not gonna use your credit card on the Fiio R7. It's about the apps. Phone app devs program their apps in such a way, that at a certain point they stop working (for example, you can't use an Android 4 device nowadays, because most modern apps will not even install, or will tell you that your OS is too old). Basically, all Android-based DAPs, DACs, and streamers will one day either stop you from using these apps, or won't allow you to update them, and then for example the app will refuse to work without the newest version installed.

Replace the lightning camera connector with the updated version that has power input, and keep your iPad as the dedicated streamer. Also, there are many desktop class dacs that work with Apple Music on iOS such Topping, and Fiio even has one that will route the usb directly to spdif, thus making it compatible with any dac.

All the bells and whisles about Apple music being Hi-Res and their hardware is not capable of playing Hi-Res. Neither they will allow other hardwares to play Hi-Res. What are you thinking when you are putting up this design Apple?

Thanks for this follow up video! I probably mentioned briefly using AppleTV via HDMI being fine but I think Apple will release a box to fix this which will be an upgrade to their AppleTV. My old iPads go to my kids and I’d prefer to just use the dedicated AppleTV box than an old iPad and DAC

This clearly isn’t for the mainstream as it doesn’t just work out of the box

if i have a iPad mini, i run Plexamp and have a yamaha reciver, can i get lossless out of the iPad mini and in to my yamaha, and if yes what cable do i buy?

Night and Day is a good comparison. Most ears know CDs are well recorded.

Something that needs attention is the apple music hires feature missing on windows and the app is still in beta for some reason.
Can someone throw some light on this.

Thanks for the video. I have moved on from Apple Music to streaming with my Node connected to my Rotel preamp using the Rotel internal DAC. The Rotel displays the streaming rate. Use the BluOs app on my iPad and iPhone to control my source usually using Qobuz. It’s interesting listening to CD quality 44.1 Hz all the way up to 192Hz HiRes. The sound quality and volume required to get the same loudness varies. Usually the 44.1 Hz is louder and can sometimes sound better to my old ears depending on the track. A lot of debate about the sound quality of HiRes since HiRes tracks and albums flagged in Qobuz or other services are usually remastered versions. Have A/B tested streaming versions vs. CDs I own and the sound quality is very close. Sometimes the CDs sound better but the user experience of streaming usually wins out. I Like controlling everything from my recliner instead of this old man having to get up and change the CD.

Thanks for info, but is it streaming losless when I’m streaming directly to my nad c399 bluOs build in mode? Streaming on Qobuz

Brilliant video thank you. How about doing a related video on Quobuz and Amazon music. I came to Apple late and only have iPads and Mac mini. as aa chord poly user this might be relevant to your non-apple officanados

Rick

I’m 68 - does HIRES still matter to me?

Android 14 does include it. But it needs to be activated/Integrated by the developers of that particular music app.

Great point about the Android software's end of life. It's the only reason I haven't purchased an Eversolo.

Fun fact: If I start a hi-res track in Apple Music on my iPad and than play it on my Apple TV through Airplay, my DAC shows 44.1 kHz as input. Even when my Apple TV has taken over the stream (Apples version of Spotify/Tidal connect) and I have put my iPad in Airplane mode. When I start tracks in Apple Music directly on the Apple TV my DAC always reports 48 kHz.

Of course the iPad goes on the lap at a certain point the R7 fails in that regard - apples with pears

Tidal from my iPhone 14 Pro, AirPlay 2 to my B&O Beolab28s allows you to stream 24bit192khz or whether the highest sample rate of the Tidal song is… why use Apple Music when Tidal offers this?

I use Plex app on my AppleTv 4K connected directly to a Sony Home theatre amplifier and it shows that my Hi-Res tracks are not resa,pled by tvOS. Plex overcomes the AppleTV OS in the good way