Spotify here in Australia has "very high" on the premium accounts which is 320kbps, was only released recently

yeah, I'm waiting for that too :)

i am just baited for Spotify HiFi

You can also stream with your Apple device via Airport Express.

I jumped to Deezer

I agree. Such a simple, easy to use device which sounds great for the price. I still have a couple in my house acting as Roon endpoints, one connected to a Morel powered speaker and one to my Denon AV receiver because it sounds better than using the receiver itself as an endpoint.

Chromecast Audio is a magic little puk. I tried Apple Music with my android phone and it actually works with the Chromecast Audio

I ended up replacing my Chromecasts with Amazon Echos that are connect to my various amplifiers. I have been very please with the results and, obviously, the convenience is great. Spotify Connect, Amazon, anything you tell her to play!

Plus it had optical output

Probably because not enough Google Chromecast Audio devices were being sold. I have one connected to a Sonos setup. I have two Sonos 5s and a Sonos sub in a spare bedroom. Each Sonos 5 has a stereo input jack. On the left Sonos 5 I have a stereo jack coming in from a 4K television. The left Sonos will then pull out the "right channel" from this stereo input and that over to the Sonos 5 acting as the right channel. But on the right Sonos 5 I have a Chromecast Audio plugged in. Like the latter, the left channel is pulled from this input (Chromecast Audio) and sent to the left Sonos. The reason I have the Chromecast Audio is because it allows me to send audio from an Android device to the Sonos system. Specifically something NOT involving Spotify et al. I can pull up Google Home and then choose to "mirror audio." So anything landing on the Android device is sent to the Chromecast Audio. Any audio from any app landing on the Android device is sent over to the Sonos (a la Airplay situation for an iPhone user). Some might say, "Why not use the TV?" Well because I bring up www.SomaFM.com on Google Chrome on the Android device and pick a music stream. No other way to get those streams to the Sonos unless I use an iPhone with Airplay to the Sonos. Without Chromecast Audio, there's simply no way to get those music streams (from SomaFM.com) to the Sonos from an Android device. Spotify Connect has no context in the latter. Years ago SomaFM did have an Android app but they abandoned it ages ago and strangely it never supported Chromecast while for a time the SomaFM app on iOS did(!!!). Now there is the option of attaching a conventional Chromecast Video device to the TV and mirroring to that, but now the TV has to be on. Might be OK in some situations but can also spoil the mood if you want to listen to music in the dark and chill (a situation I find myself often with that particular room in the summer). With some TVs you can turn the video panel off (but the TV is still ON) which is great for music listening. All Sony TVs allow this. However that's not the case with the Hisense U8G in the room with the Sonos system. When I bought the Chromecast Audio from BEST BUY a couple of years ago (or whenever they stopped selling it) it was literally the last one they had on the shelves. In fact as I went to pay for it, the cashier asked me if I really wanted the Chromecast Audio - "Perhaps he really wants the Chromecast video device?" was his thinking. "Nope, this is what I want" I told him.

If you have an Apple TV and some kind of home theater system, you can stream Apple Music. There is an app on Apple TV to allow for the music streaming. You don’t have to have a home theater the music will just come out of the TV speakers. It is a great way to access a whole world of music.

I got the same setup more or less. It was a good choice. Have you done the latest firmware update on the fives? I've been lazy 😂.

@@earlfenwick thanks for the heads up. Didn't realize that there was a 5.8.0 update. Haven't done it yet but will shortly.

Haha love it

oh yeah same here!

Yep

Hi! I was curious as to how much RAM is needed to use the Pi as a streamer?

Thanks for the video John. I have done the same and it works great!

hows retirement?

Thanks for this information. Can you tell me, do you know if it gets full lossless quality that way, or because of the airplay 2 being used does it get a lossy file. Anyway, more to the point I guess, can you shut off your phone and will it continue to play? i.e. is it getting the stream from the net then? I am really interested in Apple Music, but I can't live without the ability to control my music AND also listen and phone to something else on my devices. (That being said, Apple Music's mixes just suck compared to Spotify. I love the quality, but their "stations" are absolutely out of touch with my first choice of song. Anyway, end of rant)

Spotify will likely never have FLAC quality but they have announced that they will support CD quality later this year.

@@FeathersMcGraw_ Hmm... I thought that CD quality means FLAC format like in case of e.g. Deezer. What codec will be used by Spotify to encode CD quality?

@@FeathersMcGraw_ FLAC is not a “quality standard”. It’s just a lossless audio codec, and there’s _many_ of those. You have to be more specific as to whether it’s 16 or 24-bit along with the sample rate being one of 44.1, 48, 96, 192 kHz. It’s CD quality or 24-bit Hi-res, both of which are lossless.

@@przemekprzemkowy3811 FLAC is free so they may go for that, no other 3rd party lossless codec is popular enough for that purpose and they can’t use ALAC or WMA which are prroprietary codecs.

I thought the same when I saw the title

Agreed. Echoing Oscar Wilde, I've always felt it is a tragedy to be able to get anything you want, whenever you want it, so I'll probably never stream, but it's great that you, Darko, take the time to show Luddites like me the possibilities. Thank you!

@@jerrytook7308streaming is fantastic, because for a relatively small monthly fee and an outlay for the streamer like an Apple TV, you have access to nearly the entire world of music. It is fantastic.

Does this stream via the iPhone? It doesn't look like a usual AirPlay 2 target so I'm interested to see if lossless is possible

See how apple tries to force folks to buy their newest products, ideally, that feature should be available across the entire ecosystem, not only "any mac running the newest version" of the software.

Any info on this in any article . Thanks

i use itunes remote app to control my mac mini.

If you'd done this with Apple Music you'd soon realise that the Apple Remote app cannot browse or search it. 😉

@@DarkoAudio that is true, but if you use apple music on your phone for searching. Then add what you want to listen to to your library, it is now available in iTunes remote app. Which means you can listen to hi-res music from your listening position, controlled by your phone (if AirPlay quality isn’t good enough for you). You know those audiophiles…

Just to confirm - you can use ,under Monterey , a certain number of Mac computers as Airplay receiver. I have Mac Mini from 2014 and it does not work on that. However, what’s the point of it? There is still nothing to allow you browse Apple Music on you iPhone and play it back through iPad or Mac . Please don’t say Apple Remote ! Only works for Library . Apple connect is badly required similar to Spotify Connect as John showed on his video. I’m amazed such a simple “app/ product” is not available.

For me its also that Spotify is just horrible when it comes to artist payment/support and bought Top 100 etc Playlist spots. I really would love to dive into the Spotify ecosystem but this always puts me of :(

Hey, you stole my comment lol.. JK.. Anyone who loves The Weddos is cool in my book..

To me the most basic is to stream Apple Music on an iPhone and listen with headphones. Or via Apple TV and listen to music from the TV.

I just checked, in Canada they are over $50. I might just use a soup can full of loose change instead. It’ll be cheaper.

The restriction is limited to direct output from Apple devices. With an external DAC, Apple Music Lossless can be set to 24/192!

@@frankbernharduebler correct (I've been doing that with a Topping D10S, taking the signal from my iPad Pro through USB and feeding my sound system with an optical). However, if you want to play with your phone from your sofa, that's not viable, you need to have a wired connection to enjoy anything lossless over 44.1/16. Unless I'm missing something.

@@frankbernharduebler would using an Apple Airport Express as that “external dAC” allow for the higher res. settings using Apple Music?

Agreed, I use the Remote App to control my Mac remotely from my couch all the time. Not sure why he didn't mention this, a quick google search will point you to that option.

Because you CANNOT browse and search Apple Music with the Remote app. You need to add an album to your library first with the Apple Music app and only then can you control its playback with the Remote app. So it's a two-app solution -- and therefore not an elegant one. And this is why I didn't mention it in the video.

​@@DarkoAudio Thanks for answering, I really like the content. You are right. not the smoothest but worth mentioning in the future it is a two-app solution but easier because it does not involve extra hardware (hdmi dummy, raspberry pi) and extra cost (tidal is more expensive) if you already own a computer.

I hear this as well. I think it's likely that the DAC & AMP in the LSX is lot better than the DAC & AMP in the PC. The LSX is a great beginner system, if you are happy with Spotify, which I am. The DAC, AMP, and Spotify Connect ability are all built into the speakers & their app/remote! John Darko has a great video on the LSX, worth digging out (it sold me!)

The Apple TV resamples everything to 24/48.

This was my first system. Apple TV based. Bluesound is better for music.

@@bubbamike actually it supports upto 24/48 , if you click on the lossless button under what’s playing it tells you if it’s playing at 24/48, 24/44 or 16/44 . Yes it is capped at 24/48 so won’t do Hi-res but as John said this is for beginners.

@@scottscottsdale7868 undoubtedly the bluesound is better although doesn’t have native support for Apple Music only airplay but as you say it was your first system and this is Apple Music for beginners.

The lag is even worse when you use it with multiple alexa’s / echo devices

Don't worry, I would consider myself as one of those 'young folks', but this topic is also pretty bewildering for me.

So for those who don't have macBooks can't use apple music from the listening position? Those who have two iphones or ipads for example.

There is no easy way to connect an Apple TV to a DAC like the Cambridge.

Newer Apple TV only has HDMI out. Very few DACs out there with HDMI input . A company called Essence make a model called Evolve ( I forget the part number ). No idea how it sounds .

Apple Music actually has the larger library, but yea, your point still stands.

Apple Music lossless didn’t upsell on that.

We all are waiting for that feature

@@TheDealer1228 yeah i have apple music as well and love it, all music i want is there and it’s quite a nice interface. But my biggest gripe is integration, airplay unfortunately is not common good yet and it’s still not lossless capable. Not even an apple tv can play lossless over hdmi for some reason, literally only your phone with a dongle can do it

@@Zoranurai13 Airplay is not lossless capable? i heard it can play 16/44bit isnt that lossless?