2. digital
  3. 189003-2944

Specific Node/Airplay question

I know very little about digital and don’t have much interest in it; I bought a Bluesound Node 2i a few years ago to try Tidal but canceled the subscription shortly afterwards. The Node sat unused for years. The other day I learned I can stream Apple Music over the Node; SQ wasn’t great, but it’s coming from my phone, so I wasn’t expecting much. Here’s my question… if I only use my Node to stream Apple Music from my phone, does having an external DAC make a difference? Or, is the music so compressed, that it won’t matter? I’m asking because I’m shopping for a new preamp and considering a McIntosh c2300. But there are C2500s (built-in DAC) for the same price and the c2600 (better DAC) for a little more. The C2700 is too expensive and I don’t plan to ever “up” my digital game; I’m a vinyl guy and this digital stuff would likely be for my wife.

ron325

Showing 1 response by dinosore

dinosore
100 posts
 

Be aware that when you use AirPlay2 on an iPhone or iPad, the Apple Music app will down-sample the stream to a very lossy 256kbps (versus 1,411 kbps for 16/44.1 CD quality). This is a function of the Apple Music app and has nothing to do with the Node. According to Bluesound tech, if you stream from a MacBook Pro, you can get 16/44.1, but not from an iPhone or iPad.

I didn't know this when I first tried Apple Music via AirPlay2, and I couldn't understand why it sounded so bad on my system. I normally stream Tidal, Qobuz and FLAC files from a NAS drive and the difference is very noticeable. You can find discussions on this on the Bluesound support pages, What HiFi, and John Darko's web site.

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