One Hit Wonder

Answered

deezer hifi and airplay?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
December 7, 2019
23 replies
7407 views

Hello, if I use my iPhone to play music from Deezer app and a hifi subscription, and redirect the music (normally FAC format) via airplay to my audio system (old system, with an airplay receiver), is the sound will be degradated ? Or is it a valid option ?

Is Deezer hifi (launched on my iPhone) is compatible with airplay ?

i really try to find a wireless solution with good quality, and by using my existing audio system…

thank you for your help

Best answer by Rudi

Hey @KP50 @Viewtiful Bob

Our devs came back to us with more info on this:

It is true that HiFi users can stream their songs in FLAC format to an AirPlay speaker without loss of quality. iOS converts the decoded audio data to ALAC, which is the Apple equivalent of FLAC and is a lossless compression format.

About AirPlay 2, it consists mostly of 2 improvements compared to AirPlay:

multiroom audio, which allows playing synchronously the same song on multiple speakers, it is supported by Deezer app
fast streaming, which increases playback control reactivity and reduces the chance to face audio drops, this feature is not currently implemented in Deezer app

AirPlay 2 does not improve audio quality, the original version of AirPlay already offers CD-quality audio (16 bit 44.1/48 kHz).

In sum, you're right and the information previously provided wasn't correct. Once we have more concrete details, I'll be sharing them here in the community :v_tone2:

Rudi

Ultimate Superstar

Hi there @marilyne DELL'amico

Not at the moment. Not even AirPlay 2 enables streaming FLAC for a third Music provider like us. You can cast to other devices via Chromecast, for example (and we're preparing a new integration).

For example, FLAC on the new Homepod is only available with Airplay 2 for Apple Music. Thank you for your support and understanding :thumbsup_tone2:

M

marilyne DELL'amicoAuthor

One Hit Wonder

Thank you, but not sure to understand. What about a solution like the ok to receiver? It enables to receive via airplay, cd quality no ? Like chromecast ?

Rudi

Ultimate Superstar

Thanks for coming back @marilyne DELL'amico. All I can say, to be certain, is that Airplay won't stream in FLAC from a Deezer account, yet.

V

Viewtiful Bob

Rising Star

Thanks for coming back @marilyne DELL'amico. All I can say, to be certain, is that Airplay won't stream in FLAC from a Deezer account, yet.

Rudi, I’ve been reading a lot about this recently, and can’t understand it. Are you saying that a) Tidal & Amazon HD (as fellow third parties) won’t stream in CD quality over AirPlay? and b) Deezer Hi-Fi will only work with native apps like MusicCast or HEOS?

My understanding was that Airplay converts to ALAC from FLAC, but that was still a lossless conversion. Tidal & Amazon say their services work in lossless via AirPlay. Is Deezer different to this? Have you not developed the FLAC to ALAC conversion, is that it? Airplay is by far the main way I listen to music at home, and Tidal appears to have no problem with it. I’ve not tried Amazon yet, but their website clearly states that HD will work over AirPlay.

Also, I’ve questioned this in other threads I know, but it’s just bizarre that you can’t have more than one profile with Hi-Fi (just two will do), and that I can’t actually subscribe to it anyway with my BMW OE Premium subscription. I don’t want either the cost or inconvenience of subscribing to multiple services, but presently Deezer can’t actually accommodate my not-that-outlandish requirements.

Lastly, will Hi-Fi work with CarPlay?

Thanks

Rob

V

Viewtiful Bob

Rising Star

Hi there @marilyne DELL'amico

Not at the moment. Not even AirPlay 2 enables streaming FLAC for a third Music provider like us. You can cast to other devices via Chromecast, for example (and we're preparing a new integration).

For example, FLAC on the new Homepod is only available with Airplay 2 for Apple Music. Thank you for your support and understanding :thumbsup_tone2:

Hi @Rudi

Please can you substantiate this claim, as it quite patently can’t be true if Tidal & Amazon HD work at CD resolution via AirPlay (which they both categorically claim they do). Airplay automatically converts to ALAC from FLAC, so I don’t understand why Deezer can’t do this when other third party providers can. As Apple don’t supply a Hi-fi tier subscription to Apple Music, it also doesn’t make sense why they would restrict this.

Thank you.

Rob

V

Viewtiful Bob

Rising Star

@Rudi Can we have a response & update on this, please? I’d really appreciate an explanation as to why you believe Deezer Hi-Fi couldn’t work over AirPlay while Tidal, Amazon HD & Qobuz all categorically state that 16 bit CD quality FLAC music up to 48khz (note not 24 bit ‘Hi Res’ material, though I think that’s pretty niche) will. Note also this has nothing to do with AirPlay 2.

All four (I believe) use FLAC, all four are third parties to Apple, AirPlay converts to ALAC internally…. please can you explain Deezer’s stance? Or does this only apply to 24 bit / 360 Reality Audio?

If you can confirm this, get it sorted if it is true & I think you’d get a much bigger take up. I’d certainly be first in line (apart from the fact that I can’t subscribe to it as a BMW Online Entertainment subscriber - another ludicrous restriction)!

Thank you,

Rob

Rudi

Ultimate Superstar

Hi there Rob @Viewtiful Bob,

Thank you for your comments and for your patience.

I'll need to confirm that with the team. At the time when I wrote that reply, I had personally contacted the Product Manager responsible for the integration and AirPlay (not AirPlay 2) had those specs. It was confirmed on an Apple page for the integration, I remember reading it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have said it :sweat:

I agree with you that we can get a much bigger take-up. So bear with me while I get more details. We've worked on improvements to our Siri integration, and I can see this as a step forward this year :thumbsup_tone2: