u/GentleNova07

This post is a rewording of some of my previous posts so as to try to explain what I've been talking about in a different way, as the subject matter can be difficult to understand.

The Sonos S2 system currently has the capacity to play up to 24bit 48kHz songs.

Any songs above this threshold (e.g. 24bit 96kHz or 192kHz) cannot be played by the system.

Most people are probably aware of this.

However some people believe that any 24bit 96kHz or 192kHz song that is played will be downsampled by the Sonos S2 system and played as a 24bit 48kHz song.

This is false.

The Sonos system does not downsample songs above its audio quality threshold.

All it does is seek for the next available lower quality song version on the music platform being used. This is what I’ve been previously referring to as a “fallback” version.

If you also assume that this would be a 24bit 48kHz version, you would be incorrect because it’s completely dependent upon the music platform being used.

Previously only the Apple Music platform offered 24bit 48kHz fallback versions of songs (thus matching the Sonos S2 limit) because Apple devices themselves have a 24bit 48kHz hardware limit. But I also found out today that now Amazon Music Unlimited is offering 24bit 48kHz fallback versions for Sonos.

So what does this actually mean to you?

If you’re using a platform like Qobuz which has a lot of songs at 24bit 96kHz or 192kHz, these Hi-Res versions on your Qobuz app will fallback to playing just 16bit 44kHz versions on your Sonos system. Again they will not downsample to 24bit 48kHz because the Qobuz app doesn’t have a 24bit 48kHz audio quality fallback threshold below 24bit 96kHz. It just drops to 16bit 44kHz instead.

Does this mean you shouldn’t used Qobuz? Not at all. If you’re enjoying it and don’t notice these lower quality fallback versions, continue to do so. This post is strictly to make people aware that their Sonos system does not downsample songs above its audio quality threshold but instead uses the next lower audio quality threshold based upon their music platform being used. And that fallback threshold may be much lower than expected.

BTW Spotify circumvents this because its threshold doesn’t surpass the threshold of Sonos S2 systems. And Tidal seems to circumvent the need to determine fallback versions by only serving 16bit 44kHz songs versions to Sonos systems.

A month or two back I tested playing Hi-Res songs (24bit 96kHz+) on both Amazon Music Unlimited and Qobuz. Both music platforms would fallback to a 16bit 44kHz versions of the song, as they didn’t have 24bit 48kHz fallback versions available.

After trying out Apple Music for the last month (as it does have 24bit 48kHz fallback versions), I again tested playing Hi-Res songs on Amazon Music Unlimited again, only to find out it is now offering 24bit 48kHz fallback versions instead of just 16bit 44kHz versions.

I‘m assuming this is due to Amazon Music now providing these newer 24bit 48kHz fallback versions but I want to confirm this is true and not something Sonos has changed on their end (which I highly doubt).

To confirm this, can someone using Qobuz please verify if playing a a Hi-Res song (24bit 96kHz+) via Qobuz still downgrades to a 16bit 44kHz song when playing on their Sonos system. Thanks.