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Mac Studio connected to receiver via HDMI
- Thread starter vddobrev
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Cheers, which is the best one to get. I'm just looking for something that will play Plex and do all the HD audios through a Denon amp.
Has this thread died, I have the same issue with a MACBOOK PRO 14" M1. Apple has to be made aware this will just not due. Anyone?
This is an issue that has now come to light, Apple has to be held accountable for hobbling an otherwise excellent platform. What are they preventing us from doing, listening to Other music at 192 khz or above. Where is Louis Rossman when you need him.Hello, I'm a quite fresh Mac Studio owner, and sadly I can accept, that it's locked on 48KHz
However there are some other values that are blacked out, dunno if maybe apple will unlock it later by any software updates?
The disabled frequencies are for encoded digital audio such as Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos. They will be selected automatically depending on the encoded audio.Hello, I'm a quite fresh Mac Studio owner, and sadly I can accept, that it's locked on 48KHz
However there are some other values that are blacked out, dunno if maybe apple will unlock it later by any software updates?
Simply put, Apple did not think we may use Mac with a receiver to listen to Apple Lossless music. I went back to a 2018 Mac mini as my media player because it supports up to 24/192.
I may do the same or similar, too bad however, I had envisioned making the 14" MBP M1 PRO a daily driver and companion. I'll sort it out some how. Thank you sir! Peace. 48 khz sounds like crap. I'm still flabbergasted, and do not understand Apple's methods, oh, I do. $$$$$$$.....
The disabled frequencies are for encoded digital audio such as Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos. They will be selected automatically depending on the encoded audio.
What about internal? It seems crazy to me that the Studio apparently tops out at 48k where the Air tops at 96.
Which Air do you have? If it is Intel, then it should do 192/24 over HDMI. I purchased M1 Mac mini to replace my 2014 Mac mini. Surprise - M1 is locked at 48KHz. The inability of Apple M1 chip to do other than 48KHz was the reason I bought an Intel Mac mini 2018 to use it as media player connected to my HiFi gear.
M1 mini at 48KHz sounded like crap.
M1 mini at 48KHz sounded like crap.
The Studio's internal DAC tops at 96kHz at 32-bit floating point 2ch, for both the internal speaker and the headphone jack. I believe it is the same D/A specs for all M1 Pro Macs or above (M1 Macs may have different headphone jack specs but it's more to do with lack of high impedance / gain). I think this spec is already above what any of the Intel Macs ever had, as far as direct analog output is concerned.
So the HDMI multi-ch output is the other way, it is below what was previous possible, which is puzzling especially for Macs that have HDMI ports like M1 mini, Studio, and 14" 16" MBPs.
@vddobrev as I suggested in the related post, you don't really need an intermediate DAC - you need USB to SPDIF interface (for example, Topping D10s) that will connect to your receiver's SPDIF coaxial input. You can go up to 192kHz/24bit that way, and reaping the benefits of the low-jitter asynchronous USB connection, but you are limited to 2-channel PCM. As you are not strictly Stereo, that will not work for you, but in the context of 2-channel, it addresses your concern of cost and unnecessary A/D -> D/A conversion for room correction etc. Topping D10s goes for something like $109 on Amazon.com right now.
Many audiophiles with older receivers and DACs that don't have a USB input, or don't have asynchronous USB input, elect this route for high quality 2-channel streaming from Tidal and similar. This is normally done in combination with playback apps that support exclusive mode (direct connection to the external DAC or interface that bypasses macOS Core audio mixer). Apple Music may not fall into this category (don't use it so not sure if Exclusive mode is an option the way it is in, say, Tidal or JRiver Media Player).
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Cross-posting here: I found an entry in Apple support community that illustrates a workaround that unlocks hi-res multichannel PCM over HDMI using a composite audio source:
discussions.apple.com
Note that there are two versions of BlackHole pass-through driver - 2ch and 16ch. I presume people wanting multi-channel hi res PCM over HDMI will need 16ch one.
How can I pass hi-res audio through my HD… - Apple Community
Note that there are two versions of BlackHole pass-through driver - 2ch and 16ch. I presume people wanting multi-channel hi res PCM over HDMI will need 16ch one.
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This does not work with Music app on MacOS, as it does not use exclusive mode.Cross-posting here: I found an entry in Apple support community that illustrates a workaround that unlocks hi-res multichannel PCM over HDMI using a composite audio source:
How can I pass hi-res audio through my HD… - Apple Community
Note that there are two versions of BlackHole pass-through driver - 2ch and 16ch. I presume people wanting multi-channel hi res PCM over HDMI will need 16ch one.
I did a simpler solution - I used my 2018 Intel Mac mini, and it is now doing the duty of media player.
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I'm a similar situation. I'm getting a Mac Studio M2 Ultra soon and because of the delays (2-3s) when using Sonos speakers with Mac over AirPlay, it is not practical to use it as the main audio output for a Mac. So I want to plug The Mac Studio HDMI to a Sonos AMP which has a pair of Speakers wired to it along with a sub.
However, the Sonos AMP supports only ARC, and not "regular" HDMI. Also I have no idea how to make the Mac Studio to spit out only audio over the HDMI and it keep adding a "Display" (tested with a 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro) and when plugging it to a Bose Soundbar, no audio ever go out on it. I have 2x Pro Display XDR on the thunderbolt ports so all I wanted is to make sure the audio goes out thru HDMI to the Sonos AMP.
So I'll have to buy something like the HD Fury Arcana (https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/). It claims to separate audio and Video and allow even Atmos to work which is good for future proofing since the HDMI on the Mac Studio is 2.1.
Trying to look around for other options...
However, the Sonos AMP supports only ARC, and not "regular" HDMI. Also I have no idea how to make the Mac Studio to spit out only audio over the HDMI and it keep adding a "Display" (tested with a 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro) and when plugging it to a Bose Soundbar, no audio ever go out on it. I have 2x Pro Display XDR on the thunderbolt ports so all I wanted is to make sure the audio goes out thru HDMI to the Sonos AMP.
So I'll have to buy something like the HD Fury Arcana (https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/). It claims to separate audio and Video and allow even Atmos to work which is good for future proofing since the HDMI on the Mac Studio is 2.1.
Trying to look around for other options...
For the price of that piece of gear, wouldn't it be a better idea to instead buy a dedicated pair of desktop / bookshelf 2.0 speaker just for the Mac? Or even go up to studio monitors.
(IIRC there is no realistic way to output HDMI ARC out of a Mac without hardwiring somewhere.)
(IIRC there is no realistic way to output HDMI ARC out of a Mac without hardwiring somewhere.)