Gapless doesn't work with Apple Music with RS151

#1

Unless someone at HiFi Rose can give me the right answer, I’ll unfortunately have to return my new RS151 because it stops consistently at each attacca (with no break) between movements or songs when using Apple Music and their Gapless audio setting.

When I contacted MoFi Tech Support (their distributor) they confirmed the problem after testing it. While I could try another streaming service, I shouldn’t have to since Apple Music with lossless audio is part of the HiFi Rose package.

Examples:

  1. Marvin Gaye: What’s going on: God Is Love - Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology): There’s a unwanted break between these songs.

  2. Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring - It breaks after every movement and eventually doesn’t start up again after ending at the end of the track. FYI: This great ballet score is in 2 large Parts. Each one has multiple movements that are played attacca. As we know, putting unwanted breaks between the movements ruins the musical experience and wasn’t what Stravinsky was after.

  3. On several occasions the RS151 has stopped in the middle of tracks until I had to push play again.

  4. On 3 occasions the streamer shut off completely on its own and I needed to push the on button 2 or 3 times to get it going again. I checked the connection and that wasn’t the problem.

  5. Others have mentioned the same or similar problems on the internet with their reviews of both the 150b and the RS151.

Please advise.

Thanks!

#2

@Mission-Man-53

Apple Music, unlike Tidal and Qobuz, uses Android Player and thus does not have the gapless feature.

#3

Then why do you include Apple Music in your HIFI Rose? Making unnecessary breaks in the music is unforgivable.

#4

@Mission-Man-53

Due to popular demand from our users, we have decided to add Apple Music.
We plan to release an update with a fix if we can provide a solution to this issue in the future.

#6

I am nearing the end of my three month free trial of Apple Music and I will not be renewing it.

The Apple Lossless / High Res debate populates the forums of seemingly many, if not all, HIFI forums, with the most common question being “ what resolution is my unit receiving when I stream Apple Music via Airplay?”. It was a question I also asked. Bottom line is that for the majority, as @macnet427 said in his excellent post, the best we get is AAC/256kbps.

In my experience the Apple mantra of “ it just works” is a myth as far as High res / lossless audio is concerned. If you want it, go ahead and plug a cable into your iPhone / iPad, connect with an external DAC and finally plug anothe cable from your external DAC into your unit. 21st century ?

Others advise that if you are using AirPlay 1 then you can receive CD quality ( but not high Rez ) but if you are using AirPlay 2 you cannot. If true, how crazy is that ?

The entire saga of Apple Music lossless & high resolution is a masterpiece of confusion and I say this as a long time Apple fan boy. They make some great products but this ain’t one of them for those outside the Apple garden wall.
To repeat what @macnet427 concluded, this is an Apple issue, not HiFi Rose.

#7

Roseann:

Great. Thanks. I’m please that you’ll be doing the update.

While I also use Tidal and I’ve tried the others, I believe that Apple Music should still a player because of their large library where you can easily find recordings not available on Tidal and especially Qobuz. I also believe that if you’re going to include Apple Music, Gapless should work. Yet I also agree that Apple needs to upgrade their sound quality so HD audio can easily and correctly be played through streamers like the RS151. So, while the other streaming devices are typically ignoring Apple for this reasons mentioned here, it’s good that you’ll be working with them. Then maybe Apple will get their act together and join the high end audio community.

#8

Rosehan,

Has any progress been made on fixing the gapless playback with Apple Music? You had said it might not be possible. Is it or is it not possible to play Apple Music gapless? Will it be possible given the current Rose system software? I have the RS130.

Thank you.

#9

@Eleven

Thank you for reaching out and for sharing your concerns regarding gapless playback with Apple Music on your RS130.

At this time, gapless playback is not supported for Apple Music within the current Rose system software.
This limitation is related to the way Apple Music provides its streaming data, and unfortunately it is not something that can be resolved solely through our system updates.

We understand that gapless playback is an important feature for many listeners, and we continue to explore potential solutions.
However, based on the current technical restrictions, we cannot guarantee that gapless playback for Apple Music will become available on Rose devices in the near future.

#10

I appreciate your declarative response.

The Chinese are gaining on HiFi Rose
#11

I too had the Apple Music gapless troubles with my 151. Took the 151 back to the dealer and exchanged it for an Eversolo A10 with money back.

It turns out the Eversolo allows you to side load true Android apps to the A10. Apple Music, Live 365 and TuneIn. The HIFI Rose units use an amended HIFI Rose Android system(what I was told).

Now to HIFI Rose’s credit— they still make the best box on the market. But Android amended software is always the issue.

Reed

#12

@reed1003

Thank you for your advice.
We are currently working on adding the DSD gapless feature. Our initial goal was to have it implemented by March; however, we are encountering some difficulties during development. We kindly ask for your understanding that the release may be delayed beyond the originally planned target date.

#14

Thanks for the outstanding reply.

Until then I’ll keep using the Eversolo A10 with my Mac gear.

#15

For your information, gapless playback works very well with files stored on the SSD.

#16

Well I certainly should hope so!

#17

Not really: Since day one, you can’t play local stored dsd files gapless.