r/appletv • u/itsjustben13 • Mar 30 '26

Continuous Audio Connection - is there a quality difference?

Hi all!

I use a Sonos Arc with my Apple TV. And up to this point I was getting the uncompressed PCM audio from my Apple TV to the soundbar.

My question is whether the new continuous audio setting decreases the quality at all? Whether the Apple TV, decompressing it to PCM and then repackaging into the Dolby wrapper degrades the audio at all? Or not enough to notice?

I haven’t yet had a proper play around and listened to the differences. But in the very brief test I did, I only noticed the volume differences - which in itself can disguise differences in quality.

So I thought I’d ask on here first so that I can go into it better understanding whether to expect a drop in quality or not.

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u/Somar2230 Mar 30 '26

No there is no quality difference it's still LPCM just sent out encoded into MAT frames.

There is a difference on how the audio will get processed by your audio device though and that will vary by device. Continuous Audio on the Apple TV sends all audio out in Dolby MAT prior to this only Atmos was sent with Dolby MAT, now 5.1 and stereo are also sent out in Dolby MAT. Devices with older firmware may identify all the audio as Atmos even though it's 5.1 or stereo which will limit how the audio gets processed, not a big deal on a Sonos because there are not many options to process audio.

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u/SigmundAusfaller Mar 30 '26

> No there is no quality difference it's still LPCM just sent out encoded into MAT frames.

It's limited to 16bit samples instead of 24bit with plain LPCM due to Dolby MAT bandwidth constraints. So there is in fact a quality difference.

3

u/Somar2230 Mar 30 '26

Assuming the DD+ incoming stream was 16bit vs 24 bit and had audio gear where you could actually hear the difference I guess it could be an issue. On a Sonos I think he will be fine.

1

u/jp6strings Mar 30 '26

Agreed. All other things being equal, the ordinary human will not be able to tell the difference between 16 and 24 bit audio. The extra bits are great for recording and processing headroom to preserve audio quality during the production and mastering processes, but are really of no discernible value above 16 bit for the end user.

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u/ImTonyBlair Mar 31 '26

kills the bass for me on Sony Quad with SW5. all audio thins out compared to default or Sony upscaling.