How to play high resolution multichannel/High res FLAC files on Sonos?

Plex Players
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Please no comments about what the human ear can or can not hear – plenty of existing threads for that debate.

I went down the rabbit hole of re-ripping my SACD/CD/Vinyl into higher quality files now that S2 supports 24bit - 48Hz. I’ve found that these files play pretty well direclty in the S2 app even though some exceed the “1536 bit rate” mentioned here. If there is a way to play even higher resolution files, I’d like to do so?

I also wondered if my 5.2 Home Theater Sonos setup with Arc, 2 Fives, and 2 Subs might play Multi-channel FLAC files. I’m curious if others have tried this expirement and if so, what have you found?

My Setup AppleTV4k → Arcana (highly recommend) → Samsung TV and Sonos Arc
Surround Music Library running on the latest Plex Media Server

Here is what I have found:

  1. AppleTV using free VLC App with Plex Media: Plays up to 7.1 24bit/192Hz Flac files and displays as “Multichannel PCM 7.1” in System → About My System. However, the UX sucks. The rear channel is muted because the system thinks I’m playing video + no gapless playback.
  2. Apple TV using Plex App: Will only play in “PCM Stereo 2.0” Known issue that Plex users have been complaining about and that has been fixed on other platforms: Android etc. Any updates on when this might be fixed??
  3. Using Plex Apps on Windows/iOS with “airplay”: I can get the files to play in any room but I can’t tell if I am getting discrete channels or just stereo in virtual surround. Support could not tell me. No details in System → About My System. I read somewhere that Airplay downmixes to 16 bit – 44 HZ?
  4. I also tried Infuse Lite and Pro ($$) and MrMC in Apple TV with no luck – apparently if you rip to MKV it will work given that it views these as video files with Multchannel music.

With all that said does anyone have any tips or other solutions to try? I prefer not to go down the Roon path but may consider that if it is the only way…

Any insight is appreciated. Some questions:

  • Does Plex Media Server downmmix/transcode streams when playing over Airplay?
  • Is there another player for AppleTV4K that plays Audio Flac Files in surround?
  • Is Roon the way? Or something else?

Thanks in advance.

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Hi

I am having pretty much the same issues with a Sonos Amp, two passive speakers and two Sonos Ones as surrounds. Trying to use Sonos and Plex at the same time is a pretty special type of hell.

The only solution, that I have found is to use Kodi. Kodi can transcode pretty much everything on the fly to AC3, or passthrough content that is already in AC3, which solves all issues with Sonos.

Kodi is of course a highly capable player that comes even with a Plex “skin”.

There appear to be other players that offer a “pro” version that can do the same. I did not see fit to support them though, since Kodi works superbly as per default.

An additional plus of the Kodi solution is that it also flawlessly supports .m4a files than can be used to contain AC3 tracks ripped from DVDs or BRs.

I would be curious if anyone managed to find other alternatives.

Plexamp would be appreciated, but last time I checked it was not able to do the same.

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UPDATE:
MRMC TVOS app (Kodi Port) supports multi-channel PCM gapless playback and the UX is way better than VLC.

I looked at Kodi side loading but without a MAC the lift was too high.

Until Plex fixes the bug in their TVOS app this seems like the best easy alternative to getting FLAC files to play gapless in full surround. As a bonus MRMC seems to play some videos Plex wan not.

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