When will Sound Touch Speakers play 24 bit FLAC files?

[KimYu]

Many BOSE Sound Touch speaker owners are eagerly awaiting the capability to play Hi Resolution 24 bit FLAC music files, now a common place format.  This capability should be an automatic for BOSE, proud of your product features to play the best music files.  I simply do not understand what is holding BOSE up on this matter?  Frankly, your delay to include this feature is hampering your reputation.

[Ralph Mc]

Under teh old firmware 14. I WAS able to play 24 bit 96 khz FLAC files.

But teh next firmware update enabled me to play any FLAC file at all!!

Firmware upgrades shuold eleminate problems and add value.

Bose firmware ugrades downgrades the perfoemance!!!!

[KimYu]

Hi Ralph, 

Sad situation.  All the major Japan brand wireless speakers - Denon, Sony, Yamaha, etc. have upgraded last year to play streamed hi res 24 bit flac files.  But Bose chooses to ignore this trend, at least for now.  Bad for audiophiles.  Bose needs to get with it.  They got great marketing and accessibility, unlike their competitors, and hi quality sound, but this may set them back.  Or maybe they just don't care....  Time to consider other brands.

[Ralph Mc]

Hi Kim

what annoys me it that it already worked with the SoundTouch 300. I could play those files (24 bit) without any problems. Also  a reason I bought the ST300.

But after a firmware upgrade they killed this ability!

And if you look here, they killed also bas of the Acustimas (I don't have one) and search ability in NAS systems (I have this problem too).

I would like to go back in the firmware but Bose denies it.

As if you buy a color TV and after a firmware its only BW, that's Bose.

[KimYu]

Ralph, I understand your frustration.  I am looking at other brands for additional speakers, not waiting for Bose firmware changes.  Sony and Denon hi res speakers have attractive features.  

Kim

[Brandon_M]

Hi all,

Thanks for the posts.  The SoundTouch systems support 16/44.1 and 16/48 FLAC files.  We have never supported 24 bit audio files, though I'll put in the recommendation to have this feature added.

If those 24/96 files were playing on the system, I wonder if maybe they are mislabeled, or were transcoded from a 16/48 FLAC file and somehow are able to play?  Are you able to check to see if those tracks are a transcode?

Thanks,

Brandon

[Neurowolf]

Hi Brandon,

I just got an Soundtouch 20 and, indeed was astonished to notice, that a high quality company like Bose is not supporting high quality music encoding.I understand that it might overload some peoples transfer speeds, but I suggest to leave this to those who use Flac on their sound systems. Somebody suggested a mobile and Bluethooth instead, but - hello - Bose isn't supporting better quality Buothooth (like aptX) on their Soundtouch line either (or am I wrong, found no mentioning of it and it doesnt sound like).

Yes, please put high quality Flac as well as aptX on your recommendation list !!

[Brent_B]

Hi Neurowolf, 

Thank you for the post. If we hear any news regarding aptX and 24 bit FLAC support, we will let the community know. As you mentioned, our systems currently only support the SBC audio codec for Bluetooth.

Kind Regards

Brent - Bose Support

[KimYu]

Brent, can 2018 be the year for Bose to support 24 bit hi res FLAC file music, directly streamed?  Still eagerly awaiting....

Regards,

Kim 

[Joel_D]

Hello KimYu,

We haven't heard of any recent updates on Hi Res FLAC at this time. If there is any new updates regarding this, we will let the community know.

Kind Regards,

Joel - Bose Support