I am assuming you are referring to the Beosound Core. In this case, the limitation is going to be your speaker. I don’t think there is anyway you will hear a difference between AirPlay 2 and higher bit rate with BL 18s. My 2 cents worth. I love the Core BTW. The DAC is at par with a Chord Hugo 2 and Topping D70 (the ones I compared it to) and easily superior to the AIrPort Express 2 (which is surprisingly also really good), BlueSound Node 2i and Sonos Connect. The Core is really good value compared to anything in it’s class from an audio perspective. 

Many thanks Jaffrey.

You are then ruling out the possibility of discerning higher quality audio streams using the B18s as the bottleneck is both the Core and B18s? Well, in any case, I am very satisfied with the 18s and thinking of adding the BL19 to the setup.

I guess I'll continue streaming my library as is given the limitation. 

Definitely add a BL 19, it makes a big difference to the sound. However, you will likely need to place it in a corner behind your BL18s, and close to one of the speakers to get the best outcome. My neighbor in the flat in front of me has exactly your set up with BL 18, BL 19 and Core and we had spent some time setting it up a few months ago. The BL 19 looks beautiful and compliments the BL 18 very well. However, the BL 2 is another option since I have found it is more forgiving in placement and truly puts our monster bass that belies it’s size. 

Also, to answer your question directly, I am quite sure you won’t hear any difference with higher bit rate as long as you are listening to lossless codecs. Many of my friends who are complete nerds when it comes to this sort of thing (including one who works for a well known audio company) has told me they too can’t tell the difference as long as the source is the same quality. 

By the way, I did a little more investigation into the specs of the Beocore and how the Audirvana software works when streaming to network audio devices.

The Beosound Core has a DLNA DMR (Digital Media Renderer) aka UPnP/DLNA renderer, so it is a UPnP/DLNA network audio file player aka streamer in addition to supporting AirPlay audio streaming. Its specs also mention support of hi-res audio files up to 24bit/192kHz. Audirvana supports having its audio output streamed over the network to UPnP/DLNA renderers, not just AirPlay devices. Therefore, I can only imagine that I am already streaming at the quality of my source hi-res files (i.e. either  24bit/96kHz or  24bit/192kHz) to the Beocore with further downsampling to accommodate for the maximum 96KHz limit of the B18s.

If what I have deduced from all this is that I was beguiled by my oversight/ignorance regarding my entire setup.

Thanks Jaffrey once again. 

B18 wrote:

Well, in any case, I am very satisfied with the 18s and thinking of adding the BL19 to the setup.

I guess I'll continue streaming my library as is given the limitation. 

My advice....keep on being satisfied with the 18’s.

Have you ever concidered that only a very, very few of these socalled highres files (higher than 16/44.1-cd specs) have an origin that is higher than that.

Many are old analog sourced files anyway.

Even if recordings today are captured with a higher bitrate, this is just important because you need the extra bits for the editing and mastering process.

What lies beyond the 44.1 isn’t audible at all and maybe not even captured due to the specs of the microphones used.

Rest asured that speakers matters....and that the 18’s are doing a good job.

In general the skills of the recording engineers making the recording are much more important that the delievery format.

Go for a lossless format - and you’ll be fine. 

MM 

I second the other opinions, the Beosound Core is surprisingly good! I tested a couple of devices to feed the digital input of my Beolab 5, was close to go with a Naim NDX. But could not justify the price finally... ended up with the Core and enjoy Multiroom as a plus on top.

I only can speak for myself, but I am much more relaxed these days in terms to find the holy grail in the "perfect sound", just enjoying music and not checking out the latest Voodoo cables anymore.