How do I play an AAC stream? What version of AAC do you support?

To play an AAC stream you can use one of the Barix device models specified for that.
Example: Exstreamer100/105, Exstreamer110/120, Exstreamer200/205 and Exstreamer500v2.

Check that those Exstreamer devices are labelled with "AAC+ capable" on the bottom. The software must be the Streaming Client (version 2.x or higher, preloaded in those models except Exstreamer500v2).

Both the AAC (AAC LC) and AAC+ (HE-AAC) are supported. In AAC+ both SBR (v1) and PS (v2) are supported.

Nevertheless it has to be noted that depending on the Encoder settings (sampling rate, compression ...) in our device some of the parametric functions of the High Efficiency AAC v2 Profile (SBR, PS) might not be resolved during decoding. More specific: the Parametric Stereo and the Spectral Band Replication are dynamically removed when the DSP is overloaded. As effect in the decoded audio you loose the Stereo effect and the high frequency range.

In order to optimize audio quality for your solution we do recommend to use MONO where possible (e.g. for in-store background music) and lower sampling rate (e.g. 32KHz instead of 48KHz). In this way the stream bit-rate is used at its best giving the highest perceivable audio quality.

Using anything beyond 32khz sampling rate (such as 44.1k or 48k) will just increase the need for bandwidth, or lower the quality when using the same stream bit-rate (e.g. 64kbps). If the application does not requires high audio frequencies (decoded audio frequency is circa half of the sampling rate), as our human ears do not hear much higher than 15kHz, encoding at 32kHz is the highest sampling rate needed to deliver the full-audible spectrum to humans.