Playback & Zones

In Tune you always listen on a zone, that is, a sound destination: a DAC attached to the server, a network renderer, an AirPlay speaker, a Chromecast, a Squeezebox player, or the browser itself. Each zone has its own queue, volume and settings. Several zones can play different music at the same time.

Choosing and managing zones

Automatic creation: Tune creates a zone for each device it discovers. You can turn this off in Settings › Zones.
Switch Zone: click the zone name in the playback bar. The same menu offers Transfer playback to… to move what is playing to another zone.
Zones screen (sidebar, Advanced level): New Zone, Change Output, and Stereo pairs. A stereo pair links two DLNA renderers that each play one channel; each zone of the pair becomes mono, and the pair is driven as a single destination.
Follow me (Settings › Zones): Pause the zone you leave stops playback in the zone you leave when you switch zones. This is off by default, so zones stay independent.
This computer (browser): a zone that plays through the speakers or headphones of the device showing Tune.

The free version of Tune allows three active zones, with every protocol. Beyond that, you need a Tune Premium licence.

Output types

Local outputs (USB DAC, sound card)

Linux: ALSA.
macOS: CoreAudio, with an exclusive mode ("Hog Mode") that switches the DAC's sample rate to match the music.
Windows: WASAPI (shared or exclusive) or ASIO. Choose in Settings › Audio › Local Audio Outputs › Audio backend, together with WASAPI mode. ASIO needs the driver supplied by the DAC maker; without it the output stays silent. With ASIO selected, devices that ASIO does not find open in WASAPI.

The Docker image does not handle local outputs.

Network devices

DLNA / UPnP and OpenHome: renderers, streamers, network amplifiers. Sonos speakers are supported as DLNA renderers.
AirPlay: AirPlay 1 and AirPlay 2. An Apple TV and AirPlay-2-only TVs need pairing with a PIN code; other receivers pair on their own.
Chromecast.
BluOS.
Squeezebox: Tune acts as the server for Squeezebox and Squeezelite players (port 3483), with no LMS needed. Tune can also control an existing LMS / Lyrion server: Settings › Audio › Squeezebox / Lyrion.
OAAT: Tune's bit-perfect protocol, the only one that allows truly synchronised groups (see OAAT).

Discovered devices are managed in Settings › Audio › Network Devices. A device hidden by mistake can be found in Ignored devices.

HQPlayer

Tune can control an HQPlayer instance (versions 4 to 6) and send music to it: Settings › Audio › HQPlayer (Expert level). HQPlayer is not a Tune zone: it handles its own output.

Grouped playback (multi-room)

Right-click the zone name in the playback bar to open its settings. The Grouped Playback section lets you add other zones to it. Creating a group requires a Tune Premium licence.

Good to know: a group of DLNA, AirPlay, Chromecast (and similar) devices is controlled in one go, but those devices share no common clock. They can drift slightly apart; each zone's Sync Offset corrects this by hand. Only OAAT groups are synchronised by Tune.

Signal path and Audiophile mode

Signal Path (playback bar): shows what happens to the music on its way to the device: whether it is Lossless, Bit-Perfect or Transcoded, and the decisions taken along the way.
Audiophile Mode (PURE badge): per zone, turns off all processing (equaliser, room correction, crossfeed). Your settings are kept and come back when you turn PURE off. Optionally, Settings › General › Playback sets the volume to 100 % when Audiophile mode turns on.

Per-zone settings

Settings › Devices › Per-zone settings:

Setting	Effect
DSD mode	Auto, Native (passthrough), DoP, PCM (conversion): see below
Max rate	Sample rate above which Tune resamples. "Auto (no limit)" sends the original rate.
Bit-perfect strict	If the device cannot play the original rate, Tune refuses to play instead of converting
Fixed volume	Always sends 100 %, and you set the volume on the amplifier. Tune asks for confirmation.
Mono output, Channels	Mono downmix and channel layout (local outputs only)
Gain trim	Level correction for this zone
Publish this zone on the network	The zone becomes a UPnP renderer: another Tune or a UPnP app (JPlay, BubbleUPnP, mconnect) can send playback to it

Gapless playback is set in the zone's own settings (right-click its name in the playback bar, Zone audio section). Crossfade is not available in version 1.0.

DSD

To a network renderer: Native sends the DSF/DFF file unchanged, even if the renderer does not advertise DSD. Auto asks the renderer first. DoP packs DSD into a PCM stream. PCM converts DSD on the server.
To a local output (USB DAC): Tune sends DSD as DoP. If you choose "Native" on a local output, DoP is still what goes out, and the interface says so ("On this output, native DSD is sent as DoP.").
DoP rates: DSD64 at 176.4 kHz, DSD128 at 352.8 kHz, DSD256 at 705.6 kHz.
SACD images (.iso) play directly.
Settings › Audio › DSD playback (network renderers) (Expert): when Tune has to transcode DSD for the network, choose Temporary file (default) or Continuous streaming, which fixes dropouts in DSD 256/512 on some renderers.

Volume and ReplayGain

On a local output, Tune applies the volume itself (shown as a percentage or in dB: Settings › General › Interface). On a network device, Tune sets the device's own volume.
ReplayGain (Settings › Audio › Local Audio Outputs): Off (source level), Per track or Per album, with Pre-amp, Prevent clipping and Gain source. The gain source is either file tags only, or file tags completed by the background analysis for untagged tracks. The setting applies to every zone. When off, the signal is left untouched.

Processing (Studio)

Processing comes as extensions. Once installed and enabled (Settings › Extensions), they appear in the Studio group of the sidebar (Expert level):

Equalizer: parametric equaliser, with presets and AutoEq import;
Crossfeed and Crossfeed Pro: for headphone listening (Tune Premium licence);
room correction (WAV impulse response or parametric correction, Tune Premium licence).

The same group offers two tools that work on files rather than during playback: the Converter (batch file conversion) and De-click, which removes encoding artefacts (encoder delay, clicks at joins) and re-exports the result losslessly, never touching the original.

Real-time processing also applies to network devices. Settings › Audio › Processing on network players (Expert) chooses between sending a whole processed file (default) and processing on the fly. PURE mode bypasses all of it.