AirPods Max - Best platforms to experience them on?

[SpitUK]

Are you using Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify or loading your own Flac files?

Is Apple TV+ the best way to experience spatial audio?

What are you all using to get the best out of these....

 

[JasonHB]

I use Apple Music for the majority of my listening and then Qobuz (European based hi-res streaming service that streams uncompressed FLAC files) for when I really want to seriously listen.

Apple TV+ works great for Spatial Audio, but it is supported on Disney+ as well and sounds fabulous on both

Jason

 

[SpitUK]

Thank you, never heard of Qobuz, going to check it out.

 

[Tdevilsg]

I've been using Amazon Music HD (Ultra HD) on my Iphone X. They are quite nice on that.

 

[UBS28]

It only fully works with iPhone’s. If your main usage is not in combination with an iPhone, you have to seriously consider something else.

However you can use it with any device. I have it even paired to my Samsung 4K TV late at night when I cannot use my speakers.

And Apple Music sounds really horrible, I am not going to downgrade to Apple Music just because of the APM. But I suppose the APM has been designed to works best with Apple Music i guess.

If the APM was my main listening device (which it isn’t), I see no reason why not to go for Apple Music.

 

[SpitUK]

Yes I would be using them with my iPhone.

 

[AppleZombie]

I have tried them on Apple Music, Amazon HD and Tidal. Tidal is the best, I mean I was listening to music and hearing background talk that I never noticed on certain songs before. You can hear every instrument being played. It was awesome. Amazon HD would be next and coming in last would be Apple Music.

 

[davideotape]

Fantasia 2000 on Disney+ is really fun. Pretty sure its not spatial audio but it just sounds great

 

[terryw1]

Just tried tidal. I need another music subscription like a hole in the head!! But so far so good, better selection for what I like than apple and the sound is an improvement.

 

[BeatCrazy]

It only fully works with iPhone’s. If your main usage is not in combination with an Apple device, you have to seriously consider something else.

However you can use it with any device. I have it even paired to my Samsung 4K TV late at night when I cannot use my speakers.

And Apple Music sounds really horrible, I am not going to downgrade to Apple Music just because of the APM. But I suppose the APM has been designed to works best with Apple Music i guess.

If the APM was my main listening device (which it isn’t), I see no reason why not to go for Apple Music.

Fixed that for ya.

I use them most frequently with my M1 Mac mini.

 

[UKapple73]

Correct me if I’ve got this totally wrong- but isn’t it kind of pointless to us the hi res music over Bluetooth?
The APM used AAC. The phone will send AAC at max 256kb/s to the APM. So if you listen to regular Apple Music, there is no further conversion done, it’s simply sending the AAC codec to the APM and they decode the music
But if you play say a FLAC file from tidal, the app will surely convert this to a AAC at 256 Kbps anyway, for the APM to then decode.
i presume maybe even playing the native AAC from Apple Music may be better, as it was encoded from a master copy and not converted on the fly by the tidal app for example
Or have i got this wrong ???
I guess over wired connection, then yes there may well be a big benefit, just not sure over BT

 

[JasonHB]

Correct me if I’ve got this totally wrong- but isn’t it kind of pointless to us the hi res music over Bluetooth?
The APM used AAC. The phone will send AAC at max 256kb/s to the APM. So if you listen to regular Apple Music, there is no further conversion done, it’s simply sending the AAC codec to the APM and they decode the music
But if you play say a FLAC file from tidal, the app will surely convert this to a AAC at 256 Kbps anyway, for the APM to then decode.
i presume maybe even playing the native AAC from Apple Music may be better, as it was encoded from a master copy and not converted on the fly by the tidal app for example
Or have i got this wrong ???
I guess over wired connection, then yes there may well be a big benefit, just not sure over BT

To me, and I’ve spent hours comparing, Qobuz (European based service using uncompressed FLAC) does sound better than Apple Music and worth the £15 a month I pay for it when I want to listen seriously.

All other times, I use Apple Music and it does sound excellent, certainly better than any other non-hi-res service out there.

I have done a wired comparison as well, but I could not tell any difference between the headphone cable from my steaming device, and the same service playing over BT to the APM’s

Jason

 

[EntropyQ3]

I use Spotify.
In ABX tests, I cannot separate them from lossless, regardless of headphone used.
(Unless you screw up and leave it on a setting where it is free to choose the lowest bitrate.)

Without ABX-testing I have no problew hearing differences between amps, DACs and cables.