Well, current "hearsay" has changed on this subject, latest products are competitive in good audio (without being the best).
Remembered but are you trying to make me feel old here?Do you remember when Apple was in a dispute over the Macintosh name and agreed not to make "great audio" since the other company was the high end HiFi hardware firm McIntosh?
I'm just not sure the intention here is to drive playback quality. Maybe it is but I have to beleive there is a long term game plan to get Siri to work far better with greater local processing.Apple paid McIntosh a settlement that allowed both to go forward in audio reproduction. Now Apple is dominant in digital audio capture, edit, reproduction, and distribution. Hiring every major recognized expert too.
Nice stuff if you can afford it. Also if you have hearing good enough to actually hear a difference. I have neither so you won't see a McIntosh in my house anytime soon.McIntosh continues to be a leader in analog audio reproduction, the very style of music Steve Jobs himself preferred, as do I.
The interesting thing here is that Apple has yet to offer really exceptional audio hardware. No amp/preamp or any other equipment to support its iTunes library. You would think that after clearing things up with McIntosh, Apple records and whomever else they would have moved into the production of a high end integrated amp at the very least.
In my younger day I use to read just about all of the audiophile magazines I could find. Having a background in electronics it was always hard to balance the BS against what might be a technically valid accomplishment. After awhile, including time spent listening to different systems in various shops I came to the conclusion that much of the high end High Fidelity world is filled with BS artists, many of whom don't even grasp how what they are talking about.Well, that depends on who's doing the saying
It has been my experience, though, that the internet's many self-proclaimed audiophiles with "golden ears"
judge all Beats products as rubbish, along with Bose and anything else that's mainstream. My comment was meant to be snarky towards that snobbish sentiment rather than a statement on the quality of the product.
This sounds great!
One can only wonder what Apple is up to by continuing to not only hire DSP people, but some of the cream of the crop. I continue to hope it will affect the pro market.