Apple Music Beta for Android Confirms Lossless Audio Streaming in the Works

[kb923689]

256kbps AAC is good enough for me. There's nothing wrong with having the best, but I can't really tell the difference between lossless and 128kbps mp3. I reckon for every 100 people who will swear by lossless, there's probably 1 or 2 who can actually tell the difference.

It's not about sound quality. We know 99% of people don't care or can't hear the difference. It's a gimmick to attract more users and remain competitive. Not saying audiophiles won't be satisfied. I can finally delete my local lossless library. I've been managing my music for the last 15 years or so. It's time to fully embrace streaming. I can enjoy 256kbps files on my standard EarPods and lossless music with my Pro headphones at home.

Will they raise the prices for lossless streaming? I hope not. They should also fix the Music app, sometimes it's buggy, even with iOS up to date. The iTunes app for Windows 10 is really showing its age, time for a revamped app too.

 

[eicca]

…but if the majority of hifi users are streaming over a wireless connection that can’t even carry CD quality (which no living iPhone is capable of doing as far as I know), it’s effectively useless, borderline scamming.

 

[dominiongamma]

I hope this will be a free upgrade for those paying for Apple One subscription.

Or just have Apple Music.

 

[SpringKid]

256kbps AAC is good enough for me. There's nothing wrong with having the best, but I can't really tell the difference between lossless and 128kbps mp3. I reckon for every 100 people who will swear by lossless, there's probably 1 or 2 who can actually tell the difference.

You of course know yourself best, and I get that you're fine with what's currently available, which is completely fine, but I'm still confident that you can easily hear the difference between 128 Kbps mp3 and CD quality or better. But hearing a difference and caring much about it is of course not the same thing. 🙂

 

[bwayne]

It used to be that you could only get music this high-quality if you bought an album online from specific websites at 2-3x the cost of a normal album.

Pretty soon it will be “It used to be you could get music streaming from a service that was called Spotify “

😁

 

[ouimetnick]

…but if the majority of hifi users are streaming over a wireless connection that can’t even carry CD quality (which no living iPhone is capable of doing as far as I know), it’s effectively useless, borderline scamming.

The iPhone can play CD quality music. iOS supports lossless, and high resolution music already. The issue is airplay 2 will down sample anything higher resolution than CD, and AirPods compress music over Bluetooth making the $550 AirPods Pro Max Plus limited (great sounding headphones though)

Maybe Apple has their version of AptX or whatever Qualcomm has?

 

[ouimetnick]

I sure as hell hope the original HomePod receives an update to support high resolution streaming and high resolution AirPlay.

Then again I always thought it was stupid to put a then 3 year old A8 in the HomePod. Hopefully they don’t claim the hardware can’t support it. 🙄 Then again, this is Tim Cook’s Apple, so I wouldn’t put it past them for designing products with no wiggle room for future enhancements and improvements. (cough** 2013 Mac Pro **cough 2014 Mac mini)

 

[DblHelix]

I'll be skewered for this, but: I must be getting old...CD quality music is being hyped like it's a great "reveal" / super-duper perk... Wasn't it readily available on good ol' Sony Walkmans at least 15 years ago? And yes, CDs do sound better than MP3s (spare me the "can't tell the difference" generalization).

There is some talk about supporting 24/192 which is master quality not cd quality

 

[tubular]

Every few years I'll poke my nose into Apple Music to see whether they've gotten any better about supporting classical music.

Just did it again. And nope. It's still a game of guess-the-composer-because-we-don't-show-you-that.

You get lots of "First Movement -- Allegretto." Okay, first movement of *what*? By *whom*?

I've spent a lot of time reripping my CDs for ALAC to go with my HomePod Pineapple-Size. But streaming still isn't an option, unless I want to go on a top-40s nostalgia trip.

 

[matrix07]

This is exactly why we need strong competition from the likes of Spotify. Without their HiFi tier announcement a few weeks ago Apple would never have done this.

Huh? The timing is too quick for Apple to do anything. Things like this took years of negotiation with music industry.

 

[matrix07]

They're not lossless when they upload to iCloud.

I believe he meant his lossless songs stored in iCloud Storage.

Edit: Never mind. I saw his response. 😀

 

[matrix07]

I think 24 bit is overkill for most people but I'm glad it is an option

It is but if you have a nice setup at home it would be very welcome.

 

[Kram Sacul]

This is all well and good but when the majority of music is dynamically compressed to hell then what’s the point?

 

[ouimetnick]

This is exactly why we need strong competition from the likes of Spotify. Without their HiFi tier announcement a few weeks ago Apple would never have done this. People have been asking Apple for lossless downloads and streaming for years and they just ignored everyone. Now suddenly it’s all go. I bet they’re had this sitting in the wings for ages just waiting for Spotify to move first.

Yes, because Apple can negotiate, and get the service running in a matter of weeks. 🤣 This has been in the works for quite sometime. Apple isn’t that fast

 

[matrix07]

If they want to make the iTunes Store hi res as well at the same time I’ll be very pleased.

Yes please. I would like to buy some albums for my collection. Why leave money on the table?

 

[Harvey Zoltan]

Is Apple prepared for the wrath of the audiophile nerd.

 

[incoherent_1]

256kbps AAC is good enough for me. There's nothing wrong with having the best, but I can't really tell the difference between lossless and 128kbps mp3. I reckon for every 100 people who will swear by lossless, there's probably 1 or 2 who can actually tell the difference.

Research data shows it’s actually far lower than even that, but people convince themselves of the strangest things.

 

[eicca]

The iPhone can play CD quality music. iOS supports lossless, and high resolution music already. The issue is airplay 2 will down sample anything higher resolution than CD, and AirPods compress music over Bluetooth making the $550 AirPods Pro Max Plus limited (great sounding headphones though)

Maybe Apple has their version of AptX or whatever Qualcomm has?

Exactly. Given the current setup, a wired audio connection is mandatory for hifi to have any point. It'll be interesting to see if something's been hidden in their house wireless chips this whole time, but I feel like the sleuths would've found it.

 

[lanomds1]

How do they discontinued the HomePod when the launch of HiFi audio is imminent?

 

[nicho]

How did they discontinued the HomePod when the launch of HiFi audio is imminent?

Can’t help but wonder if it is tactical/political. It’s similar in some ways to the Airtag/Tile thing and the original HomePod probably made less than a potential (unwarranted, but potential nonetheless) lawsuit or fine.

Apple about to release a Spotify-killing upgrade that - if rumours are true - only works with their own devices…

Instead it works with their headphones (think AirTags) but also third party speakers (think Chipolo one spot, the bikes with integration) via an upgraded Airplay 2 spec (think Find My network).

 

[ouimetnick]

How do they discontinued the HomePod when the launch of HiFi audio is imminent?

I’m thinking that maybe the A8 is too old and weak to handle the higher bit rate. Can an A8 play 24/192 with out a sweat?

I remember Apple discontinuing an iPod touch a few years ago and replacing it with a slightly improved model because the older one lost iOS support a month later at WWDC. Maybe they’ve been planning this all along and don’t want to sell a device that doesn’t support this high res streaming.

I’ll be irritated and ******** but not surprised one bit it if this becomes reality. Imagine a $99 HomePod mini playing high res music through its tiny speaker but a premium device costing $200-$250 more that was designed with sound as it’s primary goal, can’t play high quality music. 🤣

It would look foolish too because they are still selling white HomePods since no one is buying them. I don’t know how they expect to move remaining inventory w/o a price cut though.

 

[Bandaman]

Goodbye Amazon Music HD!

I've really been enjoying the audio quality with Amazon Music HD, but I'll happily jump ship once Apple releases this.

 

[RaceTripper]

I use Roon with Qobuz and am happy with that. Somehow I imagine Apple won't open up an API to Roon for service integration, so I don't see adding myself as an Apple Music subscriber. I use higher-end HiFi components in my home, so enjoy having CD and hires (24-bit) quality streams. MP3 sounds so dead and lifeless by comparison that I don't bother with services limited to that.

 

[Superhai]

Maybe Apple has their version of AptX or whatever Qualcomm has?

AptX is lossy so if they want the lossless route, they need their own or use Sony’s LDAC or Savitech LHDC. My guess is they will likely use ALAC over Bluetooth as they do on Airplay.

The problem with Bluetooth is that the bandwidth is limited. 900 kbit/s is the current limit for the latter codecs, and it works for lossless CD quality (44.1kHz/16 bit). If you go beyond you have to do it lossy.

Unless Apple does something funky. Apple holds a patent (US 20190104424) for high data rate transfer over Bluetooth where they talk about audio transfer of 2 mbit/s and data bursts up to 8 mbit/s. I guess some custom silicon will show up to facilitate wireless lossless high-res audio.

 

[ouimetnick]

AptX is lossy so if they want the lossless route, they need their own or use Sony’s LDAC or Savitech LHDC. My guess is they will likely use ALAC over Bluetooth as they do on Airplay.

The problem with Bluetooth is that the bandwidth is limited. 900 kbit/s is the current limit for the latter codecs, and it works for lossless CD quality (44.1kHz/16 bit). If you go beyond you have to do it lossy.

Unless Apple does something funky. Apple holds a patent (US 20190104424) for high data rate transfer over Bluetooth where they talk about audio transfer of 2 mbit/s and data bursts up to 8 mbit/s. I guess some custom silicon will show up to facilitate wireless lossless high-res audio.

Maybe, just maybe the H1 chip has the capability and it just hasn’t been utilized yet? I would imagine a firmware upgrade would be necessary for the H1 devices (AirPods, Pro, Max)