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

[azmscle]

This is just "Mastered for iTunes" rebranded. Details:

When you convert audio to a lossy codec, there are often times the signal can get distortion or digital clipping due to the lossy conversion process. ADM is just a program whereby engineers can use Apple-supplied tools to convert (and test) their audio to make sure it doesn't have any clipping when converted to lossy AAC. Basically, its just a quality-control program for 256kbps audio conversion.

EDIT: Here's the official link (note the url) https://www.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/

As I said, designed to be lossless.
The page even emphasizes this in the opening paragraph.
“The results, both for streaming and download, are virtually indistinguishable from the original 24 bit studio masters.”

That PDF supplied on that page is a great resource to elaborate and explain on it.

 

[tubular]

I bought my HomePods (the pineapple sized ones, not the orange sized ones) exactly to stream Airplay 2 losslessly from my iTunes, and I have about 200GB of ALAC files I've reripped for lossless playback that way. I'm not expecting lossless listening over Bluetooth in its current form. And I'm far enough over 30 that it's probably all academic for these ears anyway.

I've had trouble consistently doing stereo pairing via Airplay 2, and have given up on it. It may be that the 2010-era Mac mini I'm using as the hub is too old or underpowered for it, or I may just be in too noisy a radio neighborhood.

I'm still not looking very hard at Apple Music, which isn't aimed at me anyway, but it might be nice to be able to purchase ALAC versions of various albums I've bought from the iTunes Store in the past.

 

[1258186]

I didn't say it was. I'm saying most of the people who claim they can tell a difference - even with expensive equipment - can't. So even a good chunk out of the people with expensive headphones or listening gear will say they can hear a difference, but if were to test to prove it, would fail.

Totally irrelevant. Most people probably can’t tell the difference between different TV formats but that doesn’t stop the manufacturers churning out 4K and 8K TVs. If people believe they can hear a difference then let them get on with it. It’s their money not yours.

 

[ujE3vyVG8xh?tz]

Wired CarPlay user and Qubuz subscriber here.

The system in my electric Hyundai is impressive and lossless Qubuz over lossy Spotify is clearly identifiable.

I believe I read somewhere that CarPlay is limited to 24bit/48kHz. I wonder if they will remove that limitation with this new service. Assuming they do, then the questions is whether there is limitation in the car's audio system's hardware. Your car's system must be very good.