Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Music Gaining Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio in iOS 14.6, Not All Tracks Supported at Launch
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Lossy compression only happens at the consumer end, never in the mixing or mastering chain
Compression is applied when the audio is distributed to the end users via ie streaming services. It’s a part of the distribution of music, not the making of it.
I hope not. It’s too bad Apple doesn’t think it’s worth their time to sell lossless music competing with HDTracks. Even if they will there is no way iTunes Match will be DRM free in lossless era.
Thoughts as to if Hi Res lossless will work via Airplay 2 with an Airport Express (connected to an integrated amp's DAC by way of TosLink)?
Can someone confirm that Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio is only available when streamed with compatible hardware, or if I download an album/tracks which support it and the listen using compatible hardware it will be used? 95% of the time I only play downloaded Apple music and don’t stream.
So if I’m reading this correctly. If you don’t hundred percent stream your Apple Music. You’re pretty much out a lot getting high Fidelity?
Not sure when this page became available:
www.dolby.com
But I’m guessing recently as one of the video links are broken. I’m also assuming we’ll see Spotify take their place on the page soon, too.
Find Music in Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos Music streaming services and compatible devices deliver immersive sound at home or on the go. Find songs and artists with music in Dolby.
www.dolby.com
But I’m guessing recently as one of the video links are broken. I’m also assuming we’ll see Spotify take their place on the page soon, too.
Yes. Unless you have existing high fidelity tracks in your library (and are not listening to them through Match).
this is amazing news I have been waiting for this for a couple of years now! amazing that its at no extra cost. In my hi fi set up ill be mostly using my Apple TV, with the hdmi going into a hdmi switcher that has an optical audio out as well as hdmi out (just a regular hdmi switch with a optical out) the optical will be sent to a high end dac, and then from dac to tube amp and finally speakers. the hdmi out on the switch will go to my home theatre receiver (which will be muted) connected to tv, so that I can "see" the appletv and control it. you can just go from laptop to dac via usb, but I like the appletv experience when listening to music. I thought I would post in case any body prefers the Apple TV and was wondering how this can be done.
I should also mention most home theatre receivers have a dac capable of hi res playback, so you can just go from apple tv right to your receiver, but if you have an external high end dac that you want to use, this I think is the best way to do it. please reply if you have other ideas.
I should also mention most home theatre receivers have a dac capable of hi res playback, so you can just go from apple tv right to your receiver, but if you have an external high end dac that you want to use, this I think is the best way to do it. please reply if you have other ideas.
you can ditch tidal if you get an appletv, you can get a hdmi switch/adapter on amazon that has an optical out. from that optical out you can go to whatever receiver or dac that you currently have. if your node2i is the dac in your system you can go from that adapter straight to your node, as the node has an 3.5mm optical in port.
there is no general headphone spec to look for. get the best ones that you can afford. all wired headphones are technically able to play "hi res". you need a dac that can convert those hi res digital files and send that analog signal to your headphones. 48, 96 and 192khz is the sample rate of the files. cd quality is 44khz. anything above cd is considered "hi-res". you do not need to worry about frequency response when buying headphones. this has nothing to do with the sample rate of the tracks. I believe a general headphone is 20hz-20,000hz frequency response. you cant hear anything about 20,000.
so to answer your question, no you do not need headphones to go higher than 20khz (im not even sure any are made as there wouldn't be any point.) what makes a headphone or speaker sound good unfortunately is not simple as there is no spec you can point to (frequency response, sensitivity, max watts etc) that will tell you. you have to listen for yourself and decide.
from my own personal experience: a dac around $100-$200 and speakers around $500-$600 plus a solid amp are the minimum I would have to spend before I notice a difference between regular cd quality (44khz) and hi res (48,96,192) and the difference even then is extremely subtle. what's 10x more important than sample rate is the quality of the recording, and quality/characteristics of your speaker/headphone.
I agree, Apple Music app is noticeably slower than SpotifyMy biggest issue with Apple Music (having switched from Spotify) is how unresponsive the app is. Virtually every click requires a new page to load—it’s simply not quick or satisfying to navigate.
Somehow I doubt these changes are going to help…
There appears to be an option to download in Dolby Atmos.Anyone have an answer?
I actually have an AppleTV, and it's connected to our Samsung QLED via HDMI. The Samsung TV is then connected to the Node 2i via optical. I'm not sure if this chain of connections can pass the digital signal from the AppleTV to the DAC in the Node 2i unchanged.