Apple Music Apple set to announce HiFi tier, same $9.99 cost

[jaack]

APPLE GOING HI-FI? : HITS Daily Double

Apple will announce a new high-fidelity audio streaming tier in the coming weeks at the same $9.99-per-user price point as its standard plan, label sources are telling us. The announcement is...

hitsdailydouble.com

 

[Marco Klobas]

Interesting, thanks. Let's see if it's true and what "Hi-Fi" will mean for Apple.

 

[keeper]

Waste of time, Apple does not have any type of integration that allows people to play files at that resolution other than Sonos, you are forced to use Airplay.

Spotify on the other hand has Connect that’s integrated into lots of Hi-Fi hardware.
They wont see any increase in subscribers and will loose to Spotify as many users of Tidal and Qobuz are waiting to try Spotify Hi_Fi.

 

[Julien]

Seems like a dead end for now. While the files will be saved as ALAC don't think there is any BT option to pass lossless audio. Does any hardware iPhone, ATV, AirPods Max or Mac support Enhanced aptX BT? Or more likely will Apple make its own proprietary lossless codec, maybe a version of ALAC for a BT 6.x implementation (Sonly has LDAC)? This would likely take a couple of years.

 

[keeper]

Seems like a dead end for now. While the files will be saved as ALAC don't think there is any BT option to pass lossless audio. Does any hardware iPhone, ATV, AirPods Max or Mac support Enhanced aptX BT? Or more likely will Apple make its own proprietary lossless codec, maybe a version of ALAC for a BT 6.x implementation (Sonly has LDAC)? This would likely take a couple of years.

Looks like a rushed decision in response to Spotify, otherwise the logical entry point would have been to provide a digital output on the ATV and use it for both ATV and AM growth.

 

[VideoFreek]

Difficult to see where Apple is going with this right now. It has been suggested that they could leverage the U1 chip to stream using UWB at CD quality (1411 kbps). The problem is, no current Apple AirPods have the U1 chip (including the Max). If they introduce this capability on some new model of AirPods, those who've recently bought the Max will be extremely PO'd.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Difficult to see where Apple is going with this right now. It has been suggested that they could leverage the U1 chip to stream using UWB at CD quality (1411 kbps). The problem is, no current Apple AirPods have the U1 chip (including the Max). If they introduce this capability on some new model of AirPods, those who've recently bought the Max will be extremely PO'd.

Is it possible this is already baked into the APM and Apple will open it up upon release? I mean choosing Air Pods as the platform to release a Hi Res streaming service and potentially a Hi Res BT codec is absurd given that the sound quality of regular Air Pods is mediocre at best. Apple is too smart for that. So it's either backwards compatible with the APM or perhaps it's going to require all new hardware to implement which may not be available until the iPhone 13 is released. Either that or they have some other trick up their sleeve like using AirPlay (limited usefulness). I agree that for those who shelled out $550 or more fore the APM, this would be a huge slap in the face 6 months later.

In any event this is promising news particularly if Apple offers a wireless Hi Res solution that is not closed to the Apple Ecosystem. I truly hope they license the technology to third parties as the lack of LDAC or AptxHD (neither of which are perfect) is one of my least favorite things about the iPhone.

 

[VideoFreek]

Is it possible this is already baked into the APM and Apple will open it up upon release?

Great question. My understanding is that teardown of the APM has revealed no U1 chip, but I suppose it is not impossible that the functionality could be baked into something else. How spectacularly cool would that be? And you are absolutely correct, the APM would be THE platform on which to launch CD-quality wireless audio, rather than the comparatively crappy regular AirPods.

If Apple are going ahead with UWB streaming, this would be a good thing as BT is a crapshow. Nevertheless, there would be plenty of screaming and whining about closed systems and all that. Apparently the about-to-be-released AppleTV 4K has a U1 chip (though the new Siri remote doesn't), which suggests (at least to me) that UWB streaming could be in the cards. Time will tell.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Apple has already declared war on wired audio so this has to be a wireless solution. For it to work, Apple needs to license whatever its magical new codec is for a reasonable price. Otherwise, audiophiles will stick with Android which as LDAC and AptxHD baked into virtually every newish phone (except Samsung's strange decision not to offer AptxHD). And Android is getting better with significant improvements to BT expected this year and Aptx Adaptive offering a more efficient solution to LDAC. Apple is already way behind the curve on this but it has the potential to quickly become the leader given Android fragmentation

Interestingly enough, when APM launched, Apple fanboys were vigorously defending AAC as audibly transparent and superior to LDAC and claiming no improvements to AAC were needed. Now here we are a few months later and Apple apparently is prepping a Hi Res platform. So I imagine those same fanboys will be changing their tune. For the record, I love Apple but hate Apple's handling of audio including the lack of any system wide EQ. It has gotten better over the years. I tried to love the APM but I felt they were very average in terms of sound. Decent enough but not worth the $550 price of admission.