My 32 year old Marantz turntable is lossless. š
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Apple TV Won't Support Hi-Res Lossless at Launch, AirPods Max Wired Playback 'Will Not Be Completely Lossless'
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DAC will be the bottleneck no matter how high the resolution is.
Don't even bother because the $2 DACs that come pre installed in your iPhones, Macs, AirPods Maxs, Home Pods etc will not do the trick.
The cheapest half decent USB DAC for headphones is around $100 (AudioQuest Dragonfly) but then you will need a decent headphone with 1/4" analog jack minimum $350 to thousands. . . sorry AirPods Max will not work.
For a speaker setup again the cheapest DAC with amp will cost you at least $1000+ but then you will need a decent pair of speakers located in an acoustically treated room to enjoy all your hi-res music!
Don't even bother because the $2 DACs that come pre installed in your iPhones, Macs, AirPods Maxs, Home Pods etc will not do the trick.
The cheapest half decent USB DAC for headphones is around $100 (AudioQuest Dragonfly) but then you will need a decent headphone with 1/4" analog jack minimum $350 to thousands. . . sorry AirPods Max will not work.
For a speaker setup again the cheapest DAC with amp will cost you at least $1000+ but then you will need a decent pair of speakers located in an acoustically treated room to enjoy all your hi-res music!
My personal string quartet is lossless. Except when Fred canāt find his way to the venue. THEN itās lossy.
You should be fine. You will be using the DAC inside the Mac and whatever its limits are. Lightning is able to handle it, but the DAC canāt. The problem is the DAC that is inside the Mac might not be as good as an external one. Your mileage may vary.
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That little lightning to mini jack adapter is not very good in terms of sound quality. There were reviews back when it was introduced that said the WH1000XM3 is mainly a Bluetooth headphone. Itās line in is not as good.
Lightning is just a USB connection. They do 24bit/192kHz easily. You need the camera adapter and a DAC that can handle it.
Why does everyone constantly speak about how itās so hard to tell the difference? I can hear the difference in my Sonos Arc, 2 Sonos Oneās, and Subs easy. This feature is great and I canāt wait to use it.
I think itās because there have been some credible tests run with both folks that say they have great hearing and just average people that show that, in a proper blind test given a choice between A and B, the results are rarely better than if someone didnāt listen to either and just guessed. There may be folks out there with greater than human hearing abilities, itās just that they havenāt been submitted to proper blind tests to confirm.
Your Sonos setup is limited to 24bit/48kHz. I have a set too. I was disappointed when Sonos announced they would support high definition audio, but with that as their limit. So you will be able to play CD quality, but only a little more than that. Now that Apple is supporting full resolution audio, I wonder when they will up their lossy audio in their movies. Even CD quality would be good, but blu-ray has better sound.
Yes? The headphone jack was designed to only use the Apple buds, it was intentional.So, the only difference between mistakes made before and after he died was that before, they were planned and calculated? Before they were āintentionalā mistakes, now, just regular old mistakes?
The test music is not appropriate. You canāt really hear much differences on music that does not have high frequency orchestra instruments. The song in the test was electronically synthesized.Here you go (spoiler: you can't hear the difference)
Is your audio system really ready for lossless?
Do an ABX test in your browser, and see if you can tell the difference between lossless and Spotify-compression quality audioabx.digitalfeed.net
Real lossless audio requires the upcoming AirPods Max Pro Max. Lightning cable and case sold separatelyā¦because environment.
AirpodMax being released on those terms at this price is stupid. Homepod being discontinued if there is no viable replacement is stupid. Saying that you canāt hear the difference anyway is also stupid because why bother otherwise. I hope HomePod will be back in an even better version, AirPod max will have a bump and digital mastering will be in full spectrum like music was before the birth of CD (which is already applying filters on frequencies but hey you canāt hear the difference right ? Yes you can!)
If you look at the original Apple press release, its focus is Spatial Audio, with Lossless being closer to a side note. This ārolloutā was for spatial audio (which sounds great), but the media has managed to warp it into a lossless incompatibility story (presumably for clicks)
Exactly. The sample is not suitable for the task.
You need something with orchestration, like classical or prog rock or a movie soundtrack.
Lossless is 100% needed for archival purposes. You can never repurpose or recompress an already compressed file without amplifying loss. So anything compressed is by default never future proof. Wether or not you can perceive the difference in casual or focused listening is entirely up to the individual. I wouldn't disregard people with attuned hearing and high end equipment - especially at high volume and for long listening sessions (less tiring), but for most people's casual listening, even with good to great equipment the difference is close to zero.
I think there are some engineers at Apple pulling their hairs over the communication department right now. It makes sense that the hardware wouldnāt support 192 kHz, or even 96 kHz, if they use 48 kHz DACs (although one could argue that at this price point they should at least support 96 kHz). However, it makes zero sense that they wouldnāt support lossless up to 48 kHz. Converting analog to digital is not compression, and there are no reason to compress in that stage, that would require extra processing for no reason. No engineer in their right mind would implement that.I read a Macrumors article earlier that said lossless is not supported over Lightning, at least over AirPods Max.
AirPods Max Won't Directly Support Lossless Apple Music Over Lightning
Earlier today, we confirmed that AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max will not support lossless audio over Bluetooth because of Bluetooth...www.macrumors.com
I fully expect that what they actually mean is that they support up to 48 kHz ālosslessā, but with conversions between analog and digital. But that they donāt support true hi-tes due to the down conversions. The interesting thing here is that there are plenty of competitors that will state āhi-resā when supporting 24/48ā¦
Assuming a āgreat recording og music I likeā actually exists. For some styles of music, this is rare if not non-existant.
BUT, Tidal research has shown that the ābetterā the recording, the more difficult it is to tell the difference. The difference is most noticeable in complex, low-dynamic range music, because this is difficult to compress. This fits with my stance that even if you canāt spot a difference in a blind ABX test, the difference is still valid, because the differences are cummulative. 20 different quality deteriorations may be undetectable individually, and thus āirrelevantā to the objectivists, but if you apply all 20 at the same time, you have a very clear difference. Which is probably why these objectivists that claim you canāt hear differences in DACs and amps are very rarely able to actually demonstrate great soundā¦ Every time Iāve heard a truly impressive stereo demonstration, it has included at least one feature that I will still claim is snake oil. Itās just that the people with a more open mindset are more likely to fuss about the small details that actually DO matter, than those that think details that canāt be heard in blind tests donāt matter.
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Thereās not a single music service that supports hi-Res lossless without use of an external DAC. Very strong chance most users interested in that already have equipment to support it. Hi-Res lossless serves a niche market.
I don't see Apple making their own first-party DAC or a pair of home speakers that support Hi-Res Lossless. There are already a lot of 3rd parties that do a great job. I do see Apple releasing headphones that support regular lossless though.
Keep in mind, the difference is factually there whether you can spot it in a blind test or not. Blind test is a poor - actually, scientifically unusable - tool for confirming āno differenceā. A difference has to be very large, waaay past the point of ārelevanceā, for people to reliably call them out in a blind test. Meaning, there are many factually meaningful differences that you will not be able to confirm in blind tests, yet are relevant because as I state above, degradtions are cummulative.
In other words, blind tests do not and cannot provide proof that you canāt hear the difference. Saying otherwise is misusing and misunderstanding how blind tests work.