Rumor: Apple to Announce Third-Generation AirPods and HiFi Apple Music Tier on May 18

[pauloregan]

How to destroy competition.
Make sure you have a deeper pile of cash. Underprice things. Make the competition leave the market.
"Wohoo" the fanboys say. "My team won"
Then the prices go up.
Fanboys say "where did all the competition go? I have to now pay the higher price, this isn't fair!"

 

[farmerabc]

There will be many expecting improved sound quality from a higher bitrate. many will comment they can hear this, if it's released. Truth is that there will be little, if any, difference as the present AAC 256Kbps is as good as you need anyway. 24 bit 96 or 192 kHz are important for editing but not for serious listening by the consumer. If you believe this to be untrue then you have sadly fallen for all the hype constantly pushed out by journalists across the industry. It's important to remember that companies, magazines and YouTubers need to carry on convincing you there's something better around the corner. The reality is that most people cannot hear anything improve above CD quality or even 256 AAC.

Absolutely this.

Almost nobody can tell the difference between AAC 256 and lossless, and the few who can have trained themselves to spot very specific artifacts that have no effect on the "quality" of the music.

As you have said, many people will claim they can hear how much better it sounds, but none will ever A/B test whether or not they actually can.

This is coming from somebody who actually fell for the audiophile hype until I decided to look into the actual science of it.

If, of course, they decide to go the Tidal route and release remastered hi-fi versions of tracks then this will be a noticeable difference.

 

[Joseph C]

How about we gain this on iOS:

- Crossfade
- Playlist sorting
- Search within playlists
- Suggested songs to add to playlists
- More mixes based on mood/listening history

And on all platforms, instant and unified search.

That would be preferable to me than redesigned AirPods, especially if the Pros aren't getting an update. I guess we'll have this update and then the stem-less AirPods Pro 2 later.

 

[pauloregan]

Crossfade may not be a thing because of all the new dance music 'mixed together' albums that were introduced a couple of years ago. These can't be crossfaded as the mix is already sorted.
in iTunes days this used to be a 70minute long mixed song you got as an extra and all the individual songs came unmixed.
Check out Browse, Categories, DJ Mixes for examples.

 

[iapplelove]

**** Apple

 

[Steve121178]

For sure you haven’t listened to it on HomePods paired as stereo.

I use Apple Music in my car & on my iPhone/iPad/iMac/MacBook Air/Echo. The quality isn't great. There's also a huge variation in quality as well as some tracks/albums are appalling and volume has to be really cranked up high to hear properly.

With Spotify everything was the same kind of standard.

 

[matrix07]

I use Apple Music in my car & on my iPhone/iPad/iMac/MacBook Air/Echo. The quality isn't great. There's also a huge variation in quality as well as some tracks/albums are appalling and volume has to be really cranked up high to hear properly.

With Spotify everything was the same kind of standard.

I don’t think that tells about audio quality. It’s well known that many albums mixed differently and should sounds differently. Many albums there sound as good as CDs I have. That is apple and apple comparison.
In addition, I used to collect LP and I know how some albums sound and I get the same sound from Apple Music.

 

[Menel]

It's my understanding (and could be wrong) that all Apple headphones max out at 256kbps AAC and anything else is converted down. So an uplift in music quality necessitates purchasing new hardware, too.

It would be nice if Apple supported aptx so those with headphones that support this can benefit.

Ew isnt that the ****** android tech that does more lossy conversions?

 

[jamcgahey]

This is great and will certainly keep them in the range of competitiveness with Spotify; however, it is still important that they fix the software for the service. On top of fixing some issues, they also need to add some (in my opinion) basic features such as better organization of personal playlists and a more streamlined way to queue songs other than just "play next" and "play last". This is just to name a few. Again, not to be a debbie downer just pointing out the obvious with the false hope Apple reads this and does something about it...

 

[Mrjetsondc]

Instead, announce a mew release of the Music app with hundreds and hundreds of bug fixes.

Not being snarky, but the music app is embarrassingly low quality.

Spotify wipes the floor with Apple Music. Apple should be embarrassed. And I own only Apple products!

 

[peterh988]

When you say “cost the same 9.99” are you saying that it will be an additional 9.99 or that it will be a free quality upgrade to all paying subscribers? Wondering where Apple One subscribers would fall into all of this as well.

And will iTunes Match be included?

 

[dzuchowski]

with the Apple anmd Epic lawsuit gave me an idea. Why can't we run ios on and Android and Android on an iPhone?

 

[ELman]

I hope they have announce a replacement for the Powerbeats Pro. My airpods are great, but they don't stay in my ears like the Powerbeats Pro when working out.

 

[827538]

It would be a really competitive move to include this tier at current prices.

I really hope this AirPod rumor is true, I want to include them when I purchase my new MacBook Pro when they refresh it this year. My Gen 1 AirPods don’t last long enough anymore.

The only upgrade I really want is spatial audio.

 

[Chrisbc]

Hope they launch a new Beats Pill+ too! That thing is old and outdated!

 

[return2sendai]

I love my iPod Classic all the more when I read nonsense like this. Steve put 10,000 tunes in my pocket. Tim put 10 billion dollars in the bank.

 

[Joseph C]

Crossfade may not be a thing because of all the new dance music 'mixed together' albums that were introduced a couple of years ago. These can't be crossfaded as the mix is already sorted.
in iTunes days this used to be a 70minute long mixed song you got as an extra and all the individual songs came unmixed.
Check out Browse, Categories, DJ Mixes for examples.

It's always been an option on iTunes, was a feature on the iPod, and it's even a feature on Apple Music for Android. In all cases, it's something the user has to turn on, and is off by default. I for one would like it for my listening style.

 

[bommai]

I agree with the sentiment in these posts it seems like, where I hope that this new hifi tier will be included for free alongside an existing subscription. I’m okay with it only being available on certain products though. HomePod (full sized), AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, etc.

I realistically don’t see that happening though sadly. With Tidal already offering the hifi tier for an additional $10/month, it seems fit to pattern it that way. The best would be to drop the prices down $3-$5 or so, and have the hifi be $5 extra to soften the blow. So that those who want it will pay roughly the same, but those who don’t need it can get a slight discount. Fingers crossed. Either way I’m excited!

I would say the only products that can use lossless in a home setting would be good quality speakers. I use tidal though my Yamaha MusicCast and my Denon HeOS apps to drive some good quality speakers. Tidal Hifi sounds the best for that compared to Apple Music. None of these apps support Apple Music in the same way tidal is supported. They rely on airplay 2 for that. I am pretty sure that an AirPods Pro won’t be able to tell the difference between AAC and ALAC.

 

[benboy12]

I hope they have announce a replacement for the Powerbeats Pro. My airpods are great, but they don't stay in my ears like the Powerbeats Pro when working out.

This.

I’m in the same boat as you. My primary use for earbuds is working out/jogging. I love my Powerbeats Pro, since they hook around my ear. If they don’t want to release a version 2, or modify the current AirPods form factor, I would love some kind of optional attachment for the AirPods to hook around the ears.

 

[1258186]

I hope they add a HiFi option to music downloads in iTunes and allow me to upgrade my iTunes library.

 

[1258186]

Releasing hi-fi audio with a hardware that does not produce hi-fi sound?

The iPhone is capable of producing HiFi sound but you need to have the right headphones or speakers to hear it.

 

[jimbobb24]

My biggest gripe with Apple Music is that you still have to use a Mac or PC with iTunes if you want to import music from 3rd party sources, create smart playlists, and edit song information.

A HiFi tier would be nice however if as I’ve seen other rumours suggesting it’s restricted to AirPods then it’s worthless to me. At home I listen to my music via AirPlay to a full Dolby Atmos surround sound setup so would probably benefit from HiFi, at work I listen via a cheap pair of Sony Bluetooth headphones so HiFi would be less of an upgrade there.

What would be a good way of implementing this would be to download/stream the regular AAC files when connected to standard pair of headphones or Bluetooth speaker which would also save storage space for those who save music to their phones for offline use, and then when at home on WiFi (or cellular if you enable a toggle) it will stream the HiFi versions when it detects a device capable of playing them such as high end Airplay speakers, AirPods, or a high end DAC.

Also whilst they are at it maybe they should consider adding support for some of the high end Bluetooth audio standards so owners of 3rd party high end headphones can get in on that party.

My biggest gripe is you get no warning when a song is about to disappear and if you have the single when an album comes out it takes away the single and you don’t know why. I have a lot of greyed out songs that either are gone for good or Apple moved to an album and so they are no longer going to be in my playlists.

if they told me a song was going to disappear I would buy many of the songs.

 

[1258186]

If Apple upgrades hifi for free do you think Spotify will do the same?

They all will. Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, etc will all have to match the price to avoid losing customers.

 

[Stuey3D]

My biggest gripe is you get no warning when a song is about to disappear and if you have the single when an album comes out it takes away the single and you don’t know why. I have a lot of greyed out songs that either are gone for good or Apple moved to an album and so they are no longer going to be in my playlists.

if they told me a song was going to disappear I would buy many of the songs.

Or when you have a song downloaded and it switches version. For example I had Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit downloaded for offline playback and have done for ages but one day I noticed the album art was different in my song list and when I played it it was switched with the live version which I’ve never added to my library or even listened to before.

 

[jeffkoontz]

Regardless of whether you can or think you can or cannot hear the difference between a lossy AAC codec and a lossless codec like ALAC, all of Apple's listening ecosystem is built around the AAC bluetooth codec.

At this time there is no support on Apple devices for higher bitrate bluetooth listening - like the AptxHD codec (there is support on mac's but not on iphones/ipads or any current apple headphone device) which allows higher bitrate audio. So if Apple is releasing a higher fidelity Apple Music option, there's going to have to be some significant updates to both iOS/Ipados and then obviously, if they are releasing AirPod pro 2's - they would come with the support. (maybe a firmware update to older air pod pro's?/Airpod Max). I guess Bluetooth 5 has the throughput to make it work. It's just the apple AAC codec that's the limiting factor, I think.