ADM is already on Apple Music, this is about lossless and better encoded music. Hopefully they'll use Apple Lossless!
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Rumor: Apple to Announce Third-Generation AirPods and HiFi Apple Music Tier on May 18
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This rumor about a "lossless tier" from Apple predates Apple Music itself. They were supposed to release lossless on the iTunes store for 30 cents more back in the day, and it never happened.
Apple Digital Masters are not lossless or CD quality audio though, they're still 256Kbps AAC files.
Please!
I've been waiting for 3rd get to get a set for my better half. His birthday is June 6th.
I've been waiting for 3rd get to get a set for my better half. His birthday is June 6th.
Hope there is some form of HiFi release. Although I’m currently trying out Tidal master quality - listening with Air Pods Pro doesn’t make too much difference really. Same with a stereo pair of HomePod Minis.
I suspect the difference can only be heard on higher end equipment.
I suspect the difference can only be heard on higher end equipment.
Correct - in order for your Airpod pro or HomePods to receive an audio signal, your Apple device has to convert the Tidal Master Quality audio to AAC-256k bitrate audio to stream via bluetooth.
Even then it is not a major difference. 256Kbps AAC is very high quality as it is.
Music sent To HomePod is not compressed to 256kbps, and HomePod doesn’t use Bluetooth for streaming.
how does it make sense to offer higher bit rate music based on specific earphones/headphones/speakers?
is it just a reward for buying overpriced apple products?
and how would that even work? would it send you a higher bit rate after checking for a specific chip or something ?
my 70s advent speakers and $99 audio technics bluetooth headphones sound better than any apple product. and my $7 ali express knock off airpods sound just as good as the real ones (just no noise cancelling, which i would never want anyway )
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You’re phone doesn’t have nostalgia attached to it or a click wheel. 😝
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that's more or less irrelevant unless it's been specifically mastered for hi-res. the reality is that between vinyl, cd, cassette and hi-res digital any piece of music will sound best depending on the master. that is, what it was mastered for, and how good of a job the mastering engineer did for that format (as well as personal preference.)
this is especially true if apple is just going to algorithmically remaster music on the fly to be "hi-res"
and also especially true for music that was recorded to an older digital format (say dat) in the first place. if something was recorded to a tape or a hard drive at 44.1 you can't get anything more out of it than what's already on a cd
I'm of course leaving out completely the question of the capabilities of the human ears and brain
after a remaster and a vinyl reissue my favourite album still sounds best on cassette for whatever reason.
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Step 1) Only support AAC Codec
Step 2) Remove 3.5 output
Step 3) Launch HiFi Music option
There has to be more to this or it makes absolutely no sense.
Step 2) Remove 3.5 output
Step 3) Launch HiFi Music option
There has to be more to this or it makes absolutely no sense.
Something not right in their (Apple) head. They get rid if their hifi speaker HomePod, and then add a hifi music option. Maybe their perception of hifi audio was tested on the HomePod mini. Head engineer at Apple, sounds like hifi to me. Label it as such. Maybe the reason for the no price increase. 😀
from my past research in the audiophile community, most people cannot even distinguish 320kbps MP3 files or 256kbps AAC files with 1411kbps FLAC files. this addition of hifi music is mainly just for marketing against other companies that offer hifi music. even if you had the ears to hear such a difference, you're gonna need a good audiophile setup, which Apple currently does not offer. the Airpods Max is just a slightly better Sony XM4, right? that's not good enough!
the airpods pro have terrible build quality. just keep getting them replaced and hopefully they swap it out for an airpods pro 2 by the time it comes out.....unless you ran out of apple care
Apple claiming their 256Kbps AAC files is CD quality though. I have tested it with my own CD uploaded to Apple Music compared to the original CD playing from another Mac. Both are played to HomePods paired as stereo and both sound identical. There might be difference but I didn't hear it so I can't fault Apple claim.
That doesn't mean it's lossless though. It's not. It's just for your ears it's CD quality.