Apple Music HiFi

Ryan-3 · 19 May 2021 at 12:00

ALAC was made because Apple put their own spin on the container file for the lossless audio, but it is FLAC. However, because of the slight difference, you can get issues trying to play FLAC natively on Apple devices.

Personally, unless you've got a good set of gear you won't notice the difference beyond CD. But, it is most certainly diminishing returns as you increase the sample rate of 24bit audio "High Res" files. 24/96 to my ears is the nicest of them all. Beyond 192, I can no longer really hear the difference, but the file sizes quickly become very large.

Valo · 22 May 2021 at 09:14

Looks like Lossless Audio support for HomePod will be coming in a future software update: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/22/homepod-apple-music-lossless-future-update/

Danthus · 22 May 2021 at 11:29

I keep flipping between Spotify and Apple Music but I will just keep the Apple subscription now.

alex24 · 24 May 2021 at 09:13

Valo said:
Looks like Lossless Audio support for HomePod will be coming in a future software update: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/22/homepod-apple-music-lossless-future-update/

I don't understand why that's necessary. I haven't heard a HomePod, granted, but surely it's not capable of resolving detail to any level where higher than CD quality is a worthwhile thing. In fact, I'm pretty sure very expensive audiophile grade stuff would also struggle to highlight it to any degree where it was worthwhile.

LiE · 24 May 2021 at 14:38

This seems a bit wasted from what I've been reading. Most say you cannot tell the difference and there's limited devices that can actually make use of it properly.

Luckily it's free. The Dolby Atmos / spacial audio sounds more interesting.

Raymond Lin · 24 May 2021 at 14:43

LiE said:
This seems a bit wasted from what I've been reading. Most say you cannot tell the difference and there's limited devices that can actually make use of it properly.

Luckily it's free. The Dolby Atmos / spacial audio sounds more interesting.

It depends what equipment you have, how good your hearing, and where you are listening.

I bet most people just use their phone, with stock headphones, on the move with traffic and daily noises around them as opposed to through the computer, out to a DAC, into a stereo amp then HiFi speakers.

Feek · 24 May 2021 at 15:49

I've always ripped my CDs into iTunes/Music with Apple Lossless but as Raymond says, I doubt I'd actually be able to tell the difference when I'm listening to them in real world situations.

Somnambulist · 24 May 2021 at 19:03

Back in the day with early MP3 codecs you could tell a difference, like if you just sneaked an album off Kazaa or eMule on your parents dial-up. These days with modern compression algorithms maaaaaaaaaaaaybe on some well recorded stuff you might hear a tiny difference in some random thing like cymbal decay on decent gear but it's the sort of forensic examination where you're no longer listening to the song just hunting for differences that are on the edge of your ability to notice before your hearing degrades as you age.

Studios are required to send Apple the ALAC version of all tracks to go on AM as far as I know and then it's Apple themselves that compress it to AAC 256 for streaming, so all that's happening now is Apple are just offering the choice without it being much effort on their end and they might get a few defectors from Tidal and the like because of it.

The spatial/atmos stuff is more interesting as most people use wireless these days and there's a small but increasing amount of music that's mixed for surround, which I imagine would be a +1 for headphones because by design and default with stereo you don't get the same phantom centre imaging you do with speakers as the L/R are only going into their respective ears.

Ryan-3 · 24 May 2021 at 22:15

I've recently dug my old UE900s out and been using those on occasion with my iPhone. The convenience and freedom from wires that my AirPods Pro are capable of delivering is very nice, but the sound isn't close. And that's on the current sound quality, never mind playing the lossless files. Even when powering my DT1990's from my MBP the difference is huge, but unless people have the necessary equipment to take full advantage you aren't going to notice much if anything.

Dianbobo · 7 Jun 2021 at 23:03

Anyone got spatial audio yet? Seems to be a bit of confusion about whether or not its actually out today.

Broken Hope · 8 Jun 2021 at 07:16

Dianbobo said:
Anyone got spatial audio yet? Seems to be a bit of confusion about whether or not its actually out today.

It's rolling out, I have it on my Mac, don't have it on my phone yet.

squerble · 8 Jun 2021 at 07:19

I hope Apple Music will get a few more Spotify-like features, such as Connect and handover, plus an actual slick desktop app experience they are sorely missing with iTunes. Great that HiFi is coming for free, though I have no equipment that would make it noticeable

Broken Hope · 8 Jun 2021 at 07:27

Managed to force it to show up on my phone.

If you go to music settings and toggle off mobile data then toggle automatic downloads then the new settings should appear, may have to do it a couple of times.

Converge · 8 Jun 2021 at 09:06

squerble said:
I hope Apple Music will get a few more Spotify-like features, such as Connect and handover, plus an actual slick desktop app experience they are sorely missing with iTunes. Great that HiFi is coming for free, though I have no equipment that would make it noticeable

Yeah that’s what’s keeping me from going for it as there’s no decent desktop app. iTunes is still absolute gash. And I prefer the Tidal app to Apple Music on my iPhone too.

LiE · 8 Jun 2021 at 09:21

Connect is a killer feature that is keeping my on Spotify. I don't like that the Apple Music app is completely unaware of what is playing and on which device.

Converge · 8 Jun 2021 at 09:36

I just wish streaming services held the data of what was listened to against an account rather than a device. At least that’s how it seems to behave for me as my phone and other devices never matches my desktop listening and vice versa, unless both devices are open on the app at the same time where it then occasionally works…
And recently played on Spotify and tidal seems broken on desktops.
Makes me wonder whether there’s something inhibiting the functionality on my desktop come to think of it!

Reuben klang · 8 Jun 2021 at 09:39

LiE said:
Connect is a killer feature that is keeping my on Spotify. I don't like that the Apple Music app is completely unaware of what is playing and on which device.

If you view it in airplay it tells you, doesn’t it?

It shows my airpods and what they are playing with a tick as it’s from the phone.

LiE · 8 Jun 2021 at 09:41

Reuben klang said:
If you view it in airplay it tells you, doesn’t it?

It shows my airpods and what they are playing with a tick as it’s from the phone.

Via airplay yes, but it’s not aware of for example my Sonos or Google home speakers are using Apple Music.

BMox81 · 8 Jun 2021 at 09:57

Just trying out some Spatial Audio tracks with the Max’s-very very good.

squerble · 8 Jun 2021 at 10:11

Converge said:
Yeah that’s what’s keeping me from going for it as there’s no decent desktop app. iTunes is still absolute gash. And I prefer the Tidal app to Apple Music on my iPhone too.

I liked the Tidal app on both iOS and desktop (mac and Win) - I also like that Tidal can work in the Algoriddm's djay app, meaning I can key shift songs so I don't have to have a million guitars for each tuning; this is something Spotify recently dropped.