Apple Music - will anything change?
Discussion
Well lossless and Atmos is here and it sounds… remarkable.
I have a 4K Apple TV playing through my stereo.
Although there aren’t too many Atmos songs there yet there is a definite difference. The music seems to have “room to breathe”. The clarity and detail is wonderful.
Hoping more classic albums get “upgraded”…
ETA there are a couple of demos on Apple Music playing a song in stereo and then Atmos so you can judge for yourself the difference. It’s less compelling through headphones though still noticeable.
I have a 4K Apple TV playing through my stereo.
Although there aren’t too many Atmos songs there yet there is a definite difference. The music seems to have “room to breathe”. The clarity and detail is wonderful.
Hoping more classic albums get “upgraded”…
ETA there are a couple of demos on Apple Music playing a song in stereo and then Atmos so you can judge for yourself the difference. It’s less compelling through headphones though still noticeable.
Edited by funinhounslow on Wednesday 9th June 14:24
had a quick listen on my phone through airpods, flicking between the apple lossless and spotify and even only using the basic airpods there was a noticeable difference in quality back to back.
will give it another go when i’m home with better headphones (BW P90’s) to see if it’s an even bigger difference on better headphones.
will give it another go when i’m home with better headphones (BW P90’s) to see if it’s an even bigger difference on better headphones.
I've been enjoying a 3 month free offer of apple music, which runs out in a month. Looks like they timed it to coincide with lossless. I'm an airplay user so wonder if that's targeted somehow, sneaky devils.
It's working to be fair. If airpods sound noticably better i'll probably stick around.
Just a shame my car doesn't support carplay
It's working to be fair. If airpods sound noticably better i'll probably stick around.
Just a shame my car doesn't support carplay
k themselves whilst I’m still grieving.aparna said:
I've been enjoying a 3 month free offer of apple music, which runs out in a month. Looks like they timed it to coincide with lossless. I'm an airplay user so wonder if that's targeted somehow, sneaky devils.
It's working to be fair. If airpods sound noticably better i'll probably stick around.
Just a shame my car doesn't support carplay
I’m currently on a trial subscription too and noticed there’s an option to pay annually for £100/year ie just over £8/month. As that includes iTunes Match (£20/year) it is very tempting.It's working to be fair. If airpods sound noticably better i'll probably stick around.
Just a shame my car doesn't support carplay
I was just A-B testing between Apple lossless + Atmos and the same tracks (new St Vincent album) on Tidal with MQA decoded in my DAC, through Audeze magnaplanar phones. Both sound very good (so I may end up dropping my Tidal subscription) - I need to do more testing, including on albums where I know the tunes really well
People testing and "feeling differences" in lossless audio on AirPods streamed wirelessly from an iPhone - just lol.
I have a feeling this is one of those confirmation bias things.. you're expecting it to be better, so in your head it is.
Fair enough if you've got decent hifi gear in the mix, but AirPods? iPhones?
I have a feeling this is one of those confirmation bias things.. you're expecting it to be better, so in your head it is.
Fair enough if you've got decent hifi gear in the mix, but AirPods? iPhones?
Durzel said:
People testing and "feeling differences" in lossless audio on AirPods streamed wirelessly from an iPhone - just lol.
I have a feeling this is one of those confirmation bias things.. you're expecting it to be better, so in your head it is.
Fair enough if you've got decent hifi gear in the mix, but AirPods? iPhones?
Iphone has airplay 2 which is lossless. So doesn't have to be hi end stuff, lots of people have AV systems with airplayI have a feeling this is one of those confirmation bias things.. you're expecting it to be better, so in your head it is.
Fair enough if you've got decent hifi gear in the mix, but AirPods? iPhones?
I think the atmos is probably part of the 'difference' .
I don’t think AirPlay is lossless as it uses Bluetooth.
Atmos can definitely by used with AirPods though.
ETA no it isn’t lossless. But as suggested Atmos will make a much more noticeable difference. Even Apple suggest it’s difficult to distinguish between AAC and lossless…
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212183
Atmos can definitely by used with AirPods though.
ETA no it isn’t lossless. But as suggested Atmos will make a much more noticeable difference. Even Apple suggest it’s difficult to distinguish between AAC and lossless…
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212183
Edited by funinhounslow on Wednesday 9th June 16:51
Durzel said:
People testing and "feeling differences" in lossless audio on AirPods streamed wirelessly from an iPhone - just lol.
I have a feeling this is one of those confirmation bias things.. you're expecting it to be better, so in your head it is.
Fair enough if you've got decent hifi gear in the mix, but AirPods? iPhones?
You can discount my opinion if you want, I am definitely not an audiophile and don’t claim to have the best hearing in the world. But I stand by what I said, on a quick listen on some tracks back to back, the ‘sound’ to my ears was better via apple music than via spotify even through a set of airpods. I have a feeling this is one of those confirmation bias things.. you're expecting it to be better, so in your head it is.
Fair enough if you've got decent hifi gear in the mix, but AirPods? iPhones?
I currently pay for a spotify subscription, so if anything I’d actually want spotify to be better, so was actually quite surprised that I felt like I could even hear a difference.
aparna said:
funinhounslow said:
I don’t think AirPlay is lossless as it uses Bluetooth.
Atmos can definitely by used with AirPods though.
Uses wifi I think. Atmos can definitely by used with AirPods though.
AirPlay can deliver lossless audio at up to 24-bit/48kHz, which is Apple Music's middle tier for lossless music.
In any case I think it’s the Atmos that’s going to make the more noticeable difference
aparna said:
There is a bit of a atmos showcase on apple music worth checking out.
What I don't understand is why you need airpod pro / special headphones for spatial audio, it's still two track audio no?
It adjusts the sound based on the orientation of your head relative to the screen. Airpod pros have the necessary sensors.What I don't understand is why you need airpod pro / special headphones for spatial audio, it's still two track audio no?
aparna said:
There is a bit of a atmos showcase on apple music worth checking out.
What I don't understand is why you need airpod pro / special headphones for spatial audio, it's still two track audio no?
It works with any headphones apparently. There is a definite difference when listening with my Sennheisers. What I don't understand is why you need airpod pro / special headphones for spatial audio, it's still two track audio no?
https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-music/
I’ve just signed up to the Apple 3 month music trial to try this out with my IPhone 12 and Airpod Pros. I’ve been a Spotify user for 5 years.
Yes there is a slight difference, but honestly, I could give or take it as I’m not an audiophile. If someone did a blind test on me I’d have to try really hard to listen out for the difference to pick which version is better.
Still, I’ll give the trial a go and see how I get on with the app etc. I guess any improvement is better than nothing!
Yes there is a slight difference, but honestly, I could give or take it as I’m not an audiophile. If someone did a blind test on me I’d have to try really hard to listen out for the difference to pick which version is better.
Still, I’ll give the trial a go and see how I get on with the app etc. I guess any improvement is better than nothing!
aparna said:
Don’t forget to turn on lossless on the Apple Music settings before deciding it’s great 
^^This^^It takes a few minutes to go through devices setting them up - and I cannot see people bothering anyway. For example Mrs Beano ("I know HOW to use a computer!!!") has no idea what she's listening to... and I've only 10 years experiences of getting to know Macs to have a real inkling of how to set up the thing, generally, to do things I want it to!!!
But, anyway.....
https://www.dolby.com/music/
Try it and see - "YMMV" has never been a truer statement!
(Marvin Gaye has never sounded as good to me, (shiny new M1 iMac) whether APPs or my old Senny HD25s without a hugely expensive set up and more room than I have - and record companies will be scrabbling to remix and refresh their back catalogues so I think we'll hear things better than ever without out-of-reach-audiophile-spending)
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