Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted June 14, 2021 Author Volunteer Posted June 14, 2021 On 14/06/2021 at 10:42 AM, Topman_Chief said: Looking at posts in this thread from @blybo and @Kasman from June 8, both provided screenshots of Spotify streaming at 16/44. I just wanted to check if they or others were still seeing the same thing now? Expand Aah I see. I’d missed those posts. I’m interested in the answer too 1
rand129678 Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 Lossy Spotify and even lossy Apple Music has always been 16 bit / 44.1kHz sample rate Bitrate is different 1
figjam Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 On 14/06/2021 at 7:56 AM, jymy said: I connect my old iPad Pro to the dac via lighting to USB dongle. It’s not bit perfect either according to the display on my dac. Expand It is for me to my DX7 Pro. Is it the genuine Apple Camera Connection Kit?
jymy Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 On 14/06/2021 at 1:13 PM, figjam said: It is for me to my DX7 Pro. Is it the genuine Apple Camera Connection Kit? Expand Yeah genuine kit. Not sure if I am missing any other config
Zardoz Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 On 12/06/2021 at 10:54 PM, BugPowderDust said: There’s an interesting link Chris from Audiophilestyle posted overnight that doesn’t bode well if it’s true: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2021/06/11/spatial-audio/ “I just want to try and alert you to the potential seismic scam happening with this Atmos roll out. Atmos catalog remixing is being done by the truckload in a handful of Nashville, LA, and NYC rooms right now and has been for a couple of years, and almost none of it is being overseen or approved by the artist or original producer or mixer. And these versions- according to Apple- will be the new standard versions, superseding the original versions, now designated by Apple to the dustbin of history. Expand That point about where the mixes come from is huge. How did they come up with all that surround material so quickly? Surround mixes take time. The artists must've been in on this for a while, or at least the record companies were. So, I grabbed the Apple TV 4K and plugged it in to one of my Denon AVPs running 8ch PCM from it (my HDFury Integral seems to eat the Atmos stream and the AVP won't decode Atmos natively) and I was blown away with many of the tracks. As a reference point, I have a decent collection of DVD-Audio and SACD surround titles. I am a big fan of what good surround mixes can do for the music. I usually look out for the people who did the mastering and mixing for multichannel before I buy, and that information is notably absent so it's a bit hard to judge without listening. Some of the tracks from the 90s and early 00s had weird mixes. The Bryan Adams? Sounds like someone pressed the DTS:X button. But there are some great mixes that really add an extra dimension to the music - the Billie Eilish mixes from her new album make great use of the surround space (and use the centre channel properly), and the Olivia Rodrigo stuff comes out pretty well, too. There's a lot of modern stuff that renders decently. The new Beatles mixes seem to be a patch above the Blu Ray audio mix I have. The REM Automatic For The People mix sounds reminiscent of the DVD-Audio mix I have (remember this is all being downmixed to 5.1 on my system). The Crowded House also seems to follow a similar vibe. But The Weeknd's Starboy album, and his more recent hit Blinding Lights.. is almost a completely different take on the track. Blinding Lights has far less punch, less slam than the stereo mix, but there's actually more material in there. I am hearing instruments and tracks that are absent from the stereo mix. It was a trip. Same for the recent Post Malone album. I've seen that before on SACD. The Groove Armada Lovebox SACD 5.1 mix has some different takes, extra samples etc on some of the tracks that never made it into the stereo mix. The process that leads to this fascinates me. I was disappointed with the lack of effort put into the Taylor Swift mixes. I thought that the wide vocals sounded a bit strange. But you know, I had the same experiences with some DVD-A an SACD releases. There is some notably missing low hanging fruit here. Dire Straits? The rest of the Three Doors Down "Away From The Sun" album? Fleetwood Mac's Rumors? Many of these releases will die with the obsolescence of optical disc formats that play them (and a way to transport them to an AVP/AVR) not to mention the scarcity and collectivity of the physical media. Ultimately the challenge with SACD and DVD-Audio multichannel releases was a critical mass of content, owing to the high cost of some of the earlier players limiting the potential audience, and then there resultant lack of content causing people to either not sink in the dollars for a high end DVD-A/SACD player, or ignoring the formats altogether. Now that we have a critical mass of multichannel content - and a way for people to consume it, I am hoping that more artists put the time, money and quality into developing multichannel audio mixes for their music. Optical disks are dead and digital streaming is the current method of digital transport. Apple are the first to have an end user The format's risk here is that they are pitching it for headphones which makes me go "WTF" quite loud. Through even my 5.1ch surround system, the surround mixes stack up pretty well. This is a bold move for Apple and it's uncharted territory for a streaming platform. If Apple didn't do this, I would have feared that surround audio would be condemned to be buried in the past. 2
betty boop Posted June 15, 2021 Posted June 15, 2021 (edited) @Zardoz have no doubt same mistakes will be made with "atmos" on many tracks as was made with multichannel with sacd/dvda... some for effect and differnt ... so will come down to folk what prefer. havent seeked out brothers in arms on apple music to see what format. that is a seansational surround mix for sure... be interesting how that comes out at atmos if they can pull off... ps some good detective work from jonathon on avsforum, in the marantz av8805 owners thread there. it gives some confidence apple will unleash 24/96 and 24/192 for the apple TV at some stage... probably when have a more extensive hi-res library to crow about... while this announcement mainly about lossless and spatial (atmos) a hires announcement will come. probably working on airplay3 or something as they speak i suspect or updates for just released appleTV or the airpod max to take fully advantage of what have released... [QUOTE="JonFo, post: 60810245, member: 444"] To receive the best quality, yes, an ATV 4K is the best, easiest way. I have Apple Music, Amazon Music HD and Tidal HiFi subscriptions, and they playback all formats (including Atmos) just fine. For the geeks here, I did some investigations with my Smyth Realiser A16 Atmos Headphone processor, as it has an input details screen that shows what the HDMI 'image' or transport format is, so I can see when Dolby MAT 2.0 is in use or not. I validated that the ATV uses MAT 2.0 to send audio at all times, as MAT 2.0 spec indicates it can do: "Dolby TrueHD – 24-bit 192KHz/up to 18 Mbps, or 8 channels of LPCM up to 24 Mbps. " Playing back an Atmos track on Apple Music, we see that Dolby MAT is used (image = Atmos & stream = Atmos (thd)) and that the inner stream is a Dolby TrueHD container with Atmos content. When playing back Apple Lossless 2ch material, the A16 shows us that it is indeed still using Dolby MAT to send the streams, as the image is till 'Atmos' (meaning MAT), and now the inner stream is PCM. The 'decode' indicates there are only 2.0.0 channels of PCM. Unfortunately, it does not show bit depth nor sampling rate of these inner streams. But listening to the tracks over headphones, it seems indistinguishable from the 24/96 tracks from the BluRay of the same album I have. So from an audio quality perspective, it is a win that it uses an encapsulated stream for 2ch LPCM, as that is immune from any HDMI-related jitter. The preamp decodes the MAT stream into LPCM and clocks it locally. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE="JonFo, post: 60811771, member: 444"] Sorry, but NO, the Atmos stream is NOT lossless. It is DD+ at a max 768Kbps. Apple lossless 2ch audio does seem to be fully lossless. [/QUOTE] Edited June 15, 2021 by betty boop
davewantsmoore Posted June 15, 2021 Posted June 15, 2021 On 14/06/2021 at 3:28 AM, Dropbear67 said: No but we need them to release the equivalent to the "connect" protocols.. ie Spotify/Tidal connect. Expand This already exists. (MusicKit)
Esoterica Posted June 17, 2021 Posted June 17, 2021 (edited) On 14/06/2021 at 10:09 AM, betty boop said: I have not found necessary a forced reboot or anything ... you change it ...it pauses and off it goes ... you only need to set it once at highest rate anyways as been posted already in the thread. no need to be changing it... I'm struggling to understand this and the what is the frustration to be honest... The great bulk is 24/.48 in the library at best.... some rare 24/.96... extremely rare 24/192 and yes apple tells you upfront you will be needing a dac beyond 24/48..... so whats the problem exactly ? have also pointed to the headline of the press release, it is NOT High bitrate or or matter hi-res audio that is headline...it is losses and spatial and they have delivered both. hi-res gets one cursory online mention. the availability doesnt even talk about hi-res from the press release... https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/ "Lossless Audio Apple Music will also make its catalog of more than 75 million songs available in Lossless Audio. Apple uses ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) to preserve every single bit of the original audio file. This means Apple Music subscribers will be able to hear the exact same thing that the artists created in the studio. To start listening to Lossless Audio, subscribers using the latest version of Apple Music can turn it on in Settings > Music > Audio Quality. Here, they can choose different resolutions for different connections such as cellular, Wi-Fi, or for download. Apple Music’s Lossless tier starts at CD quality, which is 16 bit at 44.1 kHz (kilohertz), and goes up to 24 bit at 48 kHz and is playable natively on Apple devices. For the true audiophile, Apple Music also offers Hi-Resolution Lossless all the way up to 24 bit at 192 kHz.1" Due to the large file sizes and bandwidth needed for Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless Audio, subscribers will need to opt in to the experience. Hi-Res Lossless also requires external equipment, such as a USB digital-to-analog converter (DAC). Availability Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio will be available to Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost. Thousands of tracks will be available in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos at launch, with more added regularly. Apple Music’s catalog of more than 75 million songs will be available in Lossless Audio. More information, including a comprehensive list of compatible devices, is available at apple.com/apple-music. If its hi-res chasing, this release isnt the focus, its lossless and spatial folks..and as they say this is natively playable on apple devices... Expand This reminds me of the thread I started about searching for perfection. Like me, a lot of people are caught up by the numbers. Well I'm not anymore. Just enjoy the music. Addendum: I had this memory that itunes/music was my favourite streaming app. Well that is not my feeling since using it again recently. Perhaps it's because I got used to the Tidal format, and Qobuz (although I only had that for a month) or apple music has changed, but I just find it irritating to use. A couple of examples; you cannot add artists as favourites/to your library, only albums/tracks. Not a huge deal, just something to get used to. Apple music, unlike most (or all?) other streaming services incorporates your own cd rips and downloaded files, so this complicates the 'library' somewhat. 'Listen now' and 'browse' tabs do much the same? I used to think apple had better recommendations. Not anymore. Probably my biggest complaint is the focus on "spatial audio". Ok, I get that they're promoting the crap out of it, since it's their new, shiny offering, but it seems just about everything on the 'browse' tab is this format. The two best things about apple music imo, are lyrics and device integration! Meaning when I play music on my iPad pro (which I use around 90% of the time for such) I can control without unlocking screen and can use voice too, although I failed in that last night. I'm not proficient at communicating with Siri, so will have to learn do's and don'ts. I use Amazon Echo daily for smart lights and general stuff, so I'm more used to that. The point is, because it's an apple app on an apple device, it works seamlessly. This is why I was excited about the lossless etc. improvements. Edited June 17, 2021 by Esoterica 1
Esoterica Posted June 17, 2021 Posted June 17, 2021 I forgot the BEST thing about apple music, until I was just reminded. Their catalog! Tidal and Qobuz don't even have Tomahawk's music, just a mix of their info and some other artists with the same or similar name. They're hardly an obscure band. Apple music also has Tētēma. A much more obscure band I believe (I only just discovered them) Yet another Mike Patton venture. 2
Chigurh Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 I 've taken up the free trial of Apple Music. I think Apple have been very clever about this. They have taken the best things from other music stream services and rolled them into one. Comprehensive catalogue. Lossless and hi-rez music. Music videos. No extra cost for lossless. However, I'm not convinced about the Spatial Audio (for a 2 channel setup). IMO the bar has been raised and the other services need to catch up, quickly!
blybo Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 2:15 AM, Chigurh said: IMO the bar has been raised and the other services need to catch up, quickly! Expand I've now listened to a few albums back to back via Tidal MQA, Spotify premium and Apple Master lossless. I can't hear the difference on my headphone rig which should be the most resolving. Apple music on my 2ch system comes via Apple TV and converted from HDMI to optical inside my TV, so not comparing Apples with Apples
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted June 19, 2021 Author Volunteer Posted June 19, 2021 I haven’t compared extensively but on the few tracks I did, it felt as if Quobuz (via Roon) was better than Apple Music. The comparison was hard because Qobuz/Roon seems to be quite a lot louder than Apple Music. 1
Pigpen Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 Currently streaming Apple Music via latest Apple TV via HDMI into NAD C658 - it is unlistenable due to “dropouts”. Switched to Tidal and no issues. Changed HDMI input on C658 and back to Apple Music and back to dropouts - are dropouts the loss less Apple is talking about……. Poop……..
BugPowderDust Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 4:29 AM, sir sanders zingmore said: I haven’t compared extensively but on the few tracks I did, it felt as if Quobuz (via Roon) was better than Apple Music. The comparison was hard because Qobuz/Roon seems to be quite a lot louder than Apple Music. Expand I have the added complexity of a separate front end for 2 channel listening via a separate preamp and DAC. When I run off a Mac Mini using HDMI out, I lose all this as my AV pre isn't set up in that way. I gave some Apple music and spatial audio a listen today but with the extra DSP I run (convolution filters in Roon) and the dedicated 2 channel front end preamp Roon gets, they weren't even in the same ball park.
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted June 19, 2021 Author Volunteer Posted June 19, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 5:56 AM, BugPowderDust said: I have the added complexity of a separate front end for 2 channel listening via a separate preamp and DAC. When I run off a Mac Mini using HDMI out, I lose all this as my AV pre isn't set up in that way. I gave some Apple music and spatial audio a listen today but with the extra DSP I run (convolution filters in Roon) and the dedicated 2 channel front end preamp Roon gets, they weren't even in the same ball park. Expand Did you run the spatial audio through your HT or your 2ch setup? I only have 2ch and I also have some serious convolution (BACCH DSP). I tried the spatial audio and it was truly awful. Possibly that’s because BACCH does amazing spatial stuff already and the two don’t play nicely. Although I believe the Apple spatial is meant for atmos systems and headphones?
BugPowderDust Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 Yeah I ran the spatial through my Anthem pre. Nothing to phone home about but I haven’t gone mad for the extra speakers that Atmos wants. I tried 2 channel as well, but it just sounded thin and harsh. Especially when you gave it the beans. I then switched back to my Roon set up and it was chalk and cheese. If I can get a pure feed of Apple Music into my streaming DAC without having to deal with hdmi etc, I’d be in a much better position to make a comparison that I’d value. So far, I won’t be leaving Roon / qobuz. 2
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted June 19, 2021 Author Volunteer Posted June 19, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 8:35 AM, BugPowderDust said: If I can get a pure feed of Apple Music into my streaming DAC without having to deal with hdmi etc, I’d be in a much better position to make a comparison that I’d value. Expand with the caveat above (quite large difference in volume), I'm streaming apple music as a 'pure feed' to my dac and I still think that Qobuz/Roon sounds better 2
Niktech Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 Has anyone found any 24bit 192 kHz tracks yet? I noticed that the switch has appeared in Apple Music in the last two days - since my last check. I searched a few artists from the genres I listen too, but couldn’t see any. It’s not like Qobuz where you can search for Hi-Res, although there seems to be an artist with that name. There is definitely a lower volume to Apple Music tracks. It’s not just lower than other streaming sites, but also Flac and Hi red files playing on audio pc playback.I got a bit of surprise when I switched inputs having forgotten the volume difference. I haven’t tried the atmos settings. I turned them off as I’m happy with the DSP and equalisation I already have.
BugPowderDust Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 9:06 AM, sir sanders zingmore said: with the caveat above (quite large difference in volume), I'm streaming apple music as a 'pure feed' to my dac and I still think that Qobuz/Roon sounds better Expand Listening to music through my AV Pre and not through my 2 channel rig really brings home the gains I’ve made with a separate Pre, a fancy DAC and a world of dsp. it’s the same power amp, same speakers, and even with the room treatments I’ve deployed, the difference is stark. 1
betty boop Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 9:51 AM, Niktech said: Has anyone found any 24bit 192 kHz tracks yet? I noticed that the switch has appeared in Apple Music in the last two days - since my last check. I searched a few artists from the genres I listen too, but couldn’t see any. It’s not like Qobuz where you can search for Hi-Res, although there seems to be an artist with that name. Expand one and that was pointed out here... and came across a 24/96 one as well headline is lossless and spatial... so expect hi-res (anything above 24/48) to be like finding a needle in haystack 1
BugPowderDust Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 There’s plenty of hi res stuff there if you know where to look. Warners went on quite a strong hi res push a while back and did the entire catalog of bands like Sisters Of Mercy and Sonic Youth*. There’s the usual dreck like the Eagles in high res (24/192), as well as people who have embraced high res already (Neil Young’s stuff is 24/192). *the differences between qobuz and Apple Music and what the offer high res wise is actually favouring Qobuz somewhat. Most of the Sonic Youth stuff on Qobuz is 24/192 and even on Tidal it’s 24/192 MQA. On Apple Music it’s just 24/44.1. Jeff Buckley’s grace is 24/192 on qobuz but only 24/96 on Apple Music. i’d have thought they would all have access to the same masters once the library was shared via licensing but obviously not in all instances. I wonder how much Apple Music not having some of the Warner stuff in high res is linked to the Warner investment in MQA? 1
TheBlackDisc Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 10:46 PM, BugPowderDust said: There’s plenty of hi res stuff there if you know where to look. Warners went on quite a strong hi res push a while back and did the entire catalog of bands like Sisters Of Mercy and Sonic Youth*. There’s the usual dreck like the Eagles in high res (24/192), as well as people who have embraced high res already (Neil Young’s stuff is 24/192). *the differences between qobuz and Apple Music and what the offer high res wise is actually favouring Qobuz somewhat. Most of the Sonic Youth stuff on Qobuz is 24/192 and even on Tidal it’s 24/192 MQA. On Apple Music it’s just 24/44.1. Jeff Buckley’s grace is 24/192 on qobuz but only 24/96 on Apple Music. i’d have thought they would all have access to the same masters once the library was shared via licensing but obviously not in all instances. I wonder how much Apple Music not having some of the Warner stuff in high res is linked to the Warner investment in MQA? Expand I think SY actually own their own masters - but correct me if I’m wrong.
BugPowderDust Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 11:20 PM, TheBlackDisc said: I think SY actually own their own masters - but correct me if I’m wrong. Expand Not sure that’s right. The early stuff is on SST and if the Husker Du experience is anything to go by, Greg Ginn isn’t giving them up any time soon. None of this is in anything other than lossless anywhere. The major label stuff was on Geffen, which attracted them due to artistic control. Pretty sure their stuff wasn’t just licensed to Geffen, but later stuff (only the Eternal was released on Matador I think) might be different. Most of their more commercial stuff (1990-1996) is in 24/192 now on Qobuz but I note that much beyond that is not more than lossless. There’s nothing more than 24/44.1 on Apple Music.
blybo Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 On 19/06/2021 at 4:29 AM, sir sanders zingmore said: The comparison was hard because Qobuz/Roon seems to be quite a lot louder than Apple Music. Expand Might be a stupid question but have you tried the master volume in Apple music? I found with apple music @ around 75% volume it was a fair match for Tidal via Roon playing the same tracks back to back. I have volume control turned off in Roon so my endpoints control it.
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted June 20, 2021 Author Volunteer Posted June 20, 2021 (edited) On 20/06/2021 at 3:07 AM, blybo said: Might be a stupid question but have you tried the master volume in Apple music? I found with apple music @ around 75% volume it was a fair match for Tidal via Roon playing the same tracks back to back. I have volume control turned off in Roon so my endpoints control it. Expand That’s exactly opposite to what I experienced. Quobuz via Roon is louder than Apple Music (with Apple Music volume set to full) Edited June 20, 2021 by sir sanders zingmore
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