Paul, your comment regarding bit depth and sample rate being fixed as set via MIDI may apply to Macs but not iPhones or iPads. I believe both the iPhone and iPad OS adjusts bit depth and sample rate dynamically based upon each song’s recording rates. This is based upon my experience as an Apple Music subscriber who owns all three Apple devices.
AAC is made by several companies and not Apple, but basically by companies in the MPEG group. It is better than MP3, which is why Apple uses it for iTunes/Apple Music. Apple Music does sound good on the Mac but it doesn't offer a way to auto adjust the bit rate to match what the DAC can do, so using the Audio Midi Setup program is a necessity. But you can use an iDevice with the appropriate dongles to get auto-switching for your DACS.
But on the apple website it says something about you can get their ACC quality with beats headphones and apple headphones like they would he own unique ACC
THX describes it best: “Apple Music for MacOS doesn’t have an exclusive mode, so the macOS audio output format is set by MacOS Audio Midi Setup. If you’ve chosen 24-bit 176.4 kHz per above, then all Apple Music playback will be upsampled to that rate” to your DAC. “We recommend 176.4 kHz because it’s an integer multiple of 44.1 kHz and 88.2 kHz, to ensure lossless upsampling for nearly all music.” iOS does not interfere like macOS (currently) does.
Apart from that, would there be any difference in audio quality between using an iPad, iMac or Mac Mini as the source / streamer? Also, is there a difference in quality between a USB C out, and a Lightning out, as my iPad only has the lightning out?
Qobuz through Audirvana is as good as it gets. The two companies are very close (both French) and cooperate to help deliver the best possible sound. Also worth noting that Audirvana was originally designed for (and sounds best on) Mac. Vive le French Connection!
I’ve been using Apple Music primarily on my iPad and iPhone with an external dongle DAC and IEMs without the 48/24 limitation. Fortunately there are a number of compact lightning to USB C adapters on the market so I don’t need to use the bulky Apple camera kit cable. On Android phones the Apple Music app is still going through the Android audio subsystem which also limits the output to 48/24 and the app doesn’t recognize external dongle DACs. For comparison Amazon Music HD is capable of 192/24 on both IOS and Android with external dongle DACs. On top of that Amazon Music HD also runs on my Bluesound Node 2i so it’s definitely more capable than Apple Airplay at present.
But depth is set in MIDI settings if you’re using MacOS to stream Apple Music, as mentioned in this video. However, if you use an iOS device (iPad or iPhone) you get automatic sample rate switching to match the source audio.
Lol chances are if humans were even capable of hearing the difference between sample rates at such high numbers between these two.. at his age he wouldn’t be even be capable of hearing it 😂
I tend to listen to albums and change the midi settings to the specifications of each album so that is not upsampling or downsampling. I usually have subscription to all the services and will share my thoughts at somepoint. Thanks for your thoughts Paul.
Unfortunately where I live Qobuz isn't available. I use Tidal MQA but through Audirvana and Audirvana makes a big difference to sound quality. That said it also depends on the recording.
Hello fellow music lover, don't stress though Qubus does definitely sound better as I'm fortunate to have access to both. TIDAL is still great, it's just that Qubus tops it hands down. That being said don't get caught up in the technical stuff just sit back and enjoy your music, my friend. The world is in a mess we need our music to chill.
Thanks for the heads up. Not heard of Audiovana. I use USB audio Pro player with Tidal and boy it improves the sound over stock Tidal. Plus it gives you all the meta data of each track.
@@mrgee918 I believe this past summer the Tidal app (on Android at least) added the ability to bypass Android system audio processing and output bit-perfect audio. So in theory it should sound as good as UAPP now.
@@benmmurray Wow. Thanks for the heads up. I just picked up Onyx THX amp for my S20+ and you're right, when I opened Tidal it gave me the option to use the Onyx. However, using the Onyx, Tidal via UAPP still sounds better than Tidal direct. Not by much but there's a difference.
I use a 2021 iPad Pro w. a USB C to A adaptor to feed Apple Music into my Holo Audio May DAC KTE. The iPad automatically switches to the correct sample rate/bit depth if set to "Up to 192kHz/24bit" in the settings. The iPad is powered by a "Magic Keyboard" simultaneously. The rest of the chain is ARC Ref 3, Electrocompaniet ASW600 NEMO monoblocks and Focal Sopra No3. Works and sounds like a dream. Qobuz is not available in Denmark where I live and I wouldn't touch Tidal with a firepoker, so Apple's recent entrance into CD quality and higher is great!
I’m going to try the lighting hdmi adapter and send the hi res file directly to the AV receiver to do the rest …currently I’m sending it via USB adapter to the Schitt modi 3 DAC to the receiver via the Schitt Vali preamp
@@larskristiansen7735 Thanks, didn't know. I signed up to be notified once they opened in DK, but they must have forgotten that... Anyway, Apple Music is less expensive
There is a way to get the correct bit output so that it matches what each track is recorded in. Just use either an iPhone (must be version 8 or higher) or an iPad (similar age) or iPad pro any model. Go to settings - then Music - Set audio quality to high-res lossless. Then connect the unit to a dac of your choice (or pre-amp with built in DAC) and you can see for yourself - if the DAC has a display - that the sample rate changes depending on the albums/songs you are playing. So minimum CD quality (44.1 - 16 bit) right up to 192, -24 bit and some even coded with Atmos on top. Yes, iTunes is horrible - Apple Music is better on Macs but have limited experience and it is so much easier just connecting the phone and then use my iPad to control everything from the chair.. Anyway hope someone can use this tip
This works just fine on android phones, i use apple music lossless on an android plugged into a focusrite usb interface/DAC. I was authentically surprised when he said CD's usually sound better on their equipment. Im using a yamaha receiver, and some astonishingly good AR speakers, and apple music almost always sounds better then a CD when an A/B is done. At worst it sounds identical. At least with the music i listen to. Im using restored/modified acoustic research series 660 monitors with a 100hz high pass and dayton refrence 10" subwoofer crossed at 100hz, GRS ribbon tweets, i designed the crossovers myself with the specific inductance of each driver taken deeply into consideration.. I have smooth clean response from the bottom of the audible range to damn near 40khz. within 3db of flat from about 36hz to about 36khz Apple Music high res > CD, to my ears on my setup, basically always. Hate to say it, but sounds like PS Audio needs to seriously step up their DAC game if my $150 usb interface into (mostly) vintage equipment resolves more detail from a streaming service. I use the same interface/DAC for CD playback as well from a PC, and that performs better then most high end CD players or transports as well already. (Hell, just about any blueray player with optical or coaxial out will as well, really, its not hard at all to out perform a $1400 cd player, a visit to just about any thrift store can provide this) The new Tesseract (If you are an audiophile or fan of insane mixes, as well as incredibly artistic, but *very heavy music {its Prog}, check them out.. i havent heard a vocal performance like this since Freddy was around) i have on vinyl, CD, and in my apple music library. The vinyl sounds great, the CD sounds incredible, the stream is absolutely mind-blowing. I cant wait to hear it on a dolby atmos-capable surround system the way it was intended, because apple has it. You cant even put that on a CD, its just too much information, you need good blue ray player with an optical or coaxial out to even deliver that info from an optical disc to a receiver
Yeah, Paul kind of missed this. He’s right about the issues with Mac, but with iOS it changes the output depending on the bitrate and sample rate. I have to say, it sounds fantastic through a decent DAC using my iPad as the source device. For sure better than Tidal and personally I prefer it to Qobuz as well
For me Amazon Music HD seems to have best value. For $12.41 one can get family plan for a year (if you are prime member). Stream is though BlueOS to my Dena Frips and I am all set. Cannot beat this value.
Paul, the biggest let down with Apple is that there is no way to bring it to your stereo comfortably. There is no steamer transferring Apple music with highest quality without a wired connection
I wholeheartedly agree with Paul on this one, Qobuz does sound MUCH better than Tidal, Deezer, and many other services. I found Tidal had "Compression" issues with some labels (may be due to licensing in United Music Group owned labels). I have found a few albums had compression issues in Qobuz, but few so far. When I talk of "compression" issues, I am referring to a "swirling" or blurring sound heard in the mids and highs of some files (United Music Group labels) which includes: Capitol, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope, Island, Motown, Polydor, Republic and Virgin EMI, and Verve.
@@N0zer0 I had issues with the Tidal 'sound' also, on other forums it's been said that Tidal adds their own form of DSP, don't know if true.. Here in Australia to me it sounded bass heavy, thick and somehow 'recessed' or something. Perhaps the word 'compression' is being used in the post above to try and describe the experience of listening to Tidal, not the definition that's mostly used to describe a process in the recording studio. I might add that no matter what I used to hear Tidal it always sounded as I've described. My home system is either streamed from an Android device (or sometimes via a laptop/Jitterbug/USB to coaxial box) to a NAD M33, through Kimber cable out to GoldenEar Triton Ones (or via headphones socket out to Focal Clears). In car from Android either blue toothed or cabled to the car audio system. MQA versions just sounded louder more than 'better'. I can't figure it out, don't really know why..
Not sure what you are talking about anymore.. Using a DAC set to 24/192 in the MIDI settings, Apple Music still gives you that output. Granted, very few tracks on Apple Music has got 24/192 but a lot of tracks have got 26/96. Apple Digital Masters follow a set standard and they usually sound far better than most older CD masters. Besides, the lossless catalogue provided by Apple Music far surpasses the Qobuz one. I know since I use both (I still prefer buying uncompressed albums over any streaming service, though).
I tried pretty much all the available streaming platforms around a year ago and ended up choosing Qobuz because of its sound quality compared to others. I've been using it through the Roon software which for some reason I find sounds better than through it's native client. Also, I can't hear any difference what-so-ever when using a CD of the same track or the track exported to Roon or streamed through Qobuz inside Roon, so yeah, I would say it's a pretty safe bet at least by quality standards. Also the library is good enough, I'd say I find 98% of what I'm searching for.
@@labnine3362 and also a big misconception is that sample rate increases quality when really all it does it increase dynamic range and resolution as well as file size which nine times out of 10 is actually worse sounding because people don’t know how to mix 196Kbs because of the harmonic frequencies in a lot of audio files perceive the harmonic frequencies as higher quality when in reality, it’s distortion
i have 8000 songs in ALAC on an ipod Classic, for 1 year i subscribed to both Tidal & Qobuz. i did many many A/B/C comparisons. Qobuz was _always_ best. ipod freq beat Tidal, too. i discontinued Tidal. i almost never use the ipod anymore. Spotify said they were stepping their library up tp cd quality by the end of the year. now *_could be_* a game changer.
I agree, Paul. Particularly about Tidal. MQA is compressed and then manipulated. Might as well get an old 1970s 10 band graphic equalizer and make it “smile” or “frown” depending on your mood.
For anybody wondering: it seems like up until today, the only way to listen to Apple Music in high resolution without any resampling, is to connect a compatible DAC directly to an iOS device.
@@KhemBMD yes plenty of good budget DAC's out there starting around the 100$ - 150$ mark... but the iPhone or iPad is the expensive part. My phone's a Google Pixel so that's no option with Android resampling everything to 48khz by default. My computer is a 2,5K MacBook Pro, yet still there's no way to have it stream Apple Music in original quality unless I manually adjust the sound quality of my audio output device in the Audio/MIDI settings to match the quality of the source files.
Great view (and opinion) on the new streaming method from Apple. I have to concur that Apple's iron fisted controls over how their existing music media needs to be processed internally by their own devices (and software) seems detrimental to end quality of the file played back. That being said it feels like a parallel to how CD digital signals get modded from the I'squared S bus data into an optical toslink digital stream. Of late I have also been listening to RU-vid's music streaming services and the music choices are not too shabby either. A plus point that it can be streamed into their Google home smart speakers and screens natively over WiFi.
Paul, correct on macOS the sound will be resampled to the default sample rate specified unless it matches the songs sample rate. IOS and iPad OS on the other hand as indicated below by several people, does change the sample rate on the fly to match the tracks sample rate. I discussed this with my buddies at Apple and this is correct and they will probably at this time not give access in libraries or other software the ability to access down to the sample rate and bit rate level. They do have libraries to access the service for all their OS's and Android for developers as well as web access. But all of that will go through the operating systems mixer which may resample the track. My suggestion is a iPad Pro with USB-C as you can get some splitters to power the iPad and have complete USB access directly into the iPad Pro. At that point it would give you a complete sample rate = track sample rate for any song you play. BTW AAC is not Apple specific it is a standard upgraded version of MP3. Thanks, Gordon Wavelength Audio, ltd.
Apple Music does run on Android actually. Wondering if it still does the conversions, because a lot of players are actually able to get around the Android system conversion.
@@rl7487 Yes, Apple Music is lossless (hires and cd quality) on Android (since end of July). It's on Windows that it's still lossy, which is stuck with iTunes.
Paul, my understanding is that in the Apple ecosystem, for now, only the iPad and the iPhone connected to an outboard DAC offer automatic sample rate switching, therefore giving bit-perfect digital audio (including up to 24/192), without either downsampling or upsampling. I appreciate your videos!
It’s frustrating that iOS has automatic sample rate switching but MacOs doesn’t. I’m using BitPerfect with a Macbook Air and Apple Music, so think i’m getting sample rate switching but not 100% sure, as unlike BitPerfect with iTunes, the sample rate doesn’t display when hovering over the BitPerfect icon when using Apple Music. Apple needs to integrate with hifi companies like Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz do with a function like Spotify Connect or Tidal Connect (Apple Music Direct?) so we don’t have to tie up our phones using Airplay and unnecessarily draining their batteries.
Apple Music also offers spatial audio. It can certainly become the new fashion there are several playlists of spatial audio That you can get with headphones from Beats and apple .You should be able to get dolby atmos if you have an Apple TV
You tube mp3 down loads suit me just fine. I have good quality 5.1 system and when you are over 30yrs high res is irrelevant...low end is prime. ..you can have all the hi res you want but it won't make any difference on older ears. .low end is key ..get a decent integrated amp with good speakers and sub and you are done with ... with all respect to Paul, a fine gentleman who won't steer you wrong. Just my humble opinion from my life experience and lifetime love of sound and music.
You just can't hear it. I hate bluetooth because if there are 4 cymbals being played you can only hear one sound for all of them and it doesn't sound right.
Support the bands and labels that make all this possible buy the albums in their entirity and also get the liner notes, art work and everything else with it. That will make it possible for bands and labels to do more stuff, there's not enough money in streaming and or single song downloads.
I agree with your reality. I don't get why folks pay to stream music, when it's best to buy the CD or Album etc then just stream from your own devices! ✌
@@202One on the music business level, it's not the way bands/labels make money (through streaming) so how can labels invest in new talent, or current bands continue to create more great music is people are streaming songs especially if it's just 1 song in a.very big play list. Also the way an album in sequenced invite the listener to listen from start to finish and feel out the whole album in it's entirety.
@@202One there is an even more compelling reason to buy physical media. It's called self-sufficiency. In times where slogans like "you will own nothing and will be happy" are hinting at the economic models that are about to come, taking ownership of something that can't be controlled might be a really decent idea.
I use Apple Music on my M11 Pro LTD and it sounds great. I have Qobuz, and just resubscribed to Tidal yesterday to do a comparison. I will most likely keep a couple services. For example, I really like how David Bowies catalog sounds of Apple Music, but Qobuz edges out a lot of other music on other services.
Update they support Android and Windows now. You might need a EQ program/ sound enhancement app if you want HiRes on Windows 11 as realtek don't support it. I also recommend an external DAC dongle for HiRes.
Hi, I am a happy Apple Music user, with a good pair of IEM (Thieaudio Monarch MKII) and a couple of decent DAC/AMPs (Hidizs S9 Pro, Fiio Q3). I am very happy of my setup, but I am considering another possibility: a DAP capable to play lossless Apple Music (possibly including hi-res), with a good sound quality (possibly even better than my current dac/amps). Do you have any suggestions? Thank you
I tried some hifi sony daps (wm1a, wm1zm2) and found that difference in sound quality against dac dongles like M15, RU6, DC03pro etc. isn't worth spending $2k+ on these brick size daps. Do you find apple music better than tidal+UAPP?
@@shahkhan110 yes. In January 2022 I bought a ibasso dx300 second hand (used only for 2 weeks) for 750 euro instead of 1300. I added a microsd 1 Tb for offline listening. In July I bought amp13, an amplifier which has tubes to be inserted in ibasso dx300. This, paired with thieaudio monarch mk ii gives me a set which I like a lot. However when I am around I mostly use AirPods Pro 2. Of course not hi-fi but not bad sounding and really convenient and comfortable (and anc can be really useful)
I subscribe to Apple & Tidal. Tidal MQA to my ears ( no one can argue we all hear differently) is simply astonishing on many songs. I listen thru my MacBook hooked up to Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200 M to Focal Clear Headphones.
Try Qobus and compare Massive attack, mezzanine, first song. And listen to the bass distortions with Tidal and NOT with qobus. Was a nobrainer for me after that
I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to streaming but I use Apple Music through my iPhone 11 and do enjoy it. My main format though is vinyl then CD as I like to have a physical copy and consider them both to have better sound quality in my system than streaming.
Was on AM until start using Audirvāna. if you haven’t tried it yet (or Roon) you definitely should, cause it sounds amazing. much better than Tidal in bypass mode and even much better than AM which uses MacOS Core Audio and audio mixer system settings (the best performance in sound quality is 16/44.1, as Paul just mentioned. or you may set 32/44.1 without spoiling the sound; all above settings make sound worse in my experience). As an Apple-guy I really like AM’s UI/UX and functionality, but unfortunately afaik it still can’t be used with Audirvāna. When things change I would be happy to use it again
@@BorisQuasha if i spent thousands id justify my purchase to the death as-well and i bet id hear a difference too! i can also provide evidence to the reason you hear a difference and its not to do with your equipment or dac
Hi Paul, love your videos, thank you for sharing these with us! I think Amazon Music should also be included in the mix, they have the best pricing and all their catalogue available at CD quality and over. Re core audio resampling, with the Amazon Music macOS desktop app there is an audio setting called “exclusive” mode where coreAudio is bypassed and the app streams bit perfect music to the USB. Perhaps Apple Music does have such a setting as well? Not sure. On iOS with an USB OTG cable this is the only setting, that is no resampling, just bit perfect audio that comes out of the streaming app. Hope that helps!
Amazon's version of exclusive mode is not bit perfect. I have the bit rate set in Windows to 384kHz and always select exclusive mode, yet everything I play is upsampled to 384kHz (my SU9 Dac shows the frequency). So exclusive mode does not bypass the Windows mixer.
I use Amazon music as well and pay for the high quality streaming option. The audio quality is fantastic. I use a Chrome Cast connected to my Anthem AVM60 via HDMI and then just cast from my phone to the Chromecast. The rest of my system consists of Bryston amplification and B&W 802Ds. It's super easy to use because it's all wireless from my phone and the audio quality is indistinguishable from FLAC files played from my computer through an external DAC.
Interesting. I’ve tried em all. For me, one other important factor to be considered is how their auto play algorithms work. Begin with a Charlie Parker recording say, ‘My little suede shoes’ and 40 minutes later what will you be listening to? Spotify, Miles Davis. Tidal, Cardi B. Apple, Abba. Amazon HD, Portico Quartet. I have no great love of Jeff Bezos and his astronaut chums, but got to say Amazon HD sounds better than most and I just seem to end up listening to interesting new artists. All for £7.99 a month (I have a Prime account), that’s around 12 dollars US…
3:05 When you say, "and it does sound better..." , have you conducted a blind testing to conclude this? Because I've been scratching my head to successfully ABX between 160 kbps Opus and about 4200 kbps 24 bit / 96 kHz lossless streams with foobar2000 on M50X
Because Tidal is inferior, it uses MQA which is lossy and they modify to enhance the sound so you are not getting a sonicly accurate original copy of the music. If you're not picky about that sort of thing then I guess it doesn't matter much.
I'm using Spotify (mostly used by my Daughter, lets see if Spotify ever deliver on their promise of highres files), Tidal (this time on a 3 month free trial) and since about a month back I'm using Qobuz. On my system with the latest BluOS NODE player, PS Audio Sprout and Buchardt S300 speakers. Qobuz is noticeably better. Also like how they present new music and playlists. Lots of really high quality stuff. Tidal doesn't really have that much content that is Highres. The NODE streamer also streams Neil Young Archive streams and that's all very high quality and it's only $20 / year.
@@peter71ify I can't say that I agree but it probably also matters what system you use and also what material you play. Something you would very commonly hear at audio shows when they demo their system is Chris Jones. If you look up his album Moonstruck on Tidal and Qobuz and compare it's a huge difference. One is obviously that Tidal only have the CD quality and Qobuz have the Highres version. Can you give a similar example on something? I'm curious to test myself on my system.
@@themoistgreenorganic They got everything i ve ever looked up. Including pretty unknown small artists. Just have to look them up. The app can be better to be fair. But it does work. And through my streamer, with blue os app, sounds better the tidal. By a mile. Tidal is cool if you have a so so stereo. But for the serious hardware qobus is better
The iPad & iPhone set the bit/sample rate output automatically for apple lossless I’ve heard on other videos on this subject.not on iMac (even my M1 imac) this makes no sense.I’ve to set manually for ever album with the midi controller 🤦 I would have thought this would be an easy fix for apple.another great video.thanks
I use an Chromecast Audio puk, that they stopped doing, I stream Apple Music controling it with my android phone. Chromecast Audio with mini SPIDIF streaming at CD quality. Sounds beautiful. I'm puzzled how Google stopped producing that magic little thing.
And yet, when you get yourself a streamer, it truly blows that puk out of the water. Got a bluenode, which isn't even that expensive, using the preamp dac. And qobus. And yupp. I also used to puk, and now internal chromecast in the tv. Day and night compared to a streamer
@@CyberBeep_kenshi I agree, I heard the Cambridge Audio CXN and it's awesome but I only stream to discover New music and when I like I buy on CD or vinyl.
Apple Music has the family plan for up to 5 users for about 15 bucks per month. There are 5 in my family. It is now available for Android. I use my iPad to a dac to a tube headphone amp/preamp and I’m good to go. I have Sennheiser HD 600, Grado SR 325X and AKG K702 headphones 🎧 where I do most of my vinyl and digital listening. Great vid as usual👍.
Cook just said that they have 95 million songs. AAC isn’t from Apple. Apple licenses it. Unfortunately, Pure Music, which was designed to work with iTunes, bypassing Apple’s music output controls, and passing whatever file sample you’re playing out through whatever output port you’re using without change, doesn’t yet work with the Apple Music app. He’s working on it though, as he is with an Apple silicon version. The software is from Channel D. Hopefully he’ll have it finished soon, as it worked very well.
My DAC switches between bitrates for the different levels of lossless so I don’t think my phone is upscaling to 192. My DAC has 5 led indicators, 44.1-192 and they switch to match the song. Maybe the upsampling is a Mac OS problem. If so hopefully they fix that soon.
iOS has bit perfect playback. macOS does not (unless you use apps such as Roon). However, Apple Music is not supported in Roon (yet), so you have to manually change the output in the midi settings to match the track bitrate, if you want match the bitrate.
Going against the tide here...I like Tidal more over Qobuz...had both. Not only does Tidal sound better, it's app and cross platform integration is superior to Qobuz. What I don't like is the Rap/hip hop garbage (my opinion) it keeps pushing in your face....that needs to be balanced a lot. Also, MQA does sound better to my ears. There, I said it!🤗
My blind testing can differentiate between Qobuz and Apple Music Lossless. The dither does mask some depth and clarity. Master music files already contain dither so Apple add it in error IMO
Has anyone streamed the new HQ apple audio on an apple TV 4k? I looked at buying one and they support FLAC,AIFF,WAV and apple lossless but don’t get specific on the sample rates.
No idea what you are talking about. I have a lightning connected DAC and my phone sets the quality level automatically. How exactly are you listening to Apple Music?
In a current dispute between my credit card and Tidal after an email saying they canceled my subscription, but I’m still being billed. Word to the wise!
Do Apple devices up and down sample Apple Music even with a DAC hooked up to them? I’m running an iPad with a Schiit Audio Modi 3+ and am getting 24/96 and up with Amazon HD
No, all IOS and iPadOS devices adjust the sample rate based on the source material. This is why I decided to switch to Apple Music. I am not using any other integrations like BlueOS or Roon so this works for me but needs to be part of your decision making process.
Hu!? Have I missed something extremely obvious here? Is there any way to stream to an external DAC within the Apple ecosystem??? I mean, I am not aware of iTunes allowing streaming the digital stream ever leaving it (Would void their strong DRM) so iTunes can only output analog audio from the internal sound card DAC which isn’t great. Same goes for all other Apple devices and products; it always will output to analog out of the Apple stack??? Or is there something I do not know???
Apple Music works best on IOS devices - Iphone/IPad , it’s not really for MacOS yet ( too many bugs atm but knowing Apple , a fix is otw ) , use an IPad Pro connected via USB I guess is the best way. The quality and consistency is higher than Tidal IMO , dynamics , dark background , resolution etc. Abyss engineers have also done a comparison and confirmed the same. I just stream with my IPhone pro , using my Iwatch as a remote. Def no need for MQA.
I here ya re Apple. I’m an apple fanboy. But, how do you stream to a preamp? Isn’t airplay lower quality? And, when you use Roon and tell Qobuz to stream to your preamp (or other end device) the streaming is direct to Roon. This can’t occur, as I understand it, using Apple Music. Would appreciate clarification
For burning CDs first I need to have songs already in flac or wav file . Is there a way to get these wavs and flac free or do I have to buy them and then go and burn the CDs ??..
The added dither can be viewed by playing a 16bit track on Apple Music Lossless and viewing the bit histogram in a pure digital chain like on a PC with VST software. See some of my investigations.
The DAC inside of iPhones suck, and the dac in those thunderbolt to 1/8” are even worse. I’ve got an old iPhone 6s Plus and the dac and headphone in it are the best they made (still not very good). The 7 and beyond did not have built in dacs or headphone amps
I switched over from Qobuz to Apple Music due to the cost and the fact that Qobuz was fairly laggy for me. I tried reinstalling it on multiple devices. Granted, iTunes absolutely sucks on even a high-end computer (RTX2080Ti, Ryzen 7, 32GB DDR4), but since I listen in my car 95% of the time, it makes sense to go with Apple Music for me.
@3:01 "We get enamored with this idea of higher resolution -- 192 (kHz) 24 (bits) -- and it does sound better" I respectfully disagree. 192 kHz / 24 bits "can" sound better than CD quality. But it is wrong to say that is "does" sound better than CD quality. In fact, a badly mixed / mastered song will sound worse at higher resolution, because we will hear more of how bad the song was mixed and mastered (and we have oceans of poorly mixed / mastered songs). I guess that a case could be made that hearing more flaws in high resolution content is "better", in that although such a song will sound worse, the higher resolution was better at bringing the bad sound to the surface. By far, the most important aspect of any recording is in the studios not eff'ing up the sound quality, via endless equalization, compression, etc. Only when the studios get it right (which is a rarity), will the higher resolution song sound better than its CD version. By the way, Paul is correct about Qobuz. They are #1 in sound quality. Cheers!
Agreed. A great recording and produced CD sounds great. Even better though, a DSD recorded track sound wonderfull even on 24 bit 48 khz. Qobuz is great, I happily forgive them the lagging. And I believe they dropped their prices.
Lossless setting for apple music go up to 24 bit and 48 kHz . The next level is Hi-res setting. You can buy a DAC for iPhone . And I actually think the phone sends out exactly that data that the streaming contains to it. Shouldn't it also apply to iPod and an Apple Computer if you are connected external DAC
I think Apple Music Lossless is great for reviewing music you might purchase on CD or vinyl. Please remind that for good quality playback you need the lightning to USB Camera Adapter and a good 'audio grade' USB cable to connect to your DAC. The real disadvantage is that you cannot remote control when your hifi system is out of reach from your listening position. Thanks for your great videos Paul. I'm now reading 99% true and will buy your audiophiles guide soon.
@@Harald_Reindl haha! try and listen. Maybe you don't need an expensive cable. A basic € 80,- Chord Company will do. I hear the difference immediately. There is no law that you have to buy one. You can make your own decision.
Amazon Prime Hi-res and Qobuzz does it all better already. While digital electronic music composing works great on macs, the playback quality on Apple Music is a whole different Story. And you are wrong. Studios don't record in CD quality. Qobuzz receives studio masters btw., that simple. And Amazon can also afford to get the Studio Originals. And that's what they do. Can't speak for Tidal, Spotify etc. So it is with Apple. Sony jumped into Spotify and ramped up Lossless Choice at least. My Deezer Hifi clearly is alright too. But I had a Chance to test the Hi-res Choice of amazon prime music with a dedicated device. With it it was clearly a difference in details and quality. Like refurbished... Talking about refurbished Sound: Exciters doing that job for nearly 40 years now. So at the end, it aldo comes down to Psycho Acoustics...
What about Apple Music on the iPad Pro with USB C? This will output at the actual bit depth/sample rate without having to manually switch like in OS X.
It's a good question of which I don't have an answer. Certainly you're getting digital audio but in most cases with Apple, certainly on Apple computers, everything is run through the core audio which sample rate converts. I am guessing it would be the same on any of their devices but I cannot say for sure.
Paul, as usual, when you ask 5 people the same question, you get 4.5 different answers…the comments show this in spades. Nonetheless I enjoy your videos.
I never see PLEX, Kodi etc. discussed. I stream tidal, RU-vid, Netflix etc. And play local files over Kodi all they android apps. People seem unwilling to spend an hour or two learning to do something themselves with open source software.
