Picklgreen Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 iTunes will start selling hi rez files in 2 months. Hopefully they will put hdtracks out of business once and for all! Link to comment
new_media Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Seems like this is still at the rumor stage from what I have read. Apple has been asking for labels to provide 24/96 masters since at least 2012, so I'm not clear as to why this is suddenly generating so much excitement. BTW, welcome, Picklgreen. I'm right down the road in Gig Harbor. Link to comment
Nes Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 iTunes will start selling hi rez files in 2 months. Hopefully they will put hdtracks out of business once and for all! Why would you want HDTracks to go out of business? Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades) Link to comment
bmoura Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Why would you want HDTracks to go out of business? Hmm, who might have the highest quality downloads - Apple, Acoustic Sounds or HD Tracks? Somehow I doubt most audiophiles would select Apple if those are the choices.... Link to comment
integriscdp Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 iTunes will start selling hi rez files in 2 months. Hopefully they will put hdtracks out of business once and for all! Hi Picklgreen; Just curious...was this article the 'source' of your information? High Definition iTunes Music Downloads May Be on the Horizon - Mac Rumors Link to comment
mourip Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 iTunes will start selling hi rez files in 2 months. Hopefully they will put hdtracks out of business once and for all! I would not like to see Apple crush all of the "little guys" but I am hoping that this will put some downward pressure on prices. I think that the HiRes sites have benefited from (taken advantage of) limited supply and a rising demand. I understand free enterprise but I could never rationalize why a 16 bit file could cost so much more than a 24 bit one...not to mention DSD! Cost of business could certainly not justify it. Perhaps that gap will narrow now with more competition. "Don't Believe Everything You Think" System Link to comment
Lighthouse Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 According to the original source, those files will have watermark. Well, that's it then. Link to comment
wgscott Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 According to the original source, those files will have watermark. Well, that's it then. Don't worry. Audiophiles don't hear watermarks. Just power cables and the like. Link to comment
wgscott Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 Article from AudioStream. Republishing the same rumor. At least it spins it to 24/48, which has the merit of being somewhat plausible. (They already sell some 48kHz music, albeit compressed). Link to comment
Leroy Bad Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 iTunes will start selling hi rez files in 2 months. Hopefully they will put hdtracks out of business once and for all! I don't have any problems with HDtracks. They seems to be really nice people, and have very good customer service whenever I needed it. iTunes can't compete because the iPod only supports up to 48/24 in ALAC only. It doesn't support FLAC, or DSD. iTunes is also a very limited application, in terms of configuration, it doesn't support ASIO and does not have bit perfect playback with auto sample rate switching. Link to comment
Millstone Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 I don't have any problems with HDtracks. They seems to be really nice people, and have very good customer service whenever I needed it.iTunes can't compete because the iPod only supports up to 48/24 in ALAC only. It doesn't support FLAC, or DSD. iTunes is also a very limited application, in terms of configuration, it doesn't support ASIO and does not have bit perfect playback with auto sample rate switching. iTunes can't compete because it doesn't support FLAC, DSD or ASIO? Is this 2003? iTunes is capable of playing 24/96, recent iPhones, iPods can handle up to 24/48 ALAC and AAC. It also supports session-based WASAPI in Windows 7+. The real question is if they're going to support lossless ALAC or just AAC of these 24/48 downloads. Link to comment
Leroy Bad Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 iTunes can't compete because it doesn't support FLAC, DSD or ASIO? Is this 2003? iTunes is capable of playing 24/96, recent iPhones, iPods can handle up to 24/48 ALAC and AAC. It also supports session-based WASAPI in Windows 7+. The real question is if they're going to support lossless ALAC or just AAC of these 24/48 downloads. What difference does it make what year it is? FLAC and DSD are still relevant. ASIO is still used with some current hardware like the Teac UD-501. Also iTunes supports up to 192 khz. But the iPods are limited to 24-bit ALAC only, if you use AAC the iPods down convert to 16-bit. The Windows Session support is a joke, it just uses what ever the default sound configuration is in Windows, which is not bit perfect. All of the details are relevant and Apple has a long way to go if they are going to impress any serious audio enthusiast. Theres just no way they can compete with an app like JRiver Media Center in it's current state Link to comment
bmoura Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 iTunes will start selling hi rez files in 2 months. Hopefully they will put hdtracks out of business once and for all! If you're looking for ALAC files.... Link to comment
Leroy Bad Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 Actually ALAC became open source a couple years ago, so it's more wildly supported. We no longer have to worry about Apple dropping the format and being stuck with unsupported proprietary files. Having said that though FLAC still compresses better. Link to comment
new_media Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 But the iPods are limited to 24-bit ALAC only, if you use AAC the iPods down convert to 16-bit. Technically speaking, AAC LC and MP3 do not have intrinsic "per second" bit depths. The data is converted from time domain to frequency domain during encoding. The psychoacoustic algorithms determine which of the 24 or 16 bits are "most significant" during the encoding process. Link to comment
Black Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 The key here is will iTunes re-master them for Hi-Rez? Or will they just accept a 24/96 file from the label? I think it will be the latter. Link to comment
Leroy Bad Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 The key here is will iTunes re-master them for Hi-Rez? Or will they just accept a 24/96 file from the label? I think it will be the latter. Yeah thats the way all the digital labels work. But I'm skeptical if they will actually offer resolutions over 48khz. Since none of their supporting products support over that. I dought they want a bagillion customer support calls from uninformed customers (%80) trying to place 96/24 files on thier iPod Nanos. Link to comment
Black Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 Yeah thats the way all the digital labels work. But I'm skeptical if they will actually offer resolutions over 48khz. Since none of their supporting products support over that. I dought they want a bagillion customer support calls from uninformed customers (%80) trying to place 96/24 files on thier iPod Nanos. Great point. You forget how ignorant the typical computer user is. Their support would explode and stay steady. With the niche sites people who go there know what they want and understand lossless. If Apple even broaches DSD it would be a mess. Anyway, no way Apple and Sony get in bed together. Sorry, maybe they have before?? Link to comment
Savage Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 I can't say that I've tried to play hi-res on an iPod. But wouldn't it just downsample and play it without too much fuss. Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not." — Nelson Pass Link to comment
goldendarko Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 Apple will release it, call it HD Music or something like that, will make millions and in a few years we will all be calling it HD Music too. Correct me if I'm wrong. Link to comment
new_media Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 I can't say that I've tried to play hi-res on an iPod. But wouldn't it just downsample and play it without too much fuss. As it stands right now, the only way to transfer 24/96 ALAC from iTunes to an iPod is to allow it to automatically convert to 256 kbps AAC. Otherwise it just ignores it. Link to comment
new_media Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 And that setting is all or nothing. Either all of the lossless files on an iPod are converted to AAC or none of them are. Link to comment
Paul R Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 Do iPods act differently from iPhones? As it stands right now, the only way to transfer 24/96 ALAC from iTunes to an iPod is to allow it to automatically convert to 256 kbps AAC. Otherwise it just ignores it. Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat DAC. Robert A. Heinlein Link to comment
Leroy Bad Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 Do iPods act differently from iPhones? I can't remember the specifics, but off the top of my head...the iPod Touch has a more powerful headphone output, and a different Cirrus audio chip with a flatter frequency response, less ram but faster CPU than the iPhone. source:Apple iPod Touch 5G review Link to comment
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