Article: Apple Music's Lossless and Hi-Res Mess

[ChipotleCoyote]

I didn't expect exclusive mode from iTunes, er, Apple Music, but I did expect bit rate switching on the Mac. I'm not going to say that flat-out makes things useless for my personal needs, but it makes things…wobbly. I'm not sure just setting it to stream "non hi-res" lossless and locking to 16/44.1 with Audio MIDI Setup is the right answer, either, because according to their own specs, Apple's non hi-res can still be 24/48. (Can I personally hear resampling going on if I just set it to 24/96, especially on my solid-for-desktop-but-still-desktop computer speakers? If I'm honest, I doubt it, but it's the principle of the thing.)

 

That Music on iOS does handle auto rate switching is interesting, though.

 

For the record, I just went to check my Apple TV, and there's now a setting for "Audio Quality" in the Music app setting -- but the choices are only "High Quality (AAC 256 kbps)" and "Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/48 kHz)", so no hi-res there. Since tvOS is based on iOS, it may do auto rate switching, although in extremely short testing it doesn't seem to have switched off 48K.

[ChipotleCoyote]

I never thought to click on that! Thank you. (Silly me, I would have put that info in, I don't know, the window that comes up when you click "Get Info".)

 

I just commented to a friend that Apple has somehow managed to implement lossless audio -- something only audiophiles are likely to really care about  -- in the least audiophile-friendly manner possible. :)

[ChipotleCoyote]

I'd forgotten about using HDCD as a test for bit perfect output! I remember doing that on a previous receiver. (Originally by accident. "Wait, why is the HDCD light on? I'm playing a ripped…oh, I get it.") I'm pretty sure I no longer own anything that can decode HDCD, though.

[ChipotleCoyote]

12 hours ago, wklie said:

 

For stereo tracks, at this time you get the best (neither claiming nor denying it is lossless delivery) results from having a USB DAC connected to an iOS device (via an appropriate adapter) but not a Mac.

 

I’m pretty sure, but don’t think I have the equipment to confirm, that you get lossless audio — not “hi-res lossless,” but up to 24/48 — from Apple TV boxes connected via HDMI; enabling lossless audio is, at the least, now an option in settings.

[ChipotleCoyote]

18 minutes ago, Cebolla said:

A resolution of 24bit/48kHz is considered hi-res.

 

Not by Apple’s definitions. :) I’m literally looking at the dropdown in iTunes for Audio Quality right now, and the options are, verbatim:

• High Quality (AAC 256 kbps)
• Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/48 kHz)
• High Resolution Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz)