Even though I use tidal, there is still nothing that can replace SoundCloud for me - there’s so many cool remixes and gems that I can’t find elsewhere. But purely sound-quality/bit-rate wise, I agree
@@ericyang8033 Soundcloud is sort of a thing on its own, like music social media ish. Tho I know you know I was talking about formal/professional streaming platforms right?
Just curious are you ok with the re-sampling of the stream out of your computer. Would it be ok just to let my computer midi settings at 24/192 and just upsample everything, would there be any degradation in sound quality. I think thats the main concern of many audiophiles that want a pure signal stream. I can't test it now because I have an older mac, but curious if you tried it.
The number of subscribers are around 80 million for Apple Music. The 600 million number mentioned by the host is for all Apple Services, not just the Music service.
Good to hear that all of you are happy with Apple Music lossless. I will switch to it from both Tidal and Qobuz but only if Roon integration happens. BTW, my 1266 arrived yesterday and I'm loving it so far. Waiting for a more powerful amp to show up to drive them properly.
I have been using Amazon Music HD since it launched and quality was noticeably better than Tidal when switching between identical tracks at the same quality. The dynamic range of the Tidal track just seemed a bit compressed by comparison. Sounds like Apple is doing what Amazon is doing (proper lossless), so I will definitely consider them as an option.
Sorry, but the best is own experience :) I tested it for several hours. The same losless 16/44.1 song sounds exactly the same to me in Apple Music HD, Tidal or Deezer. Of course it has to be the same release/mastering.
FYI: 9:41, it's a feature from Beats by Dre when they had music subscription, which Trent Reznor from NIN helped develop before Apple bought Beats by Dre. After the purchase Apple Music implemented the same exact feature. It also has the same exact bobbles, genre and artists alike to get to know the subscriber...
Sounds like it's best to download "for offline use" rather than stream every time you play. But one thing that has irked me on all streaming services, as opposed to physical albums, is how difficult it is to get any info or album art! This is particularly annoying when you hear a classical work, and you wonder who the soprano is on that one track. Nope! You'll never get to know it! Each and every track is BWV something by Wolfgang Sebastian Beethoven, by the Prague wing of the London Baroque Orchestra, directed by .... and sorry, we have no room for even the track name after all this, far less who the actual soloists or performers were on this particular track.
The records I’ve checked directly (no AirPlay gumming up the works) sound like the Red Book originals off the Roon server here at home. Put AirPlay in the path and it goes flat and fuzzy. Both with Audeze LCD-1 and Maggie LRS, Vidar, Freya+, and Gumby MB. Same results,with Modi, Magni, and LCDs. Have lots of experience with Roon Radio. It noodles real well. With Apple One, picking up music was no cost addition to iCloud storage, ATV+, and Apple News.
When MQA is good, it’s just OK but most of the time I think I’m listening to a Phase Linear 700 (mid-70’s solid state power amp with a rep) harsh. Patent says it all, compression! Unrevealed secret sauce. Spectrum analysis shows what’s happening.
Apple doesn’t support streaming devices so I can’t get rid of Tidel or Qobuz. The advantage of Qobuz over Tidal is that it stream hires without the MQA malarkey - we don’t need lossey compression with modern bandwidth
@@ahmadhusaini8420 I didn’t say it didn’t support streaming - after all that’s what your phone and computer do. I said it doesn’t support streaming devices - you know, Cambridge Audio, BuOS, NAD - audiophile streamers that can connect directly to hires services like Qobuz or Tidal
All 3 of you spend a week smashing Apple Music and do a follow up video 😁👍 I noticed the sound quality increase as well, very rare in audio to have something that noticeable.
Apple Music doesn‘t automatically switch the sample rate on macOS. Is there a perceivable difference in acoustics when for example having your DAC set to 96 khz when playing a 48 khz song?
If you upsample in the power of 2 or 4, there shouldn't be any difference. Problem is most lossless tracks on Apple Music are 16/44.1 so both 24/96 and 24/192 settings are not ideal.
@@k-doggy1762 you don’t upsample, the song always plays on it’s native, if your system can’t output the frequency it cuts it, also all red book (CD) are at 44.1, 44 are DVD quality, from 48 and up it’s Studio, vinyl is also 44.1
Personally really like the Qobuz + local library in Roon player setup. But very curious to try out the new Apple Music, since all my hardware is Apple already haha
I watched Darkos vid on apple hq and it's quite a bish to get setup. I just want to buy something like the BlueSound Node (2021) feed it to my Dac via I2S or AES and then my HP amp then the 1266 Phi tc. But instead I need a phone or ipad then a dongle dac then a lightning to USB converter then my dac. I just don't think I want to mess with it yet.
In our case we have all that, we’ve used iPads with Tidal at our booth at shows. It’s a pretty good source, into an external DAC , can sound better than a computer, and may sound better than the streamer itself (used as a DAC only) depending on the quality of the streamer.
@@psipsitronick9250 not really. The Bluetooth limitation has nothing to do with Apple. That’s a Bluetooth limitation in that 5.2 can’t send data at the speed needed for hi res. This is true for Apple products, android, etc. Furthermore, the dongles for setup are quite simple. Darko is clearly using an older model iPad. New models have usb c and I can run a single cable direct in my ifi. It doesn’t get much easier than that. While he points out a lot of information, he doesn’t explain the “why” very well.
Pleasantly surprised and I agree on your consensus of opinion. I cannot wait until Apple comes out with a solution to replace Bluetooth given the sonic limitation and inability to transmit wirelessly Hires audio.
I too have noticed a definite difference in music quality from my Apple Music subscription. And I don't have nearly this good of headphone quality!! The only thing that kinda sucks is that I have to delete then re-download all of my songs that support lossless. But I guess that's to be expected lol
The amount that artist gets paid on each service should be mentioned in the discussion as well. Appreciate what apple had done without upping the fee. But i would pay a premium for this service if the artist could get more. Hope the competition doesn't completely implode under this pressure
I’ve been going back and forth testing Tidal, Qobuz, Roon as well against Apple Music and Apple is killing it big time. Listening to Miles Davis with Apple Music you get everything blending together seamlessly with the up front piano is spot on, but with all three other services it sounds off with the piano sounding artificial toy like and further out making the sound stage suffer. For only $9.99 per month with a 3 month free it’s looking really good that I might change too. Mac Mini Intel 6 core > Chord MScaler > Chord Dave > Woo Audio WA33 Elite with KR HP upgraded tubes > Abyss 1266 Phi TC = your at the studio listening to them perform live truly amazing what I am hearing from Apple Music
considering most professional producers use mac to editing their music, it make sense lossless music using alac is better than none lossless mqa. also apple is providing highest bitrate i ever seem on both tv app streaming my 4k hdr movie (60-70mbpd) and music app (800+ knox) for streaming, not surprise they got better sound quality. i feel like it is extremely hard for small companies to compete with multi trillion dollar companies in terms of server bandwidth. and the price for apple music is so cheap
Top Tip for Tidal: turn off your VPN to remove buffering problems. All streaming services including TH-cam collect vast amounts of data through their interface before delivering the stream. I expect much of this is Digital Rights Management based (permission / license / payment fulfilled), hence the distrust and very slow connection when using a VPN.
Tidal had the best balance of sound quality, size of library, and convenience. Yeah there's Qobuz but Tidal has a bigger library. Qobuz is great if the music you listen to is the general music genres that Qobuz supports which is like Jazz? Classical? Could be wrong on the genres but I know for sure it's not what I generally listen to
@@spartanV48 i think Spotify is much better compared to tidal. Better UI and I find more music on it I listen to. But Apple Music has a similarly big library as Spotify and has lossless streaming, so it’s the best choice right now imo. If tidal was lossless, it would be a good alternative
@@spartanV48 lol what? Do the qobuz trial it has all the genres that any other service has. Less videogame soundtracks maybe. Artist from tidal rising might take longer to get to qobuz. Are you mad that it has jazz and classical at all? You can filter them out if they trigger you
@@juliangst I totally agree on Spotify in general except the sound quality part. Even though Tidal isn't as great as it could be sound quality wise, it does sound better than Spotify. Music selection, UI, discovering new music, yeah I prefer Spotify. But if sound quality is a key part of the decision for choosing service, I find Tidal to be preferable when also taking to account the other aspects of the service like size of library compared to other services like Qobuz. Hopefully that makes sense.
Good bye tidal and qobuz. So glad apple finally brought it to the table and I don’t have to fidget around with limited library, hard to use ui, unstable performance.
@@ks_3.14 I'm saying the apple files are compromised and not as pure source as Qobuz.. but yeah forget lossy Tidal. The apple lossless had low level noise added for drm it makes the sound inferior to real lossless.
@@HectorOvalle18 I've got both for a year so I can keep comparing and educating people about the difference. Also I'm not ok with the term LOSSLESS being used for an inferior product.
Another huge problem with Tidal is how two bands with the same name will appear on the same artist page. For example heavy metal band Norma Jean, and 50s singer of the same name are together. Crystal Lake is another one, metal band and EDM DJ are on the same page.
Using the IPad Pro with USB C to USB B to the DAC would be the preferred set up. Second , using an IPhone Pro with the camera adaptor without the charging port and a USBA to USBB to DAC would be the alternative. MacOS without bug fixes to the Audio MIDI set up is just too cumbersome to use ( it will be fixed knowing Apple ). You already don’t need a streamer or Roon so that’s a huge saving.
The second Apple comes out with a Spotify connect equivalent would be a real game changer. The biggest problem with Apple Lossless on hifi system where you would notice a difference, is no streamers support Apple’s Lossless. Airplay & Bluetooth can’t take advantage of lossless. Lossless only works on iOS devices with a dongle to convert lightning to usb to get to a DAC. I can listen to High Res using TIDAL & Qobuz through my streamer. This is much more convenient in my setup.
I’ve been an Apple Music subscriber for over a year now. From my experience, Apple Music takes about 4 to 6 months before it actually gives you reliable suggestions. At first, the suggestions were really bad. Spotify for sure has this down from the get go.
Didn't take as long for me. One thing's for sure, it has my preferences nailed now. Really amazing how long I have to listen before even skipping a song.
@@slabriprock5329 I guess the length of time really depends on one's preferences -- Very interesting. I really thought it was the same for everyone. It may also be because of it has improved as well. Anyway, thanks for the perspective.
@@dudexyt i agree.. but with the success of the original ipod.. i think they could do well making a newer ipod with a dac that can support at least 24/96. I think i heard there are no plans for a newer airpod max.
I wish you could have discussed more about the settings in your computer. I dont think a lot of people realize that apple music won't switch the resolution settings in your computer. Some purists believe that if leave your midi at 24/96 resolution, it won't sound as good with the cd quality track. To be honest i dont know, but I hope that apple come up with something to to change the resolution settings in your computer automatically. The other problem that if you are running an older MAC your are out of luck, i think you have to run MAC 11.4.
I hope Apple Music opens up their streamer so that I can use my little Raspberry Pi streamer with Volumio and Pi2AES. Or use Audirvana so it can interface directly with the DAC and set the bit rate/ sampling
Yo how do you have Volumio set up on your Pi? I've tried it plenty of times and it only works for either a day or just a few songs and then just completely crashes. I have to turn it off and on just to get it to play a few more songs afterwards. I ended up just going back to Ropieee. But I was liking the fact that I didn't have to have my Room core on just to use the interface.
@@eapa37 So far It works okay for me. I mainly use Tidal with my Volumio thingie. I may check out Roon though since it does look nicer and has more work done on it. I had to copy the latest files from the Raspberry Pi OS on the latest stable build of volumio to get it to boot off my RPi 4b+. But it's been running for 48 hours and it seems okay.
Great Video. I have a question: If you are listening on a mac. Do you change the sample rate and bit depth for every song in audio midi accordingly, or do you just set it to something like 24 / 192 or 24 / 96 and upsample everything?
If you use either of the iPads Pro since 2018 or the new iPad Air, they all have USB C instead of lightening connector and will feed direct to a DAC with a USB C to USB B cable (assuming your DAC has a USB B input)
How are you guys connecting the iPads to the stack. Are you using the usb camera device? I couldn’t pin it down on my side at first. I do however agree with with you guys. I do find that Apple Music is better sounding. I was running Tidal though Audirvana and I am enjoying Apple. I found Apple Music catalogue better, it does come down to the source. Some source better than others. Using Sennheiser HD660s headphones through Topping L30 and E30 stack
@abyss as you were working on a Mac, were you certain that you were actually hearing the lossless version of each track? There’s a confirmed bug in macOS right now that makes it quite difficult to ensure that you are actually hearing anything other than the standard AAC track. The problem does not exist on iOS.
Doing trade shows and CanJams with a mix of gear we have a bit of experience with external DAC’s and macs. We set the midi settings for a fixed rate of 192 KHz into the Sagra DAC. Unfortunately Music does not currently show the actual res for each track, iOS does, but it was easy enough to pull up the tracks we used on a phone to check.
@@ABYSSHeadphones not doubting your expertise at all, but if you clicked directly on any tracks in macOS, you would have heard the AAC version and not lossless due to a very annoying bug. The only way to play back the lossless (or Atmos) version of a track is to hit the big red [play] button to start playback with the first track, then use transport controls to navigate to the actual track you want.
Great to hear what you experts think about Apple Lossless. You confirm what I also heard when I listened to it the first time......; way more detailed than Tidal.
@@privacyhelp Pro and Max are actually pretty great for consumers, and even professionals if they’re just wanting to hear some music and have fun. I’d still recommend a pair of wired flat headphones for critical listening of course, but for casual listening? AirPods do pretty great.
Many times the CD quality on Tidal is perfect. I'm seeing so far that the Hi-Res on Apple seems better thank the CD quality. But, the lossless in general is just so much better than AAC that having it in CD alone is enough. Thank you Apple! For free at that. Seriously can't beat it. However, I would like Apple to: 1) Properly catalog the Hi-Res audio. And if you have many versions, start with the Hi-Res version and work down if requested. 2) Time to start putting in a decent DAC in the hardware. Bare minimum we need 24bit 96Khz capable DAC's built in. But, this is Apple no reason not to have 24/192. 3) Start selling DAC's online. Partner up with some of the good ones please! 4) We need Apple Connect and or allow iMusic to work natively in Roon, or other combiner streaming apps/platforms. So we can have it built into our systems. 5) Auto Res Switching built into MacOS, so we don't have to go into AudioMidi Setup. Bit perfect audio passthru please.
@@psipsitronick9250 I can understand that. However, for those of us that have it with our packaged subscription. I'm less likey to get out of it eitherway. But, it may help me stop paying for Tidal.
The switches are in Apple Music preferences. Simple once you know where to look. Even Tidal Red Book sounds off on occasion. Some titles appear to have MQA damage in them even though not tagged MQA.
you guys should recommend some budget or entry level gear since i expect many loving it after trying loseless audio and wanting to go to a higher level. Who knows they might get a Diana or two in the future!
Loved the show. So, how can you use Apple Music in your big rig? There is no ‘connect’. I can’t use Roon. I don’t want to buy another Mac just to be a streamer. I’m just curious if you have a solution I’m not seeing
I’ve been an Apple Music subscriber since the launch, and it had improved a lot but to be honest they are really behind the competition when it comes to speed of the interface and music suggestion. Their web player been taken seriously yet. For a company of the size of Apple, with the goal of becoming more and more a service-driven company, you would expect a bit more agility and attention to these details. It is 2022 and unfortunate that there is no sign of them bringing lossless audio to PC nor to their web player.
I’m really curious, did u also manually changed the bitrate and sample hz on audio/midi settings on Mac OS ? Cuz the music app doesn’t overrule the output.
Very cool thanks for the content, very interesting discussion session. Coincidently I'm just trying out Apple / Dolby Atmos on my shiit stack and HE-X4 this morning.
considering most professional producers use mac to editing their music, it make sense lossless music using alac is better than none lossless mqa. also apple is providing highest bitrate i ever seem on both tv app streaming my 4k hdr movie (60-70mbpd) and music app (800+ knox) for streaming, not surprise they got better sound quality. i feel like it is extremely hard for small companies to compete with multi trillion dollar companies in terms of server bandwidth. and the price for apple music is so cheap
Having listened extensively on a very good headphone setup to both Tidal and Apple lossless it seems to me the source is the determining factor in sound quality. Tidal is best sometimes. Apple on others. If I had to pick one it would be Tidal so far. It edges out Apple on the number of albums that sound best (but it's close) and it's a clear winner on features and interface. The suggested playlists both for audio and especially video are much better on Tidal. For now I will continue to pay extra for Tidal but if Apple improves it's usability and adds more hi-res tracks I could well change to Apple.
I'm surprised you guys didn't compare Qobuz with the other services. I have found it is really lossless, music sounds the same as a high-res album that I have purchased from HD Tracks, where Tidal does not. Qobuz is also lower priced. Apple Music seems to only work as a direct connect to your DAC from iOS also. From Mac OS it goes through Apple's sample rate converter unless you manually set the sample rate for each album you play appropriately, which is so dumb I can only hope Apple fixes this really soon.
Isn't a lot on Apple Music remastered in Dolby Atmos now? I think this adds the spaciness you are talking about, compared to Tidal. Ps. Love your videos guys, this channel is pure gold.
To hear music in Dolby Atmos with Spatial Audio you need to have headphones which can understand Dolby Atmos. I doubt the Abyss family were using such headphones.
The only thing right now that’s missing, is DAC takeover Hopefully this will be implemented soon, otherwise Qobuz Will have to remain for the main system at home. But for background music and for on the go, Apple Music all the way, Amazon music HD title Spotify TH-cam music cancelled all.
@@sanderhoogeland9161 Hey A DAC takeover is when the operating system completely bypasses its own internal audio profile and system and hardware And exclusively sends all the information to be allocated via the external DAC, In this manner, it completely gets rid of any profiling or EQ or any other setting the system may have in place for its own native sound playback
@@ConvinceMeAudio thank you, I will check it out. Also, maybe this is something else, but I heard that on android devices, if you play something like Hi-Rez, the android operating system always resamples it to a certain bit rate and such unless you use certain apps, and that iOS devices do not do this, They will just output whatever the resolution is and whatever your external DAC allow for. Does that also have something to do with it, or is that something else?
To be fair, MQA files needs special circuitry design inside a DAC to sound as intended. But I won’t bother finding a MQA DAC just for Tidal because Qobuz offers uncompressed HiRes stream bit-perfectly.
It's time for MQA to be seen as the marketing gimmick it is, and this is coming from a guy who hard core believes in things like cable quality (to an extent) people like to throw the term snake oil around that a fair bit too but when it comes to MQA, channels like "Golden Sound" here on youtube have done a great job unearthing the lie that MQA really is.
I have Tidal and an MQA DAC and I’m not really impressed with MQA. However using something like Audirvana helps improve overall sound quality with MQA and FLAC. MQA is not lossless and it colors the sound. For these ears, MQA tracks sound better than standard MP3/AAC but it’s not AMAZING when compared to FLAC for the same mastering of the songs on Tidal.
There is probably not that many people using Apple Lossless. It requires an external DAC and headphones with a wire. The majority of folks don't have and/or use either of those.
If just Lossless for a maximum resolution of 24-bit/48 kHz, can use Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter It contains a digital-to-analog converter that supports up to 24-bit/48 kHz lossless audio.
It seems you can buy albums there for permanent keeps, too. As I tend to listen to the same 5 albums over and over rather than vary a lot, that might make more sense to users like me.
@@CaptHotah 90% seems hyperbolic, I listen to a lot of underground stuff too and they didnt have maybe 7-10 artists at all, and other bands had a few missing albums which was a bummer. The real problem was their app, and the combination of a crap app, and not having some of my music I enjoy was enough to switch back to Tidal.
the dumbest thing is you have to remember to set it to lossless playback even after buying the highest tier in Tidal. Not going back. And you cant even see ur playlists after ur unsubbed
@@MattLoberstein somewhere in streaming or playback settings. I stopped using tidal for apple music. Actually has lossless included at no extra cost unlike tidal
The streaming and dropouts are a problem but the sound is excellent. I think Apple have changed since Tim Cook. Get it to market then fix it. With Steve he wanted it perfect before going to market.
i really wish i could hear what everyone else is hearing. i can hear the mono to stereo but even with using just the headphone jack, or my hypercloudX jawns it sounds the same. I have been using BOOM 3d, and with that i hear more and get the sound i like. help? lol
Apple Music quality , consistency, ease of use with an IOS device is very gd. esp if your gear is up to par. When they mentioned how slow the service was , imagine existing users already in the Apple ecosystem converting their whole library to lossless, that’s a lot of users and downloads. Airplay is also better than Bluetooth. You also save $ not requiring a dedicated streamer or Roon endpoint/subscription. And in China , a 1 year subs is around US15 lol - arguably the cheapest in the world. Kudos to Apple.
@@slyfox720 and have a long usb cable crossing through your listening room from your seating position to your DAC ? Or having to stand up to reach your iPad each time you need to change tracks ?
The whole blind test calls aside (as valid as they are), I seriously question just how many Apple Music subscribers are going to be listening to lossless and hi-res music on gear of this calibre, especially if they're captives of the Apple ecosystem. How many people are going to be bug-eyed listening to a 24/96 version of a track on the commute to work ? Throw in the buffering issues identified here and it's not a service I find myself immediately attracted to. I nixed Spotify Premium simply because I'm sick of them teasing the audio press with talk of lossless music 'sometime this year' but for right now I'll just wait and see how this pans out - choice is good. Thanks for the video, (FWIW, we've had government ministers here in Australia ranting about '15-year olds playing video games 12 hours a day' in response to complaints about our multi-billion dollar fibre rollout - I doubt that anyone over 50 really comprehends the impact of online gaming on the 'information superhighway'. A few million lossless audio files should be a veritable stream alongside that raging river. I dont consider a 5-second delay before a song starts too odious, but you can bet that reviewers will seize on it)
@@ManBearCowGM That's a tad harsh - even the cultists should be able to embrace other options if this resonates beyond the initial hype being generated by Apple.
Apple is smart enough to not get involved with MQA bullshit! Dolby Atmos is better to have then MQA!!! lol! I am genuinely happy it sounds better than Tidal. If only Apple was compatible with Roon...
Would love to see ABYSS doing a blindfold ranking of masters from Qobuz, Tidal, Amazon Prime HD Music and Apple Lossless.
Yes! + Deezer FLAC
@ Deezer has Flac? i thought hifi was Cd quality
@@jakealexander6046 It does. 16-bit 1411 kbps CD quality FLACs.
we need to see it!!
Yes! I would love to hear this.
You can see the bitrate used in the Music desktop app by highlighting the lossless icon in the player window while it’s playing
The fact they said they’re switching in an instance, you know how dead some of the other smaller streaming services will be
Even though I use tidal, there is still nothing that can replace SoundCloud for me - there’s so many cool remixes and gems that I can’t find elsewhere. But purely sound-quality/bit-rate wise, I agree
@@ericyang8033 Soundcloud is sort of a thing on its own, like music social media ish. Tho I know you know I was talking about formal/professional streaming platforms right?
As soon as Apple releases the music app for Windows, I'll switch permanently.
I’m afraid I don’t get their position. Or do I miss the point ? Practicality is the key here. Not sheer sound quality.
@@psipsitronick9250 Android already supports lossless in beta, Apple should soon release the Windows version. Then it'll be acceptable to everyone.
Nice, I just really hope, that they will also add support for a lossless and hi-res in Apple Music for Windows and Android.
yea they are going to but apple products are going to get the first treatment, and then it will come to windows and android
It’s announced to be coming I think
I'm currently on the beta for the Android and it's great. It's definitely coming on Android.
The betas already support it. It’s a matter of days they release the update
I'm sure they will if they want more users going to their service
yeah I found the sound to be very good too. The Digital Masters requirement from Apple also helps the sound.
Just curious are you ok with the re-sampling of the stream out of your computer. Would it be ok just to let my computer midi settings at 24/192 and just upsample everything, would there be any degradation in sound quality. I think thats the main concern of many audiophiles that want a pure signal stream. I can't test it now because I have an older mac, but curious if you tried it.
The number of subscribers are around 80 million for Apple Music. The 600 million number mentioned by the host is for all Apple Services, not just the Music service.
Good to hear that all of you are happy with Apple Music lossless. I will switch to it from both Tidal and Qobuz but only if Roon integration happens. BTW, my 1266 arrived yesterday and I'm loving it so far. Waiting for a more powerful amp to show up to drive them properly.
Roon will not happen, as Apple doesn't like third party intergrations.
@@panzer3279 Hence they loose the audiophile crowd. Which I know is nothing for’em.
What is Roon?
Exactly. Apple just wants you to buy hardware from them so they can lock you into their system and pay for more services.
@@Chrisratata It's a music player which integrates with streaming services
I use Tidal in function like a record shop in the old days, if I like the music, I buy either on Bandcamp and or iTunes.
I have been using Amazon Music HD since it launched and quality was noticeably better than Tidal when switching between identical tracks at the same quality. The dynamic range of the Tidal track just seemed a bit compressed by comparison. Sounds like Apple is doing what Amazon is doing (proper lossless), so I will definitely consider them as an option.
No auto switching on MacOS is somewhat of a speed bump. Easily fixable since iOS does it I would think.
Sorry, but the best is own experience :) I tested it for several hours. The same losless 16/44.1 song sounds exactly the same to me in Apple Music HD, Tidal or Deezer.
Of course it has to be the same release/mastering.
why dont you try it with your iphone and with headphones?
FYI: 9:41, it's a feature from Beats by Dre when they had music subscription, which Trent Reznor from NIN helped develop before Apple bought Beats by Dre. After the purchase Apple Music implemented the same exact feature. It also has the same exact bobbles, genre and artists alike to get to know the subscriber...
Sounds like it's best to download "for offline use" rather than stream every time you play.
But one thing that has irked me on all streaming services, as opposed to physical albums, is how difficult it is to get any info or album art! This is particularly annoying when you hear a classical work, and you wonder who the soprano is on that one track. Nope! You'll never get to know it! Each and every track is BWV something by Wolfgang Sebastian Beethoven, by the Prague wing of the London Baroque Orchestra, directed by .... and sorry, we have no room for even the track name after all this, far less who the actual soloists or performers were on this particular track.
A very, very good point.
Qobuz gives a lot of info with classical music and jazz. They provide a pdf document with all the relevant info.
The records I’ve checked directly (no AirPlay gumming up the works) sound like the Red Book originals off the Roon server here at home. Put AirPlay in the path and it goes flat and fuzzy. Both with Audeze LCD-1 and Maggie LRS, Vidar, Freya+, and Gumby MB. Same results,with Modi, Magni, and LCDs.
Have lots of experience with Roon Radio. It noodles real well. With Apple One, picking up music was no cost addition to iCloud storage, ATV+, and Apple News.
lmao, people out here talking about tidal as if Golden didn't absolutely eviscerate MQA
LMFAO I was looking for this comment
Apples rebook 16bit tracks are injected with drm rubbish down to 24bit.. it changes the dynamic range, space and clarity.
I guess Golden got caught with his lips wrapped around a man's member yesterday evening.
@@eemgee9185 ....what
When MQA is good, it’s just OK but most of the time I think I’m listening to a Phase Linear 700 (mid-70’s solid state power amp with a rep) harsh. Patent says it all, compression! Unrevealed secret sauce. Spectrum analysis shows what’s happening.
Apple doesn’t support streaming devices so I can’t get rid of Tidel or Qobuz. The advantage of Qobuz over Tidal is that it stream hires without the MQA malarkey - we don’t need lossey compression with modern bandwidth
Doesn't support stream? Wdym. I've already using it streamed lossless
@@ahmadhusaini8420 I didn’t say it didn’t support streaming - after all that’s what your phone and computer do. I said it doesn’t support streaming devices - you know, Cambridge Audio, BuOS, NAD - audiophile streamers that can connect directly to hires services like Qobuz or Tidal
All 3 of you spend a week smashing Apple Music and do a follow up video 😁👍 I noticed the sound quality increase as well, very rare in audio to have something that noticeable.
Apple Music doesn‘t automatically switch the sample rate on macOS. Is there a perceivable difference in acoustics when for example having your DAC set to 96 khz when playing a 48 khz song?
in theory there shouldn't be any difference as this upsampling (48khz->96khz) should be lossless
Nope
If you upsample in the power of 2 or 4, there shouldn't be any difference. Problem is most lossless tracks on Apple Music are 16/44.1 so both 24/96 and 24/192 settings are not ideal.
no, it will sound the same
@@k-doggy1762 you don’t upsample, the song always plays on it’s native, if your system can’t output the frequency it cuts it, also all red book (CD) are at 44.1, 44 are DVD quality, from 48 and up it’s Studio, vinyl is also 44.1
Personally really like the Qobuz + local library in Roon player setup. But very curious to try out the new Apple Music, since all my hardware is Apple already haha
Qobuz is the absolute king of music streaming!
I watched Darkos vid on apple hq and it's quite a bish to get setup. I just want to buy something like the BlueSound Node (2021) feed it to my Dac via I2S or AES and then my HP amp then the 1266 Phi tc. But instead I need a phone or ipad then a dongle dac then a lightning to USB converter then my dac. I just don't think I want to mess with it yet.
A lot of people dont realize that Apple music won't switch the sample rate in your computer.
Not true. His video had a lot of bad information.
In our case we have all that, we’ve used iPads with Tidal at our booth at shows. It’s a pretty good source, into an external DAC , can sound better than a computer, and may sound better than the streamer itself (used as a DAC only) depending on the quality of the streamer.
Darko’s article on the subject is the most informative and accurate.
@@psipsitronick9250 not really. The Bluetooth limitation has nothing to do with Apple. That’s a Bluetooth limitation in that 5.2 can’t send data at the speed needed for hi res. This is true for Apple products, android, etc. Furthermore, the dongles for setup are quite simple. Darko is clearly using an older model iPad. New models have usb c and I can run a single cable direct in my ifi. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
While he points out a lot of information, he doesn’t explain the “why” very well.
Pleasantly surprised and I agree on your consensus of opinion. I cannot wait until Apple comes out with a solution to replace Bluetooth given the sonic limitation and inability to transmit wirelessly Hires audio.
I too have noticed a definite difference in music quality from my Apple Music subscription. And I don't have nearly this good of headphone quality!! The only thing that kinda sucks is that I have to delete then re-download all of my songs that support lossless. But I guess that's to be expected lol
The amount that artist gets paid on each service should be mentioned in the discussion as well.
Appreciate what apple had done without upping the fee. But i would pay a premium for this service if the artist could get more.
Hope the competition doesn't completely implode under this pressure
I’ve been going back and forth testing Tidal, Qobuz, Roon as well against Apple Music and Apple is killing it big time. Listening to Miles Davis with Apple Music you get everything blending together seamlessly with the up front piano is spot on, but with all three other services it sounds off with the piano sounding artificial toy like and further out making the sound stage suffer. For only $9.99 per month with a 3 month free it’s looking really good that I might change too. Mac Mini Intel 6 core > Chord MScaler > Chord Dave > Woo Audio WA33 Elite with KR HP upgraded tubes > Abyss 1266 Phi TC = your at the studio listening to them perform live truly amazing what I am hearing from Apple Music
considering most professional producers use mac to editing their music, it make sense lossless music using alac is better than none lossless mqa. also apple is providing highest bitrate i ever seem on both tv app streaming my 4k hdr movie (60-70mbpd) and music app (800+ knox) for streaming, not surprise they got better sound quality. i feel like it is extremely hard for small companies to compete with multi trillion dollar companies in terms of server bandwidth. and the price for apple music is so cheap
Top Tip for Tidal: turn off your VPN to remove buffering problems. All streaming services including TH-cam collect vast amounts of data through their interface before delivering the stream. I expect much of this is Digital Rights Management based (permission / license / payment fulfilled), hence the distrust and very slow connection when using a VPN.
some vpn like sirfshark allow you to whitelist things to not use the vpn
1:06 -> tidal -> best of the available options.
Are you joking, sir? Tidal isn’t even lossless
Tidal had the best balance of sound quality, size of library, and convenience. Yeah there's Qobuz but Tidal has a bigger library. Qobuz is great if the music you listen to is the general music genres that Qobuz supports which is like Jazz? Classical? Could be wrong on the genres but I know for sure it's not what I generally listen to
@@spartanV48 i think Spotify is much better compared to tidal. Better UI and I find more music on it I listen to. But Apple Music has a similarly big library as Spotify and has lossless streaming, so it’s the best choice right now imo. If tidal was lossless, it would be a good alternative
@@spartanV48 lol what? Do the qobuz trial it has all the genres that any other service has. Less videogame soundtracks maybe. Artist from tidal rising might take longer to get to qobuz. Are you mad that it has jazz and classical at all? You can filter them out if they trigger you
@@juliangst I totally agree on Spotify in general except the sound quality part. Even though Tidal isn't as great as it could be sound quality wise, it does sound better than Spotify. Music selection, UI, discovering new music, yeah I prefer Spotify. But if sound quality is a key part of the decision for choosing service, I find Tidal to be preferable when also taking to account the other aspects of the service like size of library compared to other services like Qobuz. Hopefully that makes sense.
@@spartanV48 but why would I spend 20€ a month for tidal who lie to their customers by saying it’s lossless but I really isn’t?
Good bye tidal and qobuz. So glad apple finally brought it to the table and I don’t have to fidget around with limited library, hard to use ui, unstable performance.
Dude Qobuz kills Apple. Apple are serving drm watermarked compromised files.
@@sqcaraudio lol no. Qobuz and tidal are compromises because they “were the only available options” like what Eric said.
@@ks_3.14 I'm saying the apple files are compromised and not as pure source as Qobuz.. but yeah forget lossy Tidal. The apple lossless had low level noise added for drm it makes the sound inferior to real lossless.
@@sqcaraudio look the bright side apple at least is cheaper
@@HectorOvalle18 I've got both for a year so I can keep comparing and educating people about the difference. Also I'm not ok with the term LOSSLESS being used for an inferior product.
I'm not having any speed issues, pretty sure I started trying it a day or two after release so maybe this was a day 1 issue.
Another huge problem with Tidal is how two bands with the same name will appear on the same artist page. For example heavy metal band Norma Jean, and 50s singer of the same name are together. Crystal Lake is another one, metal band and EDM DJ are on the same page.
Is MQA a joke? with THX Onyx, Tidal Master is louder… but Apple Music High Quality Lossless is far much better, with more details.
Yeah it is, see Golden sound's video
Is the transport bit-perfect?
Using the IPad Pro with USB C to USB B to the DAC would be the preferred set up. Second , using an IPhone Pro with the camera adaptor without the charging port and a USBA to USBB to DAC would be the alternative. MacOS without bug fixes to the Audio MIDI set up is just too cumbersome to use ( it will be fixed knowing Apple ). You already don’t need a streamer or Roon so that’s a huge saving.
00:25 happier than ever isn't even out yet
Tidal has become kind of an annoyance lately. I find myself using Amazon Music most of the time.
For $20 a month tidal will need to lower its price to compete with Apple Music
Try Apple Music’s.. the quality is bananas
The second Apple comes out with a Spotify connect equivalent would be a real game changer. The biggest problem with Apple Lossless on hifi system where you would notice a difference, is no streamers support Apple’s Lossless. Airplay & Bluetooth can’t take advantage of lossless. Lossless only works on iOS devices with a dongle to convert lightning to usb to get to a DAC. I can listen to High Res using TIDAL & Qobuz through my streamer. This is much more convenient in my setup.
I’ve been an Apple Music subscriber for over a year now. From my experience, Apple Music takes about 4 to 6 months before it actually gives you reliable suggestions. At first, the suggestions were really bad. Spotify for sure has this down from the get go.
Didn't take as long for me. One thing's for sure, it has my preferences nailed now. Really amazing how long I have to listen before even skipping a song.
@@slabriprock5329 I guess the length of time really depends on one's preferences -- Very interesting. I really thought it was the same for everyone. It may also be because of it has improved as well. Anyway, thanks for the perspective.
I am wandering if apple might make a new ipod but with a high end internal dac
There are rumors of a new HomePod at best. Second best thing is AirPods Max V2 with hi-res lossless support.
@@dudexyt i agree.. but with the success of the original ipod.. i think they could do well making a newer ipod with a dac that can support at least 24/96. I think i heard there are no plans for a newer airpod max.
I wish you could have discussed more about the settings in your computer. I dont think a lot of people realize that apple music won't switch the resolution settings in your computer. Some purists believe that if leave your midi at 24/96 resolution, it won't sound as good with the cd quality track. To be honest i dont know, but I hope that apple come up with something to to change the resolution settings in your computer automatically. The other problem that if you are running an older MAC your are out of luck, i think you have to run MAC 11.4.
Yes does not work on my old Mac mini. Works fine on iPhone abs iPad.
How does Apple Music High Res stands against Qobus High Res, if someone has compared yet?
Is it the same great quality or is Apple slight better ?
Qobuz is pure masters Apple is watermarking their files served and they sound worse.
Yes, that is true, but have you have time to compared the two ?
Qobuz is slightly better. I compare them in my video. I can't listen to Apple. It drives me nutty. Not enough sheen or stage.
Okey, great info👍 Strange that Joe and the guys at Abyss seems to not know about Qobuz ?
Not THIS is a good question. Tidal is not the competition
I hope Apple Music opens up their streamer so that I can use my little Raspberry Pi streamer with Volumio and Pi2AES. Or use Audirvana so it can interface directly with the DAC and set the bit rate/ sampling
Yo how do you have Volumio set up on your Pi? I've tried it plenty of times and it only works for either a day or just a few songs and then just completely crashes. I have to turn it off and on just to get it to play a few more songs afterwards.
I ended up just going back to Ropieee. But I was liking the fact that I didn't have to have my Room core on just to use the interface.
@@eapa37 So far It works okay for me. I mainly use Tidal with my Volumio thingie. I may check out Roon though since it does look nicer and has more work done on it. I had to copy the latest files from the Raspberry Pi OS on the latest stable build of volumio to get it to boot off my RPi 4b+. But it's been running for 48 hours and it seems okay.
@@eapa37 Correction, Volumio crashes if I leave it running overnight. So now I'm considering other options but I have none at the moment.
That's MQA. It makes everything sound trash compared to lossless on other services.
I'm curious now when spotify comes out with lossless you guys do the same test with the same songs to see if there's a difference
If and when they do we’ll give it a try...
Hope this video boosts the subscriber counts like airpod max video did! ❤️
What video?
@@LencoTB abyss channel video of trying airpods max
Is this the difference between AAC and MQA? Or Tidal's HiFi lossless vs Apple HiFi lossless?
Even on my Fulla Schiit 2 on kzpro own, there’s a HUGE difference
Great Video. I have a question: If you are listening on a mac. Do you change the sample rate and bit depth for every song in audio midi accordingly, or do you just set it to something like 24 / 192 or 24 / 96 and upsample everything?
If you use either of the iPads Pro since 2018 or the new iPad Air, they all have USB C instead of lightening connector and will feed direct to a DAC with a USB C to USB B cable (assuming your DAC has a USB B input)
@@overnightparkingthanks, yes I am aware of that, but what about the mac? I asked more of pure interest….?
Yes had to set to 192 in midi settings on the MacBook
@@ABYSSHeadphones So it’s only usable on an iPad with headphones. And useless on a main hifi system.
How are you guys connecting the iPads to the stack. Are you using the usb camera device?
I couldn’t pin it down on my side at first. I do however agree with with you guys. I do find that Apple Music is better sounding. I was running Tidal though Audirvana and I am enjoying Apple. I found Apple Music catalogue better, it does come down to the source. Some source better than others.
Using Sennheiser HD660s headphones through Topping L30 and E30 stack
Compare to Amazon HD plz!!!
@abyss as you were working on a Mac, were you certain that you were actually hearing the lossless version of each track? There’s a confirmed bug in macOS right now that makes it quite difficult to ensure that you are actually hearing anything other than the standard AAC track. The problem does not exist on iOS.
Doing trade shows and CanJams with a mix of gear we have a bit of experience with external DAC’s and macs. We set the midi settings for a fixed rate of 192 KHz into the Sagra DAC. Unfortunately Music does not currently show the actual res for each track, iOS does, but it was easy enough to pull up the tracks we used on a phone to check.
@@ABYSSHeadphones not doubting your expertise at all, but if you clicked directly on any tracks in macOS, you would have heard the AAC version and not lossless due to a very annoying bug. The only way to play back the lossless (or Atmos) version of a track is to hit the big red [play] button to start playback with the first track, then use transport controls to navigate to the actual track you want.
I am not finding it slow at all, I wonder if this was an initial problem?
Zero speed or usability issues with me, using it heavily since it went live
Yeah me too. Always been great for me.
i think your individual talking head shot need more toneh bokeh. give it a more larger sensor look
it's M4/3 so that's about as much as it can get on this glass at F2.8
-Video guy
@@ABYSSHeadphones keep doing the great work, maybe later we get more toneh
Thanks for this guys!
this is the last nail in tidal coffin
Great to hear what you experts think about Apple Lossless. You confirm what I also heard when I listened to it the first time......; way more detailed than Tidal.
Apple Music in the car 😂🤣 y’all called it
Did they leave out the "Headphone" in front of "Engineers" intentionally? I can remember that that's they were called in the video on the Airpods
Didn't want the title to be too long
-video guy
@@ABYSSHeadphones Makes sense. Thanks DMS
airpods is garbage
@@privacyhelp Pro and Max are actually pretty great for consumers, and even professionals if they’re just wanting to hear some music and have fun.
I’d still recommend a pair of wired flat headphones for critical listening of course, but for casual listening? AirPods do pretty great.
@@Armbrust210 Nice profile pic BTW, haha.
Many times the CD quality on Tidal is perfect. I'm seeing so far that the Hi-Res on Apple seems better thank the CD quality. But, the lossless in general is just so much better than AAC that having it in CD alone is enough. Thank you Apple! For free at that. Seriously can't beat it. However, I would like Apple to:
1) Properly catalog the Hi-Res audio. And if you have many versions, start with the Hi-Res version and work down if requested.
2) Time to start putting in a decent DAC in the hardware. Bare minimum we need 24bit 96Khz capable DAC's built in. But, this is Apple no reason not to have 24/192.
3) Start selling DAC's online. Partner up with some of the good ones please!
4) We need Apple Connect and or allow iMusic to work natively in Roon, or other combiner streaming apps/platforms. So we can have it built into our systems.
5) Auto Res Switching built into MacOS, so we don't have to go into AudioMidi Setup. Bit perfect audio passthru please.
This is exactly what I concluded too. Without that they won’t have my subscription.
@@psipsitronick9250 I can understand that. However, for those of us that have it with our packaged subscription. I'm less likey to get out of it eitherway. But, it may help me stop paying for Tidal.
The switches are in Apple Music preferences. Simple once you know where to look. Even Tidal Red Book sounds off on occasion. Some titles appear to have MQA damage in them even though not tagged MQA.
What is the "wood kit" yous refer to on Apple music?
Or is the subtitle messing it up?
At 2 min 20 seconds.
i want to hear that track
Woodkid
you guys should recommend some budget or entry level gear since i expect many loving it after trying loseless audio and wanting to go to a higher level. Who knows they might get a Diana or two in the future!
Loved the show. So, how can you use Apple Music in your big rig? There is no ‘connect’. I can’t use Roon. I don’t want to buy another Mac just to be a streamer. I’m just curious if you have a solution I’m not seeing
I’ve been an Apple Music subscriber since the launch, and it had improved a lot but to be honest they are really behind the competition when it comes to speed of the interface and music suggestion. Their web player been taken seriously yet. For a company of the size of Apple, with the goal of becoming more and more a service-driven company, you would expect a bit more agility and attention to these details.
It is 2022 and unfortunate that there is no sign of them bringing lossless audio to PC nor to their web player.
Apple music on my HD650 + fiio E17, huge diffrence.
What about compared to Amazon HD ?
I’m really curious, did u also manually changed the bitrate and sample hz on audio/midi settings on Mac OS ? Cuz the music app doesn’t overrule the output.
Very cool thanks for the content, very interesting discussion session. Coincidently I'm just trying out Apple / Dolby Atmos on my shiit stack and HE-X4 this morning.
My ipad mini 4 is not able to feed lossless without stopping every 30 sec. Did a lot of things, any idea ?
Make sure it's In front of the router and make sure it's connected to the 5GHz network
considering most professional producers use mac to editing their music, it make sense lossless music using alac is better than none lossless mqa. also apple is providing highest bitrate i ever seem on both tv app streaming my 4k hdr movie (60-70mbpd) and music app (800+ knox) for streaming, not surprise they got better sound quality. i feel like it is extremely hard for small companies to compete with multi trillion dollar companies in terms of server bandwidth. and the price for apple music is so cheap
Could you try with a $2,000 system to verify if you can hear difference, w/wo DAC?
With an iPhone/mojo and focal Elex I heard a big difference in the high res. Not so much with lossless.
Having listened extensively on a very good headphone setup to both Tidal and Apple lossless it seems to me the source is the determining factor in sound quality. Tidal is best sometimes. Apple on others. If I had to pick one it would be Tidal so far. It edges out Apple on the number of albums that sound best (but it's close) and it's a clear winner on features and interface. The suggested playlists both for audio and especially video are much better on Tidal. For now I will continue to pay extra for Tidal but if Apple improves it's usability and adds more hi-res tracks I could well change to Apple.
This was really helpful
I'm surprised you guys didn't compare Qobuz with the other services. I have found it is really lossless, music sounds the same as a high-res album that I have purchased from HD Tracks, where Tidal does not. Qobuz is also lower priced. Apple Music seems to only work as a direct connect to your DAC from iOS also. From Mac OS it goes through Apple's sample rate converter unless you manually set the sample rate for each album you play appropriately, which is so dumb I can only hope Apple fixes this really soon.
Isn't a lot on Apple Music remastered in Dolby Atmos now? I think this adds the spaciness you are talking about, compared to Tidal.
Ps. Love your videos guys, this channel is pure gold.
To hear music in Dolby Atmos with Spatial Audio you need to have headphones which can understand Dolby Atmos. I doubt the Abyss family were using such headphones.
You can’t play Dolby Atmos and lossless at the same time.
Atmos is a gimmick. Not comparable to lossless quality wise
The only thing right now that’s missing, is DAC takeover
Hopefully this will be implemented soon, otherwise
Qobuz Will have to remain for the main system at home. But for background music and for on the go, Apple Music all the way, Amazon music HD title Spotify TH-cam music cancelled all.
I know what a DACk is, but could you tell me what DACk takeover is? I can’t really seem to find anything on it.
@@sanderhoogeland9161 Hey
A DAC takeover is when the operating system completely bypasses its own internal audio profile and system and hardware
And exclusively sends all the information to be allocated via the external DAC,
In this manner, it completely gets rid of any profiling or EQ or any other setting the system may have in place for its own native sound playback
@@ConvinceMeAudio thank you for explaining. So, I assume iPhones do not currently do this?
@@sanderhoogeland9161 yes if you use the app HFplayer
@@ConvinceMeAudio thank you, I will check it out. Also, maybe this is something else, but I heard that on android devices, if you play something like Hi-Rez, the android operating system always resamples it to a certain bit rate and such unless you use certain apps, and that iOS devices do not do this, They will just output whatever the resolution is and whatever your external DAC allow for. Does that also have something to do with it, or is that something else?
no windows app ... rip
Apple music is available on Android platform from Google play store does it sound same like apple devices
To be fair, MQA files needs special circuitry design inside a DAC to sound as intended. But I won’t bother finding a MQA DAC just for Tidal because Qobuz offers uncompressed HiRes stream bit-perfectly.
MQA is bullshit
To be really fair, MQA can prove what they say before they get seen as anything legitimate at all.
It's time for MQA to be seen as the marketing gimmick it is, and this is coming from a guy who hard core believes in things like cable quality (to an extent) people like to throw the term snake oil around that a fair bit too but when it comes to MQA, channels like "Golden Sound" here on youtube have done a great job unearthing the lie that MQA really is.
@@Doegiz MQA is made for a problem that doesn't exist. Qobuz streams uncompressed HiRes just fine. Bandwidth is not an issue for most people.
I have Tidal and an MQA DAC and I’m not really impressed with MQA. However using something like Audirvana helps improve overall sound quality with MQA and FLAC. MQA is not lossless and it colors the sound.
For these ears, MQA tracks sound better than standard MP3/AAC but it’s not AMAZING when compared to FLAC for the same mastering of the songs on Tidal.
There is probably not that many people using Apple Lossless. It requires an external DAC and headphones with a wire. The majority of folks don't have and/or use either of those.
600 million subscribers... you don’t need a separate DAC to appreciate lossless, but it sure helps.
If just Lossless for a maximum resolution of 24-bit/48 kHz, can use Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter It contains a digital-to-analog converter that supports up to 24-bit/48 kHz lossless audio.
I’m shocked how good it sounds too! My DAC and hifi headphones just sing now! Also I don’t need a $40 family subscription for TIDAL anymore!😍
You guys know Qobuz has existed for a long time already, right? Qobuz sounds obviously better than Tidal, too.
It seems you can buy albums there for permanent keeps, too. As I tend to listen to the same 5 albums over and over rather than vary a lot, that might make more sense to users like me.
I would switch to qobuz if i could find more than 90% of my library on there. At the moment i can't.
still not available in my country
Yea, but their app is awful. I’m a current sub, but on both my iPhone and Shanling M8 it’s so slow and clunky. Makes Tidal feel amazing
@@CaptHotah 90% seems hyperbolic, I listen to a lot of underground stuff too and they didnt have maybe 7-10 artists at all, and other bands had a few missing albums which was a bummer. The real problem was their app, and the combination of a crap app, and not having some of my music I enjoy was enough to switch back to Tidal.
Roon makes TIDAL a lot better but Apple Music probably has a matching or higher library of music.
the dumbest thing is you have to remember to set it to lossless playback even after buying the highest tier in Tidal. Not going back. And you cant even see ur playlists after ur unsubbed
lossless is included in all tiers. for anyone who doesn’t keep up with updates obviously they wont know about this.
One time change and it is free upgrade.
Where do you set it on mobile?
@@inthebackwiththerabbish thats completely not true. Tell me. Why would there be a high tier that says its HIFI... Max kbps for reg service is 320kbps
@@MattLoberstein somewhere in streaming or playback settings. I stopped using tidal for apple music. Actually has lossless included at no extra cost unlike tidal
how slow is their internet? takes the same time it was on before lossless here, sounds like they have isp issues
No speed problems for me…
When Pandora played “gangsta rap” cussing every third word in a U2 channel, Pandora has been dead to me since 2008!!!
The streaming and dropouts are a problem but the sound is excellent.
I think Apple have changed since Tim Cook. Get it to market then fix it.
With Steve he wanted it perfect before going to market.
i really wish i could hear what everyone else is hearing. i can hear the mono to stereo but even with using just the headphone jack, or my hypercloudX jawns it sounds the same. I have been using BOOM 3d, and with that i hear more and get the sound i like. help? lol
upgrade your system..? Dac/AMP + new headphones
@@fist003 no
Apple Music quality , consistency, ease of use with an IOS device is very gd. esp if your gear is up to par. When they mentioned how slow the service was , imagine existing users already in the Apple ecosystem converting their whole library to lossless, that’s a lot of users and downloads. Airplay is also better than Bluetooth. You also save $ not requiring a dedicated streamer or Roon endpoint/subscription. And in China , a 1 year subs is around US15 lol - arguably the cheapest in the world. Kudos to Apple.
Hope you tried Yes- Fragile ?
Still not readily available on Windows. You can download the Android app but even that's not convenient.
Norah Jones hi-res and atmos on Apple music was something else. Better than MQA for my ears.
They’re JUST TALKING lmao 🤣
You guys don’t use digital transport device, like a CD transport or streamer? As far as I know, Apple Music won’t work on a third party device.
This is a key point.
@Michael Whyte that is my plan is to use my ipad and use my preamp snd stereo amp and listen to it through my vienna accoustic speakers..
@@slyfox720 and have a long usb cable crossing through your listening room from your seating position to your DAC ? Or having to stand up to reach your iPad each time you need to change tracks ?
Give it a Sec, It's gotta go to Space!!
I actually think Spotify does a better job from a UI standpoint.
The whole blind test calls aside (as valid as they are), I seriously question just how many Apple Music subscribers are going to be listening to lossless and hi-res music on gear of this calibre, especially if they're captives of the Apple ecosystem. How many people are going to be bug-eyed listening to a 24/96 version of a track on the commute to work ? Throw in the buffering issues identified here and it's not a service I find myself immediately attracted to. I nixed Spotify Premium simply because I'm sick of them teasing the audio press with talk of lossless music 'sometime this year' but for right now I'll just wait and see how this pans out - choice is good. Thanks for the video,
(FWIW, we've had government ministers here in Australia ranting about '15-year olds playing video games 12 hours a day' in response to complaints about our multi-billion dollar fibre rollout - I doubt that anyone over 50 really comprehends the impact of online gaming on the 'information superhighway'. A few million lossless audio files should be a veritable stream alongside that raging river. I dont consider a 5-second delay before a song starts too odious, but you can bet that reviewers will seize on it)
Yes, most people are not sophisticated enough in their love or understanding of music to truly appreciate this. Particularly not the iPhone Cultists.
@@ManBearCowGM That's a tad harsh - even the cultists should be able to embrace other options if this resonates beyond the initial hype being generated by Apple.
My downloaded Lossless music on my iPhone stop playin after 15 sec idk why
U guys have to compare Spotify hifi and apple music , once Spotify launches it’s lossless stream too
Spotify is pretty bad in direct comparison of the same sample rate imo. You should move on if you use Spotify.
That's like putting sugar in the gas tank of a Ferrari.
Apple is smart enough to not get involved with MQA bullshit! Dolby Atmos is better to have then MQA!!! lol! I am genuinely happy it sounds better than Tidal. If only Apple was compatible with Roon...