[elfary]

What music playback application did you utilize with your iPhone 6?

 
As i dislike to apply dsps to the music (since they always degrade the integrity of low level sounds) i used the native Music app which still looks beatiful (even after the nasty stuttering on the scrolling that iOS 8 brought to the table).
After my early morning workout I carried out another head to head. In that relaxed (and endorphin fueled) after gym listening I concluded the same that yesterday: both with Um3x and W50 the difference in sound pertains to the hundredth of a second realm. Neglectible in my book. That  good iPhone 6 happens to be.

 

[moedawg140]

   
As i dislike to apply dsps to the music (since they always degrade the integrity of low level sounds) i used the native Music app which still looks beatiful (even after the nasty stuttering on the scrolling that iOS 8 brought to the table).
After my early morning workout I carried out another head to head. In that relaxed (and serotonin fueled) after gym listening I concluded the same that yesterday: both with Um3x and W50 the difference in sound pertains to the hundredth of a second realm. Neglectible in my book. That  good iPhone 6 happens to be.

 
Thanks for the response.  Native Music app, interesting. I feel that several 3rd party music playback applications emit elevated auditory fidelity to my ears than the Native app, but it's all good that you chose to use only the native Music app.  

 

[smaragd]

   
As i dislike to apply dsps to the music (since they always degrade the integrity of low level sounds) i used the native Music app which still looks beatiful (even after the nasty stuttering on the scrolling that iOS 8 brought to the table).
After my early morning workout I carried out another head to head. In that relaxed (and serotonin fueled) after gym listening I concluded the same that yesterday: both with Um3x and W50 the difference in sound pertains to the hundredth of a second realm. Neglectible in my book. That  good iPhone 6 happens to be.

Taking this all on board, I dislike EQ and DSP as well, just mentioned for whoever can't live without it.
I mainly use the Onkyo HF Player app and sometimes Neutron but all without any processing nor EQ. The native music app doesn't play FLAC files (yet...) and since I've converted my whole music collection into FLAC stored on a NAS, the only way to play FLAC files on the iPhone 6 plus is with 3rd party apps like the ones mentioned earlier.
BTW does anyone know the full path of where the non-iTunes files for Onkyo HF Player are stored? Neutron has the ability to point to certain custom directories. This would allow me to use Neutron to point to the Onkyo HF player directory without having to duplicate files. 

 

[krismusic]

When in airplane mode audyssey cannot synchronize at all with spotify...

I have Spotify Premium which allows me to store albums on the device which enables them to be played when I don't have an Internet connection. I wondered if I can play those files through Audessey.

 

[elfary]

   
Thanks for the response.  Native Music app, interesting. I feel that several 3rd party music playback applications emit elevated auditory fidelity to my ears than the Native app, but it's all good that you chose to use only the native Music app.  

 
I used to apply DSP over DSP looking for miracles to happen. It was an endless journey.
 
Back in 2007 i read Bob Katz's "Mastering audio: the art and the science". Never used an eq again and i have been happy ever since. That book changed my music world for the (much) better in many regards.

 

[SparkOnShore]

I have Spotify Premium which allows me to store albums on the device which enables them to be played when I don't have an Internet connection. I wondered if I can play those files through Audessey.

Yes, i know. I also use Spotify Premium and i can play locally stored albums when iPhone is on airplane mode. But ONLY on the native Spotify music player. NOT on Audyssey. Audyssey needs internet connection to get synchronised with Spotify at first place...So you cannot use Audyssey for Spotify when you do not have any internet connection. Maybe they will rectify this in a future update. But in general the app is good, sound is really awesome and it integrates successfully with your iTunes music as well...Try also Audyssey with your Apple EarPods and you will hear a completely different SQ coming from the otherwise inferior EarPods...  

 

[moedawg140]

   
I used to apply DPS over DSP looking for miracles to happen. It was an endless journey.
 
Back in 2007 i read Bob Katz's "Mastering audio: the art and the science". Never used an eq again and i have been happy ever since. That book changed my music world for the (much) better in many regards.

 
Very cool.  I usually don't use EQ, and use it mostly for testing purposes, and love the search to find what sounds the most coherent and resolving to my ears.  Any app (provided it doesn't cost too much for me to try, e.g. $10 or over) that is recommended I put against Neutron, and welcome anything that has the potential to sound just as or even more sublime than Neutron and Onkyo (without any EQ set).  
 
It's great that we have the ability to choose.

 

[SparkOnShore]

   
I used to apply DPS over DSP looking for miracles to happen. It was an endless journey.
 
Back in 2007 i read Bob Katz's "Mastering audio: the art and the science". Never used an eq again and i have been happy ever since. That book changed my music world for the (much) better in many regards.

I believe i disagree with your opposition to DSPs. Just please listen to Apple EarPods through the native music app and through Dirac app (free DSP app just for apple headphones). I am sure you will hear the difference. I believe that DSP applies huge SQ elevation when used with cheap headphones. Of course when using your unbelievable Shure SE535, i presume there is no need for any DSP process, since most probably extra eq will destroy the native rather superior sound character of this unique Shure product...

 

[diamondears]

As i dislike to apply dsps to the music (since they always degrade the integrity of low level sounds) i used the native Music app which still looks beatiful (even after the nasty stuttering on the scrolling that iOS 8 brought to the table).


After my early morning workout I carried out another head to head. In that relaxed (and endorphin fueled) after gym listening I concluded the same that yesterday: both with Um3x and W50 the difference in sound pertains to the hundredth of a second realm. Neglectible in my book. That  good iPhone 6 happens to be.

By integrity of low level sounds you mean lower frequencies (bass)? Darn, I critically listened to the stock Music app on the iPhone vs Onkyo HF Player using a 16/44 recording with full spectrum of bass frequencies and I could hear what you're saying (no EQs). I'm prolly just hearing less bass in guise of extra detail on the Onkyo HF Player. Good ears you have. If only the stock Music app could play Hi-Res.

 

[elfary]

 
I believe i disagree with your opposition to DSPs. Just please listen to Apple EarPods through the native music app and through Dirac app (free DSP app just for apple headphones). I am sure you will hear the difference. I believe that DSP applies huge SQ elevation when used with cheap headphones. Of course when using your unbelievable Shure SE535, i presume there is no need for any DSP process, since most probably extra eq will destroy the native rather superior sound character of this unique Shure product...

 
DSPs are a necessary evil where the hardware is seriously lacking. I'd rather seek for better hardware than trying to polish a turd. In general DSP tend to make most significant bits more bombastic crippling the least significant bits along the way. Once the hype recedes you tend to miss the aforementioned LSBs and you start all over again with another DSP. The never ending journey i spoke about.
 
Truth to this matter is that digital sound is math. The more calculations done the more errors and quantization noise you put into the data.
 
But that's my view. Whetever floats your boat.
 
I'd rather discover new albums and new feelings rather than devoting my time to discover new DSPs. DSPs work quite like meds: trying to fix one thing they mess another.
 
Sound is made along the way (tracking, mixing, mastering, DAC, amplifier and transducers). It's in the studio where DSPs come in handy for aesthetical reasons and at no expense (huge bitdepths, bandwidths and CPU power so that errors are kept well below ear range).
 
Just by dithering twice at 16 bits you are ruining low level sounds and putting there audible distortion. But i'm afraid taht many DSP programmers on the portable audio arena don't know much about least significant bits, dithering, quantization errors or low level sounds. They are great at labeling their mess with bombastic names though.

 

[Baroninkjet]

   
  BTW does anyone know the full path of where the non-iTunes files for Onkyo HF Player are stored? Neutron has the ability to point to certain custom directories. This would allow me to use Neutron to point to the Onkyo HF player directory without having to duplicate files. 

 
Likewise with Spotify file locations. If I knew where they were located, I would get Neutron and point it there like on Android. But Apple is so.... grrrrrrr..... 

 

[diamondears]

DSPs are a necessary evil where the hardware is seriously lacking. I'd rather seek for better hardware than trying to polish a turd. In general DSP tend to make most significant bits more bombastic crippling the least significant bits along the way. Once the hype recedes you tend to miss the aforementioned LSBs and you start all over again with another DSP. The never ending journey i spoke about.

Truth to this matter is that digital sound is math. The more calculations done the more errors and quantization noise you put into the data.

But that's my view. Whetever floats your boat.

I'd rather discover new albums and new feelings rather than devoting my time to discover new DSPs. DSPs work quite like meds: trying to fix one thing they mess another.

Sound is made along the way (tracking, mixing, mastering, DAC, amplifier and transducers). It's in the studio where DSPs come in handy for aesthetical reasons and at no expense (huge bitdepths, bandwidths and CPU power so that errors are kept well below ear range).

Just by dithering twice at 16 bits you are ruining low level sounds and putting there audible distortion. But i'm afraid taht many DSP programmers on the portable audio arena don't know much about least significant bits, dithering, quantization errors or low level sounds. They are great at labeling their mess with bombastic names though.

So by "low level" sounds you mean low volume sounds? Interesting. You think 3rd party apps like The Onkyo HF Player puts in some DSP even with EQ off?

 

[smaragd]

   
Likewise with Spotify file locations. If I knew where they were located, I would get Neutron and point it there like on Android. But Apple is so.... grrrrrrr..... 

Just used iMazing on my Macbook Pro to hunt for the Spotify directory...
Not sure if this could be it... the file structure is spread over a bunch of subfolders like what iTunes does...
App/Spotify/Library/Application Support/PersistentCache
But this is in iMazing... Im not sure Neutron has access to all root folders...
I'm downloading music files from Spotify Premium and scanning several system folders in Neutron to see if any pop up...
The files have a .file extension so they may not even be recognised by Neutron even when they're physically there...
 
it should be simpler for Neutron to find the Onkyo HF player directory if it has access to it... I'll dig further...

 

[elfary]

So by "low level" sounds you mean low volume sounds? Interesting. You think 3rd party apps like The Onkyo HF Player puts in some DSP even with EQ off?

 
Yes, that's what i mean.
 

I don’t know about Onkyo. I have not even listened to it since i don’t feel the need of listen to FLAC or 24 bit stuff. AAC 320 provide me with same conveying capability and I can carry more albums. 24 bit stuff is great for mixing and mastering but I think it’s way overrated when it comes down to just listening. Real mics don’t go past 20 bits to begin with, then conversion A-D and D-A, amplifying…you ‘ll be lucky if you can get 12 or 13 real bits into your headphone.

For the time being  i just use lossless for archive.

 

[diamondears]

Yes, that's what i mean.

I don’t know about Onkyo. I have not even listened to it since i don’t feel the need of listen to FLAC or 24 bit stuff. AAC 320 provide me with same conveying capability and I can carry more albums. 24 bit stuff is great for mixing and mastering but I think it’s way overrated when it comes down to just listening. Real mics don’t go past 20 bits to begin with, then conversion A-D and D-A, amplifying…you ‘ll be lucky if you can get 12 or 13 real bits into your headphone.

For the time being  i just use lossless for archive.

Have you heard iFi micro iDSD DAC's Bit-Perfect Digital Filter? Passive filtering, and iFi claims no bits is lost. So if you play a Studio Master 24/96 or whatever, that's what you get. It's unbelievably good at that filter. DSD is even better. The difference to me on DSD is the imaging. The instruments suddenly gets farther, nearer, to the right, to the left...amazing. Saving up for a big hard drive for DSDs....