[Papa253]

Has anyone experienced random, high-pitched static in the middle of a song streaming from Apple Music? It was so loud I was afraid it had damaged my eardrums. It has happened a couple of times right in the middle of a song. It is very startling to say the least it's just Apple preparing your mind

Happened to me too, in fact sometimes it would randomly skip the song too

Don't worry it's just a apple preparing your minds for the upcoming programming, where you become Apple drones, resistance is futile

 

[rlw6534]

I just got back home and tried it. Like you said, the preamp doesn't seem to do anything beneficial, but the EQ itself does seem to work well enough. It's not nearly as useful as a parametric EQ, but it's better than nothing. Just needed a small boost to my Elegia's mid bass and lower sub bass and the results were satisfactory. Thanks for your help!

Edit: I'd still like to find a better solution, so if anyone knows any, please do share!

This appears to be a possible solution:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleMusic/comments/nxz8ko/how_to_fix_dolby_atmos_on_mac_while_using_an/

 

[rlw6534]

This appears to be a possible solution:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleMusic/comments/nxz8ko/how_to_fix_dolby_atmos_on_mac_while_using_an/

HostingAU + BlackHole + AUNBandEq

Not trivial to setup, but it works.

 

[JoePR31]

This appears to be a possible solution:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleMusic/comments/nxz8ko/how_to_fix_dolby_atmos_on_mac_while_using_an/

Thanks. I spent about an hour and a half researching other possible solutions, and the one you linked to was one of the ones I found. I was looking for something with a lot of functionality and polish that was also was easy to use. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that none of the free options met all of those criteria, and eliminated those from the list that I had compiled. After some more research, I believe I found the best affordable solution..."SoundSource".

It's only $39 with a free trial, is chocked full of features, and seems very polished and easy to use once you get acclimated. So far, it seems great, but I still need to spend some more time using it before I give a full recommendation. Here's a link for those who want to try it for themselves.

https://rogueamoeba.com/soundsource/

 

[rlw6534]

Thanks. I spent about an hour and a half researching other possible solutions, and the one you linked to was one of the ones I found. I was looking for something with a lot of functionality and polish that was also was easy to use. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that none of the free options met all of those criteria, and eliminated those from the list that I had compiled. After some more research, I believe I found the best affordable solution..."SoundSource".

It's only $39 with a free trial, is chocked full of features, and seems very polished and easy to use once you get acclimated. So far, it seems great, but I still need to spend some more time using it before I give a full recommendation. Here's a link for those who want to try it for themselves.

https://rogueamoeba.com/soundsource/

I agree, Soundsource seems to be the best single solution without a lot of tinkering. The $39 was the stumbling block for me although I may eventually succumb. Maybe Apple will improve the built-in eq with the next OS release, now that Atmos, lossless and high-resolution are available.

 

[Ken G]

I purchased Soundsource for Mac OS and use it now and then for software that doesn't have Exclusive Audio but there are a few limitations with it. First off, it doesn't resolve the bit perfect issues for Apple Music. I emailed the developer and let them know about this but I doubt they will offer that feature. Secondly the EQ functionality isn't the best with a few exceptions. It supports the Audeze Reveal plugin so if you have an Audeze headphone it has you covered and works great being able to adjust for each individual application. It does have a system-wide headphone EQ that pulls from auto-eq curves and seems to work pretty well but application doesn't allow these Headphone EQ's to be exclusive to an individual app (like Apple Music). If you want to set up EQ's exclusive to an App, you need to use the Apple AU sound software which is very unintuitive at best.

 

[originalsnuffy]

Zorloo Ztella checks all your boxes, also does DSD. There is a lighting version, but it never worked for me, so I plug it into the CCK, and then into my iPhone.

I know this is a sidebar to this discussion, but I just received a Zorloo Ztella and it works just fine with lightning. It actually sounds quite good. It appears to decode DSD natively also (feeding it an ISO via HiBy app). I do have a CCK which I use with my DAPs but this is easier. Though the Zorloo does steal juice form the phone which can be bypassed with the latest CCK.

 

[dungmp]

Is it just me? Or is sound quality on Apple Music worse than HDtrack?

 

[Chesty]

Is it just me? Or is sound quality on Apple Music worse than HDtrack?

I wasn't aware that HDtracks was a music player. How are you comparing the two?

 

[dungmp]

I wasn't aware that HDtracks was a music player. How are you comparing the two?

I mean the albums that I bought and downloaded from HDtracks. I listened to them then I tried the same albums on Apple Music with lossless on and no dolby atmos. Same bit rate, same setup (pc, Ifi zen dac v2 and hifiman ananda). I can hear a major difference in sound quality. It is not as "clean" as HDtracks. Even with laptop speaker alone, I can still hear the difference. I tried them both with another setup (android, dragonfly dac, sen hd560s). The same result.

 

[CharlyBrown]

I mean the albums that I bought and downloaded from HDtracks. I listened to them then I tried the same albums on Apple Music with lossless on and no dolby atmos. Same bit rate, same setup (pc, Ifi zen dac v2 and hifiman ananda). I can hear a major difference in sound quality. It is not as "clean" as HDtracks. Even with laptop speaker alone, I can still hear the difference. I tried them both with another setup (android, dragonfly dac, sen hd560s). The same result.

Then there are two possible reasons:

1) HDTrack uses a good recording / Apple Music a bad one for the tracks you compare. (Possible but unlikely as Apple should be able to source the best possible recordings)
2) Psychoaccoustics. Happens to pretty much everybody from time to time.

But if you can even hear the difference through laptop speakers, there must be something wrong with the tracks played from Apple.

 

[dungmp]

Then there are two possible reasons:

1) HDTrack uses a good recording / Apple Music a bad one for the tracks you compare. (Possible but unlikely as Apple should be able to source the best possible recordings)
2) Psychoaccoustics. Happens to pretty much everybody from time to time.

But if you can even hear the difference through laptop speakers, there must be something wrong with the tracks played from Apple.

I had high hope for Apple Music when they introduced HiFi. For me, Apple Music is like Apple converts lossy music (AAC) to lossless (ALAC) using software and make the tracks louder. I don't think Apple has original recording from studios.
And I tried 20+ albums with 200+ songs to see if I have bias for Apple music. I really want to find a reason to love it because its so convenient. And I dont want to pay $25/ album on HDtracks anymore

 

[dungmp]

I had high hope for Apple Music when they introduced HiFi. For me, Apple Music is like Apple converts lossy music (AAC) to lossless (ALAC) using software and make the tracks louder. I don't think Apple has original recording from studios.
I tried 20+ albums with 200+ songs to see if I have bias for Apple music. I really want to find a reason to love it because its so convenient. And I dont want to pay $25/ album on HDtracks anymore

 

[kkugel]

I mean the albums that I bought and downloaded from HDtracks. I listened to them then I tried the same albums on Apple Music with lossless on and no dolby atmos. Same bit rate, same setup (pc, Ifi zen dac v2 and hifiman ananda). I can hear a major difference in sound quality. It is not as "clean" as HDtracks. Even with laptop speaker alone, I can still hear the difference. I tried them both with another setup (android, dragonfly dac, sen hd560s). The same result.

I had high hope for Apple Music when they introduced HiFi. For me, Apple Music is like Apple converts lossy music (AAC) to lossless (ALAC) using software and make the tracks louder. I don't think Apple has original recording from studios.
And I tried 20+ albums with 200+ songs to see if I have bias for Apple music. I really want to find a reason to love it because its so convenient.

Could you send me one of those downloaded tracks? I have pretty good ears and want to try that

 

[bru87tr]

Is it just me? Or is sound quality on Apple Music worse than HDtrack?

I have files downloaded from HDT and other. I am not impressed with hi res Apple offers. Very muffled sounding. I tried all my headphones and eq off and it just doesn’t sound good.