[MRSallee]

I tested my ability to hear the difference between Apple Music lossless and 256kbps AAC.



Spoiler: I failed.

Here's the playlist of tracks I used for testing:

If someone says they can hear a difference, more power to them, but my ears and $3,000 earphones are not enough to confidently tell them apart.

 

[mammal]

I tested my ability to hear the difference between Apple Music lossless and 256kbps AAC.



Spoiler: I failed.

Here's the playlist of tracks I used for testing:

If someone says they can hear a difference, more power to them, but my ears and $3,000 earphones are not enough to confidently tell them apart.

I can't tell a difference between mp3 and flac, not even on my 20k setup. I am happy if others can, but my ears are not good enough. For me it always has been more important to listen to well produced music, and it did not matter in what format it was available. If lossy and lossless costs the same, I would chose lossless out of "just in case", haha.

 

[kumar402]

I don’t have atmos setup at home right now but have AirPods Pro so tried out Atmos and I felt the vocals were pushed far back. Yes there was good separation and hence I felt it’s better to listen to songs which were poorly mastered in normal format in Dolby atmos

 

[Godbluffer]

I don’t have atmos setup at home right now but have AirPods Pro so tried out Atmos and I felt the vocals were pushed far back. Yes there was good separation and hence I felt it’s better to listen to songs which were poorly mastered in normal format in Dolby atmos

It really also depends on the particular Atmos mix I think. Some have the vocals more forward, while others more backward, so you’ll most likely have to decide per case.

 

[Godbluffer]

I tested my ability to hear the difference between Apple Music lossless and 256kbps AAC.



Spoiler: I failed.

Here's the playlist of tracks I used for testing:

If someone says they can hear a difference, more power to them, but my ears and $3,000 earphones are not enough to confidently tell them apart.

There have been cases where I could definitely detect a difference, although never more than subtle. With a number of albums I could indeed hear no difference at all between 256kbps AAC and hi-rez, which made me conclude that the difference I could hear with the other ones perhaps had to do with inferior lossy encoding.

 

[Godbluffer]

I tested my ability to hear the difference between Apple Music lossless and 256kbps AAC.



Spoiler: I failed.

Here's the playlist of tracks I used for testing:

If someone says they can hear a difference, more power to them, but my ears and $3,000 earphones are not enough to confidently tell them apart.

What affects the sound much more than any inferior lossy encoding is digital watermarking. During a certain period of time a number of streaming services received watermarked music files - also hi-rez - from titles that were (mostly) under the umbrella of Universal Music Group. Apple Music has been, in my experience, the least affected by this.

I’m aware this is unrelated, but when we’re talking about audible differences that matter, this should not go unmentioned.

 

[MRSallee]

What affects the sound much more than any inferior lossy encoding is digital watermarking. During a certain period of time a number of streaming services received watermarked music files - also hi-rez - from titles that were (mostly) under the umbrella of Universal Music Group. Apple Music has been, in my experience, the least affected by this.

I’m aware this is unrelated, but when we’re talking about audible differences that matter, this should not go unmentioned.

Interesting. Any more details on that? Abyss did a video last week where they said they heard obvious differences comparing Apple lossless to Tidal, which surprised me, but not a test I’ve done.

 

[Godbluffer]

Interesting. Any more details on that? Abyss did a video last week where they said they heard obvious differences comparing Apple lossless to Tidal, which surprised me, but not a test I’ve done.

Yeah, I made a playlist of opening tracks of albums affected by it on Tidal. Since I haven’t been on Tidal for several years now, it may be that they corrected some of them in the meantime, but there should still be enough there:
https://tidal.com/playlist/49695b7e-6dbb-41a9-9722-0d28ce1b75e2

 

[Okrelayer]

REM’s Automatic for the People, and Linkin Park’s Hybrid theory both got updated to Dolby. I think these two are among the better dolby mixes out right now. Impressed how quick these artists are learning what is working, and what is NOT working with just under a week of it.

 

[Godbluffer]

REM’s Automatic for the People, and Linkin Park’s Hybrid theory both got updated to Dolby. I think these two are among the better dolby mixes out right now. Impressed how quick these artists are learning what is working, and what is NOT working with just under a week of it.

5.1 surround mixes had already been available for some years for both of those albums, so they probably just repurposed those for Atmos. I think Hybrid Theory is reasonably effective, while e.g. Michael Stipe’s vocals are balanced too backward in Drive, drowning him out almost fully at around 2m15s when all the instruments kick in, and the strings sound very muffled indeed. To my ears, both of them sound a bit too much like they just placed every instrument two times farther away with some standard reverb added (especially R.E.M.), and are nowhere near the same league as St. Vincent or West Side Story (or Taylor Swift’s evermore!).

Some outstanding 5.1 mixes were made for Hotel California, In the Court of the Crimson King, and the Talking Heads catalogue (where Remain in Light stands out in particular). I’m really looking forward to hearing those in Atmos!

 

[visanj]

Still I'm not getting Lossless option in iPhone. Anyone facing this issue still?

 

[theory_87]

Still I'm not getting Lossless option in iPhone. Anyone facing this issue still?

Are your device on ios14.6?

 

[AlexCross]

Made some interesting (or confusing) observations while listening. Maybe someone could help. My DAC, FiiO Q3, seems to work fine with Apple lossless. However Dolby Atmos only seems to work when connected via the 3.5 cable connected between iMac and the 3.5 input at FiiO. My headphone is then running through the balanced output on the Q3. When running the Q3 digital through USC-C lossless files are not always shown as lossless although it clearly is lossless. Sometimes there is the lossless icon next to the playing song sometimes not, but the song is listed as lossless. Just a bug?

 

[AlexCross]

Made some interesting (or confusing) observations while listening. Maybe someone could help. My DAC, FiiO Q3, seems to work fine with Apple lossless. However Dolby Atmos only seems to work when connected via the 3.5 cable connected between iMac and the 3.5 input at FiiO. My headphone is then running through the balanced output on the Q3. When running the Q3 digital through USC-C lossless files are not always shown as lossless although it clearly is lossless. Sometimes there is the lossless icon next to the playing song sometimes not, but the song is listed as lossless. Just a bug?

Yep, seems to be a common issue:
https://piunikaweb.com/2021/06/11/s...s-in-apple-music-not-working-with-dac-on-mac/

 

[visanj]

Are your device on ios14.6?

yes