I've tested them all. ALAC, FLAC, AAC and LAME MP3 - both at 320 CBR. I also abx test with Foobar and the ABX comparator component. Granted I am using an Essence STX (lo-fi by audiophile standards) and HD 650's so I may not fall under the bulk of the normal curve but the soundstage in lossless recordings is bigger and I can consistently tell the difference.
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I agree that I might not be statistically relevant.
Well that's fair enough, if you have self-tested and can honestly say you really notice the difference enough for it to matter to you then by all means go large.
But then by the same token you would take it seriously enough to probably not care to play it from your phone anyway.
And as you say statistically not really relevant so it wouldn't make sense for anyone in the business of making profit to go out of their way for you.
Is this still strictly true given that you can pick up an Iphone 5s for like R250 p/m on topup contract? Sure, it may not be the latest and greatest but it still runs iOS 10. Is this purely a spending thing or is it how brands have marketed themselves? I see plenty of iPhone users with Beats headphones. >.<
Yeah I guess there is an element of that more and more these days with the older phones being kept in the line, but I was more looking at sales of the new devices to say there are enough in the wild to draw comparisons from. At the same time I'm still rocking an iPhone 5S quite happily although it's time has now come mostly because I want a Plus as a kind of stop gap for my iPad.
Sadly I see way too many people with Beats headphones, whether connected to an iPhone or otherwise. I guess there is also a perception now that they work better together with iPhones because they belong to Apple, which is technically true of the new wireless series.
That being said I suspect most audiophiles are like myself (I don't claim to be an audiophile) in that they generally want to listen to their tunes in the comfort of their own space without disturbance and therefore don't take their music (and audio gear) "out on the road" in general.
The Beats type of people already settled on mediocre so will listen to their music anywhere and everywhere, maybe partly to show off their expensive (but lacking) head gear.
But you still have to pay for the data with all those streaming services. With the album download, you only download it once. Like I said, the market has shifted. More and more, artists are having to make their money the old school way, by touring.
I see data usage as a separate thing and really shouldn't relate to the music service itself. You've either accepted your habits as a high data user and it's become irrelevant to you, or you simply don't use data and opt for the offline download when on Wireless etc.
Ultimately you could really use a Streaming service exactly like a direct purchase one and simply pay a monthly fee to download whatever you like when you like just like you did when purchasing outright.
For me personally as someone who travels a lot A/FLAC would just make my life hard through either being very limited in what I can take with me or having to schlep a hard drive around. As it is now I load a few albums on my phone or tablet and off I go for the odd bit of listening I might do on the plane which almost never actually happens as it feels like a broken experience.
Once I hit my hotel or office on the other side I have access to WiFi and just live stream whatever I feel like with access to millions of tunes.
Even if I did consider FLAC superior that portability would be a worthwhile compromise for me.
The other night in a moment of nostalgia I even broke out some of my old SACD's and after the drama of having to make it work with an actual physical connection to something and moving chairs around and what not I ended up switching to the Apple Music version half way through just to be somewhat free and wireless and it was indistinguishable outside of the convenience factor.
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ALAC is also
open source.
I actually forgot about that. Probably did it after they stopped selling Lossless.
Btw Playstation ftw! *sarcasm*
