Apple adding FLAC support with iOS 11

[longboy]

Well I guess Apple is ok. If you have the extra cash lying around for it.

 

[SauRoNZA]

So I got to reading the review.

The results he got don't reflect the same results elsewhere. In many tests, you often get a 'no difference' - but very, very few come out with Apple being better. In fact, he says 'clearly Apple on top'. But the guys is clearly a massive fan - he's got a plethora of iPhones, iPads, Airports and his Twitter has so many references to Apple. I bet digging harder would show him CultOfMac. I wouldn't even take this review with a pinch of salt

But let's pretend it's object - I don't understand how he connected the phone to the HiFi for the test? He says this :

Update: I probably should have mentioned that we were streaming from an iPhone 6, an iPad Pro, and an iPad Mini to an old Airport Express connected to the preamp with an optical cable.

He starts with a R500,000.00 audio system to compare audio quality - and that's how he does it? :/

Then read the reply in the comment regarding XB testing :

View attachment 463819

Yeah on the findings being positive towards Apple I can agree with.

And presumably he Airplays to the HiFi setup.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I also think if there was truly no difference or Apple was far superior, there would be no reasons for Tidal, Spotify and Deezer to go the expense of offering lossless?

It’s called marketing.

Much like marketing exists towards the mainstream it equally exists towards the top end of the market where they can get away with charging tens or even hundreds of thousands for product that realistically doesn’t cost even a 10th of that to manufacture.

At the end of the day nobody is in this game for the same of charity and everything is driven by money.

As for AVforums I hang out there often enough but not really in the audiophile sections but purely by proximity I see a lot of the chatter there as well as on Reddit.

There certainly is an overriding element of pompousness similar to what you find among Ferrari and other expensive car owners.

Doesn’t mean every single one is a ****er, but by and large it comes with the territory.

Anyway we’ll just go round and round in circles on this one, so let’s just settle on each to their own.

 

[Dolby]

Agreed.

You're not really making too much sense anyway

 

[SauRoNZA]

Sometimes I wonder why we bother having discussions on the Internet at all and not just go offline and do our own thing as we would do regardless.

 

[kolaval]

Because you're wrong?!

 

[Hemps]

So I got to reading the review.

The results he got don't reflect the same results elsewhere. In many tests, you often get a 'no difference' - but very, very few come out with Apple being better. In fact, he says 'clearly Apple on top'. But the guys is clearly a massive fan - he's got a plethora of iPhones, iPads, Airports and his Twitter has so many references to Apple. I bet digging harder would show him CultOfMac. I wouldn't even take this review with a pinch of salt

But let's pretend it's object - I don't understand how he connected the phone to the HiFi for the test? He says this :

Update: I probably should have mentioned that we were streaming from an iPhone 6, an iPad Pro, and an iPad Mini to an old Airport Express connected to the preamp with an optical cable.

He starts with a R500,000.00 audio system to compare audio quality - and that's how he does it? :/

Then read the reply in the comment regarding XB testing :

View attachment 463819

Got the same feeling from the start that he is an apple fan.
Also some discrepancies ,
Tidal claims it’s lossless but in other places cites a 1,411 Kbps FLAC compression rate. In any case, it certainly isn’t CD or vinyl quality.
It is actually CD quality, not all songs are 1411kbps but vary, I have compared a purchased CD to .flac downloaded from tidal and they have been exactly the same.

If you compare Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, AM, Google Music take a song downloaded to your PC.
Compare the songs using Spek or Foobar in terms of being given visual information on that song, Tidal flac/mQa comes 1st, AM aac close second, Spotify ogg 3rd tied with Deezer .mp3, I found Google Music .mp3 have the most information missing.
Whether you can hear the difference is up to the song you choose and your knowledge of that song etc.
Listening to my favourite artists I prefer Tidal flac and good set of headphones, on the road I prefer Apple etc.
MQA I dont have the equipment for , I have tested numerous albums but cannot notice the difference.
Also MQA size is crazy.

 

[Gnarls]

Lossless is Lossless folks!

 

[Spizz]

Lossless is Lossless folks!

Word. This is such a non issue.

If are a huge FLAC only fan, I'd imagine you are using an app on your iPhone already like everyone else instead of waiting for native support.

 

[Dolby]

That'll bep retty cool if Apple do this sooner rather than later. We're going to have the whole world on lossless, high res audio with multiple streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Quboz etc - and Apple doing their own thing again.


https://www.whathifi.com/advice/mqa-audio-what-it-how-can-you-get-it

While we’ve been able to get native hi-res audio support on Android devices from Samsung, Sony and LG, the Apple iPhone has only been able to support hi-res music via third-party apps and compatible headphones via the Lightning connection.

Rumours have since suggested Apple is planning to deliver hi-res audio through Apple Music, but we wouldn't hold our breath.

The launch of the new iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X brought with it news that the phones will finally support FLAC, but whether that will unlock native hi-res audio playback remains to be seen.

Could Apple one day use MQA and deliver hi-res music? Not this year, but we shall see if things change in the future.

One thing's for sure, for anyone with an interest in audio quality, MQA is a technology that demands consideration.

 

[Dolby]

And Deezer going lossless too, with MQA support in the next few months. Seems that most services are going that way now