So, at one time they though 128 was good enough and now they don't. Maybe there is hope for lossless after all.
The ABX tests are for people that want to use lossy Codecs and prove to themselves that they can't hear a difference between it and the benchmark (lossless). It was all the rage years ago when hard drive space was expensive. ABX is fine for that, if you have time to test every song in the universe (all songs have their own independent variables). Most people just use lossless for their libraries now.
I have asked for someone to point me to a studies that have the conclusion that no one, with any equipment, in any environment, will ever hear a difference, but I am still waiting for the links. Maybe you can dig up some links to the "study after study" and we can take a look at their assertions?
Also, for the purpose of this discussion, I was not referring to High Resolution audio like HD Tracks has sold. I was referring to Rebook 16/44.1 lossless files that Tidal and Deezer are streaming. That being said, there was very little high rez content (I remember the HD Tracks library at the time and it was miniscule) in Steve Jobs time (although Neil Young claims they were looking into it) and the studios did not have 16/44.1 Redbook standard available via downloads other than maybe some independent labels that we going rogue. CD Quality lossless music was mainly only available on CDs. Today we have Tidal and Deezer (Sonos) streaming lossless (16/44.1) in the U.S, so there is a market now that did not exist in 2010. {For the purpose of this discussion, I have never said Apple should stream High Rez audio, which I consider a different market than Redbook CD}
Having every song remastered is a higher bar than providing lossless which is already readily available and being streamed by competing services. The "loudness wars" were created because many people prefer the dynamic compression for background music. For instance, if they are listening in the car, they don't want to have to turn up the volume to hear music that is quieter than the car's noise floor and then turn it back down or have their ears blown out when the loud parts come on. When Apple came out with their Mastered for iTunes specs, I remember one engineer complaining that he wanted his songs to have that compressed sound. He later found out that he could still get the sound he wanted, but the point is that Apple has very little control over how the engineers do their work. They can suggest high dynamic range, but they won't necessarily get it. Anyway, I would be happy to join the request for better masters, but in the meantime, I will just ask for lossless for now, like Tidal and Deezer users already have available.
Don't really care about cables or ABX tests involving them.
