Apple Music Can someone test the quality of 2 apple music songs for me? (specifically the distortion)

[JippaLippa]

Hello Everyone.

I was listening to this amazing playlist:

When I listened to these two songs, I noticed something weird...
These 2 ultra-famous songs (arguably some of the most famous rock songs ever) sound horrible (especially Layla)

I was wondering if you could test these 2 songs on my behalf because I think it might be an issue with the master itself.
In bohemian Rhapsody the treble in Freddie's voice is distorted (especially when he sings "mamaaaaaaa ooo ooo ooo oooh")
In Layla there's a lot of distortion, it sounds horrible...

I tried 2 different headphones, with different cables, both attached to my DAC and directly to my M1 mac mini, but the result is the same.
Same thing in non-lossless, lossless and high-res lossless.
I just tried on my wireless earbuds (Technics EAH-AZ70W) and they sound horrible...perhaps an issue on the apple server side of things?

Thanks for the help.

 

[u2u2]

In part, just the penalty for gear selection?
Compared Layla to a LL copy I made from the Time Pieces CD years ago… The Apple Music version had a little more detail in the instrumentals and the vocals. More enjoyable overall but both recordings are not up to snuff. The vocals are poor, for sure. Neither is mastered for critical listening in my opinion. Didn’t have another copy of Bohemian Rhapsody but the Apple Music one is lacking much like Layla. I am of the belief mastering is the key well ahead of lossless formats. I have a fair catalogue of LL built up over the years but I only purchase what I hear a difference in or can’t get otherwise. Today I am using an iPad Pro 2020 to Chord Qutest, Woo WA22, Senheisser HD820. Several recording I have aren’t up to snuff with this setup vs my alternatives. These tracks will be more acceptable on lesser kit… Overall the Apple Music experience has been rather good of late. IOS does a far better job than Mac OS at this time as you don’t have to muck around with manually setting the sample rates… This issue sidelines my M1.

 

[Wando64]

. I am of the belief mastering is the key well ahead of lossless formats.

How many mastering do you think exist for any given track?
In any case, different masterings are clearly identified.

 

[Fravin]

Bohemian Rhapsody sounds strange. I've heard it so many times from so many different sources, but this one sounds differently. It has distortions in middle-high frequencies. But they are strange. In all my DACs.

As the whole album, btw. Strange. I don't like the way they have "mastered" it, or whatever trick Apple has done.

My favorite tune from this album is '39 and it lacks the authority in Freddie's vocals. There are too many simblings in the highs that doesn't exist on other sources.

My favorite one is a japanese SACD.

 

[Fravin]

How many mastering do you think exist for any given track?
In any case, different masterings are clearly identified.

Apple states that this album is their master... But as always we don't have sufficient information about Apple's process. My guess is that Apple have applied a software to upmix their 256kbps database.

 

[Julien]

Apple states that this album is their master... But as always we don't have sufficient information about Apple's process. My guess is that Apple have applied a software to upmix their 256kbps database.

View attachment 1796624

Apple doesn't apply, process or do anything to the Masters (it is NOT Apple's Master) other than to transcode into AAC or ALAC. They just have a set of standards that must be meet to qualify for their (Apple's) labeling.

Also here is a good YouTube video that explains it.

https://www.apple.com/itunes/docs/apple-digital-masters.pdf