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MICHAELSD

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
5,484
3,494
NJ
I've really tried to convince myself that Apple Music's sound quality is adequate since it's the most seamless streaming service but I can hear a difference on the music I'm most familiar with between a lossless copy ripped from a CD (or from Tidal hi-fi) and the version on Apple Music. On one hand I am an audiophile and do spend my money on a audiophile gear and opted for the Harman Kardon sound system (while I realize I may notice the difference more so on a pair of headphones as some audiophiles consider even high-end factory car audio systems to provide average sound o_O) in my vehicle so I can appreciate the difference. On the other hand, the majority of listeners are totally ok with even lower quality than Apple Music, or listening with EarPods. But once you go lossless you don't go back. It's the drum beat hitting harder and sounding more detailed, it's the guitar having a newfound fullness to it, it's a treble that's crystal-clear and well-seperated, it's vocals coming through with the clarity of the lead singer being in the room with you as it feels like you're surrounded by a live band. Jay-Z and Tidal aren't wrong by stating that lossless is more about the emotion: you get all the sound frequencies rather than a compressed experience, it simply feels better.

My theory has been that Apple is waiting to introduce a lossless music option as a way to to tout a benefit to the removal of the headphone port, so I can wait till September but I could very well switch back to Tidal and pay double just to enjoy my music. Once you go lossless on a quality pair of headphones or a high-end sound system, songs just won't feel the same compressed.
 
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M. Gustave

macrumors 68000
Jun 6, 2015
1,856
1,712
Grand Budapest Hotel
You can of course believe whatever you like, and buy whatever audiofool equipment you like... but if you hope to convince anyone else of your position you're going to need to provide some scientific repeatable evidence.
 
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tonyr6

macrumors 68000
Oct 13, 2011
1,741
733
Brooklyn NY
I can tell the difference between 256kbps AAC, MP3 and 320kbps MP3 from a lossless CD. I would too like lossless music but the main issues are that it would use way too much bandwidth which would kill the Apple servers.
 

8692574

Suspended
Mar 18, 2006
1,244
1,926
Unless you are talking of SACD ripping a CD is not for "audiophile".....

You keep posting that here, but you have yet to prove it.
This is silly... One cannot prove what he hears... can you really be 100% sure the red you see is the same exact red i see??
 
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