Posted on 07/21/2021 12:40:29 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Apple Music boss Eddy Cue says most people can’t tell the difference between compressed and lossless audio but he believes that spatial audio is ‘a game-changer’.
In a recent interview with Billboard, Cue, who is Apple’s Senior VP of Internet Software and Services, admitted that: “If you take a 100 people and you take a stereo song in lossless and you take a song that’s been in Apple Music that’s compressed, I don’t know if it’s 99 or 98 can’t tell the difference. For the difference of lossless, our ears aren’t that good”.
He went on to say that to say that only audiophiles with “incredible ears” can really tell the difference, but that this requires “very, very high-quality stereo equipment”.
Apple Music recently launched spatial audio with Dolby Atmos, while also bringing lossless audio to its entire catalogue at no extra cost for subscribers.
Several of the big streaming platforms, including TIDAL, charge a higher fee for lossless content.
While Apple Music now offers lossless audio across it entire catalogue, lossless listening is not supported by any of the brand’s HomePod speakers, or its headphones, not even the top-of-the range AirPods Max cans. A future software update is expected to bring lossless support for the HomePod speakers.
Spatial audio is much better supported by Apple’s hardware – both on the AirPods Pro and Max – and it’s this immersive format that Cue believes is the future.
Speaking with Audio Media International, Mirek Stiles, Head of Audio Products at Abbey Road Studios agrees that spatial audio is a truly game-changing development, saying: “Stereo is a marvellous format, but spatial audio takes sound to new dimensions of enjoyment, and now that it’s actually convenient for the consumer to experience this expansion of the sound stage, things are going to get very interesting. This is the most significant development in sound since stereo was introduced to the general public in 1958 and it will affect all aspects of our daily digital life.”
There are people that do that work, you might google "tube equipment repair" and see if there's anyone in your area doing that work.
I have a friend who does restorations of older equipment as an "under the table" business, but he's east coast, so that won't help you. After 50 or more years, the old stuff needs more that just repair, they often have to be rebuilt with everything that is prone to failure replaced (mostly capacitors).
Be aware that the work can run into a considerable amount of money, and you can easily spend more than the equipment is worth to do the job right.
-PJ
For most people, and especially those of us who spent a fair amount of time at concerts with the like of Led, Rush, Hendrix, et al… and other heavy players… our ears aren’t, sadly, as sensitive and finely tuned as they once were. And recently for me, a malfunction with hearing protection at an indoor range dinged one my ears enough that even flushing a toilet gets it a ringing.
So no, at this stage of the game, lossless audio may not, I say again MAY not make that impressionable a difference.
Although, I once knew that it did.
As for mobile devices, I’ll give Apple their due. They’ve put a lot research and money behind bringing hi end audio and video to those “cheap” mobile devices.
Their music catalog now offers losses audio with Dolby ATMOS. AirPod Pros, for what they are offer impressive sound and noise canceling. Over the ear, studio quality? Um, no. But still impressive.
Thanks for the insight. I also suffer from hearing loss but not so bad I cant tell the difference between fm and even a crappy album on a decent turn tabel. As for listening to your phone. I never intended to imply a phone speaker was anything near good speakers or good headphones.
(...Analog versus digital music: Is there a difference? First I want to talk about how analog and digital music works. While there are many complicated factors involved, in a nutshell here are the basics between the two:
Analog music represents the actual, continuous sound waves generated by the artists and their equipment (in most cases, but sometimes records are based upon digital recordings being converted back to analog format), recorded on vinyl as grooves via metal stampers or on cassettes as magnetic impulses.Every time a record or cassette is played a physical toll is taken upon it due to friction, wear and tear. Over time the sound quality will deteriorate.
Furthermore, the sound is generally better at the beginning of a vinyl recording as opposed to the end, because the smaller circumference can impact the ability of the record needle to follow the groove with 100% accuracy. And for those of us who grew up in the 1970's, the "crackle and pop" factor of records - not to mention the proverbial skipping or looping the same few seconds of music over and over - could be quite distracting.
Digital music is a COPY of analog music and it is not a continuous recording. Rather, the sounds are captured using samples (generally several thousand times per second). For instance, a CD is usually sampled at a rate of about 44.1 kHz, which translates to over 44,000 times a second, but sampling levels can run higher. The music is recorded in bits of information; a CD will usually feature 16-bit music, and as with sampling more bits can be used for better quality. The bit rate (the amount of data played per second) is also a factor; CDs often play at 128 Kbps, but this can increase as well. There is also a factor of compression; shrinking the music file to fit on the medium for which it is intended, which can impact playback. However, a type of compression called "lossless" is intended to combat this...")
I can't seem to construct a link but the source article is. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/analog-versus-digital-music-is-there-a-difference/
Well, since you ax, yes I know there’s a banjo in Take It Easy.
More to your point, do you know there’s a banjo in Rhapsody in Blue? It’s true. I don’t think that I’d know from listening, myself, but it’s there. Check out a live performance next time you get a chance. There it is, just like George Gershwin wrote it.
Thank you
The big difference between analog and digital is that analog allows signals that digital often rejects. A high frequency and high resolution digital can be perfection, but the typical CD/MP3 type of digital is too low of a sampling and too low of a resolution, meaning the bits that describe an instance in time are too low to allow the analog harmonics to come through. So, most corporate boom-boom garbage is fine at digital rates, but finer music of great string playing won’t come through in digital unless sampled at a higher frequency and at a higher resolution.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!
I spent much of my life on a flightline around jet engines. The old Close & Play record players would be good enough for MY ears! Cheers to those who can still hear clearly....
From a recording perspective digital is very convenient because the recording stations are very compact. From an instrument amplification perspective digital can be used anywhere that you won’t clip or distort the amp. Analog or tube distortion is a beautiful rich warm fuzz. Digital distortion sounds like a cheap ass effects box.IMHO.
Without question. Guitar players usually prefer tubes versus solid state. I’m not a string player but I have heard the differences. I am finding digital music to be flat. I am contemplating going back to the LP again.
HA! Thinking the same - I used to test-run jet engines (production engine-test facility), and my ears are shot, too.
I think with me (I'm 63) I'm more just wedded to the nostalgia of putting a record on my turntable.
Although sometimes I swear I can tell the difference between, say a Brian Eno or King Crimson CD and some of my old vinyl records of the same.
Make a “cloud” for the ceiling. You can build one in such a way for it to be pleasing to the eye. Here’s what I discovered while figuring out how to treat my studio: If you can hear reflections, that’s very bad because they’re obviously muddying up what’s coming out of your speakers, but at least they’re obvious. But the other stuff, standing waves, dropouts and exaggerations are just as bad. Trust me - after building and then installing corner bass traps my room, which already sounded pretty good, sounds amazing. The soundstage opened up, I could hear every bass note without “boominess” and clarity and coherence improved. The proof was that mixdowns translated great - car stereo, boombox, earbuds etc. My mixes now sound great on everything without having to constantly tweak this and that to get them sounding good on all playback devices. A quick tip: If you do install corner traps, try to allow a space between the trap and the wall. Essentially doubles effectiveness. But trust me - it’s the stuff you can’t hear that’ll mess up clarity more than the reflections you can hear. After you deal with that, your jaw will hit the floor.
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