Out of curiosity is Apple making available side by side the CD quality and Atmos versions of songs? The same holds for songs that are available in CD quality, Hi-Res and Atmos?
I’m fearing that the Atmos branding is trying to do with Apple what MQA is to Tidal. The marketing is a lot of nebulous speak and we know how that ends.
I believe you can turn it off/on in settings so you have the option…
Yeah, you can just turn it off in the settings.
Yeah that’s my fear, that turning it off may simply turn off some unspecified filtering or worse, turn on a filter to turn the file into what seems to be a regular ALAC.
I doubt that Apple will collaborate to integrate with Roon since they’re obsessive about owning the whole ecosystem. I wonder if the desktop client will have more behind the scenes configuration as opposed to a mobile device client.
I’m rooting for Apple to suceed in this as good competition will spur all provider to improve. However if nothing else, Tidal proved that unless they’re willing to be entirely transparent, then they’re hiding something. And what better way to fight MQA which “it’s better than lossless” BS than to introduce your own flavor Atmos which “it’s better than MQA” kind of philosophy.
Not a fan of atmos PCM on a ATV4K.
So on Windows, there is an option called “Windows Audio Session” under audio options. It isn’t an exclusive mode from what I can tell!
Well, nothing I can hear. For reference here’s what I actually tested:
Track: Blinding Lights - The Weeknd
I used 3 sources:
Gear:
Apple Music won’t let you limit to 16 bit, you can limit to 24bit/ 48kHz or the full monte (up to 192)
I know the controversy around Tidal using the MQA filter even on HiFi setting but in my testing i really don’t think I could hear it doing anything different than Apple or the FLAC, obviously not a scientific test (as much as i’d love to say my ears are perfect 
) but so it goes…
So, with this pretty direct a/b/c test, and the other tracks i’ve listen to between tidal/apple today I’m prepared to call the “Is Apple Lossless actually the regular ALAC?” issue closed. Yes, sounds like it’s the real deal to me.
Now the other question in the thread here was Atmos, and … yeah that’s audible. It’s kinda weird, its like the mix engineer dragged the panning waaaaay out. The imaging takes a big hit but the sound stage does get bigger, so if there’s a specific time you want that effect this could be cool. I’ll be leaving it off personally, but damn I hope this makes it over to movies/TV. This processing would be crazy on a movie.
Here is an interesting read by The Computer Audiophile on some potential problems of Apple Music new Lossless format
The whole Spatial Audio thing isn’t all that black and white, you get something like Drive by R.E.M. and it sounds incredible and then you get Come Together by The Beatle and it sounds awful. Worse part is songs I want to hear in Spatial just isn’t available, like Out of the Woods by Taylor Swift.
Yeah it’s very track by track.
I noticed some odd behavior as well. Sometimes the little lossless logo will drop or not show even if an album is marked as lossless, I honestly wonder if it’s not just launch a day bug or something. Glad folks with the right equipment are checking it out regardless.
Edit: yeah i think that was a bug, seems more consistent today.
Has anyone established what the bit depth and sample rate is for Apple Music’s Dolby Atmos tracks that stream to wired headphones via an external DAC on albums/tracks that carry both badges for Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res Lossless with Dolby Atmos set to “Always On”?
That was a mouthful.
An example album would be John Williams in Vienna
Yeah saw that. Abyss is switching to Apple Music from Tidal. Wild.
I tapped into Apple’s 3-month trial today. My curiosity got the best of me after I recently left a couple months ago, before this news broke.
Putting it through its paces. I like seeing the bit depth and sample rate for what I’m playing in-app.
I miss Tidal’s button for discovering similar songs and only time will tell if MQA’s smaller file sizes make a difference on device storage and cellular data.
Apple’s overall interface is better and more stable; their lossless and hi-res lossless sound like the real deal to my ears. Not wild about macOS lacking auto sample rate switching, at the moment. I’m guessing Tidal’s desktop app does do auto switching.
I tried forcing Atmos by setting it to “Always On” for the Hip Dac and Sundara. Sounded fine but no “Spatial” wow effect I could discern. Perhaps it needs a DAC that supports Dolby. Tried Atmos with my Beats Solo Pro, however, and I could tell they widened the stage, with some clearer imaging and vocals, but it didn’t blow my mind. Just made my Beats sound like better headphones than they are.
I hope the price goes up… In 2015, an artist here received 30$ for 540 000 streams of his song. Is it getting better? I don’t know. Maybe I’m a rockstar and don’t know it, because I received 10$ for my songs. Lol.
Got atmos/pcm from apple TV4K through AVR and its just like digital purchased movies, have to crank the volume more than a hard copy. My internet is not optimal.
I don’t want to see the price go up, selfishly, but I do want to see artists more fairly compensated. Personally I still try to support the artists I listen to most by buying their work. Which I guess kinda means I’m already paying more for music anyway…
I do the same. I will be watching the prices carefully. As much as I enjoy this new streaming technology, I’m enjoying it because it is affordable. I will stop it immediately if prices start crawling up, or if friggin’ MQA starts taking over the market, which means prices WILL rise with zero benefit to the artists or consumers. And that would be a shame.
Honestly the best ways to pay artists is live shows (not festivals) and hitting the merch table on your way home. But yeah, I also wish streaming payed them more.
