5 ms·

It doesn't matter, it's good marketing. It's not rational, but it lets Apple posture as being "high end". The utter majority of people won't be able to tell the

by simias 5y ago

It doesn't matter, it's good marketing. It's not rational, but it lets Apple posture as being "high end". The utter majority of people won't be able to tell the difference but then again the utter majority of people won't even try to test it. I know that I personally can't even tell the difference between Spotify's "mid" and "high" quality settings the vast majority of the time even in perfect listening conditions with good earphones and focusing hard on the small details. I've given up on arguing with audiophiles about this. In the end if they enjoy their overpriced setups to listen to 196kHz 32bits-per-sample uncompressed tracks who am I to tell them otherwise? It won't keep me from listening to compressed audio on my cheapo USB DAC with my mid-range earphones and enjoying it just as much.

tachyonbeam 5y ago
People are downvoting you but you're not wrong. One of the biggest factors behind Apple's success is that they've positioned themselves as a status symbol. They're the Prada of the tech world. I switched from an iPhone to an Android recently and found the quality of the device and software to be just as good if not better, but an Android doesn't say "I'm upper middle class" like an iPhone does. Me, I see spatial audio and I'm like... Ah, that's annoying, because it's yet another proprietary gimmick, and it means the format will likely be incompatible with everything else. You could see a proliferation of audio files that are only usable on Apple devices. Stereo seems... Based in physical reality, ubiquitous, and very practical. I hope Google doesn't try to copy them just like they did after Apple decided to remove the headphone jack, because that wasn't an upgrade. Deprecating trusted, reliable technology to try to entice buyers is not an upgrade.
- iDisagreedEar 5y ago
  I got an IPhone for work and I was extremely excited during unpackaging and giving my personal information to Apple. It took only a few weeks for disappointment over slow transitions, buggy apps, and annoying updates. Today I'm not sure how I could live without a few Android exclusive things, Linux, ad block, macros. They might be available for IPhone, but it's mind numbingly easy to get started. Final complaint, our grandparents got iPhones because it was supposed to be easy. Apple logins and lingo made it difficult to use.
- simondotau 5y ago
  How is Apple a "prada" status symbol? Yes, they're popular, iconic and aspirational, but have you seen the prices and refinement of Samsung phones recently? If Samsung haven't been able to replicate Apple in being iconic and aspirational, that's on them. You can't blame Apple because Samsung aren't also "prada" in your eyes.
  - f1refly 5y ago
    The discussion was about android, not about samsung.
    - simondotau 5y ago
      I was responding to this assertion: "One of the biggest factors behind Apple's success is that they've positioned themselves as a status symbol. They're the Prada of the tech world." This was referring to brand perceptions, not the Android or iOS software platforms.
simondotau 5y ago
> but it lets Apple posture as being "high end". That's one way to look at it. Personally I'd say that it stops companies like Tidal (et al) from posturing as being "more high end" based on these dubious and mostly bullshit claims around lossless and high-res audio formats. Hopefully the outcome will be that we'll be hearing fewer bullshit arguments about how "Tidal sounds better than Apple Music". The people who like their placebos can enjoy their placebos; the rest of us can get on with our lives.
- copperx 5y ago
  I hate the idea that everyone is going to be using 10x data needlessly. What's next, uncompressed video?
  - simondotau 5y ago
    I disagree with your flat assertion of 10x. The vast majority of Apple Music lossless audio will be CD-quality ALAC which has a variable bitrate generally between 2x and 4x that of 256kbps AAC. A small subset of music available to stream will also be "high res" with bitrates in the realm of 5x to 10x. It also won't be "everyone" using this but rather only a small percentage of people—and within that subset, many will only choose it for a limited subset of music and in a limited subset of listening contexts. It wouldn't surprise me if lossless was chosen by fewer than 1% of consumers. Therefore in aggregate, the increase is going to be somewhere closer to 1.1x, not 10x.

by simias 5y ago

tachyonbeam 5y ago

People are downvoting you but you're not wrong. One of the biggest factors behind Apple's success is that they've positioned themselves as a status symbol. They're the Prada of the tech world. I switched from an iPhone to an Android recently and found the quality of the device and software to be just as good if not better, but an Android doesn't say "I'm upper middle class" like an iPhone does. Me, I see spatial audio and I'm like... Ah, that's annoying, because it's yet another proprietary gimmick, and it means the format will likely be incompatible with everything else. You could see a proliferation of audio files that are only usable on Apple devices. Stereo seems... Based in physical reality, ubiquitous, and very practical. I hope Google doesn't try to copy them just like they did after Apple decided to remove the headphone jack, because that wasn't an upgrade. Deprecating trusted, reliable technology to try to entice buyers is not an upgrade.

iDisagreedEar 5y ago
I got an IPhone for work and I was extremely excited during unpackaging and giving my personal information to Apple. It took only a few weeks for disappointment over slow transitions, buggy apps, and annoying updates. Today I'm not sure how I could live without a few Android exclusive things, Linux, ad block, macros. They might be available for IPhone, but it's mind numbingly easy to get started. Final complaint, our grandparents got iPhones because it was supposed to be easy. Apple logins and lingo made it difficult to use.
simondotau 5y ago
How is Apple a "prada" status symbol? Yes, they're popular, iconic and aspirational, but have you seen the prices and refinement of Samsung phones recently? If Samsung haven't been able to replicate Apple in being iconic and aspirational, that's on them. You can't blame Apple because Samsung aren't also "prada" in your eyes.
- f1refly 5y ago
  The discussion was about android, not about samsung.
  - simondotau 5y ago
    I was responding to this assertion: "One of the biggest factors behind Apple's success is that they've positioned themselves as a status symbol. They're the Prada of the tech world." This was referring to brand perceptions, not the Android or iOS software platforms.

simondotau 5y ago

> but it lets Apple posture as being "high end". That's one way to look at it. Personally I'd say that it stops companies like Tidal (et al) from posturing as being "more high end" based on these dubious and mostly bullshit claims around lossless and high-res audio formats. Hopefully the outcome will be that we'll be hearing fewer bullshit arguments about how "Tidal sounds better than Apple Music". The people who like their placebos can enjoy their placebos; the rest of us can get on with our lives.

copperx 5y ago
I hate the idea that everyone is going to be using 10x data needlessly. What's next, uncompressed video?
- simondotau 5y ago
  I disagree with your flat assertion of 10x. The vast majority of Apple Music lossless audio will be CD-quality ALAC which has a variable bitrate generally between 2x and 4x that of 256kbps AAC. A small subset of music available to stream will also be "high res" with bitrates in the realm of 5x to 10x. It also won't be "everyone" using this but rather only a small percentage of people—and within that subset, many will only choose it for a limited subset of music and in a limited subset of listening contexts. It wouldn't surprise me if lossless was chosen by fewer than 1% of consumers. Therefore in aggregate, the increase is going to be somewhere closer to 1.1x, not 10x.