I agree with this analysis. A lot of this article is just typical audiophile wank. I actually own rather high end gear, not because I "am an audiophile", but be

I agree with this analysis. A lot of this article is just typical audiophile wank. I actually own rather high end gear, not because I "am an audiophile", but because I enjoy objective measurements. I bought objectively well measuring equipment, and the equipment is beyond the most golden of ears. The only thing Apple has done right, audio-wise, in years is their iTunes Plus AAC encoder (one of two encoders that do to AAC what LAME does to MP3), and their cheap USB-C dongle (of the <$50 audio dongles, it beats the rest, although a bit quiet on lower efficiency headphones; ironically, their Lightning one, same tiny circuit board, isn't as good). Anything with speakers is just overpriced mediocre garbage. Apple has lossless now, but most of their library isn't in lossless, and they aren't even the largest lossless music streamer. The experience of their app has an awful UX on all platforms (including iOS/OSX tbh), but to be absolutely fair, the "winner" in this space is Spotify, and they aren't winning any awards either (and they don't have lossless yet). Anyone who is into music just owns their favorite music in lossless, in a format they dictate, in software they dictate.