[MLA] Apple Music horror story

Mon May 9 00:20:56 CEST 2016

Bob L,

Can you recommend a release that really highlights the benefits of MQA ? Is there a way to tell which files on TIDAL are encoded with MQA ? And is there a converter you’d recommend ? 

Although I’m afraid Thomas may well be right, I’m curious to give it a try.

Ian

> On 8 May 2016, at 14:27, Bob Katz <bobkatz at digido.com> wrote:
> 
> Guys: 
> 
> It's a good thing I buy my music either on CD or from HD tracks or similar vendors. I only buy the AAC from the iTunes store when one of my clients wants me to reference a CD that I don't have and I have to listen to it "now". If then I like that music, then I go out and buy it, usually on CD. Amazon has become my major vendor, I pity the brick and mortar stores, though Best Buy seems to be hanging on, they don't have the CD collection I can get online from Amazon. I can then transfer the CD into iTunes and use on my iPhone if I like. 
> For my highest-sonic-quality personal entertainment on my iPhone I use an incredible app called HFPlayer from Onkyo..... in conjunction with an Oppo DAC that connects via Lightning directly to the iPhone and plays any high res. flac files I have on the iPhone up to 384 kHz/24 bit (and also plays DSD directly into the ESS Sabre DAC in the Oppo DAC).... It beats the crap out of the Astel and Kearn stuff that is so unreliable and uber-expensive. 
> Bob L., I tried the Astel and Kearn player and got it to crash in 15 minutes, three times before I called it flakey. And their communication with their dealers and reps is exremely shakey. I do not like this company. If they wanted to make a dependable music player, why did they pick the Android operating system?
> Also, sorry, Neil Young, this Oppo/iPhone combination beats the Pono because I can also take phone calls  :-(. If I'm jogging or don't want to carry the DAC, the HF Player will downsample the high res material so it will work out of the iPhone's regular headphone jack. 
> Tip: the Oppo PM-3 headphones are killers! Maybe the most accurate and impacting headphones you can get and carry with you to play music. 
> If you want to salivate about the best portable playback on earth, in my opinion, read my review of the Oppo pieces and the HF plyaer: visit http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/katzs-corner-episode-11-oppo-explosion#RiXt3ToxveQ4BMf5.97 <http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/katzs-corner-episode-11-oppo-explosion#RiXt3ToxveQ4BMf5.97>       These PM-3 headphones have bass that goes down to the center of the earth, are extremely accurate and tonally neutral....  With a little of the 64-bit EQ in the HF-player you can get even more accurate playback.... and the Oppo DAC/headphone amp is clean and punchy and open....  
> I have tons of high res flacs that fit in a 64 GB iPhone. If Apple lost for me the purchased AAC music that I have from the iTunes store I'd be pissed, but not that pissed because I just don't have that much money invested in AAC material I bought from the iTunes store. It seems to me that music must be in the iPhone backup that's on my Mac, though, isn't it????  I'm only semi-attached to the cloud. I use icloud for Notes, Calendar, etc., but not for music (I think). I share my iTunes library with a few OSX computers.... maybe that's through iCloud?  Yuk....
> 
> 
> Bob K.
> 
> 
> On 5/7/16 2:39 PM, Thomas Lund wrote:
>> Hi Bob,
>> 
>> This casual treatment of tracks fits with what I'm seeing in iTunes. One has to actively disable cloud replacement time after time so iTunes doesn’t steal your known-good tracks. From Tidal I’ve heard how record companies require them to carry only the newest (crappiest) version of a track, and make sure originals aren’t available.
>> 
>> Compared to such demolishment, I’m afraid MQA is a sheer marketing detail which is bound to disappoint consumers just like the myriad of previous attempts at promising “hidef". 24 bit, 16 bit, 14 bit, 12 bit resolution: Doesn’t matter. Dither or not: Doesn’t matter. Sample rate DSD, 192k, 96, 48, 44.1k: Doesn’t matter. Lossless, 320k, 256k, 128k: Doesn’t matter. The version of a track/squashing is what generally matters.
>> 
>> cheers,
>> Thomas
>> 
>> 
>>> On 07/05/2016, at 00.20, Robert Ludwig < <mailto:gatewaybob at mac.com>gatewaybob at mac.com <mailto:gatewaybob at mac.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> http://www.iphonehacks.com/2016/05/apple-music-isnt-deleting-music-libraries.html <http://www.iphonehacks.com/2016/05/apple-music-isnt-deleting-music-libraries.html>
>>> 
>>> I think this article explains it pretty well.  It isn’t as horrible as the blog describes, but it is still taking way too much control for me to ever want to use their service.
>>> 
>>> BTW, Tidal has 300 albums with MQA so with an MQA converter you can hear streaming 96kHz or even 352.8kHz music!
>>> MQA is really revolutionary.
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> Bob L.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 5/6/16 5:01 PM, Grimm | Eelco wrote:
>>> Dear friends,
>>> 
>>> If this story is true it is unimaginably horrific. 
>>> 
>>> https://blog.vellumatlanta.com/2016/05/04/apple-stole-my-music-no-seriously/ <https://blog.vellumatlanta.com/2016/05/04/apple-stole-my-music-no-seriously/>
>>> 
>>> Can anyone please tell me it is not true?
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> Eelco
>>> 
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>> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> If you want good sound on your album, come to
> Bob Katz 407-831-0233 DIGITAL DOMAIN MASTERING STUDIO
> Author: Mastering Audio              
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***
Ian Shepherd
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