Apple Music reportedly preparing Hi Res Audio streaming for 2016
Apple is said to be developing a new Hi-Res Audio format featuring an expanded 96kHz, 24bit sampling rate for its Apple Music subscribers, leveraging the higher fidelity audio output capabilities of Lightning ports.
Apple's WWDC 2014 session on Lightning accessories
Apple Music is planning to launch new its Hi-Res music streaming--with higher audio quality than can be delivered through standard earphone jacks--over the next year, according to a report by Japanese site Macotakara.
The site referenced "several insiders familiar with Apple" who were exhibiting products at the Portable Audio Festival.
Last year Apple announced its new Lightning connector audio specification, which was adopted in the emergence of Lightning-equipped headphones from Philips, JBL and others.
Philips Fidelio M2L headphones with Lightning connector
There are also rumors that Apple's next iPhone may drop its mini-jack audio plug to instead use the thinner Lightning port as an audio output. Doing so would not only remove the need for a deep, physical plug that takes up space and makes devices harder to protect against water damage, but would also differentiate iPhones with high quality audio playback.
The physical, analog headphone jack is limited to delivering roughly CD-quality sound. Using digital signals over Lightning, headphone makers can use higher quality 24-bit DAC (digital analog conversion), paired with high end, low noise amplification to deliver an experience closer to the full quality of studio recording.
A series of "better than CD" audio formats have attempted to deliver studio quality sound, including the optical disc formats Digital Audio Disc, SACD and DVD-Audio from the late 90s. After years of being overshadowed by basic MP3s and then standard CD-quality digital downloads, new attempts to leverage Blu-ray Disc or digital distribution to deliver high resolution audio have more recently failed to gain much traction.
With the visibility of its Apple Music service--which has already gained millions of subscribers in its first few months--paired with its Beats hardware and its control over the Lightning Connector specification, Apple is positioned with the potential to popularize Hi-Res Audio across larger audiences than ever before, and use that as a way to sell iPhones, accessories and subscription access to music labels' content mastered in studio-quality sound.
Apple has focused its support on Lightning, making it the connector for charging its Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2, Magic TrackPad 2, iPad Pro Pencil and Apple TV Siri Remote, in addition to being the primary port for iPhones and iPad.
Apple's WWDC 2014 session on Lightning accessories
Apple Music is planning to launch new its Hi-Res music streaming--with higher audio quality than can be delivered through standard earphone jacks--over the next year, according to a report by Japanese site Macotakara.
The site referenced "several insiders familiar with Apple" who were exhibiting products at the Portable Audio Festival.
Last year Apple announced its new Lightning connector audio specification, which was adopted in the emergence of Lightning-equipped headphones from Philips, JBL and others.
Philips Fidelio M2L headphones with Lightning connector
There are also rumors that Apple's next iPhone may drop its mini-jack audio plug to instead use the thinner Lightning port as an audio output. Doing so would not only remove the need for a deep, physical plug that takes up space and makes devices harder to protect against water damage, but would also differentiate iPhones with high quality audio playback.
The physical, analog headphone jack is limited to delivering roughly CD-quality sound. Using digital signals over Lightning, headphone makers can use higher quality 24-bit DAC (digital analog conversion), paired with high end, low noise amplification to deliver an experience closer to the full quality of studio recording.
A series of "better than CD" audio formats have attempted to deliver studio quality sound, including the optical disc formats Digital Audio Disc, SACD and DVD-Audio from the late 90s. After years of being overshadowed by basic MP3s and then standard CD-quality digital downloads, new attempts to leverage Blu-ray Disc or digital distribution to deliver high resolution audio have more recently failed to gain much traction.
With the visibility of its Apple Music service--which has already gained millions of subscribers in its first few months--paired with its Beats hardware and its control over the Lightning Connector specification, Apple is positioned with the potential to popularize Hi-Res Audio across larger audiences than ever before, and use that as a way to sell iPhones, accessories and subscription access to music labels' content mastered in studio-quality sound.
Apple has focused its support on Lightning, making it the connector for charging its Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2, Magic TrackPad 2, iPad Pro Pencil and Apple TV Siri Remote, in addition to being the primary port for iPhones and iPad.
Comments
One Connector to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the land of Cupertino where the Shadows lie.
Apple Insider should be more wary.
Yeah, forget about progress and improvement, better technology, better audio and video. Keep the old so I don’t have to do anything. Why did they go and get rid of that perfectly acceptable RS-232 serial port anyway. And they should have kept that Toslink port on the new ATV4 even though it doesn’t support more efficient encoding like 7.1. I hate change!
This is rubbish. The 3.5 mm analogue output of the MacBooks is perfectly capable of delivering 24-bit 96 kHz audio, and has been for at least half a decade.
There is nothing inherent to the 3.5 mm analogue jack itself that limits audio quality.
Apple may not support higher sample rates than 44.1 kHz at the moment, but the chips they've used since the iPhone 6 at least very likely do. Apple just choose not to support higher sample rates (not sure about whether they do 24 bits, but that really only affects the noise floor, so it's not really relevant except in controlled environments, where the iPhone isn't going to be used).
Really, the only thing Apple needs to do is to add Apple Lossless files to the iTunes Store — in 24-bit resolution if they wish. But going higher-resolution than lossless 24-bit/44.1kHz is complete nonsense.
(apple.com/apple-pencil/)
Here's to hoping Apple is able to make Beats hardware actually sound good enough in order to take advantage of Hi-Res audio.
EDIT: Never mind, I got the link figured out from http://www.macrumors.com/2015/12/20/apple-high-resolution-audio/
AI please add the www to the Macotakara link, that should fix it.
Here's one benefit:
I ask, because I appreciate the higher quality of SACD over CD. And my 80GB iPod Classic is almost dead, so am in the market for a new music-player. I've been looking at few alternatives including a high-end player from SONY.