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Apple Music reportedly preparing Hi Res Audio streaming for 2016
I completely agree with the above poster. There is no good reason to use anything higher than 44.1/48 16bit for distribution of audio. The only possible business reason would be to cater to delusional audiophiles. Recording at 24bit is a good thing though since that allows more security headroom to ensure the signal does not clip.spheric said:AppleInsider said:higher audio quality than can be delivered through standard earphone jacks
[…]
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)
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.
So yes, Apple Lossless would be great, and after that, a much more interesting use of additional bandwidth (in my opinion) would be more channels for surround audio. Probably won't happen though since Apple Music's primary listener wears headphones and multichannel surround isn't very suited for that.
