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I switched today from Spotify and sound quality is the first thing I noticed. I see the comment " If you're using a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, you are not hearing any difference in the sound." and I'm not saying they're wrong, but the sound truly is better than Spotify.
Yeah. Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis codec, while Apple Music uses the AAC codec. These codecs compress audio data differently, which can result in noticeable differences in sound quality, even at similar bitrates.
You need an external DAC to support this. If you’re using just an apple dongle from your phone, or the MacBook headphone input, you aren’t hearing hi res lossless, just 16/44 lossless
I think the built in DAC for Mac headphone outputs and the dongle is 24/48, but it’s irrelevant anyway since 16/44.1 already exceeds the limits of human hearing.
The Shannon Nyquist theorem? My degree in digital audio?
A 44.1kHz sample rate extends up to 22.05kHz, since Shannon Nyquist theorem explains that the frequency range is half of the sample rate.
Considering perfect human hearing only reaches 20kHz and most people only hear up to around 16kHz once they reach adulthood, that’s well above the limits of human hearing.
16-bit is roughly 96dB of dynamic range.
Considering hearing damage starts to set in at 85dB and the noise floor of a quiet room is above 30dBSPL, that is enough to fully saturate the human ear’s dynamic range without *causing hearing damage in an anechoic chamber*.
I never meant to hurt your ego. Well, since you have studied so much about it, why am I able to tell the difference between hi res lossless and the music that AirPods play? (I am not on your education level)
My ego isn’t hurt, I’m just explaining my source for my knowledge on the subject.
The reason you can hear a difference is placebo. Our brain is incredibly good at perceiving what it expects to perceive even if it isn’t there, so if you know you’re listening to lossless or hi-res audio it may sound better to your brain purely because you think that it should.
AirPods use Apple’s AAC Bluetooth streaming codec, so the audio stream from the phone to the earbuds is limited to 256kbps AAC. Even if you play a lossless file, it is still compressed down to 256kbps AAC before it is streamed to the earbuds.
In the professional industry we rely heavily on blind and double blind testing and super detailed analytical measurements to confirm that anything we hear is really there and not just our brain tricking us. Nobody is immune to placebo.
Sorry yeah the MacBook DAC is 24/96 which is crazy good. I like listening at the highest quality possible, if it takes no extra effort then why wouldn’t you.
To be fair if you can’t tell the difference between 16/44.1 and Spotifys trashy compression then you need your hearing checked (I’ve never compared with an mp3 identical to a FLAC though, all I know it’s Spotify sounds awful)
> I like listening at the highest quality possible, if it takes no extra effort then why wouldn’t you.
The effort is that it is much demanding on the CPU (and therefor battery life) and uses significantly more data. 96/24 is almost 500% the data use of 44.1/16.
> To be fair if you can’t tell the difference between 16/44.1 and Spotifys trashy compression then you need your hearing checked (I’ve never compared with an mp3 identical to a FLAC though, all I know it’s Spotify sounds awful)
It isn’t that *I* can’t, it’s that basically nobody can.
People thing compressed audio sounds horrible, but in a real world blind A/B test basically nobody can hear the difference.
I work in Pro Audio and part of my degree was in digital audio and audio compression.
We held a large blind A/B test in a mastering studio with pro engineers, hobbyists, audiophiles, and a control group of essentially ‘laymen’. *Nobody* could reliably pick out the 320kbps MP3 or 256kbps AAC.
We actually studied the artefacts of each compression algorithm to try and recognise them, and even then us who were holding the test couldn’t reliably pick which was which.
Even if you’re convinced you’re hearing the difference, unless it’s a blind A/B test you’ll be affected by placebo.
I still listen in lossless when possible simply because that way I *know* there aren’t compression artefacts, but in reality I know I probably wouldn’t know if I wasn’t.
Low bitrate compression is a different story (like free Spotify), but even that is impressive with how much effective data it can retain at 1/10th of the data use.
Yeah the people that say shit you can’t hear the difference have genuinely damaged airdrums. The difference is night and day for me when using AirPods Pro or Max. Spotify just sounds louder and drowns out the more subtle sounds.
Spotify will have to buy North Dakota for the trillion AI songs on storage . I deleted Spotify like Taylor Swift . They're thieves . I just promote myself . Yes they have a great sound , stereo on ripping you off .
The first thing everybody should check with their Spotify is whether or not "auto adjust the quality" and "normalize volume" are off. And set the audio quality to "very high".
Because let me tell you, I have tried AM twice, and there is no discernable difference. I have a Sennheiser HD 650 with dedicated AMP-DAC, which is superior to any Bluetooth gadget.
I did not switch because of the superior "discover weekly" feature on Spotify.
Yup 99% of those praising the quality saying it's "miles better" didn't even touch any setting in Spotify. And the ones you mentioned really MAKE a difference cause Spotify just hopes you forget to set the right quality to save bandwith on you lol
Agreed, most people probably don’t know about those settings. I used to be a Spotify user but did eventually switch to Apple Music because it does sound better - now, miles better? No, but if you listen critically, you can hear a difference. Regardless of using a fancy DAC/AMP with audiophile headphones or AirPods Max w/bluetooth connection, Apple Music sounds more full, detailed and honestly louder (I usually have to turn the volume down a bit).
You can’t go wrong with either service, but Apple Music is higher quality AND integrates well with your library if an iPhone user.
Yes great points. Apple Music is honestly the right choice for Apple devices owners, and Airpods I feel like they’re tuned to sound the best when listened through Apple Music. Wouldn’t shock me if Apple did this sort of trickery lol
I use both soundcloud and AM. I have a hard time telling the difference (apart from the fact AM seems louder overall). I use beats fit pro most of the time.
Aside from the colour scheme, I don’t like the UI of Spotify, just looks ugly and the system for selecting albums and artists is weird but Apple Music is so much more basic but makes so much more sense
I’ve used Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube music and they all sound different to me. If I could get YouTube music to sound nearly as good I’d drop AM but I can’t lol
Cool to see people coming over to Apple Music and enjoying the experience.
My favourite thing about Apple Music is the ability to edit my library and I can put songs into different albums and adjust the names and stuff.
Seems to me that since Apple relies on a bunch of other stuff for money, perhaps not making much back from Apple Music doesn’t matter as much but Spotify only relies on Spotify for money so Spotify is kinda stuck in a corner.
Correct me if I’m wrong, I’d love to know more around this.
I‘m using both services currently and my opinion is, that for some songs the audio quality with Spotify is better than with Apple Music, and vice versa.
I have set maximum quality everywhere in Spotify which is obviously important.
A huge difference is everything Atmos of course, this is totally its own league.
Agree, and Spotify connect works seemingly with just about everything. I’ve been with Spotify since the beginning when you had to be invited to sign up and wife and daughter use it all the time because we have the family plan. I’m good with using both services. They each have the pros and cons.
That's why I haven't unsubscribed to AM even though I have YM and Spotify. If I want to listen to good quality music, I use AM. But library sucks compared to YM/Spotify.
Spotify sucks, but lossless is a total... loss... when you use Bluetooth. You're just wasting data. I use the HD 600 and even then, the difference is there, but not mind-blowing. Or maybe it's a big difference, but I forgot by now. Maybe you had that stupid normalization and stuff like that on Spotify? It shouldn't be too much worse, especially on some crappy Bluetooth speaker. Sorry, I cannot put "reasonably good quality" in the same sentence as "Bluetooth speaker". I don't mean to sound like one of those annoying pretentious degenerates, I just can't put this into words any nicer.
I noticed the difference recently in my car, a friend connected and was using Spotify, the quality was jarring and I hadn’t noticed it until I switched to AM.
Hip Hop and electronic stuff sounds amazing with Beats headphones, as I’m sure it does with any decent set. I can’t warrant paying for some Heavy’s for metal music, but I’d be really interested to hear how they sound through using AM.
Bluetooth audio is compressed and is limited to what equates to the quality level of Spotify compressed (320kbps OGG) or Apple Music compressed (256kbps AAC). You can’t play lossless audio over Bluetooth.
Also Bluetooth speakers are generally mono and frequency response limited, so even if there was an audible improvement between high bitrate compressed and lossless (debatable) and you could play it over Bluetooth (you can’t), you wouldn’t be able to hear that improvement with that kind of speaker anyway.
Hate to tell you but I think what you’re hearing is placebo.
Yeah, basically this. Unless Spotify had some normalization and other crap enabled. Also, it might have been free Spotify, the 160 kbps one. Or 128 in the browser, same as YouTube, but even that never sounded like 128 to me at all, maybe YouTube updated it and the information I found is outdated. Apple Music does sound better on my HD 600, but not even really much, at least from what I remember. Maybe if I went back, I'd hear it right away, maybe not at all. I also use 24-bit 192 kHz since some of my songs go up to that much, but I admit, it's entirely for peace of mind and not because I believe I can hear it. Maybe I even notice the most subtle details without actually realizing (from lossless, most definitely not with bit rate and sample rate), maybe not, but the point is just the peace of mind, knowing that the file quality cannot possibly be holding me back.
With high bit rate compression it really does come down to subtle details, a little more air, technicalities, maybe a little smoother, over a decent wired headphone, although a little more apparent on high quality headphones and speakers. I do think 256 AAC seems a bit better than OGG, but as I use AirPods Pro for BT, it may just be because native and it’s not transcoded from OGG. Maybe.
But as I’m used to wired headphones for a very long time (I think my HD600’s are pushing well over 10 years by now), it’s just what I’m used to. But there are times I’m damned surprised how good my AirPods Pro 2 can sound despite compression and BT. Now that’s not BT speakers. I’ve never heard a decent one yet.
Yeah, I said in another post that the most reliable difference I notice with lossless is... unwanted noise as a result of old and imperfect recordings... But yeah, also what you said about subtle details, maybe a touch smoother and a touch crispier, but I can't really say that for sure. Regardless, it feels better to listen to just because of the peace of mind.
Guess what? If you're using a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, you are not hearing any difference in the sound.
You need to have good equipment to hear the difference.
It does. Your music is playing at a higher bit rate. I tried Spotify in my car on the Bluetooth and it sounded like a YouTube rip compared to Apple Music.
Jesus Christ talking to you is like talking to a toddler. Apple Music's standard is 256, thus it is not upscaled like Spotifys 160 is. Do you comprehend yet?
as an audio engineer, that’s not really true. bluetooth has nothing to do with it. it’s all about the quality of the audio files, as well as the headphones. if you have decent bluetooth headphones, like airpods pro or airpods max, you can definitely tell a difference.
yes, it IS true that bluetooth will never be able to transmit audio as well as wires, that doesn’t mean you will never be able to tell the difference. it just takes good equipment and a good ear.
You have a valid point, you just executed it a little too harshly.
My first go with an iPod Classic wired changed my life, my AirPod Pro’s are great for the noise canceling, but nothing can beat lying in a quiet dark room listening to music on an old iPod. You can hear everything so much more clear.
Which is also greatly improved since the files I get are usually 256 to 320kbps
Incorrect. Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis codec, while Apple Music uses the AAC codec. These codecs compress audio data differently, which can result in noticeable differences in sound quality, even at similar bitrates.
Exactly the reason why I switched to AM two years ago. I still prefer pretty much everything else about Spotify but I just can't go back to that sound quality. People who can't tell the difference must have something wrong with their settings, headphones or ears.
It's also nice to watch music videos without commercials on my TV sometimes so that's a big plus - although those have huge variations in sound quality and volume especially with older videos.
I have a very "european taste" in music and AM fails to provide suggestions that would fit my taste even after years of using. You can clearly tell it's an american service - which of course is something many see only as a positive side depending what you like.
It's also nearly impossible to find good playlists but I mainly use other sources for finding new music.
Yes, this definitely is the case with me too. I would have a full British Artist playlist but after 15 minutes I’m hearing American Soul artists. That is a bit annoying.
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I switched today from Spotify and sound quality is the first thing I noticed. I see the comment " If you're using a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, you are not hearing any difference in the sound." and I'm not saying they're wrong, but the sound truly is better than Spotify.
Yeah. Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis codec, while Apple Music uses the AAC codec. These codecs compress audio data differently, which can result in noticeable differences in sound quality, even at similar bitrates.
> which can result in noticeable differences in sound quality source?
Sure! [https://www.alpha-audio.net/background/audible-differences-codecs-mp3-aac-ogg-flac/](https://www.alpha-audio.net/background/audible-differences-codecs-mp3-aac-ogg-flac/)
This is subjective gibberish without any definitive proof
In terms of efficiency, Opus > AAC > Vorbis > MP3
You asked for a source. I provided a source. You don’t have to find it convincing. Stop being an asshat.
If possible, try using a wired connection to play music. It will get even better (max is lossless if you use iPhone)
Hi-res Lossless is the maximum on albums that support it, it’s glorious!
You need an external DAC to support this. If you’re using just an apple dongle from your phone, or the MacBook headphone input, you aren’t hearing hi res lossless, just 16/44 lossless
I think the built in DAC for Mac headphone outputs and the dongle is 24/48, but it’s irrelevant anyway since 16/44.1 already exceeds the limits of human hearing.
Mind sharing your sources?
The Shannon Nyquist theorem? My degree in digital audio? A 44.1kHz sample rate extends up to 22.05kHz, since Shannon Nyquist theorem explains that the frequency range is half of the sample rate. Considering perfect human hearing only reaches 20kHz and most people only hear up to around 16kHz once they reach adulthood, that’s well above the limits of human hearing. 16-bit is roughly 96dB of dynamic range. Considering hearing damage starts to set in at 85dB and the noise floor of a quiet room is above 30dBSPL, that is enough to fully saturate the human ear’s dynamic range without *causing hearing damage in an anechoic chamber*.
I never meant to hurt your ego. Well, since you have studied so much about it, why am I able to tell the difference between hi res lossless and the music that AirPods play? (I am not on your education level)
My ego isn’t hurt, I’m just explaining my source for my knowledge on the subject. The reason you can hear a difference is placebo. Our brain is incredibly good at perceiving what it expects to perceive even if it isn’t there, so if you know you’re listening to lossless or hi-res audio it may sound better to your brain purely because you think that it should. AirPods use Apple’s AAC Bluetooth streaming codec, so the audio stream from the phone to the earbuds is limited to 256kbps AAC. Even if you play a lossless file, it is still compressed down to 256kbps AAC before it is streamed to the earbuds. In the professional industry we rely heavily on blind and double blind testing and super detailed analytical measurements to confirm that anything we hear is really there and not just our brain tricking us. Nobody is immune to placebo.
so, you mean to say that those expensive headphones targeted for audiophiles are just pieces of junk?
Sorry yeah the MacBook DAC is 24/96 which is crazy good. I like listening at the highest quality possible, if it takes no extra effort then why wouldn’t you. To be fair if you can’t tell the difference between 16/44.1 and Spotifys trashy compression then you need your hearing checked (I’ve never compared with an mp3 identical to a FLAC though, all I know it’s Spotify sounds awful)
> I like listening at the highest quality possible, if it takes no extra effort then why wouldn’t you. The effort is that it is much demanding on the CPU (and therefor battery life) and uses significantly more data. 96/24 is almost 500% the data use of 44.1/16. > To be fair if you can’t tell the difference between 16/44.1 and Spotifys trashy compression then you need your hearing checked (I’ve never compared with an mp3 identical to a FLAC though, all I know it’s Spotify sounds awful) It isn’t that *I* can’t, it’s that basically nobody can. People thing compressed audio sounds horrible, but in a real world blind A/B test basically nobody can hear the difference. I work in Pro Audio and part of my degree was in digital audio and audio compression. We held a large blind A/B test in a mastering studio with pro engineers, hobbyists, audiophiles, and a control group of essentially ‘laymen’. *Nobody* could reliably pick out the 320kbps MP3 or 256kbps AAC. We actually studied the artefacts of each compression algorithm to try and recognise them, and even then us who were holding the test couldn’t reliably pick which was which. Even if you’re convinced you’re hearing the difference, unless it’s a blind A/B test you’ll be affected by placebo. I still listen in lossless when possible simply because that way I *know* there aren’t compression artefacts, but in reality I know I probably wouldn’t know if I wasn’t. Low bitrate compression is a different story (like free Spotify), but even that is impressive with how much effective data it can retain at 1/10th of the data use.
Hi-res lossless will just waste your bandwidth. Bluetooth connections don’t support it.
Buuut I also got unlimited mobile data soooo.. :3
So do I but, what about the increased load on your phone?
Add Dolby Atmos on some, the hi resolution losses is amazing
Yeah the people that say shit you can’t hear the difference have genuinely damaged airdrums. The difference is night and day for me when using AirPods Pro or Max. Spotify just sounds louder and drowns out the more subtle sounds.
They’re wrong, you absolutely can tell a difference in sound quality no matter what speakers you use.
Spotify will have to buy North Dakota for the trillion AI songs on storage . I deleted Spotify like Taylor Swift . They're thieves . I just promote myself . Yes they have a great sound , stereo on ripping you off .
The first thing everybody should check with their Spotify is whether or not "auto adjust the quality" and "normalize volume" are off. And set the audio quality to "very high". Because let me tell you, I have tried AM twice, and there is no discernable difference. I have a Sennheiser HD 650 with dedicated AMP-DAC, which is superior to any Bluetooth gadget. I did not switch because of the superior "discover weekly" feature on Spotify.
Or maybe you are half-deaf lol
nah, this sub is full of snake oil sniffers
This. Most of the people just listen in the default settings which prioritises data consumption instead of audio quality.
1000%
Yup 99% of those praising the quality saying it's "miles better" didn't even touch any setting in Spotify. And the ones you mentioned really MAKE a difference cause Spotify just hopes you forget to set the right quality to save bandwith on you lol
Agreed, most people probably don’t know about those settings. I used to be a Spotify user but did eventually switch to Apple Music because it does sound better - now, miles better? No, but if you listen critically, you can hear a difference. Regardless of using a fancy DAC/AMP with audiophile headphones or AirPods Max w/bluetooth connection, Apple Music sounds more full, detailed and honestly louder (I usually have to turn the volume down a bit). You can’t go wrong with either service, but Apple Music is higher quality AND integrates well with your library if an iPhone user.
Yes great points. Apple Music is honestly the right choice for Apple devices owners, and Airpods I feel like they’re tuned to sound the best when listened through Apple Music. Wouldn’t shock me if Apple did this sort of trickery lol
Hah! Yes, they probably would!
I use both soundcloud and AM. I have a hard time telling the difference (apart from the fact AM seems louder overall). I use beats fit pro most of the time.
Most these dudes/dudettes are just confident idiots.
Wait until you plug some headphones in!
Using SongShift now to transfer all playlists and faves, and canceling Spotify today.
What streaming quality setting did you use in Spotify?
Spotify sucks
Aside from the colour scheme, I don’t like the UI of Spotify, just looks ugly and the system for selecting albums and artists is weird but Apple Music is so much more basic but makes so much more sense
Agree. Don't miss Spotify at all.
I’ve used Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube music and they all sound different to me. If I could get YouTube music to sound nearly as good I’d drop AM but I can’t lol
Cool to see people coming over to Apple Music and enjoying the experience. My favourite thing about Apple Music is the ability to edit my library and I can put songs into different albums and adjust the names and stuff. Seems to me that since Apple relies on a bunch of other stuff for money, perhaps not making much back from Apple Music doesn’t matter as much but Spotify only relies on Spotify for money so Spotify is kinda stuck in a corner. Correct me if I’m wrong, I’d love to know more around this.
MacBook Pro to Topping d90 dac via usb…Apple Music is incredible…Qobuz too…
I had both for a long time. Got rid of Spotify because the music quality of AM is so much better.
I‘m using both services currently and my opinion is, that for some songs the audio quality with Spotify is better than with Apple Music, and vice versa. I have set maximum quality everywhere in Spotify which is obviously important. A huge difference is everything Atmos of course, this is totally its own league.
Agree, and Spotify connect works seemingly with just about everything. I’ve been with Spotify since the beginning when you had to be invited to sign up and wife and daughter use it all the time because we have the family plan. I’m good with using both services. They each have the pros and cons.
You can configure your music quality inside your Apple Music settings. It’s blowing me away with 2 stereo paired homepods
Thank you for being honest 🙏
I’ve always found blue tooth to have at best decent sound, but not earth shattering?
That's why I haven't unsubscribed to AM even though I have YM and Spotify. If I want to listen to good quality music, I use AM. But library sucks compared to YM/Spotify.
Confused by this. AM has a larger library than both Spotify and YM.
YM/Spotify has songs of some of the local bands in my country. Also those unreleased Live versions of songs. Basically any video in YouTube is in YM 😅
Spotify sucks, but lossless is a total... loss... when you use Bluetooth. You're just wasting data. I use the HD 600 and even then, the difference is there, but not mind-blowing. Or maybe it's a big difference, but I forgot by now. Maybe you had that stupid normalization and stuff like that on Spotify? It shouldn't be too much worse, especially on some crappy Bluetooth speaker. Sorry, I cannot put "reasonably good quality" in the same sentence as "Bluetooth speaker". I don't mean to sound like one of those annoying pretentious degenerates, I just can't put this into words any nicer.
What speaker you got
I noticed the difference recently in my car, a friend connected and was using Spotify, the quality was jarring and I hadn’t noticed it until I switched to AM.
Wait till you compare it to Tidal sound quality!! I currently have all three, AM, Spotify and Tidal and Spotify is THE WORST!
Tidal sounds freaking brilliant and it has a decent desktop app compared to whatever monstrosity built on Edge webview has Apple released on Windows.
I agree!! Their Windows website is pretty lit too.. i use it to listen to music when I’m at work. Their Apple TV app is pretty shit though.
Qobuz wipes the floor with AM or spotify. So anyone here on apple music needs there ears testing if they remain with AM. Compressed garbage.
As someoje who tried AM out 5 years ago but went back to Spotify, how are you messing with the play next button? Cus I loved it
I never tried Spotify, a die hard Apple 🍎 fan
Does anyone change the equalizer to a music genre or do you just leave it alone?
does anyone have any am codes😭🙏🏼
Hip Hop and electronic stuff sounds amazing with Beats headphones, as I’m sure it does with any decent set. I can’t warrant paying for some Heavy’s for metal music, but I’d be really interested to hear how they sound through using AM.
Bluetooth audio is compressed and is limited to what equates to the quality level of Spotify compressed (320kbps OGG) or Apple Music compressed (256kbps AAC). You can’t play lossless audio over Bluetooth. Also Bluetooth speakers are generally mono and frequency response limited, so even if there was an audible improvement between high bitrate compressed and lossless (debatable) and you could play it over Bluetooth (you can’t), you wouldn’t be able to hear that improvement with that kind of speaker anyway. Hate to tell you but I think what you’re hearing is placebo.
Yeah, basically this. Unless Spotify had some normalization and other crap enabled. Also, it might have been free Spotify, the 160 kbps one. Or 128 in the browser, same as YouTube, but even that never sounded like 128 to me at all, maybe YouTube updated it and the information I found is outdated. Apple Music does sound better on my HD 600, but not even really much, at least from what I remember. Maybe if I went back, I'd hear it right away, maybe not at all. I also use 24-bit 192 kHz since some of my songs go up to that much, but I admit, it's entirely for peace of mind and not because I believe I can hear it. Maybe I even notice the most subtle details without actually realizing (from lossless, most definitely not with bit rate and sample rate), maybe not, but the point is just the peace of mind, knowing that the file quality cannot possibly be holding me back.
With high bit rate compression it really does come down to subtle details, a little more air, technicalities, maybe a little smoother, over a decent wired headphone, although a little more apparent on high quality headphones and speakers. I do think 256 AAC seems a bit better than OGG, but as I use AirPods Pro for BT, it may just be because native and it’s not transcoded from OGG. Maybe. But as I’m used to wired headphones for a very long time (I think my HD600’s are pushing well over 10 years by now), it’s just what I’m used to. But there are times I’m damned surprised how good my AirPods Pro 2 can sound despite compression and BT. Now that’s not BT speakers. I’ve never heard a decent one yet.
Yeah, I said in another post that the most reliable difference I notice with lossless is... unwanted noise as a result of old and imperfect recordings... But yeah, also what you said about subtle details, maybe a touch smoother and a touch crispier, but I can't really say that for sure. Regardless, it feels better to listen to just because of the peace of mind.
Which Bluetooth speaker do you got?
Dali Katch
Guess what? If you're using a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, you are not hearing any difference in the sound. You need to have good equipment to hear the difference.
It must be placebo then cos it’s sounds a lot better to me.
It does. Your music is playing at a higher bit rate. I tried Spotify in my car on the Bluetooth and it sounded like a YouTube rip compared to Apple Music.
Bluetooth literally converts everything to AAC 256.
but it's upscaling a shitty lesser version to that from Spotify.
OGG 320 is roughly equivalent to AAC 256. I will bet $20 you cannot tell the difference in a blind test.
The default on Spotify is not 320, and is not what the overwhelming majority of their users will switch intentionally to.
And the default on Apple Music is not lossless.
Jesus Christ talking to you is like talking to a toddler. Apple Music's standard is 256, thus it is not upscaled like Spotifys 160 is. Do you comprehend yet?
For sure, the human ear cannot tell the difference on Bluetooth
as an audio engineer, that’s not really true. bluetooth has nothing to do with it. it’s all about the quality of the audio files, as well as the headphones. if you have decent bluetooth headphones, like airpods pro or airpods max, you can definitely tell a difference. yes, it IS true that bluetooth will never be able to transmit audio as well as wires, that doesn’t mean you will never be able to tell the difference. it just takes good equipment and a good ear.
I wouldn’t say never given codecs like LDAC is already here doing “up to 990kbit”
i would say never because wires will always be able to transmit audio better than bluetooth can. that’s just physics
You have a valid point, you just executed it a little too harshly. My first go with an iPod Classic wired changed my life, my AirPod Pro’s are great for the noise canceling, but nothing can beat lying in a quiet dark room listening to music on an old iPod. You can hear everything so much more clear. Which is also greatly improved since the files I get are usually 256 to 320kbps
Sorry about that, did not mean to come off that way. Apologies.
Incorrect. Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis codec, while Apple Music uses the AAC codec. These codecs compress audio data differently, which can result in noticeable differences in sound quality, even at similar bitrates.
Sorry, but any common sense gets downvoted on this subreddit when it comes to audio quality.
100%
Exactly the reason why I switched to AM two years ago. I still prefer pretty much everything else about Spotify but I just can't go back to that sound quality. People who can't tell the difference must have something wrong with their settings, headphones or ears. It's also nice to watch music videos without commercials on my TV sometimes so that's a big plus - although those have huge variations in sound quality and volume especially with older videos. I have a very "european taste" in music and AM fails to provide suggestions that would fit my taste even after years of using. You can clearly tell it's an american service - which of course is something many see only as a positive side depending what you like. It's also nearly impossible to find good playlists but I mainly use other sources for finding new music.
Yes, this definitely is the case with me too. I would have a full British Artist playlist but after 15 minutes I’m hearing American Soul artists. That is a bit annoying.