Apple Event 10.16.14
I watched Tim Cook last week roll out the new iPad Air 2, the new iPad mini 3, and the iMac with its impressive 5K screen. The Apple event also introduced new revs of the iOS and Mac OS. Any rumors or hope that I had that iOS 8.1 would open their new portable devices to “lossless” quality music were dashed. The hardware can support the move to 96/24 and even 192/24 lossless audio but the downside consequences to usability are too hefty for Apple to make that move…at least now.
If Apple does decide to raise the audio standards of the music available through iTunes and playable on their portable devices, it’s only going to happen when they perceive a market demand for increased quality. I hesitate to call it high-resolution audio because of the continuing confusion, misleading advertising, and outright fraud associated with the term. Apple’s executives are very smart individuals. If their customers were clamoring for better audio quality, they would make it a part of their core upgrade strategy. I’m sure they are very aware of what’s happening at Pono, HDtracks, and HTC/Sprint but their research and market surveys show that people don’t care about this issue. Or they just plan can’t tell the difference between a good quality AAC file and a CD specification sound file. As much as it pains me to admit it, I think they’re right.
It’s a whole lot sexier to talk about Apple PAY and 5K screens than 192 or 96 kHz/24-bit audio files. But imagine an Apple event in the not so distant future when high-resolution audio does get a few minutes on the agenda. In my dream scenario, it might go something like this:
TC:There’s one more thing I’d like to share with you this morning. It’s something that Apple customers have been waiting a very long time for. Today, Apple is announcing the immediate availability of high-resolution audio playback on all iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Smartphones, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 devices. Apple has retooled its entire music delivery ecosystem to handle high-resolution audio. And to explain and demonstrate exactly what that means, we’ve invited one of the strongest advocates and most knowledgeable individuals about high fidelity audio to join us this morning. Please welcome Dr. Mark Waldrep, Founder and Chief Engineer at AIX Records, a label that has been recording, producing, and releasing new high-resolution music for more than 15 years.
MW:Thanks Tim and thanks to all of you for making high-resolution possible within the Apple community. Music consumers deserve to have the very best fidelity that can be produced. For decades we’ve been fed a steady stream of tunes that actually have less fidelity than the music I listened to when I was a university student. It’s true, the vinyl LPs and analog tapes that I enjoyed 40 years ago had more fidelity than virtually all of the music being purchased, ripped, downloaded, and consumed today. Listening to music was an active thing to do when The Beatles or Joni Mitchell released a new album…and it sounded amazing.
MW:These days we’re listening to music that is convenient. It’s been shaped by our new digital distribution system with its limited bandwidth, battery life, do all devices philosophy, and lossy compression coding techniques. However, today things are different. The restrictions of the past are generally gone. It is possible to stream and download music that matches or exceeds the fidelity that first hooked me when I was a very young man. We just have to demand it.
MW:And today Apple is very happy to commit to high-resolution audio. From now on, iTunes will sell and deliver only “lossless” music tracks. All Apple hardware will support 96 kHz/24-bits PCM playback. The iTunes store will offer files for downloading that have been prepared from the “best available masters” as provided by the mastering houses at the labels. We haven’t ripped or upres’d the existing iTunes catalog, iTunes has been getting new transfers of all delivered content at 96 kHz/24-bits for the last 5 years. This is huge.
MW:Finally, I’m very pleased to announce the iTunes UltraHD-Audio store. This new iTunes store will deliver albums and tracks that qualify as the best of the best. Every track on the UHD-Audio store will a new recording done with state-of-the-art recording equipment and the latest recording techniques…meaning you’ll hear real world dynamic range and extended frequency response. You might not hear these tracks on the radio or on iRadio, but you can be assured that you’ll be experiencing REAL high-definition audio. The fidelity of these downloads will keep audiophiles happy and just maybe convince others to accept nothing less than the best.
TC:Thanks Mark! And to prove that he means what he says, we’ve set up a number of listening rooms across the hall so that you can experience some ultra high-definition audio recordings. I’m sure you’ll be impressed.
Don’t laugh…it could happen!!
Nice fantasy. Or is that what real business leaders would call a “vision”?
Whether Apple or someone else more leading edge does it, it would be really good to see it happen…
That was actually quite entertaining. Thanks.
Insanity. LOL
But honestly I know I’m not interested in paying premium dollars for HD recordings done by engineers who “put tape over the VU meters”, As a consumer of popular music my choices of new recordings done with any attention to fidelity is almost non-existent. While we have had hopes of a brighter future in HD delivery the recording industry goes further and further to h-ll.
Kodo’s to you for getting a talented popular artist like Mark Chesnutt to record for you.
Physicians heal thy selfs
Mark Chesnutt is one of the biggest stars that I every worked with…but audiophiles generally shy away from country music.
Their loss.
And then as the super model comes to escort you off the stage….
We all woke up. Cruel the way that works, isn’t it? Keep dreaming, Mark. I know a lot of us are dreaming of that day. It ticks me off that provenance is so widely ignored as a critical part of distinguishing, or better yet certifying a real UHRA recording. Those of us who are consumers need to demand such a process. I applaud and appreciate your tenaciousness and especially your passion!
I good with the supermodel when I win some sort of award…Tim Cook can be my supermodel at Apple.
Well put Mark, it’s definitely time for them to match audio quality to visual equivalent of retina displays, and you’re just the guy to show them how to do it! For them, it’s really a no-brainer…
Retina displays for music…I like that.
It would be I interesting to see the demographics of those who purchase high resolution audio. I’m 63. I grew up listening to a transistor radio with a cheap 2″ speaker and an ear phone. Later I had a good, but not great stereo and most if the stereos of my peer group were less than good. We traded our LPs for convenient cassette tapes, the commercially produced ones of which were awful, even after they threw in Dolby noise reduction.
The average car audio system is better than most stereos of the late 60s and early 70s, but is rarely given sufficaent quality audio to reproduce.I plugged in s high res portable player to my car one and was favorably impressed.
Given what most people are used to, your scenarso is likely a few years off.
I’m right there with you. I started with a crystal radio and a single ear piece.
I am one of these guys who is watching the keynotes life if possible (i am lucky with my location being GMT+2). So i am imagining all this.
Looking forward to the next one. Hope this all has been prophecy.
My take on Apple’s glacial approach to high end audio is that they are going to do what they did when iTunes launched, i.e. bringing the Napster “business model” into the mainstream – with the kind of “appeal to the senses” marketing Apple actually does best, of course.
This time the guinea pigs are the likes of Pono and HD Tracks and, with all due respect, your own company Mark 🙂
For Tim Cook, it’s a waiting game, hopefully with the same split second sense of product launch timing for which his illustrious predecessor was so renowned.
So far hi-res audio just hasn’t made it to the top of the “next big feature” list, but it’s coming, I strongly expect at some time in 2015.
Sooner or later, Apple/I-tunes will have to offer better sound.