I’ve been thinking aout switching to iphone but I don’t know what to do about my music. i mostly high quality flac files (local) and i cant even think about having to restrict myself to a streaming service
I’ve been thinking about switching to iPhone but don’t know what to do about my music. I mostly high-quality FLAC files (local) and I can’t even think about having to restrict myself to a streaming service
Here’s the scoop on audio file resolution on Apple Music.
I use an iPhone 11 Pro and Apple Music. Almost everything (>95% of my download music) is available lossless (44.1k 16bit) and some (20%?) is available in high-res (anything higher than 44.1/16, hi-res file type is ALAC)) . By default Apple Music configured to stream and download lossy, but you can select either lossless or high-res for each independently. All that applies to music on the phone.
Getting the file to a DAC: 1) using Bluetooth everything down samples to lossy, 2) using Airplay 2 everything down samples to 44.1/16, 3) tethered using USB everything plays at the highest resolution on the phone I’ve seen files play at 44.1/16, 48/16, 96/16, 96/24.
I haven’t used other music services, so I can’t help with them.
I’m on iPhone. I have been for years now.
I use Spotify for music discovery, and most of my “offline sync” music, because it is relatively okay quality, but allows me to save thousands of songs without having to worry about storage.
For when I’m on WiFi or want to enjoy something higher quality, I have a Jellyfin server with my FLAC collection. Some of the albums / artist on there, I have downloaded or “synced” to my iPhone using the app Fintunes. This way I can enjoy my favourite tunes in the highest quality, without needing or wasting my LTE traffic.
Overall- my iOS listening experienced is bottlenecked by the Bluetooth devices I listen to the music on. I can still tell a difference between 320k MP3 and FLAC, but it’s definitely not lossless. I definitely prefer listening on devices that support AptX or LDAC.
Hope this helps!