Apple Music

[Jean-Marie]

Been listening to Apple Music (AM) from my Win10 tablet via AIR 2.1.3 to my Le200 for about 3 weeks now. In my opinion, AM is doing a great job versus Spotify, Tidal and Deezer. It may only streams at 256kbps AAC, but I find it is quite listenable for most POP, R&B music. Its selections and playlists are its key strengths, too. And, with its financial strength over all its competitors, I can foresee that AM will be the market leader on streaming music service.

Soon, Sonos will support AM and I will most likely cut off Tidal, too.

I agree, in most situation, well done 256kbps AAC is very hard if not impossible to distinguish from Lossless. I played the trick and fooled more than handful of audiophile friends by telling them only after the fact that what they were finding so fantastic was 256kps AAC. 

There can be a few pathological situations, like with very high pitches, or harpsichords where it is spotable without doing a painful ABX comparison, but as I was saying previously, if I can find a lossless source, I'm buying it for the sake of being on the safe side. If on the other hand, the only convenient source that I find is iTunes Music Store (256kbps AAC) I won't bend backward to find a lossless source, I can leave very happily with it.

So yes I share your opinion that 256kps AAC for streaming will be superior to most other lossy streaming offer.

Jean-Marie