I have purchased several albums/tracks that were mastered from ITunes and compared them to expensive downloads of so called hi-res music. I have a pretty good stereo, more hi-end than low end, and I'll be dammed if I can tell a difference.
Having said that, the mastered for ITunes do sound a little cleaner than regular ITunes downloads. Then again, I am almost 60 and my hearing is probably shite form listening to too much rock music.
I believe when they "master" for itunes... it simply means that they compress the sound files... ie. from .wav to .mp3... however they probably set the encoding levels at a standardized level to adhere to itunes polices. ie. using vbr vs cbr, etc..settings for quality vs. compression, etc.
i'm pretty sure the mastering for itunes doesn't take place in the studio... doesn't make sense.
if you can't tell the difference between lossless (HD) and lossy (mp3, itunes files .aac i believe)... then just listen to lossless files for a good couple of weeks and then listen to those same songs in .mp3 (lossy)... you'll hear it. Particularly in the higher frequency range - ie. cymbals and quieter passages - you take my breath away as a good example of the latter.
Now, if you actually are suffering from hearing loss - you usually start to lose sensitivity in those higher ranges (first) to the point that they become less audible - so in that regard, you likely will not notice the difference as easily. In those cases, lossless vs. lossy without a fantastic DAC = moot point.
Stop whinging about music sources different from vinyl. A lot of people don't care about vinyl.
iTunes and Spotify provides compressed files. Correct me if I'm wrong.
So, the only HQ source of music is CD or FLAC provider services.
Spotify streams compressed music, and iTunes sell .aac files at 256kbps, correct me also if I'm wrong.
Stop whinging about music sources different from vinyl. A lot of people don't care about vinyl.
iTunes and Spotify provides compressed files. Correct me if I'm wrong.
So, the only HQ source of music is CD or FLAC provider services.
Spotify streams compressed music, and iTunes sell .aac files at 256kbps, correct me also if I'm wrong.
Yes, you're correct. I don't use either and only listen to lossless sources. But I don't go around different threads going "lol itunes, cd's lol". Some people seem to think they're better than the rest just because they favour the now hip vinyl.
Listen to live at wembley on Itunes, it has a horrible fluttering effect with the crowd noise compared to the cd. Anybody notice this? Montreal and Milton Keynes are ok. I notice this fluttering noise on Rush live Time Machine also too on Itunes
The rise of paid online music services has led to lower quality sound formats. Go figure.
But yeah, lolling to iTunes and Spotify looks a bit pretentious. Spotify is enough for most people (and being an audiophile doesn't mean you appreciate music more - you can appreciate music played on an old transistor radio with a 1W speaker if you want).