# Apple Music boss says 98 percent of people can’t identify lossless audio **URL:** \ **Category:** Music Services\ **Created:** [June 18, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347 "2021-06-18T15:45:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Obwos](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/obwos/32/111981_2.png) [@Obwos](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Obwos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/1 "2021-06-18T15:45:34Z")
Oh Dear. Nothing like shoving your head into a hornets nest. > **[Apple Music boss says 98 percent of people can't identify lossless audio -...](https://audiomediainternational.com/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-cant-identify-lossless-audio/?utm_source=Audio%2BMedia%2BInternational&utm_campaign=d79ef210c2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_05_17_02_48_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7083eac43d-d79ef210c2-347482274)** > > Apple Music boss Eddy Cue says most people can’t tell the difference between compressed and lossless audio but he believes that spatial audio is ‘a game-changer’. ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_B](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/anthony_b/32/48217_2.png) [@Anthony\_B](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Anthony_B)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 6:56pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/2 "2021-06-18T18:56:49Z")
> ‘…I don’t know if it’s 99 or 98 can’t tell the difference…’ Sounds rather like the famous maxim that ‘75% of all quoted statistics are made up on the spot’ . For Apple’s purposes it doesn’t matter either way as he is actually plugging Dolby Atmos rather than lossless. Not sure if people are aware of the fact that huge numbers of albums are being remixed in Atmos with zero contribution from the artists or original producer. Just another round of remastering and another product to sell, rather like that other one (which shall remain nameless for obvious reasons). ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Dude](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/digital_dude/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Digital\_Dude](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Digital_Dude)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/3 "2021-06-18T20:52:46Z")
Will I have to wear my RED/BLUE glasses to hear in 3D??? 🤓 Wonder if Eddy Cue was referring to this paper??? [AES E-Library » A Comparison of Clarity in MQA Encoded Files vs. Their Unprocessed State as Performed by Three Groups — Expert Listeners](https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=19396)😇 ---
**Author:** ![Ali\_Shafai](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/ali_shafai/32/336932_2.png) [@Ali\_Shafai](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Ali_Shafai)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 8:57pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/4 "2021-06-18T20:57:59Z")
Well, 98% or more are not audiophiles, have average or below average audio equipment. So, it makes sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![terzinator](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/terzinator/32/100376_2.png) [@terzinator](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/terzinator)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/5 "2021-06-19T00:38:39Z")
> [@Ali\_Shafai](#): > > Well, 98% or more are not audiophiles, have average or below average audio equipment. Exactly. Soundbars in the TV room, Amazon Echos in the kitchen, portable Sonos units out on the deck. They all sound fine, and are perfect for lossless audio. But if you sat down a bunch of people in front of a reeeeaaally nice audiophile-grade system, and only two percent could tell the difference, then you’d have a valid statistic. ---
**Author:** ![Neil\_Lavitt](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/neil_lavitt/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Neil\_Lavitt](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Neil_Lavitt)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 8:58am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/6 "2021-06-19T08:58:35Z")
> [@Ali\_Shafai](#): > > have average or below average audio equipment and he goes on to stress that you would require great audiophile equipment to do so. Even then, with so many older listeners suffering from degenerative hearing loss, they would probably struggle in an authentic blind listening test. ---
**Author:** ![Neil\_Lavitt](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/neil_lavitt/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Neil\_Lavitt](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Neil_Lavitt)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 9:01am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/7 "2021-06-19T09:01:16Z")
> [@Anthony\_B](#): > > Sounds rather like the famous maxim that ‘75% of all quoted statistics are made up on the spot’ We lived in a bias full world! ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Kelly](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/martin_kelly/32/296796_2.png) [@Martin\_Kelly](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Martin_Kelly)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 9:04am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/8 "2021-06-19T09:04:56Z")
It takes a good system AND a ‘trained ear’ to tell the difference: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lkgRzLygNrU/maxresdefault.jpg "What you should know about audiophile hearing, part 1") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkgRzLygNrU) ---
**Author:** ![Pim](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/pim/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Pim](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Pim)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 10:39am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/9 "2021-06-19T10:39:37Z")
It’s probably closer to 99% ---
**Author:** ![Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/neil_russell/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Neil_Russell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 10:40am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/10 "2021-06-19T10:40:14Z")
I bet that 98% of people really don’t listen that carefully as they don’t care about resolution or format. ---
**Author:** ![Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/neil_russell/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Neil_Russell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 10:44am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/11 "2021-06-19T10:44:52Z")
And in ten years, another revolutionary format will be released so there is another format we must buy to keep up with the Joneses. Who cares what it sounds like, as the media says it’s a “must have” because the inventor said so, ---
**Author:** ![Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/neil_russell/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Neil_Russell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 10:46am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/12 "2021-06-19T10:46:07Z")
Nahhh. You just need a firmware upgrade for your brain. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Harris](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/michael_harris/32/208975_2.png) [@Michael\_Harris](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Michael_Harris)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 11:10am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/13 "2021-06-19T11:10:17Z")
A lot of the world has been trained on 10 years of 128KB downloaded music and another 10 on 256KB so it’s sounds like what they have always heard along with poor quality headphones given away with phone’s and MP3 players. So Apple and others have created this problem. I watched Hans video last night and he is good at trying to explain things. The music itself also makes a difference. As a Tidal subscriber that listens to a lot of symphonic and dark Metal, I can almost instantly tell when something recorded in AAC 256 is played. Sadly there is quite a lot of it on the high resolution service. It Just sounds crunched and overly compressed. When I find the same album on CD quality and there is a world of difference. Often I have had to go out and buy these albums to really enjoy them, and thankfully I have no problem with that. I do not consider myself an Audiophile, just someone who takes pleasure in listening to music. ---
**Author:** ![BeeKay](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/beekay/32/323372_2.png) [@BeeKay](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/BeeKay)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 11:44am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/14 "2021-06-19T11:44:05Z")
And 100% of audiophile evangelists fear blind tests 😉 ---
**Author:** ![garye](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/garye/32/84909_2.png) [@garye](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/garye)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/16 "2021-06-19T15:14:21Z")
I was about to add that about 98% of people who claim to hear the difference probably can’t 9 out of 10 times unless they only have a few albums in their collection. ---
**Author:** ![Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/neil_russell/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Neil_Russell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/17 "2021-06-19T15:49:45Z")
Trained ears have always done well on blind test trials. Typically with accuracy at least 70-80%. ---
**Author:** ![garye](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/garye/32/84909_2.png) [@garye](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/garye)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 4:11pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/18 "2021-06-19T16:11:51Z")
Generally on tracks they know intimately, on equipment they know intimately, at a certain time of day, having cleaned out their ears in a totally silent house, leaning forward with intense concentration…… Sounds like hard work to me to recognise 1% of a decent collection 70% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/neil_russell/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Neil\_Russell](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Neil_Russell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/19 "2021-06-19T16:28:25Z")
I am talking about independent testers, when the listeners are not intimately familiar with anything in the test. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Kelly](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/martin_kelly/32/296796_2.png) [@Martin\_Kelly](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Martin_Kelly)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/20 "2021-06-19T16:32:49Z")
One of the best, if not _the_ ‘lossless’ medium is SACD/DSD64. I can very easy discern between the SACD/DSD layer, and the RBCD layer of the vast majority of my Hybrid SACD collection. Mind you, I have an Esoteric K-01X BH to help me discern that difference. As has been previously stated, the quality of replay equipment is key to appreciating ‘lossless’ audio. It’s no surprise that the vast majority of AM users aren’t interested in lossless audio. They’re probably all listening with AirPods. And grand they sound too! 😀 ---
**Author:** ![davidh](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/davidh/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@davidh](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/davidh)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2021, 4:34pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347/21 "2021-06-19T16:34:07Z")
I did the Spotify test from years ago and got 8 out of 10 right through my iMac speakers . I missed one song that I was simply speaking , I believe Suzanne Vega’s Tom Diner intro . My ears aren’t that great , so maybe people don’t listen that closely . [Next page](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/apple-music-boss-says-98-percent-of-people-can-t-identify-lossless-audio/163347.md?page=2)