Has anyone used the shortcuts with AM? It’s kind of crazy what you can do with them.
On the discovery one, tapping it pulls 5 tracks from each of my favourite playlists for discovering music, queues it up and plays it.
Daily mix takes a mix of tracks from my playlists, apple playlists, my library and plays 25 tracks.
Queued plays songs I’ve added to my library but haven’t listened to.
What’s even more crazy is that you set airplay endpoints that you want to play the audio through.
I think it is early to tell, but I give it a strong “maybe”. I think many of have many listening zones and environments – home (many scenarios), car, outside, work, travel, commute – some of them benefit from hi res and some don’t. Many people have family accounts… are kids and significant others on Spotify or Apple Music? What are the features in software and in the attached ecosystem of audio gear.
I think this has opened the door to many Roon users to more strongly consider options. I know I am, even with my Roon lifetime sub in hand.
I see Apple Music as an alternative to Audirvana for use when away from home. At home, I’ll continue to use Roon streaming Tidal and Qobuz.
EDIT: I can’t see spending $70 per year for Audirvana Studio when I get Apple Music for free.
I’ve attached my MacBook Air M1 to my Chord Hugo TT2 to my Parasound P6 preamp/A21+ amp. And it sounds pretty good. Not quite as good as when my Hugo/Parasound is fed by my Lumin U1 Mini streaming Qobuz, but not a gigantic world of difference.
Roon should have this next release!
I would love smart playlists or shortcut like features in Roon
Hmm… not impressed with SQ so far.
AM Atmos tracks sound muddy and muffled (to me).
Comparing:
AM Atmos tracks —> ATV4K —> HDMI —> Marantz AVR
vs.
my local lossless tracks —> ROCK+NUC —> HDMI —> Marantz AVR with Auro up mixing.
My red book tracks + multichannel mixing sound much better than AM Atmos.
My high-res multichannel tracks sound so much better it’s embarrassing to AM.
YMMV!
There appear to be some really good Atmos mixes and really sh!t Atmos mixes.
Same as stereo music since forever I guess 
More channels doesn’t automatically equal better.
Can you share which albums specifically sounded muffled?
For non-Atmos content, ie In terms of upmixing, Auro 3D upmixer has long been regarded by many people I respect as better (subjectively) than Atmos upmixer.
None of the Amazon apps are even capable of bit perfect playback with auto sample rate switching, on both desktop or mobile apps, with a USB DAC. And that’s after approx 2 years.
People using Apple Music on iOS with USB DAC are indeed getting bit perfect playback. For free 
That’s something Amazon Music HD customers can’t do, for 2 years now.
Sure:
Beatles - Here Comes the Sun. AM Atmos vs. my local 7.1 48/24 wav.
The Doors - Riders on the Storm. AM Atmos vs. my local 5.1 96/24 wav.
Weezer - Island In The Sun. AM Atmos vs. my local 44.1/16 AIFF, upmixed via Auro-3D.
In all cases, the clarity and detail of my local files sounded far superior (to me).
I focused on Atmos because I really enjoy multichannel and that’s the main potentail appeal of AM to me. I should clarify that the “spatiality” of the AM Atmos tracks did sound good to me (e.g., Billie Eilish’s “my future”). But the detail was inferior compared to my lossless tracks, resulting in the muddy muffled compressed sound I mentioned. Makes me wonder what the AM audio signal really is that I’m getting. I have a hard time believing that it’s lossless multichannel.
I have not attempted to do anything with AM stereo tracks, so none of my impressions apply to those.
That’s been my impression, too, or at least, my preference.
It’s not, it’s lossy Dolby Digital Plus codec.
Just like Atmos content on Netflix, Amazon, Tidal
The only lossless Atmos content is on physical disc.
We discussed it here previously:
Ah, thanks for that clarification! I don’t have much experience with Atmos music, except on a couple of physical discs I purchased and ripped. On those I definitely extracted TrueHD (+ the Atmos info).
Do you know how I can determine what bit rate/sample rate/codec the ATV4K is actually receiving? Some screenshots above seemed to show this – maybe via Audirvana…? TIA for any info.
EDIT: Just saw this:
Oh, I had stayed away from that (because Voldemqart 
Your impressions actually match mine and a popular trend I’ve noticed since Amazon Music HD and Tidal supported Atmos Music - old stuff that’s been re-mixed in Atmos can be meh but new stuff ‘properly’ mixed in Atmos good.
I’m looking forward to Apple Music forcing a big boost in Atmos Music content, mainly for new music.
My older favourites will continue sounding great in plain old boring 2 channel 
Seems like a nail in the coffin for any of us who were expecting bit perfect from Apple. I am sticking with Qobuz.
I’m not so sure about his HDCD tests there.
The fact that some labels have pushed MQA to Apple Music (like Qobuz and Amazon Music HD) makes it easy to test this with an MQA DAC. As you can’t get the infamous blue/magenta light without bit perfect playback (well a couple smart people have done some sneaky tricks but that’s for a different discussion) .
His test result here is proof of bit perfect playback, so something wrong with his HDCD tests:
I don’t have access to an MQA right now but will borrow from a friend for my own testing.
Hopefully someone else can test in the meantime and report back.
Try this if you have an MQA DAC.
Not sure anyone was TBH. I expect obfuscation and hopeless implementation from Apple, and seems like they delivered in spades, as per usual with any shiny new object. How anyone could think this garbage competes with Roon is beyond me. Hell, even Spotify is light years ahead.
Hi-res is all about marketing, but I applaud Apple for bringing to the masses.
It’s not much better, for Amazon you can buy a non Apple/Amazon device to get bit perfect into your hifi and in full glory that has DAC or can be used with another DAC. That was available pretty close to release. They are equally as bad in my eye. Either way you have to fork out to listen to it properly if you didnt have said device already.
I’m amazed how many people have bit perfect ears, I only wished I could tell the huge difference it makes to sound so poor.
