FLAC support in iOS 11 - FINALLY

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by MrRom92, Jun 6, 2017.

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  1. wbhendrix

    wbhendrix Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    i just really hope the next Apple TV is 4k and capable of playing 24/96 or 24/192 music w/out downsampling..... i wonder why this hasn't been done yet?
     
  2. SoporJoe

    SoporJoe Forum Resident

    Location:
    British Columbia
  3. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Hooray...our long national nightmare is over...
    ...said nobody using a PC...
     
  4. DirkGentlyUK

    DirkGentlyUK Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    It didn't already? :shake:

    Waiting for the Apple marketing department to give it their usual spin. In a few months they'll have everyone believing that they invented flac.
     
    White_Noise, MrRom92 and Grant like this.
  5. MrRom92

    MrRom92 Forum Supermodel Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    As stupid as it sounds, I wouldn't mind it. They have a way of popularizing things and making them mass marketable. If it means that there will be a bigger consumer focus on lossless audio, better offerings all over the market and and more people starting to pay attention to it, then I'm all for it. They can get Jony Ive to give a voiceover about bit perfect samples passing from studio straight through your DAC to your ears... "revolutionary" I can just see it now. Whatever they do is better than the years we've endured of them doing absolutely nothing. Marketing-spin away.
     
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  6. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    Sounds like adding FLAC capability is going to be their way of heading off the MQA train. What other motivation would they have?
     
  7. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    Since when does iTunes NOT do this? I play hi-res files just fine in iTunes with no outside help.
     
    Rolltide likes this.
  8. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    Because Apple doesn't sell 24/96 or 24/192, and doesn't care about the music you own they didn't sell you. This isn't going to change, either. iTunes and Apple TVs are first and foremost vehicles for Apple to sell you content.
     
  9. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I'll tell you what if Apple did sell high res I would be buying it right now. I don't buy any downloads from them at this time.
     
    Grant and wbhendrix like this.
  10. wbhendrix

    wbhendrix Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    with the rise of 4k movies along with atmos soundtracks, it would make sense for them to support 24 bit playback at some point... aren't most UHD blu rays 24 bit audio?
     
  11. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    Seeing sites like HD Tracks and others selling higher quality downloads than iTunes AAC and trying to redirect that revenue to apple. I would think they are planning to sell FLAC downloads on iTunes eventually.
     
  12. MrRom92

    MrRom92 Forum Supermodel Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    I'd be very surprised if Apple ever provided FLAC. Pleasantly surprised nonetheless, but still something I have a hard time imagining. I think it's more likely any lossless music they eventually sell will likely be provided in their own ALAC format, and tied down by DRM somehow. So I probably still wouldn't purchase music from them, but it would light a fire under the other download providers to make them provide lossless too, like let's say Amazon music for example. Still good news to me. Competition is exactly what this market needs.
     
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  13. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    It would be an improvement if iTunes offered ALAC downloads even. Most of my downloads have been with NUGS who give you the option of mp3, FLAC, FLAC HD and even DSD. iTunes it's take it or leave it.
     
    MrRom92 likes this.
  14. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    Sorry, I forgot that NUGS also offer the option of ALAC, ALAC -HD(!), and now even MQA.
     
  15. Absolutely. I have all my (ripped from DVDA/Bluray) HiRes files in ALAC. And my casual-listening iPod can automatically down-convert them to 256 AAC .
     
  16. jkauff

    jkauff Senior Member

    Location:
    Akron, OH
    This is similar to the time Apple decided to support MP3 playback. They don't sell anything in that format, but they got enough complaints from loyal customers that they decided to be more flexible. I don't see iTunes supporting ripping a CD to FLAC, just as it doesn't rip to MP3.

    This will pretty much put the last nail in the ALAC coffin in the world outside of Apple, I would think. I can see HDTracks getting rid of ALAC downloads, for example.
     
  17. crispi

    crispi Vinyl Archaeologist

    Location:
    Berlin
    Oh wow. So much misinformation in your post. iTunes doesn't rip to mp3? It did so from day one and it still does. AAC, however, now Apple's prefered format (which was not developed by them, by the way) wasn't supported until iTunes version 4. So it's the other way around: mp3 was first and only later did Apple implement AAC. History of iTunes - Wikipedia
    As for the iPod, it supported mp3 from day one. Just like iTunes early on, the first generation iPod did not support AAC.
     
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  18. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    Well, normal blu rays have had 24 bit audio for the past decade or so too, and yet...
     
  19. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    We really need for iTunes to go lossless in whatever format. I can convert to FLAC if need. Since Pono went away, there's been a huge void in available lossless music. Right now, no one has the extensive catalog that iTunes has, at least here in the U.S..
     
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  20. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Yeah agreed, and I can can convert and burn a cd/DVD/blu-ray of any format as well, so that is not a concern either.oo

    I miss pono too. I have been using Acoustic Sounds for downloads over HDtracks because AS has discounts.
     
  21. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
    Slightly off topic but...

    I decided last weekend to download the first public beta of macOS High Sierra to see what programs would (and would not) support FLAC.

    • Quicktime plays FLAC files with no issues
    • Finder will search and find FLAC files with no issues
    • Unfortunately, iTunes neither recognizes nor will play FLAC files.
     
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  22. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
    Not really off topic! If I had to guess, this is what Apple will do going forward, i.e. allot for FLAC playback in Quicktime or otherwise natively in the macOS, but not integrate w/iTunes. Though I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do (integrate), I really don't think they'll open up iTunes and provide seamless FLAC integration.
     
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  23. jkauff

    jkauff Senior Member

    Location:
    Akron, OH
    I suspect they'll let you import FLAC files into your iTunes library, just like they do MP3s, but other than that there won't be any support
     
  24. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    That will require a new version of iTunes, I don't think the High Sierra beta updates iTunes does it?
     
    Jason Manley likes this.
  25. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    You can play, tag, convert to and from MP3 with iTunes. What can't you do with MP3 that would make the same support for FLAC limiting?
     
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