Apple iTunes albums.
Posted by: Yetizone on 29 March 2018
Hi folks - just a quick question - are Apple iTunes album purchases / downloads the same quality (16-bit/44.1kHz) as a CD or are they lossy? Just need to know before I make a couple of purchases for teenager No1 in the house, or alternatively order the discs from ARiver.
Thanks 
Apple‘s max resolution is 320kbps....so mp3 niveau. Many waiting for apple to enter highres market..or at least redbook standard.
Not even sure that the releases tagged as 'Mastered for itunes' are any better than mp3.
Many thanks - I'll order the discs if that is the case.
Or buy it with Qobuz in CD or highres quality. You may import it later in itunes.
Yes, good point T38.45. Thanks for the reminder. I was inquiring about iTunes in this case as the account in question has a little credit left over from a voucher, so have advised her to save it for movies. Albums to be bought over the weekend, probably from Qobuz as access is then instant and I really like their site after using the competitors.
For my personal albums, my usual default process is to see if the album is available in HD (not in this case), then check on the obvious secondhand sites for a CD.
T38.45 posted:Apple‘s max resolution is 320kbps....so mp3 niveau. Many waiting for apple to enter highres market..or at least redbook standard.
iTunes has never offered 320 kbps AFAIK. Their audio these days is at best lossy 256 kbps AAC - older purchases which had DRM were 128 kbps AAC. Some DRM audio was upgraded to non-DRM 256 kbps for a nominal cost at one stage, but not all.
While I use Qobuz extensively it's a shame they don't offer a family package - you're allowed up to 3 portable devices for a given account currently - not quite figured out (as I have more with the app installed) if you can play 3 concurrently or just one with other devices dropping off when new ones are added as I have about 8 devices in my profile (suspect some are the same with different iOS versions).
Another annoyance with Qobuz is that while their Sublime/Sublime Plus streaming CD/HiRes quality plans give good purchase discounts on many HiRes titles there are many CD quality only albums I'd buy if they offered a discount but they don't. Any CDs I buy tend to come from the river store.
A huge advantage of the river store is that CD's are often cheaper than an iTunes or Qobuz download to begin with, plus you get the physical media you could rip to a NAS/whatever, and for most titles you get their AutoRip option which gives you an immediate lossy up to 320 kbps MP3 download before the disc even goes through your letterbox which can be played via an MP3 player or in their portable apps.