Apple Digital Masters: Why Is Everyone Talking About It?

It all started with an article from Billboard that stated: "On Wednesday (August 7) Apple Music announced the launch of Apple Digital Masters, a new initiative by the streaming giant that combines all of its "Mastered for iTunes" offerings into one global catalog. This is the company's first public acknowledgement of the initiative, which it has been quietly unveiling for some time." And suddenly the story was all over the place. But Apple didn't actually announce anything. Or at least, there was no official press release from Apple to be found confirming the story.

LG Electronics newest idea was revealed at the 2016 GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and signals an important trend on mobile devices. The LG G5 modular concept features Qualcomm’s aptX HD for wireless 24-bit sound over Bluetooth, and offers a high quality audio player, designed in cooperation with B&O Play, featuring an ESS Tech DAC and amplifier.

TIDAL, the Norwegian High Fidelity lossless music streaming service with HD music videos and curated editorial, announced it will launch its service in 22 new countries during the first quarter of 2015. The company also confirmed twelve home audio integration partners are already live with TIDAL, namely, Sonos, Bluesound, Linn, Simple Audio, Auralic, Mirage, Squeezebox, Amarra sQ, Mcintosh, Wadia, Electrocompaniet and Meridian.

Microchip Technology Inc., announced the support of Qobuz Connect in the Microchip JukeBlox Platform. The combined solution delivers lossless audio in CD quality directly to wireless speakers and AV receivers for an enjoyable music listening experience.

High Resolution Technologies (HRT) will debut its nano series dSp and i-dSp digital sound processors at the CES 2015 in Las Vegas, January 6 - 9. The dSp and i-dSp are compact devices with proprietary digital sound processing and a high-performance headphone amplifier to improve sound quality for smartphones, tablets, portable devices, notebooks and other computing platforms.

Why is it so easy to find an audio enthusiast claiming that his new headphones, DAC, preamplifier, or pair of speakers “completely changed his perception of the music” and “made it possible to hear things in a totally new way,” and yet so many consumers cannot actually hear the difference when listening to high-resolution audio?

High Resolution Audio will be a major focus at the 137th Audio Engineering Society Convention in Los Angeles (October 9-12, 2014). The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) will present a comprehensive program on the topic, which is simultaneously causing excitement and passionate debate among audio professionals.