Ye Macce Threade

[HiWire]

I've had bad luck with AMD. A couple AMD-based motherboards and video cards have failed (all running at stock clock speeds), and none with Intel/Nvidia so far.

Edited March 18, 2021 by HiWire

[MexicanDragon]

On 3/18/2021 at 12:12 PM, HiWire said:

I've had bad luck with AMD. A couple AMD-based motherboards and video cards have failed (all running at stock clock speeds), and none with Intel/Nvidia so far.

Isn't having bad luck and things screw up/have to be tweaked/messed with part of the fun of computers? It's kinda like being into vinyl as an audiophile, no?

[HiWire]

Yes, I think the AMD demographic tends to go for hot-rod builds, but I had 2 motherboards, 2 video cards, and a TV tuner card fail in my 20-year experience with AMD (all ASUS) as well as multiple chip failures in MacBook Pros, so I'll avoid them in personal systems from now on. I did think about going with a different OEM (like Gigabyte), but I think the overall experience would be about the same.

Speaking of Gigabyte:

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by HiWire

[Fitz]

41 minutes ago, MexicanDragon said:

Isn't having bad luck and things screw up/have to be tweaked/messed with part of the fun of computers? It's kinda like being into vinyl as an audiophile, no?

It was definitely a normal part of life with ATI cards before AMD bought them, though as far as I understand AMD does still have some of that classic ATI driver jank for their video cards.

[blessingx]

If you need a laugh this Apple Music review is pretty fun. Poor Steve Jobs’ ghost. 

 

[HiWire]

I reverted to iTunes on macOS 10.13. At least it works properly with my iPod Shuffle.

[blessingx]

“Rumors have indicated that Apple is preparing to launch a new "Hi-Fi" tier of ‌Apple Music‌ involving lossless audio and perhaps a Spatial Audio experience on compatible hardware. An announcement could come as soon as this Tuesday, May 18.”

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/16/apple-music-about-to-change-forever/ 

[blessingx]

Apple Music officially announced that it is bringing lossless music quality options to its entire catalog at no extra cost, starting in June. Apple says lossless quality will be available for more than 75 million tracks in the Apple Music library.

It is also launching support for Spatial Audio music with songs authored in Dolby Atmos. Users will be able to listen to select albums with an immersive 3D sound-space on AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and Beats headphones with a H1 or W1 chip. Apple says thousands of Dolby Atmos songs will go live in June.
https://9to5mac.com/2021/05/17/apple-music-announces-it-is-bringing-lossless-audio-to-entire-catalog-at-no-extra-cost-spatial-audio-features/ 

In related news... 

A few moments before Apple announced its HiFi plan, Amazon announced that its higher-quality music plan, Amazon Music HD, is now available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost.

As first reported by Billboard, Amazon Music HD, which previously cost $14.99 a month and $12.99 for Prime Members, is now available to everyone with Amazon Music Unlimited, which costs $9.99 month and $7.99 for Prime members. 

https://9to5mac.com/2021/05/17/amazon-music-hd-available/ 

Edited May 17, 2021 by blessingx

[Hopstretch]

Good guy Tim Apple.

[TMoney]

I’m potentially interested. Let’s see how it ends up working out next month. The spatial stuff sounds like a gimmick, but I’d be happy to be proved wrong. 

[HiWire]

This is great. Looking forward to my lossless copies of Johnny Hates Jazz and Scorpions tracks!

I wonder if the new features will get added to older versions like iTunes in macOS and Windows later.

Edited May 17, 2021 by HiWire

[Grahame]

Oh well,

The Verge: Apple’s $549 AirPods Max can’t play lossless Apple Music — even when plugged in.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/17/22440788/apple-airpods-max-lossless-music-explainer-spatial-audio

 

#AirPodsMaxPro?

[shellylh]

I can’t really imagine using the APM plugged in. The whole reason I bought them was to have an easy to use, comfortable, closed, and good sounding Bluetooth headphone to use when I’m not plugged I to a big rig. They play that role perfectly.

[TMoney]

1 hour ago, shellylh said:

I can’t really imagine using the APM plugged in. The whole reason I bought them was to have an easy to use, comfortable, closed, and good sounding Bluetooth headphone to use when I’m not plugged I to a big rig. They play that role perfectly.

Agreed. They are not cheap but they are really good at what they do. I'm yet to meet anyone who owns them and doesn't like them.

With wireless headphones I care a lot more about having a good connection with good range than I do lossless over AAC. I imagine Apple's engineers felt the same way.

[blessingx]

Supplemental info at 

https://9to5mac.com/2021/05/17/apple-music-lossless-requires-wired-headphones-airpods-will-only-get-spatial-audio/

 

[shellylh]

This is probably a very dumb question but why don’t they make headphones that connect via WiFi on a local network? Basically duct tape a battery powered raspberry pi with ropieexl and small dac to the headphone but make it look like a nice fancy Apple product. Is there too small of a population?

[TMoney]

I'd guess there just wasn't a need for it until recently now that every streaming service is jumping on the lossless/hi-rez train.

Probably an upsell feature on AirPod Max 2?

[Grahame]

I think the use case has always been there 

"As an Audiophile, I want to listen to lossless audio on wireless headphones, so I don't have to look like some kind of savage"

The need is a classic chicken / egg  for the apple ecosystem* - no lossless audio from Apple - so no requirement.

*Other ecosystems exist outside the walled garden.

https://darko.audio/2017/12/how-to-enable-aptx-hd-bluetooth-audio-on-your-iphone-ipad/

But the tension between a low energy local communication protocol ( bluetooth) - to improve battery life on wireless devices, 

and the need for the required bandwidth for lossless audio ( and the energy it would take to implement it ) have now come to a head.

 

So probably a new version of bluetooth and an supported codec (aptX lossless?) is required to make it a reality , for a given bit depth / sampling rate definition of lossless.

New hardware / software all round to get this tick box requirement met!

Yay!

 

 

[tkam]

Actually, it's likely an issue of power consumption.  Wifi uses significantly more power more than Bluetooth.  

[Grahame]

cynics might argue just how courageous it was to delete the headphone jack, in hindsight, wired (analog) headphones (e.g. JH-13's) being able to do lossless, assuming the necessary hardware (dacs etc) onboard.

Meanwhile ...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-monopolist-worm-in-apple-11621290094

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Grahame

[Hopstretch]

A lot of good news in here. Particularly a new kickass M2 Mac Mini!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-18/apple-readies-macbook-pro-macbook-air-revamps-with-faster-chips?

Quote

Apple Inc. is preparing to release several new Mac laptops and desktops with faster processors, new designs and improved connectivity to external devices, accelerating the company’s effort to replace Intel Corp. chips and leapfrog rival PC makers.

The overhaul encompasses a broad range of Macs, including Apple’s higher-end laptop, the MacBook Pro; the laptop aimed at the mass market, the MacBook Air; and its desktop computers, the Mac Pro, iMac and Mac mini, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

Redesigned MacBook Pros are expected to debut as soon as early this summer, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal matter, followed by a revamped MacBook Air, a new low-end MacBook Pro and an all-new Mac Pro workstation. The company is also working on a higher-end Mac mini desktop and larger iMac. The machines will feature processors designed in-house that will greatly outpace the performance and capabilities of the current M1 chips, the people said.

 

Apple plans to launch the redesigned MacBook Pros in 14-inch (code name J314) and 16-inch screen (J316) sizes. They’ll have a redesigned chassis, magnetic MagSafe charger and more ports for connecting external drives and devices. Apple is also bringing back the HDMI port and SD card slot, which it nixed in previous versions, sparking criticism from photographers and the like.

 

Apple on Tuesday said the new 24-inch iMac will be available in stores on May 21. The shares were mostly unchanged.

 

PC shipments jumped 32% in the first quarter, Gartner Inc. said last month, the fastest year-over-year growth since the firm began tracking the market in 2000. Apple was the fourth-leading seller with 15% of the U.S. market, an increase from 12% in the quarter a year earlier, and 8% globally.

The Mac line of products has been a growing contributor to the company’s revenue, generating $9.1 billion in Apple’s January-March quarter, or 10% of total sales.

Apple last fall started replacing Intel processors with M1 chips, based on the same technology in the iPhone and iPad. Those eat less power and let the Mac run the same apps as the mobile devices. Now more powerful iterations of the company’s silicon are coming to the Mac line. They’ll have more graphics and computing cores, boosting speeds for everyday tasks and such intensive work as video editing and programming.

For the new MacBook Pros, Apple is planning two different chips, codenamed Jade C-Chop and Jade C-Die: both include eight high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores for a total of 10, but will be offered in either 16 or 32 graphics core variations.

The high-performance cores kick in for more complex jobs, while the energy-efficient cores operate at slower speeds for more basic needs like web browsing, preserving battery life. The new chips differ from the M1’s design, which has four high-performance cores, four energy-efficient cores and eight graphics cores in the current 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Read more: Apple Preps Next Mac Chips With Aim to Outclass Top-End PC

The chips also include up to 64 gigabytes of memory versus a maximum of 16 on the M1. They’ll have an improved Neural Engine, which processes machine-learning tasks, and enable the addition of more Thunderbolt ports, which let users sync data and connect to external devices, than the two on the current M1 MacBook Pro.

This will be the first time professional Macs get in-house main processors; eventually the company will stop selling the high-end Intel MacBook Pros.

Apple has also been working on a more powerful version of the Mac mini (code name J374) with the same chip as the next MacBook Pro. It’s expected to have four ports versus the pair available on the current low-end version and to sit above the current entry-level M1 Mac Mini. Apple could delay or cancel the new mini’s launch -- as it has in the past -- but eventually the company will likely replace the Intel-equipped version it now sells.

Buyers of the high-end Mac Pro desktop planned for next year will likely have a choice of two processors that are either twice or four times as powerful as the new high-end MacBook Pro. Codenamed Jade 2C-Die and Jade 4C-Die, a redesigned Mac Pro is planned to come in 20 or 40 computing core variations, made up of 16 high-performance or 32 high-performance cores and four or eight high-efficiency cores. The chips would also include either 64 core or 128 core options for graphics. The computing core counts top the 28 core maximum offered by today’s Intel Mac Pro chips, while the higher-end graphics chips would replace parts now made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

For a redesigned, higher-end MacBook Air planned for as early as the end of the year, Apple is planning a direct successor to the M1 processor. That chip, codenamed Staten, will include the same number of computing cores as the M1 but run faster. It will also see the number of graphics cores increase from seven or eight to nine or 10. Apple is also planning an update to the low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro with that same chip.

As early as 2022, Apple plans to replace the last remaining Intel part with an in-house version. Apple’s current M1 Macs still use an Intel component known as a USB Retimer, which helps power the USB-C and Thunderbolt ports on its computers.

 

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Hopstretch

[blessingx]

[HiWire]

16 vs 32 cores – no contest.

It kind of sounds like Adios, AMD to me as well.

[TMoney]

Picked up the new hotness today. Holy moly this thing is big coming off the 2018 11”.

The keyboard case was expensive but it feels great. HDR on the new screen is stunning. Nearly LG-OLED-like blacks and eye-searing brightness.

All that is missing is Apple letting us run full desktop-Mac apps on this thing!

[TMoney]

I spent the afternoon working from the iPad attached to my thunderbolt 3 dock.

It is remarkable how close this thing is to being a desktop replacement. If WWDC brings us a little more love for iPad OS and the ability to run full MacOS apps like office then I could see totally replacing a laptop with the iPad Pro.

Having a monitor, mouse, keyboard, DAC, ethernet, and power all connected via a single cable to a thunderbolt dock feels like the fucking future.