 Hey, I'm Chris. Apple Music just launched, and with it all new questions about audio quality. Now, all these major streaming services stream at different rates. You have Apple Music at 256 kilobits per second, AAC encoded. Then you have Spotify at 320 kilobits per second, MP3 encoded. And then you have Tidal, which streams lossless at 1.4 megabits per second. So all of these services have different streaming rates. What does it mean in the real world? Well, we wanted to find out. So we invited a few of our colleagues to come in here and do a blind test. Let's see which one is really best. To run this test, we played three different songs across three different genres, hip-hop, pop and classical. We also had a full range of audio snobbery in the hot seat, ranging from the casual listener to the hardcore audiophile. No matter what kind of music we like, one thing brings us together, our endless desire to describe music with colorful adjectives. Crisp, I guess. Like crunchy, a little crunchy. The second one was less foamy in the bass. There was like a different wrap up on each of them. And less whooshy-washy. Higher, a little tinier. But can people actually tell what's better? I think I liked three best. The first one sounded the worst. The highs actually clipped really high, really aggressively. This is the day-do. Never mind, this is the day-do. This is the real day-do. The first one was definitely the weakest. Three was the best. With maybe three sounding the best. Because the highs were a little better, I would assume that the third one would have the widest bandwidth. This one's like fine, but it's like kind of like, whatever dude. I'm thinking this is Apple. I think the one in the middle is my choice for the top quality. I felt like the second one was the best one. The bass was like really pronounced. And this last one sounded the best. Cool. Three was best. This one's absolute trash. So the first one sounded the worst. The sound's a little more like complex than the first one. In the horns anyway. Too crunchy. I know she likes crunchy horns, but I feel like they're crunchy in a way she didn't want. This one's good, I think. This one definitely sounds the best. More definition across the range. No, I think third one was the best. More texture, more sound. Third one was definitely the best. Of those three, it sounded to me like the second one would have been the flag. It had the most definition in the bass and in the highs. If I had to say, I would say the last one was the best, but I don't know. Like it had a thus complex range of things going on. But two sounded the lowest out of those. Second one was the worst. So what have we learned from this experiment? Not very much. It wasn't that title with its lossless 1.4 megabit streaming was winning every time. In fact, it wasn't winning a majority of the time. Now part of this might be that we're using very average headphones connected to a phone. And if you have this on, say, a home audio system with very expensive components, very expensive headphones, very expensive loudspeakers, you would be able to tell the difference. But if you're just using this as a mobile audio service, a mobile streaming service, it doesn't seem to matter.
 Hey, I'm Chris.
 Apple Music just launched, and with it all new questions about audio quality.
 Now, all these major streaming services stream at different rates.
 You have Apple Music at 256 kilobits per second, AAC encoded.
 Then you have Spotify at 320 kilobits per second, MP3 encoded.
 And then you have Tidal, which streams lossless at 1.4 megabits per second.
 So all of these services have different streaming rates.
 What does it mean in the real world?
 Well, we wanted to find out.
 So we invited a few of our colleagues to come in here and do a blind test.
 Let's see which one is really best.
 To run this test, we played three different songs across three different genres, hip-hop,
 pop and classical.
 We also had a full range of audio snobbery in the hot seat, ranging from the casual listener
 to the hardcore audiophile.
 No matter what kind of music we like, one thing brings us together, our endless desire
 to describe music with colorful adjectives.
 Crisp, I guess.
 Like crunchy, a little crunchy.
 The second one was less foamy in the bass.
 There was like a different wrap up on each of them.
 And less whooshy-washy.
 Higher, a little tinier.
 But can people actually tell what's better?
 I think I liked three best.
 The first one sounded the worst.
 The highs actually clipped really high, really aggressively.
 This is the day-do.
 Never mind, this is the day-do.
 This is the real day-do.
 The first one was definitely the weakest.
 Three was the best.
 With maybe three sounding the best.
 Because the highs were a little better, I would assume that the third one would have
 the widest bandwidth.
 This one's like fine, but it's like kind of like, whatever dude.
 I'm thinking this is Apple.
 I think the one in the middle is my choice for the top quality.
 I felt like the second one was the best one.
 The bass was like really pronounced.
 And this last one sounded the best.
 Cool.
 Three was best.
 This one's absolute trash.
 So the first one sounded the worst.
 The sound's a little more like complex than the first one.
 In the horns anyway.
 Too crunchy.
 I know she likes crunchy horns, but I feel like they're crunchy in a way she didn't want.
 This one's good, I think.
 This one definitely sounds the best.
 More definition across the range.
 No, I think third one was the best.
 More texture, more sound.
 Third one was definitely the best.
 Of those three, it sounded to me like the second one would have been the flag.
 It had the most definition in the bass and in the highs.
 If I had to say, I would say the last one was the best, but I don't know.
 Like it had a thus complex range of things going on.
 But two sounded the lowest out of those.
 Second one was the worst.
 So what have we learned from this experiment?
 Not very much.
 It wasn't that title with its lossless 1.4 megabit streaming was winning every time.
 In fact, it wasn't winning a majority of the time.
 Now part of this might be that we're using very average headphones connected to a phone.
 And if you have this on, say, a home audio system with very expensive components, very
 expensive headphones, very expensive loudspeakers, you would be able to tell the difference.
 But if you're just using this as a mobile audio service, a mobile streaming service,
 it doesn't seem to matter.