Apple Music vs. YouTube sound quality

esarhaddon

Most of the tracks I find on Qobuz are only CD quality and often Bootube and other disrespected sources have EXACTLY the same of even better tracks available.

Qobuz is lossless and all files are CD quality (Redbook) or better.

Youtube uses lossy compression, and it usually sounds like it. It can only sound "better" if you prefer your music to be compressed and squashed.

I am not surprised by your finding. Contrary to popular beliefs, Most of the tracks I find on Qobuz are only CD quality and often Bootube and other disrespected sources have EXACTLY the same of even better tracks available. I have found that if you look carefully enough, MANY of the tracks on various sties on the web are the SAME track. Look in to those carefully and you might find some slight error/flaws made when the track was saved or uploaded, cut off starts, and endings things like that and you can see that these are the same source music. The rest is just disrespect by some people that would have yo believe in something that they want to whine about.

YT music has been using AAC up to 128 kbps for the free one and up to 256 kbps for the paid service.  I have been extensively listening to YT music for about 2 years and no codec change away from that setting.  AAC is in general better than MP3 at the same bit rate thanks to the better compression algorithm.  Compared to lossless music like flac, the difference in SQ varies.  Sometimes, I could not differentiate them even using high quality headphone.  Admittedly, YT music SQ is improving in a great extent. 

Assuming that Apple Music is setup properly and volume equalized, the only conclusion that I can make is the obvious, Apple doesn’t always deliver the claimed bitrate and/or storage/stream integrity.

Doesn’t YouTube’s highest paid service stream like 256 MP3?

I also stream Apple Music (it is built into my McIntosh A/V processor) and watch music videos on YouTube through my main hi-fi system.  Like you, i have noticed that sometimes YouTube sounds better.  I first noticed it on Melody Gardot and Eva Cassidy recordings.  I don't know why, and appreciate your posting the question.

Do a free trial of Qobuz that has superior quality to either Apple or YT just to see if you can hear any further benefit.  Plus, it probably has 90%+ of all your music in the cloud.  Nothing to lose and possibly much to gain as you obviously appreciate better sound quality. 

Since Apple Music is a paid service, I would start a support ticket. I only use Apple Music with Bluetooth EarPods and no lossless via Bluetooth.  It seems that my Sony/Google TV suggest Fart Music app, but doesn’t allow Apple Music.

That is different than my experience but wil check it out and compare again

My next listening was "Howlin' Wolf", the London Sessions, a favorite recording of mine. The same thing here with the Red Rooster track: while the Apple Lossless version is superb, the YouTube recording brings home the bacon: Clapton and Steve Winwood on the Left, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman on the Right and Howlin' Wolf smack center and about three feet forward. Simply great, and yes: better than the Apple Lossless version. There seems to be a theme here ...