Frequency response while streaming stops at 15kHz- did I miss something in the fine print?


I am streaming with Qobuz.  It sounds great playing both CD quality and hi-rez music.  So what's the trouble?  While working to get the bass response in my room just right I found test tracks on Qobuz.  This was very handy as I played 30-60 Hz test tones over and over.  So when I was done with that I streamed a pink noise track and pulled up the FFT analyzer app on my iPhone.  Surprisingly, I see the trace drop straight down to 0 dB above 15 kHz.  I streamed some test tones and confirmed that above 15 kHz nothing is happening at the speakers.  In my old and decrepit state I can no longer hear above 15 kHz so I am relying on the app.  In a panic that something is wrong with my speakers I pull out my vinyl test record.  I have a nice, pretty flat frequency response from 20-20 kHz showing on the FFT app.  I put in a test CD and again show a good 20-20k.  Lastly, I ripped the test CD onto my server and again had a good 20-20k response.  So why did I not know about the limited bandwidth while streaming?  Is it just me?  It is an abrupt cutoff above 15 kHz while streaming.  What's going on?
128x128tonywinga

Showing 3 responses by discopants

I think it’s an apple thing OP. If you stream from an apple device hi rez stuff gets compressed by apple. Heard this from some folks

Check it’s not a app setting though

I have lots of apple devices but I use a Samsung phone and bubble upnp to stream qobuz. 
P.s compressed music can sound mighty good indeed if it's been compressed thoughtfully from red book or high res.

You can lose very little quality, especially with a DAC that upsamples well.

However if the recording is poor and compressed from the get go you will notice.

Recording quality is orders of magnitude more important than digital compression.
It's not the limitation of iPhone microphone it's a limitation of the way apple wireless devices stream. 

The stream actually passes through the phone and apple compressed it.