iTunes - sounds terrible via Apple TV 4K

[Sonnie Parker]

iTunes had a deal running $10.99 for three months, so I figured I'd give it a run and check out some of the Atmos tracks. Wow... it sounded horrible. I don't know if it was because of the Apple TV 4K (I checked all the settings, and they appear to be normal) or what else might have been going on. I had to jump back over and crank up Roon just to make sure nothing was out of whack with my system. Whew... had me worried for a few minutes. Of course, I canceled it right away. Crazy how it can sound that bad. It makes me wonder if I have a bad 4K unit, but then I jumped over to Amazon Music, and it sounded 100% better. It still wasn't as good as Roon when comparing, but it was leaps better than iTunes. I thought iTunes was supposed to be pretty solid.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

That's odd. Apple Music sounds fantastic in my theater via an AppleTV 4K. I can't imagine it's some sort of lower quality tier for the demo. There must be something configured incorrectly in there. Did you try both Atmos and non-Atmos tracks?

My favorite Atmos music demo track is "Better Now" by ODESZA. Subtle at first, but then it hits a point where it goes bonkers.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Yes... both... nothing sounded right. I'm going to fire up my FireCube tonight and compare it head-to-head with the ATV 4K.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Something isn't right. Apple Music is a very high quality [streaming] source. There's an Apple Music app for the other streaming devices, right?

 

[Mike Schramm]

I've always better very happy with the sound quality of iTunes through my Apple TV 4K as well. Honestly, I've been an iTunes guy since the days of the click wheel iPod, so I don't have experience with any other services. This makes me wonder if there is something better and I don't even know it because I've been Apple this whole time.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I have been in iTunes since it was released, even when I was still using Windows computers. When I bought my first iPod I ripped a massive CD collection into my computer so I could easily load anything onto the iPod. Then I signed up for iTunes Match when it was first announced, so my entire CD collection was made available in the cloud - even my bootlegs and rarities were uploaded and available to stream from all my devices.

So then when I signed up for Apple Music, it had my entire massive music library available to learn and build recommendations from, which has been my favorite benefit. I use Apple Music to find new artists, then buy on vinyl.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I'll take some screenshots later, but all I see is a music icon, and it required me to sign up with Apple iTunes.