RichFo

I think that there is a lot of criticism because of what this service is not, rather than what it is. This is all about convenience and access. I personally love having access to my entire music collection on my portable devices. I even used it to upgrade some of my older, low bitrate, mp3 files to 256kbp.<br /> I don't have the illusion that I will have super high fidelity on my laptop, or my iPhone, that's not what they are for. I have about 18,000 songs (about 70% in lossless format) on a Mac Mini, which is hooked up to to my A/V system, I used to keep them all on my laptop too. I've since deleted all the music from my laptop, then made a playlist of a few hundred songs, and downloaded them from iCloud, freeing up about 400G from my hard drive, making my laptop much quicker. I also just got an iPhone 4s, and opted for the 16G version, rather than the 32 or 64G versions, I just didn't need the space.<br /> I realize that this is an audiophile site, but anyone that believes that they are getting audiophile quality from a laptop, or phone, is fooling themselves. If you have some other need, which requires access to all your high fidelity files, this is not the service for you, carry an external hardrive.<br />

Call me crazy, but I don't really expect a super high quality from my mobile devices. I realize that this is an audiophile site, and anything short of audio bliss is unacceptible,but my listening is very different on my home system than on a mobile system. <br /> Using the iCloud system, I will be able to access all my music while waiting in a doctors office, or walking through a mall, or driving in my car, where the biggest issue with sound quality is blocking out all the droning noise around me. I can be on a break at work, and play that new album that I just ripped for a friend that may be interested. Meanwhile, all my lossless files will be sitting on my hard drive at home, waiting for me to sit down, dim the lights, pour a glass of wine, and submerse myself in.<br /> I love my high end music, but listening on the go, IMHO, is not an audiophile activity, it's about convienience, accessibility, and ease of use.<br />