Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple TV plays ALAC fine, but it only outputs 48kHz, and so far there is not possible to change output sampling frequency and bit depth on its DAC.

Perhaps they will enable bit perfect playback with tvOs 14.6... I know, I know, I´m dreaming.
 
It's very good, but it's not sending uncompressed 32bit audio and even @ 16bit it cant replicate CD quality 100%.

And transmission @ 990kbps is sketchy except for ideal environments.

There is nothing sketchy about it I can confess to that. I've done walks, short jogs for years now on 990kbps and I have yet to have an signal interruption. I even had wifi turned on at the same time I'm streaming 990kbps like hundreds of times. Like I said in previous post this is Sony's own technology so it works it's best when using Sony everything.
 
Lol I have the hardware to use this, but I would have to use my non-apple hardware, my USB DAC and HD800S. Seems dumb when I bought the new 2021 IPad Pro and iPod Max that I can't use apple's new feature... and instead I have to hook my non-apple hardware to my MacBook pro during work. If that's the case I won't have a need for my AirPod Max's as I use them during work to take calls and listen to music...

Also, I have the 3.5mm to lightning cable, it seems to bypass the onboard DAC (which I guess is why it doesn't work wired via lightning to usb-c) but Max's sound dull and quiet. I never use it because I'd litterally rather listen to any other headphones than the iPod Max wired. They sound awful wired compared to a nice open-back headphone.
 
There is a workaround, FWIW. The Apple 4K camera adapter supports lossless, but you have to connect it to a DAC.
For a stationary device thats okay.
But pssst, don't say that too loud, else we might see people running outside like this, just because of Apple Music lossless, with a connected DAC on their back, etc. 😄:
Screenshot 2021-05-17 at 23.16.27.png
 
...much like how AAC is Apple's and it sounds best on Apples devices.
AAC is not Apple's, it is Mpeg 4 Audio, ergo the .m4a extension. It is a successor to mp3. ALAC is Apple's, Apple's Lossless Audio CODEC, and it is all in an mp4 container like Mpeg 4 Audio, even though it is Apple's format. AAC was created LONG before Apple started using it.
 
Not to disappoint you further, but any €100 pair of wired headphones would likely equal or surpass anything over BT, so even had you been able to get HR music with your AirPods Max, it would still have been an expensive solution. However you chose them for their convenience, their looks, their noise cancelling (the brand / ecosystem?) and all of that is the same today as they were the day you bought them.
Thanks for being nice. I will still like it, I knew they were overpriced when I bought them but I liked the things you mentioned and some more. I still think they sounds amazing and I love spatial audio in films and tv shows, but it’s disappointing to see a new services that it’s not compatible with a 600€ 6 month old device. I knew it can’t do it by BT, but not even wired…
 
Lol I have the hardware to use this, but I would have to use my non-apple hardware, my USB DAC and HD800S. Seems dumb when I bought the new 2021 IPad Pro and iPod Max that I can't use apple's new feature... and instead I have to hook my non-apple hardware to my MacBook pro during work. If that's the case I won't have a need for my AirPod Max's as I use them during work to take calls and listen to music...

Also, I have the 3.5mm to lightning cable, it seems to bypass the onboard DAC (which I guess is why it doesn't work wired via lightning to usb-c) but Max's sound dull and quiet. I never use it because I'd litterally rather listen to any other headphones than the iPod Max wired. They sound awful wired compared to a nice open-back headphone.
Have you tried the Apple 4K camera adapter? I plug my USB DAC into that, and it supports 192. My understanding is that it’s the only piece of hardware that allows a user to play the larger, high-res files out of an iPhone. Pain in the a$$, but it works for me, FWIW.
 
AAC is not Apple's, it is Mpeg 4 Audio, ergo the .m4a extension. It is a successor to mp3. ALAC is Apple's, Apple's Lossless Audio CODEC, and it is all in an mp4 container like Mpeg 4 Audio, even though it is Apple's format. AAC was created LONG before Apple started using it.

From what I know Apple has implemented it's own encoder/decoder AAC which they exclusively use on iOS devices. Some say that is the reason why it sounds better than AAC on Windows, others say iOS adds some vst like enhancements to the sounds source.
 
Apple TV plays ALAC fine, but it only outputs 48kHz, and so far there is not possible to change output sampling frequency and bit depth on its DAC.
Im confused by your statement here (is there even an AppleTV DAC when it's HDMI only?) - I believe at least as far as the new AppleTV 4k is concerned - all audio is handled via HDMI 2.1 which I believe incorporates the new eARC allowing up to 8 channels of 24bit/192kHz of audio. I guess its a question of what iTunes on AppleTV will output once the Apple Music enhancements are implemented.
 
So, your reply doesn't back up the other person's response either then. Nothing confirms that the AirPod Max's can will play lower quality lossless over it's cable, which is the point we're talking about.
With the cable shipped with AirPods you can’t listen to music at all (it’s a charger cable). You can buy a cable ($35?) which would allow you to listen to music, and I cannot see any reason why you wouldn’t be able to listen to FLAC then? However, since the Max only accept a digital connection, they will need to be several analogue to digital conversions which must impact overall quality. The music device converts digital to analogue (audio Jack), then the Max converts analogue back to digital (lightening) and then back to analogue for the actual speakers.
 
Sony earbuds support a codec that supports a much higher bit rate for lossless. I was hoping apple would push a firmware update to airpods allowing them to receive higher quality streaming. Otherwise it is a waste. This explains why they aren’t charging extra for it.
 
From what I know Apple has implemented it's own encoder/decoder AAC which they exclusively use on iOS devices. Some say that is the reason why it sounds better than AAC on Windows, others say iOS adds some vst like enhancements to the sounds source.
Well, that is a different point. Just like you can use the LAME or the iTunes or other encoders/decoders for mp3, you can do the same for m4a (AAC). Jut because Apple wrote their own encoder for AAC (as most vendors make their own encoders) that does not make AAC theirs. If anything, ALAC flattens this because does not matter whose encoder/decoder you use, ALAC is lossless, so ALAC is the same as FLAC or AIFF or WAV....
 
So I am confused now. What is the point of this new feature now? Can someone breakdown this a little better?
They can play DolbyAtmon, lossless is for audiophile and takes a lot of data that is quite too much for bluetooth connection.You get better quality, you can have perfect quality (with gigantic files) with wired highend headphones. Nothing strange here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ansath
With the cable shipped with AirPods you can’t listen to music at all (it’s a charger cable). You can buy a cable ($35?) which would allow you to listen to music, and I cannot see any reason why you wouldn’t be able to listen to FLAC then? However, since the Max only accept a digital connection, they will need to be several analogue to digital conversions which must impact overall quality. The music device converts digital to analogue (audio Jack), then the Max converts analogue back to digital (lightening) and then back to analogue for the actual speakers.


So, although some people on here are saying it’s possible, contradictory to your post, Apple haven’t confirmed either way.
 
I have B&W PX via BT AptX that run at 24bit 48kHz but the brand new AirPods Max don't. What a joke. Apple needs to adopt AptX already or develop a codec that can run 24bit 48kHz or higher. This is nonsense. I can understand the AirPods Pro and AirPods not supporting.
You missed the point. Of course it is not a problem to have 24 bit and 192khz on a lossy codec. But you missed they key keyword: lossless.
 
You missed the point. Of course it is not a problem to have 24 bit and 192khz on a lossy codec. But you missed they key keyword: lossless.
yeah, it's all a bit confusing... are AltX and LDAC lossless, or not? The point about lossless compression is that it doesn't have anything to do with audio "quality", per se, just whether the compression allows the original data to be fully decoded—i.e., you could compress a low-res audio file using a lossless codec and the result would be exactly as sh***y as the original. Haha... The point is the "exactly" part. So are these codecs lossless?
 
I don’t know if there will be updates to iTunes to support 192/24 and 96/24 but I’m guessing there will be?? I’m currently play dsf and FLAC files through a free 3rd party app. I use the HDMI output from my MacBook to my Denon receiver, which has an internal DAC. It also works with my Oppo Blu-ray player’s HDMI input. I’ll be curious to see how Apple’s format will work from an output standpoint. Intrigued by the possibility of accessing additional content
Is your question about iTunes Store? It seem like it is Apple Music only.

If your question is about ALAC and iTunes, the support for it has been for years. I convert SACD to ALAC to use it in the Apple Music app.
 
So an over $500 set of headphones can't play high res audio? This is a real facepalm for Apple here.

I guess all the people who have been saying that bluetooth doesn't have the same audio quality as a 3.5mm pin ever since Apple dumped the 3.5mm pin had a point. Ever since the iTunes music store started selling songs for 99 cents, Apple's music has always been about convenience trumping quality. People cannot possibly be surprised by this unless they were just took drunk on kool-aid to enjoy the new flavor of kool-aid.
 
So I am confused now. What is the point of this new feature now? Can someone breakdown this a little better?
Lossless audio is like a zip file for audio. If each time you expanded your word file and re-saved it you lost a few letters and words, well that would be unacceptable, right? When you rip a CD to mp3 or m4a, you lose a certain amount of audio but save a lot of space. If you expand it back to CD resolution and compress it again, each time you will lose more of the sound. If you compress and expand a zip file again and again you will end up with this same thing. Think of JPEG vs Bitmap. You probably won't see the difference, but JPEG will lose something each time you re-save it. Lossless audio will not lose any of the information in the original file....
 
Given my poor childhood decision making back when I got my first Walkman in high school and I listened to music at levels that I shouldn’t have, not to mention my questionable adult decisions I’ve made, like living with a rock band in college where our “stereo“ consisted of multiple sets of Electro-Voice loudspeakers with 15” woofers, I have zero need or interest in lossless music. Like so many people, I am more than happy listening to low bit rate music using so-so quality Bluetooth headphones. I do however really dig spatial audio. Reminds me of a friend in high school whose dad had a really cool quadraphonic 4 channel stereo and we’d geek out over hearing the music come from the four corners of the room it was set up in.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DotCom2

So, although some people on here are saying it’s possible, contradictory to your post, Apple haven’t confirmed either way.
What if I used the 3.5mm to lightning cable to connect APM to a CD player? Does APM support lossless? Unless the ADC and DAC in that combo is less than 16bit/44.1kHz (Apple would have had to try really hard to cheap out that badly), then the answer is technically yes.

And the lightning to 3.5mm dongle has a standard DAC in it, so it also supports lossless (16bit/44.1kHz) as well. What it doesn't support is the high resolution or high sample rate (>48kHz) lossless.
 
So can we expect new hardware that will?
You know it, The rumor was this was meant for tomorrow with new hardware following it behind it but of course they want to get this out of the way first.

The history with apple and third party supporters is sketchy I have IEM that at one point the hardware maker did made built in DAC with lightning support, then a vital update to ios prevented me from using because it was considered malware but it wasn’t it. They might make future upcoming adapters for wired solutions in the future third party AND Apple headphones/earphones watch.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.