Are you sure about that? Are you sure the Sony can accept straight digital output through USB-C? The way I understand it, the Sony is the same. USB-C is for charging only. Wired mode is through the analog cable, which the Airpods Max also does (the difference being that the cable is sold separately with Apple).
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AirPods Max Won't Directly Support Lossless Apple Music Over Lightning
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This is an awful rollout LOL. Kinda had a feeling Apple would drop the ball.
i'd say that i'm happy that i never got these s—ts, but i never considered getting them to begin with, so i guess i'm just indifferent 
To take advantage of 24/48 you're going to need an extremely expensive Digital Analogue Converter, the likes of are only fitted to expensive sound cards for pro/semi-pro recording studios.
But the good news is it doesn't matter because peer-reviewed studies consistently show that actual humans can't tell the damn difference anyway.
The Apple Music AAC is 256kbps. Amazon Music HD and Tidal stream at 320kbps+ so of course with a good set of headphones (even bluetooth) you're able to notice a difference.This just hasn't been what I've heard though, nor what you see in some of the more audiophile written reviews of AirPods Max, etc.
I don't think I have that good of ears, but still subbed to two services to get the lossless.
It has nothing to do with any double compression, though. All audio is streamed to airpods in the exact same way from the device regardless of source. This audio can be better or lower quality but it's not being transmitted in any other way.
The only time this is different is when you're using the mics in the airpods i.e. for a call, then its a two way transmission of audio to and from the airpods, and audio will get transmitted to the airpods at a lower bitrate by standard.
Would have been much more fun if Apple still waited a few more weeks before revealing that lossless doesn't work with the AirPods – when all the people with golden ears here already raved about how much better and nuanced Apple Music songs now sound in comparison to before ...
Something must have caused them to move Lossless up to an earlier release date (Spotify Loseless HiFi announcement). It makes no sense to not have a solution for headphones from an iOS device. I expect new headphones that use WiFi instead of Bluetooth or something else to overcome this.
Humans can't tell the difference between the sound quality of an AirPods max and a pair of headphones 1/5 of the price, either. All this means is that the APM is a waste of money.
I don’t have APM, but what happens if you were to plug them into an iPad Pro or iPad Air that has a USB-C connector, using a lightning to USB-C cable? Then the APM could theoretically receive the digital audio directly, with no analogue conversion in the middle, no? If this doesn’t work I’m sure they could add it with a firmware update.
I guess this wouldn’t work on iPhones because there is no lighting to lighting cable. You’d have to have a USB connection in the middle.
I guess this wouldn’t work on iPhones because there is no lighting to lighting cable. You’d have to have a USB connection in the middle.
I’m curious about how much of that lossless 24bit/48khz to analog back to 24bit/48khz is kept, because if it is a 99.9999% match then its 99.9999% lossless in practical terms. If it is 80% then yes, quite the puzzling statement.
In other domains it works... games can use texture compression algorithms that keep 99.99% of the data, differences to the source could imperceptible to the eye, same with AppleProRes video formats, they are not lossless in the strict sense but they are treated as such (except the non HQ ones like 422, LT, Proxy).
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AirPods Max Won't Directly Support Lossless Apple Music Over Lightning
Here's a more detailed statement that Apple gave to The Verge when using the APM with the Lightening to 3.5mm adapter; "So the natural question becomes... well, what are you hearing in that scenario? Apple tells The Verge that when you play a 24-bit / 48 kHz Apple Music lossless track from an...
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actually, this sounds very much like apple. no real surprise.
but but...they are called AirPods Pro! Where's the pro here?! hahaha
Yes, it's a mistake. It's people's mistake to expect a bluetooth headphone to support lossless audio.
That's why I never got the APM. Why would I when I already have the cheaper and better headphone(the Sennheiser HD6xx in my case)?
For bluetooth audio, my Airpods Pro and my Sony wh-1000xm3 are enough.
It's all moot anyway since 99% of people won't know the difference between lossy and lossless audio. This is just a gimmick to try to switch people from Tidal/Spotify to Apple Music.
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It's becoming clear that the only reason to release this now without a hardware story is to get a jump on the competition. It's ready on the software side, and Apple can thumb their noses at them by offering it for no extra cost, so out it goes now.
So Apple release a premium pair of headphones knowing they won't support the HD audio standard and content they are producing for release just months later? That's a bit scummy.
Another victim of the siloed secrecy culture in Apple. They just can't provide the vaunted integration they prided themselves in the past with.
No mistake, this is Tim's Apple. Timmy has a special solution for you though. You need to buy a brand new Airpods Max 2 ($800), require special cable ($30) sold separately, and two dongles (USB C and Lightening $15 Each). Note that the dongles will only last 6 month before disintegrating into nothing. Also, the cables will ONLY work with Apple Music and cannot be used for other music services. If you require it for other music services, that's another dongle sold separately but the dongle only works with a subscription to Apple music. Welcome to Tim's Apple
I guess it depends on the definition of extremely expensive. My current planar magnetics + headphone DAC were under $400 combined. You can use several existing services like Qobuz, Amazon HD, or Tidal to feed hires Flac via via $8 USB-C to USB-A pigtail from an iPad or Mac into the DAC, then 3.5mm out of DAC to headphones. For iPhone, I used to use the lightning camera adapter, but I mostly listen from iPad and Macbook now.
Disclaimer: I realize that Tidal MQA isn't technically lossless, and Amazon Music has device compatibility issues, but Qobuz is a good example of bit-perfect Flac transfer of 24/96+, similar to what could have been used with Apple Music ALAC+AirPods Max if they had a standard 3.5mm input. Also: Apple's holding on to the lightning connector prevents iPhone users from taking advantage of the growing number of portable USB-C dongle-DACs that are starting to hit the market with good reviews.
Sony XM4 has 3.5mm jack, as long as you plug it into a good DAC/AMP it should play lossless audio.
this feels like a big snub to the early adopter enthusiasts who jumped on when Apple finally brought out the headphones
Yeah, that's the point people seem to be missing. There are plenty of DAC/amp choices out there from a $100 combo to expensive separates, but lossless playback connectivty is trivial if 3.5mm is at the end of the chain.
No 3.5mm or optical-in. Form over function.
Basically the same as every pair of non-fully analog headphones in existence. Don't let the "can use a analog headphone cord" fool you. Either it re-digitizes the analog input or it doesn't and sounds like crap. Bose are the perfect example. They sound like garbage if used in analog only mode and/or no NR.
The WH1000XM4 for whatever they cost support lossless over wired the same way my $20 Skullycandy does.