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AirPods Max Won't Directly Support Lossless Apple Music Over Lightning
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So I have a Topping D10 USB DAC on my Mac Mini M1 which plugs into a headphone amp connected to wired headphones. Does this play the elusive Apple Lossless?
Probably Jony Ive.
Thankfully, post-Ive products like the MacBook Pro with HDMI are coming soon.
You think it’s complicated now…wait until the portless iPhone
They didn't support lossless 6 months ago, why would they suddenly support it today? Lossless audio isn't an Apple thing. Did you guys just spend $600 without looking at the spec sheet?
Scammed into buying something that didn't have a feature that you didn't even know about till this morning? Riiiiiiiiiight....
There must be some misinterpretation going on, if the lightning cable is a straight analog connection to the internal headphone amp+drivers, there is no reason it would not support it using even the internal MacBook analog output. Unless there’s a stupid AD>DA useless converter being used in this connection. That would be dumb but possible.
Once Spotify offered Lossless, Apple Music was the only one that did not so they had to keep up with the Jonses.
It is part of the game to make people buy the next gen audio products.
I think maybe it'll have to be the APM connected to the lightning-8.5mm then connected directly to an external DAC. The DAC in the cable is designed for digital I think so it would nee an external amp/dac to drive the ALAC file using a laptop/phone? I think the headphone cable DAC turns off when plugged into a larger DAC? There's far too many adapting layers happening. I may be getting confused.
Glad I just returned it. Is it better to wait and see if Apple is going to release new AirPodsMax that will support it? Given that this thing came out about half a year ago, when shall we expect a new version be out?
I’m just in time to return my AirPods Max to these scammers
Not necessarily. The connection between your phone and your AirPods is like a kitchen faucet. Making the pipe bigger between the main water supply and your home won’t make a difference if the bottle neck is still your tiny little kitchen faucet.
"but there is debate about whether most people can even tell the difference between standard and lossless audio formats." if that were true, why offer it? and I seriously doubt that computer speakers offer the nuance here ...
It almost seems to me that the left didn't talk to the right at Apple ... offering a capability that your key products don't support?
It almost seems to me that the left didn't talk to the right at Apple ... offering a capability that your key products don't support?
No shocker here. Apple is notorious for not enabling features when they could, in order to keep customers in product upgrade cycle. Especially in its iPhones. The iPhone was behind with 3G, LTE and their current “5G” iteration. 120hz screens have been on competitors since 2017. Now Apple will unveil it on their 13 models like it’s some revolutionary technology. I’m sure there are more examples but these stand out.
As a Max owner of course I’m disappointed but I probably won’t hear the difference. product and services roadmaps are laid out years in advance and would have been nice for them to consider enabling it on 550 dollar headphone knowing this would be released in the near future. Boo Apple.
As a Max owner of course I’m disappointed but I probably won’t hear the difference. product and services roadmaps are laid out years in advance and would have been nice for them to consider enabling it on 550 dollar headphone knowing this would be released in the near future. Boo Apple.
They should just say that they support lossless. 
I'd bet that only a handful of audiophiles would notice.
Fact is - you really need high end audio equipment and a fine tuned sense of hearing to even tell once you get above 256kbps AAC. Plus - most pop is compressed to the point where bumping up to lossless doesn't replace the detail that's literally crushed out of the master.
I'd bet that only a handful of audiophiles would notice. Fact is - you really need high end audio equipment and a fine tuned sense of hearing to even tell once you get above 256kbps AAC. Plus - most pop is compressed to the point where bumping up to lossless doesn't replace the detail that's literally crushed out of the master.
More like, not get left behind. If looks like they were forced to release before they intended to. They have compatible hardware in the pipeline, but it not ready yet.
Is it outside the realm of your ability to show some compassion to those that purchased Apple's best, high-end Audiophile headphones, and now find out that when Apple releases their Audiophile music service it won't work with their audiophile headphones?
It seems a reasonable assumption to me. Not to mention, before ripping-off customers $600 for the headphones, Apple might have let people know ahead of time that they wouldn't work with any lossless music services, even wired.
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They didn’t support lossless 6 months ago, but there wasn’t an Apple lossless either. But to announce today something that is not compatible with any of your headphones and speakers is a no sense. Of course I knew when I bought them that they couldn’t do lossless by BT, but I never thought it wouldn’t be able even wired with an Apple service.
Anyone know of a guide for dummies (like me) to take full advantage of lossless audio?
it's quite clear that the upgrade to lossless is just to get people to jump ships from spotify