AirPods Max Won't Directly Support Lossless Apple Music Over Lightning

[zakarhino]

You think it’s complicated now…wait until the portless iPhone

That's my concern. For a second I had hope lightning was here to stay on iPhones because of Apple's shocking position on lossless hi-fi requiring a DAC via USB on iPhone (!!!, this is what I do at the moment). Then I woke up and remembered this is Apple, so in a couple of years they'll introduce the portless iPhone and "invent" a new chip for lossless streaming which will only be available in AirPods and potentially partnered headphones. I just want a lightning port in my iPhone permanently, I don't want a portless iPhone as there's absolutely no good reason to remove it.

 

[hajime]

My hunch is that with respect to audio, Apple has bet its future on Dolby Atmos / Spatial Audio so the HomePod / AirPods should provide the best possible experience for that codec. Lossless / Hi-Res Lossless is for those demanding audiophiles who want more than what the HomePod / APM can offer. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, that's just how I see it.

I have seen Thinkpads supporting Atmos for about two years.

 

[ignatius345]

The ALAC format was released in 2004 and open sourced in 2011. Not "6 months later".
What got released today is nothing you couldn't have known 6 months ago... Now you're just able to stream lossless instead of playing it from your downloaded library (if you owned lossless audio)

OK, an Apple music service tier released six months later, then. My point stands.

 

[blahbrah]

What is this for then?

Lightning to 3.5 mm Audio Cable 1.2m White - Apple

Apple Store Search Results

www.apple.com

The Verge explains what the core issue is. When hooked up via cable it still has to redigitize the data to play it unlike traditional analog headphones.

Pretty wild you have to pick between lossless or spatial audio though.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

High end audiophile headphones are NOT bluetooth, never have been.

I guess we could argue what an "audiophile" is, but that's sort of like arguing politics or religion.

Wikipedia says "An audiophile is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction"

I would say that someone who spends $600 on AirPods Max are somewhat enthusiatic about high-fidelity sound, right?

Apple's own AirPods Max site says they are for "high fidelity" listening.

So, sure AirPods Max are not $2000 cans, but who's to say that a person listening to them is not an "audiophile"?

 

[4491275]

Earlier today, we confirmed that AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max will not support lossless audio over Bluetooth because of Bluetooth limitations, and it turns out there's no direct wired lossless option for the AirPods Max either.

Apple's AirPods Max headphones are equipped with a Lightning port, but it is limited to analog output sources and will not natively support digital audio formats in wired mode. Apple has not yet said whether the AirPods Max support lossless audio over Lightning with a digital to analog converter.

Apple has confirmed that lossless audio can be listened to on an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV, but the higher quality audio is not available on AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max. Apple lossless is also not available on the HomePod.

Listening to lossless audio on an iOS device will require wired headphones compatible with the ALAC format, and possibly a digital to analog converter. That the $549 AirPods Max do not work with Apple lossless is sure to upset some fans, but there is debate about whether most people can even tell the difference between standard and lossless audio formats.

Though the AirPods Max headphones do not support lossless audio, they are compatible with Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, another new feature that Apple is bringing to Apple Music. Spatial Audio will allow artists to create multidimensional music that sounds like it's coming from all around you, and this feature is available on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip.

Article Link: AirPods Max Won't Directly Support Lossless Apple Music Over Lightning

Bad move Apple. You bungled this launch so bad—now all you have is millions of folks disappointed. Lossless seems to be lost.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Curse of the Apple 1G product strikes again. Or you could just call it the best planned obsolescence game in the history of history.

 

[doboy]

You're talking about a company that sells a $350 keyring ...

That's because it's Hermes and they even sell $10k handbags so don't see your point.

 

[hajime]

If the AirPodsMax came with usb-c port, would Lossless be supported?

 

[ian87w]

Don't AirPods Max come with a cable that doesn't play lossless either? Has nothing to do with BT...but again most people are not engineer and don't care WHY...

Huh? That USB-C cable is for charging only.

 

[smulji]

it's quite clear that the upgrade to lossless is just to get people to jump ships from spotify

I'm thinking the same thing.

 

[Rigby]

But it supports Spatial Audio right?

Yes. Any headphone/earphone (Apple or not) should support it. What gets sent to the headphones is just binaural stereo.

 

[gianpan]

I'm so disappointed. Was extremely excited about this news and can't believe that now AirPods Max won't be able to support it wired. I understand that is not possible by BT, but not even wired is such a disappointment after expending 600€ just 6 months ago on them.

I don't understand how you were extremely excited for these news, yet when you dropped 600 euros on headsets you didn't notice they can't play loseless audio? I mean ok it makes sense to assume they did.. I hate it when Apple is being cheap just to make wall street happy.

 

[Wildkraut]

Nothing to fear, they'll undoubtably come out with a pair of $750 Headphones Pro that will work just fine

And even with a Trade-In Airpod Max 99$ for credit toward your next purchase.

 

[StupidOpinion]

Don't the AirPods Max support analog input via a 3.5mm to Lightning cable? What's the problem?

you'll probably need to buy their high bandwidth analog cable for a low price of $89.99 (less than $100!)

 

[jeffkoontz]

When the AirPods Max came out, lossless, high resolution audio existed, TidalHD, ALAC, FLAC, etc., I looked at the time to see if they would also support lossless audio through a lightning cable, and found that they would not.

As such, I stuck to the my AirPods pros, as I could only justify the purchase of the Max, if they supported a lossless hi-res lightning/wired connection that I could use when I wanted, and I could also use the AAC bluetooth when I wanted. All this information was available back then.

iTunes supports lossless music via ALAC files currently. You can have all your CD's ripped to ALAC/lossless if you want. The changes being rolled out now are a higher than CD resolution format and the dolby Atmos/Spatial audio (which will work with the Max) with the Apple Music subscription at no cost. Hopefully I can find an easy workflow to get the lossless signal to my ears without some device in the middle compressing the signal too much.

 

[Techwatcher]

Well this is a big yikes. Especially for folks that bought AirPods Max. What was Apple thinking?

 

[neff89]

I don’t get why everyone complains. These restrictions are obvious hardware limitations of the AirPods and not surprising at all. Also AirPods should be perfectly fine with AAC and I will continue to enjoy my AirPod Pros. I think many people can still benefit from lossless Apple Music. I even have two use cases: 1) HiFi-System attached to an AppleTV and 2) DAC/AMP and planar headphones on my iMac. I already have a small collection of ALAC albums and I am super happy to have now access the whole catalogue of lossless music.

 

[ralphthemagi]

That's a digital cable. It's there so that you can use the APM with a device that has only a minijack connection.

Stereo audio isn't digital. It's analog.

I suppose it's going analog»digital»analog, which isn't ideal, but it would depend what bitrate the ADC is using.

As long a the DAC/ADCs are of a high enough bitrate you can go Digital»Analog»Digital»Analog and it really shouldn't make that much of a difference. If the DAC/ADCs are crap, then there is probably no benefit.

But it does seem that you can plug an analog source into the AirPods Max.

 

[StupidOpinion]

if you only use apple devices, don't even bother with the hifi music option. not only will hifi music take up more bandwidth, it'll make your battery life run out faster.

 

[smulji]

I have seen Thinkpads supporting Atmos for about two years.

Atmos is one thing. Spatial Audio, which is proprietary to Apple, is something. One actually has to hear it to believe it. I could be wrong but once people start hearing Apple Music tracks encoded in Spatial Audio they may not not care about lossless.

 

[macfacts]

Apple's ecosystem! Because they control the software and hardware.

 

[ian87w]

Well this is a big yikes. Especially for folks that bought AirPods Max. What was Apple thinking?

How so?
1. There’s no lossless codec support over Bluetooth on any platform, the tech doesn’t exist.
2. The AirPods Max still works as advertised when it was purchased.

 

[Realityck]

Well this is a big yikes. Especially for folks that bought AirPods Max. What was Apple thinking?

Guess a outboard DAC connected to computers USB port and offering a analog headphone amp should work or something similar. Also the Apple TV 4K using HDMI to a AVR or like should work.

 

[smulji]

There’s no lossless codec support over Bluetooth on any platform, the tech doesn’t exist.

I understand and accept that. But having lossless not work over a wired Lightening connection sounds like a slap in the face to those that bought a pair of APM.