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

[lazyrighteye]

A dongle for the Max would make me grin.

 

[Techwatcher]

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.

Which is fine since I have a bunch of DACs/amps and higher end headphones lying around, but I'm sure there were people expecting at least the AirPods Max and the original HomePod to support it. Ahh well.

 

[ian87w]

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.

Apple didn’t advertise APM supporting direct digital lightning to lightning audio anyway. Why do you have that sudden expectation out of nowhere?

 

[Lemon Olive]

In other words:

Exactly the same as lossless audio was yesterday.

Just because Apple has finally gotten around to offering Apple Music in lossless format doesn't suddenly mean it is possible to listen to it via lossy devices.

 

[ian87w]

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

Let me know if you find other wireless headsets with lossless support over Bluetooth.
LDAC and aptx HD are not lossless, mind you.

 

[ralphthemagi]

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.

Seems to suggest it works somewhat though, just at 24-bit / 48Hz. Maybe they'll just release a new cable with an ADC that uses a higher sampling rate.

 

[Lemon Olive]

Facepalm. At least it gets spatial audio, which is quite nice.

I get the wireless limitation, but wired?! I suppose you can do it with a DAC to the current $40 wire.

No. You cannot. 3.5mm + lossless = nope. You people need to get learned, or bow out of the lossless audio discussion.

 

[ipponrg]

Which is fine since I have a bunch of DACs/amps and higher end headphones lying around, but I'm sure there were people expecting at least the AirPods Max and the original HomePod to support it. Ahh well.

I'm pretty sure many people that bought Airpods Max had no idea what lossless was until they learned that it wasn't going to be supported.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

So Apple Music for iOS will support Lossless music. How is Apple expecting everyone to do that, especially when separated from their $10K stack of home audio equipment?

 

[Techwatcher]

I'm pretty sure many people that bought Airpods Max had no idea what lossless was until they learned that it wasn't going to be supported.

Suppose you're right.

 

[ian87w]

In other words:

Exactly the same as lossless audio was yesterday.

Just because Apple has finally gotten around to offering Apple Music in lossless format doesn't suddenly mean it is possible to listen to it via lossy devices.

It’s funny how people suddenly expect this. It’s like people expecting their DVD players to suddenly play Blu-ray.

 

[Wildkraut]

Let me know if you find other wireless headsets with lossless support over Bluetooth.
LDAC and aptx HD are not lossless, mind you.

*cough, cough*

LDAC (codec) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

When the codec is set to 16 bits/44.1kHz at 909 kbps (or 16 bits/48kHz at 990 kbps) LDAC can stream lossless audio that is identical in quality to (or slightly higher than) Audio CD or standard resolution uncompressed audio.

 

[ian87w]

So Apple Music for iOS will support Lossless music. How is Apple expecting everyone to do that, especially when separated from their $10K stack of home audio equipment?

There’s that trusty lightning to 3.5mm jack dongle.

 

[Sarkany]

2021 and Lossless audio can’t be played over such expensive headphones, can’t be played by HomePod Mini…let’s see what other type of excuse Apple will use to squeeze more money out of us over decades old technology.

 

[Le0M]

It's not clear if the article is talking about the high-res lossless or the lossless songs.
Somewhere else, I read that most Apple's earpieces are compatible with the latter.

 

[ian87w]

*cough, cough*

LDAC (codec) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

When the codec is set to 16 bits/44.1kHz at 909 kbps (or 16 bits/48kHz at 990 kbps) LDAC can stream lossless audio that is identical in quality to (or slightly higher than) Audio CD or standard resolution uncompressed audio.

No. You’re still transcoding whatever source you have to LDAC.

 

[darkslide29]

Let me know if there’s a lossless codec supported over bluetooth, on any platform.
This is not an Apple issue, it’s a tech issue. The tech is not there to begin with.

The issue in this article isn’t about Bluetooth or any wireless tech. It’s about using a hardwire between the source and the airpods max, and still not being able to get lossless audio.

 

[djphat2000]

You will need a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) in order to go from (up to) 24 bit / 192 Khz digital audio to Analog. There is no DAC built into the headphones. They are analog when used via wire. So it's just not possible to do. DAC (a good one) can cost from $100 to $10's of thousands (or more). So yeah. Just get a dongle DAC if you really want to get the full high res audio out of your iPhone/iPad/etc. If you don't already have one for other streaming sources such as Tidal or Qobuz. Then you most likely were not into this anyway. CD quality (Loss Less) is good enough for most anyone. Still a touch higher Q than what BT can handle anyway. But, wired you will get that from your iOS or Mac OS device just fine.

This is still awesome that they are giving this to existing customers no extra charge. I can drop tidal at some point if I wanted to now!!

 

[smulji]

Apple didn’t advertise APM supporting direct digital lightning to lightning audio anyway. Why do you have that sudden expectation out of nowhere?

Fair enough. Still seems silly for a pair of $549 headphones.

 

[jeffkoontz]

It’s funny how people suddenly expect this. It’s like people expecting their DVD players to suddenly play Blu-ray.

But only once the Blue-ray discs are made free to them.

 

[ian87w]

2021 and Lossless audio can’t be played over such expensive headphones, can’t be played by HomePod Mini…let’s see what other type of excuse Apple will use to squeeze more money out of us over decades old technology.

Please share when you find other Bluetooth headphone supporting lossless.

 

[ian87w]

Fair enough. Still seems silly for a pair of $549 headphones.

How is it silly? There are headphones that cost thousands of dollars, but are not even Bluetooth capable. The price is irrelevant.

 

[smulji]

There’s that trusty lightning to 3.5mm jack dongle.

So if one connects the APM to an iPhone / iPad / Mac via that dongle, the APM will output lossless?

 

[neff89]

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.

That’s exactly why I did not buy APM in the first place. But also this is not any new information.

 

[Wolframite]

…felt like i was scammed by Tim Apple getting the Airpods Max

P.S. still have faith until WWDC

Scammed into buying something that didn't have a feature that you didn't even know about till this morning? Riiiiiiiiiight....

Got him.