But the new pods have LC3. Apple just wont turn it on because Apple is crap. I dont care about lossless. I care about reduction in latancy.
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Apple Engineer Addresses Lack of Lossless Support on New AirPods Pro
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Is there actual testing to support this? Mine seem as good as ever.
Basically true, and I say that as an audiophile. It was getting to the point where I was not even enjoying listening to music anymore, I was just trying to spot the imperfections and minute differences between equipment. I ended up selling a lot of my stuff and keeping my most "enjoyable" setup.
As for lossless, I think it could benefit AirPods Max users. I don't think it will make much difference with AirPods Pro users.
I don't understand what the engineer is saying. Of course Bluetooth is a limitation on audio quality. But maybe they're saying that the main limitation is Apple's lack of interest in wasting time developing lossless for portable headphones.
I still maintain that they will change codecs and probably wireless protocol to significantly reduce latency.
Lossless is an absolutely useless gimmick in practice.
The people who are asking for it would not be able to tell a high-quality MP3 apart from lossless in a blind test.
It would honestly be a tremendous waste of research and development work to try to achieve more bandwidth for something that provides literally zero added value.
The people who are asking for it would not be able to tell a high-quality MP3 apart from lossless in a blind test.
It would honestly be a tremendous waste of research and development work to try to achieve more bandwidth for something that provides literally zero added value.
Some people could stop harping about lossless is a gimmick. There are plenty of examples where people notice more resolution. For example TVs, 1080p to 4k. BlueTooth degrades lossless. It is lower resolution. Bits of musical/sound information is taken out.
There are all kinds of music. Some are less affected by degrading compared to others.
There are all kinds of music. Some are less affected by degrading compared to others.
Lossless isn't a "gimmick" per se, but you need the right equipment to be able to hear the difference.
For example, in classical music, especially when instruments like woodwinds and strings play high notes, I can hear "artifacts" in a lossy compressed file (like Spotify's free tier). With lossless, I no longer hear such imperfections and high notes sound smooth and flawless. But I can hear that on expensive headphones with a high-end DAC/amp. Would I really notice it on AirPods? I don't know. I don't think the "average consumer" who uses AirPods Pro as a primary music source could notice it or care. They just know that "lossless = better" and they want it, whether they can appreciate the difference or not.
For example, in classical music, especially when instruments like woodwinds and strings play high notes, I can hear "artifacts" in a lossy compressed file (like Spotify's free tier). With lossless, I no longer hear such imperfections and high notes sound smooth and flawless. But I can hear that on expensive headphones with a high-end DAC/amp. Would I really notice it on AirPods? I don't know. I don't think the "average consumer" who uses AirPods Pro as a primary music source could notice it or care. They just know that "lossless = better" and they want it, whether they can appreciate the difference or not.
You’re looking at it backwards. Lossless isn’t an improvement, it’s the standard. Lossy is a degradation.
Not really. If you listen to music in 10 000 USD set-up ( which is the entry price point for hi-fi these days) the difference is abismal.
Regarding of Atmos, I guess it depends on your equipment too? I can hear the difference with Atmos tracks for Apple Music. It basically is a surround sound for your music
I’ve had old AVR (7.1 but not Atmos) connected to ATV 4K and all of AM Atmos tracks become surround. It really is amazing because a simple 4 minutes songs can do the same trick as blockbuster movies.
But I agree with you, I can’t pinpoint any differences when play it on AirPods or any headset.
That is true, and it is also true that the average human ear can't tell the difference.
As said earlier, the AirPods Max can already play back up to 24-bit 48 kHz files with the cable.
The digital to analog to digital converter does cause some technical loss, but it’s still a 24-bit 48 kHz file that you’re hearing.
Not sure how much more you need.
And again, I’ve seen this over and over, people asking for features that… Are already there.
I use AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Max for traveling and watching Apple TV at night. They are the cheap throw in the bag headphones. No reason to have lossless on those. You need some high quality headphones and headphone amps to be able to hear the difference in lossless and even then it's mostly a feeling.
All I’m hearing from Apple is excuses and fanboys are like “oh high res audio is placebo ! I don’t hear anything different!!!!”
Wait until Apple release lossless headphones and these same fanboys will be like “Apple invented lossless Audio!”
Wait until Apple release lossless headphones and these same fanboys will be like “Apple invented lossless Audio!”
This Apple fanboy is quite okay with my APP1 not having lossless audio. If and when Apple decides to release some truly lossless headphones then yeah, they invented their version of lossless headphones and audio. Don't see the issue.
The average human can’t even tell the difference between different masterings, different mixes, or even entirely different performances. It’s this very principal that allowed those garbage “stereo re-recordings by the original hit artists” CDs to proliferate in bargain bins during the 90’s/2000’s. Not everyone is a tin-eared simpleton with no listening acuity.
There wasn’t even any discussion of lossless audio in apple-centric forums/communities until Apple Music came along and “invented” lossless, in 2021. A lot of the detractors are pulling out stale arguments that have been discussed ad nauseum and debunked decades ago. They really think this is something new.
Hint: lossless digital audio has been available on a consumer level for over 40 years.
I have AirPods Max and I have the cable. Do you?
Listening to music using the cable is better compared to BlueTooth. However, spatial audio and other features available in BlueTooth mode is not working when the cable is plugged-in.
Apple should make wireless “truly wireless” where wireless is lossless.
The average human ear can tell the difference. Most people listen to popular music where melody and effect is more important than quality.
Anybody who cares this much about audio isn't using AirPods of any type or quality.
I'm pretty sure that Apple has decided that people that require FLAC support are not a big enough market. Apple seems to have no problem at all targeting only the market they want to target, and FLAC clearly falls outside of Apple's target.
There’s no excuse for a tech company making a supposedly modern multimedia device not to support an incredibly common modern file format. In fact they already claim to “support” it on their device, it is listed in the specs and the hardware can decode it. Apple is only blocking you from actually adding the files to the device. IMO this is false/misleading advertising and should be grounds for a lawsuit.
Seriously, this would take a single intern a fraction of their daily lunch break to add support and push out an update to iTunes if they were given the task. This is a trillion dollar company. No other company has this problem. Nobody should be making excuses for them.
Imagine if the Photos app didn’t support JPEGs? If the Books app didn’t support PDFs? I wonder if the sycophants would still find a way to justify deliberately crippled software and anti-consumer behavior from daddy Tim.