I've got some Anker Q30s. Will those be able to take advantage of this, or will I need something else to decode the audio to take advantage of it? I was hoping for fresh AirPods to drop today, but I guess that's not happening, so I'm gonna stick with what I have.
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Apple Music Gaining Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio in iOS 14.6, Not All Tracks Supported at Launch
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Can't we just add to today's earlier article(s) and maybe bump it rather than having a new article every time a new bit of info comes to light?
Why do people assume Aipods will still be limited to AAC? The H1 is apple's own chip and has no doubt had the capability to run an apple lossless codec from the start. I am very confident a firmware update will unlock a much better ALAC codec.
Amazon Music has already backtracked and merged their hi-res options into their basic Music sub at no additional cost.
I‘m really waiting for Spotify‘s answer to this. They revealed Spotify Hifi a few months ago with little to no pricing info, but the general consensus is that they plan on up-charging for the Hifi tier. Makes sense to me considering Spotify is a crap company anyways when it comes to moneyflow and how they do licensing / pay artists etc. Don‘t think they can bankroll the up-tick in resources that hifi streaming produces.
Even less people will have the right set up to even play it. I bet you could tell people your music is lossless and they wouldn’t even doubt it, even if it isn’t 😅
The bottleneck is bluetooth. Apple would need to come up with a way to transmit a lossless codec to Airpods. WiFi would be the only alternative and that is probably a battery hog compared to bluetooth. Would also require putting a wifi chip in airpods.
I think this is awesome news and can't wait to try it out. I'll wait and see if I can tell any difference. My guess is yes.
I wonder if this means a regular home-cinema DAC or something that would be Apple specific.
Again, this is just untrue.
Apple Lossless can easily be played over Bluetooth.
all the AirPods would need is a firmware update
Not on the current build Beta 3 that was released 10 days ago
Anyone think we might be able to "iTunes Match" for the lossless file download?
Yes. I have a Dragonfly Red, too. I use it to listen to lossless music from TIDAL and Qobuz, and I can definitely tell the difference between lossless and Apple Music's current 256kbps streaming. This should be true with any decent DAC.
I think the ability to enjoy a sound quality improvement from Apple's switch to lossless tracks will be limited to a fairly small set of users and use-cases, in particular people who listen using a wired connection from their iphone or mac to their headphones or speakers. And the headphones or speakers should be better than average consumer grade for the best chance of being able to enjoy a difference.
Bluetooth is lossy; Airplay 2 is supposedly losses but in my experience it doesn't sound nearly as good as a wired connection when streaming hi-res tracks to a hi-fi network streamer or even HomePods.
That said, Apple Music's 256kb AAC streams are very good, and certainly good enough for most people and most use-cases. So people who don't notice a difference from the switch to lossless streams should continue to be as happy as they were previously.
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Because I want the best sound and Apple will give it to us!I use Spotify, but the quality that Apple will offer will certainly be very good, and I'm a little meticulous about quality in every form😬
At home, listening on my Bowers & Wilkins 804 D3s speakers with Emotiva amps and processor… the difference on Amazon Music Lossless or Tidal is significant and instantly recognizable.
I’ve been waiting for this since I prefer the Apple experience but have to keep Amazon around for active listening. I didn’t think Apple would pay attention - so thank you Apple for finally addressing the minority crowd.
Has it been confirmed these lossless files will not be available for sale on iTunes or available on iTunes Match (which is a current feature of Apple Music)?
That’s all I’m interested in. I want to buy music, not rent it.
That’s all I’m interested in. I want to buy music, not rent it.
Nice to see it coming to tvOS. Hopefully that means I'll be able to listen to at least lossless if not Hi Res through my Apple TV and Sonos Arc.
Yes, The Verge confirmed there will be no upgrade path for iTunes purchases.
But what if you want to listen to it in Dolby Atmos? The Max will be perfect for it.