Apple Music Now Rolling Out Support for Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio

[Rogifan]

Don’t worry, hardly anyone can hear a difference between lossless and high quality compressed. Even then it might require many comparisons, switching back and forth between compressed/lossless.

When I plug my cans into the Dragonfly DAC I can totally notice the difference from just plugging them into a 3.5mm usb-c (or lightning) adapter. But when I flip on lossless it doesn’t sound any different. So either it really is a gimmick or you need expensive headphones and a DAC plugged directly into a headphone jack. If so what good is lossless on iOS devices?

 

[andrmu]

Hey guys so Apple Lossless is both 44.1kHz and 48kHz

Anyone found any 48kHz music? Can you share the album?

I want to see if Apple Music on macOS automatically changes sample rates of my USB DAC

So far I only found 44.1kHz

It doesn't, I'm afraid.

I have switched on the Lossless tick box in Apple Music Preferences on my Mac, and selected High Resolution Lossless from the option drop down. Many albums now show the "Lossless" or "Hi-Res Lossless" logos. However, they do not trigger my SMSL M500 USB Dac's display, which stays stuck on whichever resolution was previously showing from the song most recently played via my Roon player (which has Tidal and Qobuz sources).

To be clear, on Roon, I can play:
- Yello, Stella, from Qobuz (FLAC 44.1kHz, 16 bit) -> My SMSL DAC display shows the "Green USB" 44.1kHz logo), then play
- Maroon 5, Songs about Jane, from Qobuz (FLAC 96kHz, 24bit) -> My SMSL DAC display shows HiRes Audio logo with 96kHz
- I can flick between these songs and the SMSL DAC display correctly updates to show the expected bitrate source material

On Apple Music, though:
- Yello, Stella, from (Apple Music "Lossless") -> My SMSL DAC display stays stuck on whatever it was from the most recent song from Roon
- Marroon 5, Songs about Jane, (Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless) -> My SMSL DAC display stays stuck on whatever it was from the most recent song from Roon
- I can flick between these songs and the SMSL DAC display doesn't budge at all (it stays stuck on Hi-Res Audio 96kHz logo, if I previously played such a song from Roon, or stays stuck on the "Green USB" 44kHz logo, if the previous Roon song was a 44kHz or 48kHz FLAC song).

Apple Music is doing something weird - and it isn't sending changing bitrates through to the USB DAC. Apple Music Lossless should be sending music at 44.1kHz or 48kHz, and Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless should be sending music at 88.2kHz or higher. It simply isn't.

 

[coolsean20]

I got it to show up on my iPhone 12 mini / iOS 14.6 just now by going into the Music settings and randomly toggling on and off things like "Automatic Downloads" and "Cellular Data." After doing that a few times, the settings for Atmos suddenly showed up.

This also worked for me. I just toggled off then on “use listening history”!

 

[GregoriusM]

is it also rolling out for Apple TV today? That’s all that matters

Yes. I have Dolby Atmos and Lossless on my Apple TV 4K first generation in Winnipeg, Canada and it fires up Dolby Atmos on my Denon 5.1 receiver hooked up using HDMI.

 

[Antes]

It’s been live for me here in LA.
Spatial audio definitely cool for some tracks.
Others it just butchers and removes so much bass.
I think I sort of prefer the fullness of regular stereo. 🤷‍♂️
Hey but I’m glad this is out and something to improve on. I can see how future tracks can use these really cool and intricate moving sounds.

 

[matrix07]

Are there any 24-bit/192kHz songs yet?

yeah I hoped Dark Side of the Moon would be one of the first album to show this but alas..

 

[Bandaman]

It's almost tomorrow and it still hasn't been pushed to my phone. 😭

 

[GregoriusM]

Now do tvOS. I want my lossless

It is done. See my post above.

 

[fishmoose]

I’m still confused what type of headphone I need to be able to hear this.

 

[JayIsAwesome]

I have it for music videos. Listening to classic Mariah Carey and Classic Whitney Houston. Damn near brought a tear to my eye. This is update is awesome.

 

[elementalwingma]

Just got it on my iPhone 7+ Dolby Atmos sounds pretty nice

 

[TehFalcon]

I’m still confused what type of headphone I need to be able to hear this.

for Lossless you need wired headphones/speakers, and preferably a nice DAC and amp.

For Atmos/Spatial Audio, AirPods Pro/Max are optimized for it, but you can change the setting to Always on to use it on any headphones/speakers, wired or wireless.

 

[Mayostudent]

Now all the sudden you care about resolution? Ha. Too funny.

 

[DotCom2]

Hi, noticed that anything downloaded to device plays the downloaded version and there’s no “Upgrade all downloaded files”, so quickest way I found to accomplish this is to go Settings -> Music -> Downloaded Music, remove everything and download everything against based on the Music -> Audio Quality settings

Yeah. Don’t forget to enable "Download in Dolby Atmos" in Music settings..

 

[GregoriusM]

AppleTV is showing Lossless and Dolby Atmos, but when I play a track in Atmos, my surround processor doesn't register the incoming signal as Atmos (which it does for Atmos-encoded movies). Weird!

My Denon receiver hooked up with HDMI does.

 

[Bobosita]

But it sounds like simple stereo…)

 

[matrix07]

If you click on the Lossless logo, it give you the bit depth and rate.

I would think it is a generic description though since it says "up to"?

Would be great if it shows actual bit rate of that specific album but I don't think that is the case.

 

[GregoriusM]

Atmos is supposed to be independent of the specific speaker setup. I think.

Yes, that’s correct. Working fine on my Denon 5.1 using HDMI outputting Dolby Atmos.

 

[therbst]

This did the trick! Spread the word!

Worked for me too!

 

[scrobert]

Santeria - Sublime - those vocals - NICE
Weezer - Buddy Holly - noooooo, sounds awful

 

[Mortalias]

Listened to the 2019 mix of “You Never Give Me Your Money” labeled Atmos and noticed a difference in the balance of sounds for sure. Seems great to me 🤷🏽‍♂️

 

[Southpawedjones]

I had it then it disappeared hahaha. ALSO, I was disappointed that it seemed like dynamic head tracking wasn’t working (like how the sound ”sticks” to your screen when wearing AirPods Pro) which is what I was most excited about, but found in Apple’s FAQ that it isn’t being enabled until this fall.

 

[Apple4everr]

This did the trick! Spread the word!

Yep- worked for me too. Thank you for the tip

 

[Marshall73]

Just woke up and have this on my iPhone. Listening now on my AirPod Max. And I like it.

 

[TheDailyApple]

I thought lossless didn’t work with wireless?

Lossless is just higher quality audio. Bluetooth can’t come close to takeing full advantage off it, but it’ll still sound better than an audio file that was already compressed to begin with.

It‘s like how 4K video will still look sharper than HD despite not being on a 4K screen, and HD video downscaled from 4K will be sharper than footage filmed in HD.