Because they spent literally years mocking folks for the loss of the headphone jack… calling it old, saying wireless is the way of the future. Silly and unfair comparisons to floppy drives. Now Apple confirms what us musicians and folks with ears always stated as facts, on this site. Ya gotta plug it in. Total vindication.
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Don't Buy Into Apple's Hype About AirPods Max Gaining Lossless Audio
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It could be related to network issues, possibly regional. Have you tried whether a different location with a VPN would work?
Well, yeah because people see interesting headline. Big news agencies in the USA do this so it shouldn’t be shocking that a smaller publication like MacRumors would do it. Traffic generates ad revenue. It’s the unfortunate state of the Internet. 😂
Audiophiles are at odds with everything and every one lol remember that viral essay “Star Wars fans hate Star Wars”. It’s like with audiophiles.
Have you had a chance to try on the real thing and compare them side-by-side?
Just thinking about AirMax Pods makes me laugh, but if they work for you, then there’s nothing wrong with that!
This is shameful article as while USB-C Airpods doesn't offer much over Lightning this becomes at least valuable upgrade for very narrow but essential set of customers
Pretty much 100% of people with vision good enough to read text off of a monitor can tell the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz if they know what to look for (see https://www.testufo.com/ )
Maybe they won't notice or care in everyday situations. But it is an actual difference that can be tested for and noticed by real people.
There is no equivalence with the difference between 320kbps AAC and Lossless. Even in a cherry picked example, there are no tests where people can tell the difference.
I do not care about so called "loseless" but lag is very much issue for me for my amateur music experiments and I can clearly hear it, so if in this case absence of lag would be combined with my favorite headphones - why not?
Very true. The highest frequency humans can hear is 20khz. Maybe in laboratory conditions, you can hear 28khz. So there's no way you'll be able to make out differences in 48khz.
Apple would never ever ever hype anything. We're going to love it.
The 24-bit bit depth will certainly be noticeable on well-mixed audio. And this is evidently streaming pure uncompressed audio and not on-the-fly LDAC conversion like with Vision Pro and AirPods Pro 2.
The point you make about the difference in audio quality being barely noticeable is valid. However, today’s announcement is a huge breakthrough. The lower latency enables people to compose music natively in Atmos in a way that is completely agnostic of the acoustics of their environment… for $500. I GLADLY ran out and got a pair when I read today’s announcement. I’ve always wanted some, but refused to buy because they didn’t support this feature. It really is a big deal because Apple is building an audio stack that aims to take a user’s room acoustics, noise, and sometimes even ear acoustics (with ANC / Transparency off) out of the signal chain in a package that, while expensive, is way more accessible than traditional hifi. Excited for what is to come.
Steve was a huge audiophile and I know he’d be proud.
The point you make about the difference in audio quality being barely noticeable is valid. However, today’s announcement is a huge breakthrough. The lower latency enables people to compose music natively in Atmos in a way that is completely agnostic of the acoustics of their environment… for $500. I GLADLY ran out and got a pair when I read today’s announcement. I’ve always wanted some, but refused to buy because they didn’t support this feature. It really is a big deal because Apple is building an audio stack that aims to take a user’s room acoustics, noise, and sometimes even ear acoustics (with ANC / Transparency off) out of the signal chain in a package that, while expensive, is way more accessible than traditional hifi. Excited for what is to come.
Steve was a huge audiophile and I know he’d be proud.
You have to divide the sample rate by two to get that figure since it takes two samples to make an audio wave cycle.
Also, digital audio inherently comb filters a lot toward the upper section of its Nyquist limit (humans can hear 20,999khz, but a 48k signal can’t be that precise that high). Upping the sample rate takes this problem above our range of hearing.
That being said, 48khz is definitely fine for this product.
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More articles like this please. Apple needs to start being held accountable for their hype covering for their incompetence.
iJustine is an advertiser that pretends to be a reviewer
This article is so weird. Lossless has always been a scam, why make that distinction now!? It's the "ultimate" upgrade for the AirPods Max BECAUSE consumers and reviewers raised such a stink that it didn't have that feature in the first place. You can't go higher than lossless (tho I'm sure audiophiles will find a way to claim you can).
Even relatively affordable headphones or earbuds—take the Xiaomi Buds 5, for example, which retail for 679 CNY (less than 100 USD)—can technically receive the Hi-Res Wireless certification from Sony.
My point here isn’t to trash Sony's approach to certifications, but to highlight that while these certifications don’t guarantee superb sound quality or a top-tier listening experience, they do at least imply the product meets certain hardware specification standards.
Now compare that to Apple’s audio products. Their key differentiator lies in the much-hyped H1 or H2 chips. And yet, we’re told that even the aging H1-equipped AirPods Max will somehow support so-called “lossless” playback via a future OTA update. If that’s the case, then why can’t other products—Beats included—that use the same H1 or even newer H2 chip get the same feature through OTA?
One word:
Money.
Two more:
Greed. Greed.
My point here isn’t to trash Sony's approach to certifications, but to highlight that while these certifications don’t guarantee superb sound quality or a top-tier listening experience, they do at least imply the product meets certain hardware specification standards.
Now compare that to Apple’s audio products. Their key differentiator lies in the much-hyped H1 or H2 chips. And yet, we’re told that even the aging H1-equipped AirPods Max will somehow support so-called “lossless” playback via a future OTA update. If that’s the case, then why can’t other products—Beats included—that use the same H1 or even newer H2 chip get the same feature through OTA?
One word:
Money.
Two more:
Greed. Greed.
The greed started with the analog headphone jack deletion. Some of us warned folks here, at the time.
You make an excellent point. Atmos mixing is indeed a killer application for the afore mentioned headphones. I would use a real set of reference class headphones for editing and primary mixing tasks if one doesn't have a proper set of studio monitors. Airpods Pro are still consumer grade audio reproduction.
Tim Apple is trying to get more money by using another false advertising? 😂
Is this article trolling Apple? If they state lossless audio is coming for AirPods Max with usb-c then it’s coming.