the article wrote that, not apple. apple's actual document says that apple airpod devices don't support lossless "at this time". the speculation is the update is coming perhaps this summer or with ios 15, however in the middle of the epic - apple trial they didn't want to announce anything else that would appear anti-competitive.
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HomePod and HomePod mini to Gain Support For Apple Music Lossless Audio in Future Software Update
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the article wrote that, not apple. apple's actual document says that apple airpod devices don't support lossless "at this time". the speculation is the update is coming perhaps this summer or with ios 15, however in the middle of the epic - apple trial they didn't want to announce anything else that would appear anti-competitive.
Yes to my HomePod fats, but the mini? I’m not sure those are quite up to it. The gulf in quality between the two is ridiculous. Also makes me more sure there is a replacement to the fat ones coming sooner rather than later
Quoting Apple directly from their recently published support document about AM lossless.
Can I listen to lossless audio on my HomePod or HomePod mini?
HomePod and HomePod mini currently use AAC to ensure excellent audio quality. Support for lossless is coming in a future software update.So the answer is yes.
A lot of crow eaters for this one! And yes, apologies will be accepted
Supporting lossless versus playing lossless. Look at the quality range of the ALAC format Apple said they could/would streams and then look at the DAC in the HomePod. Down-sampling will occur with some content.
More down-sampling will occur with the AirPods Max.
This is just to satiate the people that want to hear the buzzword without really understanding.
More down-sampling will occur with the AirPods Max.
This is just to satiate the people that want to hear the buzzword without really understanding.
Question:
Is it possible for a 3rd party audio maker to build a Lightning to jack cable, similar to the one Apple made, that only does one single analog to digital conversion instead of double, like the Apple one does, and by that allow a full lossless transmitting?
Or would that be a technical and conceptual limitation?
(but at the same time, if a 3rd party maker could do it, there would be not reason for Apple not making it too...)
Is it possible for a 3rd party audio maker to build a Lightning to jack cable, similar to the one Apple made, that only does one single analog to digital conversion instead of double, like the Apple one does, and by that allow a full lossless transmitting?
Or would that be a technical and conceptual limitation?
(but at the same time, if a 3rd party maker could do it, there would be not reason for Apple not making it too...)
I thought it was already known that the DAC in the HomePod was 24/192 capable, Apple just has it limited to 24/48. Nowhere do they mention that HiRes Apple Music is coming to HomePod, and their standard Lossless tier is 24/48, just like the current output on the HomePod. So, I figure it’ll be pretty simple for them to enable lossless. Maybe sometime in the future they could enable HiRes as well, unless the computational audio aspect of HomePod makes that difficult and/or they’re saving HiRes for newer hardware.
It’s more the ADC of the 3.5mm to lightning cable. Unless Apple is referring to the DSP being applied to the music before it goes to the DAC that outputs the analog audio you year through the AirPods’ drivers— which I’m guessing they are not, at this point, since there’s also a lot of processing happening on the HomePod and it’s being given an update for lossless.
so, if there was a path to where the APM’s DAC was the only conversion point (digital usb-c or lightning to lightning, no adapters of cables with DAC / ADC in the signal path), maybe it could be considered lossless. 🤷🏻♂️
I understand converting analog 3.5mm to digital will lose quality, but can’t APM just use a lightning to lightning cable to keep it all lossless digital (until the final digital to analog conversion in the headphones)?
How do you know this? This is not what I understand to be true. I believe it supports at least CD (lossless) quality. I did a quick search and this article says “technically speaking, Airplay 2 is capable of Hi-Res audio but sampling rate is limited to that of CD.”
Did you mean it doesn’t support hi res streaming as of right now? Otherwise, source?
The article says wired APM do not support true lossless audio because of the analog to digital conversion (of the cable), not digital to analog.
As I understand it, “lossless” is only a term that applies to digital data, not analog. Eventually, all digital audio must be converted to analog audio by a DAC in order for humans to hear it (other Bluetooth headphones and even homepod has a DAC too), so you want lossless audio up until that very last conversion to analog. But once it’s analog, it cannot be considered lossless any more.
Of course, you do get varying levels of final audio quality based how how good the DAC is (as well as the amp and speakers, all of this built into the APM).
So since the 3.5mm (analog) to lightning (digital) cable interrupts the lossless transmission, what I’m wondering is why you can use a lightning to lightning cable in order to keep the signal digital and lossless all the way through (until APM converts it to analog for final sound).
I don’t remember the part of the article you’re referring to, and not sure if I know exactly what you mean, but as I understand it, basically when a device like an iPhone has lossless audio and streams it to the airpods via Bluetooth, because of Bluetooth’s limited bandwidth, the audio HAS to be compressed as it is streamed, which HAS to lose quality. So as far as I know, any wireless AirPods can never receive a lossless transmission.
No. There will be three level of lossless streaming quality, and they will have to be manually enabled/selected by the user.
The default streaming quality will continue to be AAC 256kbps. Then you can change it to:
A). 16/44.
B).24/48
C). 24/192 (only available in some content).
The Homepod only support FLAC and ALAC files up to 24/48, so no downsampling will be required.
That particular model, the original HomePod, is being discontinued. For sure there will be more HomePod devices released to take its place, likely with even better sound.
And there will be new/better models to take its place. HomePod is not dead. Even though some apparently want that to be the case in order to have a good "Apple doesn't know what they're doing."
Honestly, why didn’t they just announce this information right at the start?
A discontinued particular model. The product line lives on.
For the third time, they did. Quoting myself.
They did. T3 initially reported that Apple confirmed to them that both the Apple TV and the Homepods will support Apple Music lossless, but shortly thereafter Macrumors published an article that said the exact opposite. Every other media (including international ones), seemed to replicate what Macrumors said. Hence the confusion.
Dollars to donuts there will be a successor to the original HomePod. Just like there have been successors to the original iMac from two decades ago.
The double lightning cable thing is really silly. Don't do that. You're wasting money and not solving for anything.
For iPhone/iPad (without headphone jack) users, you will need to buy the Apple Lightning Camera USB adaptor, and then plug in a usb dac which has either a 3.5 mm/lightning (rare)/usb-c output to plug your ALAC compatible headphones into. I believe headphones which have lightning to usb-c (the usb-c end connecting to the headphones) do not require a dongle or external dac.
For Mac users, you plug your dac via usb into the computer, and open the Apple Midi tool to select the digital direct output of the dac instead of the default Mac speakers/headphone jack. The same applies for headphones with usb-c end-to-end cable connections.
Someone mentioned it, but there's no signal loss in an analog cable of less than 20 ft from device to headphone.
For iPhone/iPad (without headphone jack) users, you will need to buy the Apple Lightning Camera USB adaptor, and then plug in a usb dac which has either a 3.5 mm/lightning (rare)/usb-c output to plug your ALAC compatible headphones into. I believe headphones which have lightning to usb-c (the usb-c end connecting to the headphones) do not require a dongle or external dac.
For Mac users, you plug your dac via usb into the computer, and open the Apple Midi tool to select the digital direct output of the dac instead of the default Mac speakers/headphone jack. The same applies for headphones with usb-c end-to-end cable connections.
Someone mentioned it, but there's no signal loss in an analog cable of less than 20 ft from device to headphone.
I think the was to look at it is the original HomePod as particular model is being discontinued. Much like the original iMac was discontinued almost 20 years ago.
I have five original HomePods, setup as two stereo pairs (one pair for my living room, another pair for my woodshop in the garage), and a single for my wife's studio. The stereo pairs sound amazing. Glad I purchase the extras to create the pairs, as recommended by a forum member - thanks!
Yesterday I received my new AppleTV and remote. Setting it up in the living room with sound assigned to a HomePod stereo pair is a real treat.
