Well, that title isn’t 100% true, but concise titles are tough. On June 1st, for no additional cost, Apple’s adding lossless audio to Apple Music. The new audio is mixed for Dolby Atmos, and features Spatial Audio on AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. Spatial Audio is like being surrounded by your music or movies. As you move your head, instruments and other elements seemingly stay in their place. It’s a 3D effect, and it’s very cool. You can enjoy it with your iPhone or iPad and AirPods Pro or AirPods Max with movies feature Dolby Atmos audio.
Lossless audio is, basically put, high quality audio. It means every bit that was recorded ends up played back. Normally, compression removes some data and makes estimates later. However, lossless doesn’t rely on this, as compression can muddle some details. Instead, it presents every bit of sound that recording equipment caught in full detail.
Apple’s AirPods can’t do that. Not the AirPods Pro, nor the AirPods Max, at least not over Bluetooth or while using Spatial Audio.
So how do you take advantage of all of the new features of Apple Music? You’re going to need at least two sets of headphones… and likely a better external digital to analog converter (DAC) and amp.
In This Article:
Apple Music Gets Detailed
The higher sample rate of the purple squares capture more detail than the lower sampling rate of the orange rectangles.
Apple announced that, on June 1st, Apple Music will add lossless tracks and Spatial Audio at no additional cost to users. This is huge. Tidal charges almost twice the price for their high definition tracks. Spotify, similarly, considered charging more for higher quality audio. To offer that all, on top of Apple’s unique and proprietary Spatial Audio for AirPods listeners, all for the same price, is going to be very attractive to music lovers. For me, this was finally the sign to transfer my Spotify music library over to Apple Music. Rich, full sound, and the immersive 3D effect of Spatial Audio? Sign me up.
The combination of Spatial Audio at high resolution sounds wonderful. Unfortunately, you can’t use both at the same time. Lossless audio requires a wired connection, and Spatial Audio requires a Bluetooth connection to AirPods, and, well…
No Device Can Do It All
AirPods Pro and AirPods Max support Apple’s Spatial Audio. This 3D feature is fantastic for feeling immersed, but it only works over Bluetooth. Lossless audio only works over a wired connection. AirPods and AirPods Pro don’t even have a wired option and the wired option on the AirPods Max is… complicated.
Yeah, Just Lose the Headphone Jack, Good Plan
This is such an interesting problem. Bluetooth audio currently cannot support the bandwidth necessary for lossless audio. You just can’t transfer the large amount of data over Bluetooth fast enough to reliably play the data-heavy format. The closest anyone has come is Sony, with their LDAC in their Bluetooth headphones. This still isn’t lossless, but it’s a higher quality than you can find in most Bluetooth headphones. Sony’s headphones can also do something most of Apple’s can’t: play analog music.
Sony’s poorly named WH1000XM4 headphones charge over USB-C. They also feature a headphone jack. That way you can listen to analog audio without using Bluetooth. With a good DAC and amp, this can provide higher sound quality than what’s possible over Bluetooth.
Apple’s more expensive AirPods Max just have a Lightning port. Which adds a strange complication because, as it turns out, there’s no DAC in the AirPods Max. Audio traveling over the Lightning cable isn’t digital, it’s analog. That means if you’re using a wired connection, you’ll have higher quality, depending on the DAC you’re using from your device, but it will lack digital features, like Spatial Audio.
The Lightning to Audio cable is basically just an expensive and proprietary headphone cable.
Audio to Lightning, and Analog in Between
Apple sells a $35 cable that takes a 3.5mm headphone jack and turns it into Lightning. That’s analog audio all the way through. You’ll need a DAC coming from your iPhone and Apple’s headphone to Lightning cable to listen to almost lossless audio on Apple’s headphones. It’s not “completely lossless” due to the digital to analog conversion happening before the speakers. However, with a good enough DAC, not something cheap or as small as Apple’s DAC in their Lightning EarPods, it’s close.
For high quality listening, this is what I use.
I use is Apple’s Lightning to USB 3 adapter, as it transfers more power than their Lightning to USB cable. Then, a Dragonfly DAC. That has a headphone jack, which goes straight to my headphones. You may want to amplify the signal between there to improve crisp details in the sound, depending on which Dragonfly you’re using. To be fair to Apple, any headphones can benefit from a high quality DAC and amp. But not all of them require a proprietary $35 cable to transmit basic analog audio.
Of course, this only applies to Apple’s AirPods Max. There’s no wired option for their other AirPods, so the quality will never be better than what Bluetooth can already do.
Well… for now. It’s possible that Apple could release their ALAC format audio. This is a higher resolution format. It could potentially work with Apple’s headphones in a future update or a future version. But nothing’s guaranteed. Apple may only place this on new AirPods and Beats devices. If you were thinking of buying AirPods of any kind right now, you may want to hold off until at least the fall or next spring, to be sure you’re getting something that’s future-proof.
A Win for Music Lovers
Let’s face it, audiophiles aren’t listening on their AirPods for the sound quality. The AirPods Max have some decent quality, but they’re certainly not the best listening experience. They’re made to be good quality, noise cancelling headphones that make use of Apple’s ecosystem for easy syncing and seamless controls. Audiophiles have $500+ headphones with expensive amplifiers and DAC setups already. They’ll be able to take advantage of Apple’s new high definition audio as soon as Apple releases it. I can’t wait to test the difference. I have a few lossless tracks of my own, but it’ll be fun to see if Apple Music retains the same quality.
AirPods users shouldn’t feel left out. Spatial Audio is a really cool feature in movies and I can’t wait to see how it sounds in music. One of the joys of open back headphones is the expansive soundstage. With a good recording, you can almost tell where artists are in the “room” around you. The sound is expansive, and encompassing. Apple’s AirPods Pro and AirPods Max may be able to replicate this feeling with Spatial Audio. That will likely be a delight to listen to.
It’s true that, currently, no AirPods can experience full lossless audio and Spatial Audio. However, future devices will be able to do this, and those may be the AirPods or Beats headphones worth waiting for.
Sources:
- Apple Newsroom
- Apple Support
- Juli Clover, MacRumors
- Luke Dormehl, Cult of Mac
- Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac
- Joe Rossignol, MacRumors
- Joe Wituschek, iMore