Apple Music HiFi Only Works With Wired Headphones

[RAMROD 117,302]

Apple announced today that Apple Music will soon offer support for Lossless songs, as well as Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. However, there has been some confusion as to which devices are needed to take advantage of all these features. 9to5Mac has now contacted Apple for further clarification on compatibility with the new Apple Music features.

Although you can enable Lossless with any pair of headphones in the Settings app, an Apple spokesperson has told us that “Lossless doesn’t work over Bluetooth.” In order to experience the Lossless songs, users need a good, wired headphone. In other words, none of the AirPods work with Lossless.

But what about AirPods Max? Well, we asked Apple about it too since users can plug in a Lightning cable with a 3.5mm connector to use it wired. Unfortunately, Apple also told us that “AirPods Max currently does not support digital audio formats in wired mode.” For AirPods owners, the only Apple Music supported feature will be Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos.

Why such a limitation?

First of all, it’s worth briefly explaining how Lossless and Bluetooth headphones work. A typical Apple Music song is encoded in AAC with a bitrate of 256kbps, which is not considered “studio quality” but is good enough for most users with regular headphones. With Apple Music Lossless, users can listen to ALAC-encoded songs with bitrate starting at 16 bits/44.1Khz, also known as “CD quality.”

The quality of an audio file from a CD is around 1,411 kbps, which is much higher than a regular Apple Music AAC file. This number becomes even higher when it comes to Apple Music Hi Res Lossless, which requires even better equipment — such as a external DAC. The higher the bitrate, the more detail the music has since this means that the audio has gone through less compression.

At the same time, Bluetooth technology only reaches speeds of up to 2,000kbps in ideal condition scenarios. In the real world, when you need to consider lower signal due to interference and distance, the bandwidth is even lower. This is why Lossless will not work with any Bluetooth headphones, and this is not something restricted to Apple Music or Apple’s earphones.

Apple could create a Bluetooth-optimized Lossless codec, just like Sony’s LDAC that reaches up to 990kbps – but the company has nothing like that so far, and it would probably need to announce new AirPods models in order to support a new codec.

 

 

Source:

https://9to5mac.com/2021/05/17/apple-music-lossless-requires-wired-headphones-airpods-will-only-get-spatial-audio/

 

 

I been telling y'all wired is far superior than Bluetooth headphones for now. The technology for audio Bluetooth is not there yet.

[Anderson123 42,751]

Well I guess I'll stick to Tidal if AirPods are not gonna work on iPhone.

 

 

Spoiler

lmao jk

 

[Rio 5,088]

11 minutes ago, Anderson123 said:

Well I guess I'll stick to Tidal if AirPods are not gonna work on iPhone.

 

 

  Hide contents

lmao jk

 

How sure are you that your Tidal HiFi is actually sending lossless signals to your AirPods? If Apple can't manage it on their own phone and software, I highly doubt Tidal are on iPhones.

[Anderson123 42,751]

1 minute ago, Rio said:

How sure are you that your Tidal HiFi is actually sending lossless signals to your AirPods? If Apple can't manage it on their own phone and software, I highly doubt Tidal are on iPhones.

I don't use Tidal.

r

[StarstruckIllusion 53,580]

not the bluetoophobia…

[Mister G 10,512]

I use iOS Beta for 14.6 and it's there already; granted not sure if it's live or if they just plastered the Apple Digital Master logo on singles and albums. All of Gaga's albums have them.

[Reject False Icons 4,958]

Well it was logical bluetooth can't do that, not even their overpriced airpods max can do it, duh 

But so far it's all a paradox cause only the iPhone 6s has a headphone jack, and Idk if it's not available for that model, plus a DAC is going to be needed for that task on the other phones

I really hope the DAC market popularizes  with this and hope it can get cheaper because I need one 

[Guest]

get out your dongles, boys. 

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

Apple gives Hi Definition to wired headphones only and announcing it like it was a huge step forward. 

 

[FATCAT 60,896]

Anyone wanting that extra squeeze out of their music already know that wired is the way to go for genuine playback experience. If anything they're doing their users a service by not lying to them.

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

10 minutes ago, FATCAT said:

Anyone wanting that extra squeeze out of their music already know that wired is the way to go for genuine playback experience. If anything they're doing their users a service by not lying to them.

Yes true for a genuine playback but Apple doesn't even offer the code for and upgraded Bluetooth experience.

[OhHenny2020 2,822]

22 minutes ago, FATCAT said:

Anyone wanting that extra squeeze out of their music already know that wired is the way to go for genuine playback experience. If anything they're doing their users a service by not lying to them.

Lmao... iPhone user here. Apple has lied lots, remember slowing down older phones with software updates?

Yeah, me either. 

[boyerased 2,889]

Anyone who knows audio knows that you not only need wired, but proprietary DAC and earphones to fully enjoy lossless on phones. 
 

This was basically a marketing stunt pulled by Apple to one up Spotify by offering it for free. The audience who can enjoy this are those who are on their wifi speakers or already have their audiophile-grade equipments. Not even AirPods Max is audiophile level. 

[RAMROD 117,302]

Looks like codec is gonna be updated on future ios? 

This prominent info leaker is hinting something? 🤔

 

[Princess Diana 24,487]

10 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

Looks like codec is gonna be updated on future ios? 

This prominent info leaker is hinting something? 🤔

 

So are we going back to 3.5mm headphone jack or nah