Enjoy Apple Music's "Lossless Audio" on your iPhone Easy but noteworthy | Mynavi News Mynavi News Mynavi

Learn how to easily enjoy Apple Music's new content service "Lossless Audio" on your iPhone

Difference between conventional distribution form of Apple Music and lossless

Apple Music distributes music works of various genres and artists with more than 75 million songs. Individual plans start at JPY 980 per month, and the first time you sign up for an Apple Music membership, you'll get a three-month free trial period. From June 8th, Apple started a new content service called "Lossless Audio" and "Spatial Audio" with the conventional monthly usage fee unchanged.

Continuing from the previous "Try it now on your iPhone! How to enjoy Apple Music" Spatial Audio "" that explained how to enjoy spatial audio, this time we will mainly introduce how to enjoy the service of "Lossless Audio" on your iPhone. increase.

Lossless Audio is a new service to increase the amount of information of music delivered by Apple Music, increase the resolution, and enjoy listening with "better sound".

Traditionally, Apple Music content has been filed using Apple's proprietary AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) codec, compressed to a compact size suitable for high-quality sound and mobile communication streaming, and used by users. It will be delivered.

From June 8th, Apple Music launched a lossless compression, that is, a lossless audio service that delivers original music data so that it can be heard with the same sound quality, in addition to this conventional AAC format streaming. All of Apple Music's catalog, which currently has over 75 million songs, is available in a lossless version, giving users the freedom to choose their sound quality from the settings of the music app. Apple Music content that doesn't support lossless audio includes music videos and Apple Music 1 radio shows.

You can listen to Apple Music's lossless audio on your iPad, Mac, or Apple TV on your iPhone with the latest version of each OS. The Siri built-in smart speaker "HomePod mini" set up using the iPhone will also be able to select lossless high-quality sound playback in addition to the current AAC format playback after the software update scheduled for the second half of this year. There is currently no announcement about support for lossless audio for listening to Apple Music with the Android version of the "Apple Music" app and Web Bususer.

Data communication capacity increases during lossless streaming playback

Lossless audio distribution is delivered using Apple's unique lossless compression format called Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). When a music work of 44.1kHz / 16bit, which is equivalent to a CD, or 48kHz / 24bit, which is slightly higher quality, is played on an iPhone as "lossless" compatible content, the logo mark is displayed on the playback screen. Tap the logo mark to check the resolution information of the song.

If you choose to deliver in AAC format, the bit rate will be up to 256kbps. On the other hand, if you go to "Audio Quality" from the "Music" app settings and select "Mobile Communication Streaming" to "Lossless", the bit rate will be more than 5 times 1.4Mbps when playing a 44.1kHz / 16bit sound source. Will be. In other words, if you choose lossless streaming, more data will be used.

If you continue to listen to Apple Music lossless playback via mobile communication, it may not be a problem if you have unlimited data capacity or if you are using a plan with a large capacity package, but MVNO with a small data capacity limit If you have selected a cheap data plan by, be careful about setting up mobile communication streaming. You can also choose to listen with lossless audio only if you can connect to Wi-Fi.

How to enjoy Apple Music lossless audio on iPhone

At the beginning, I have mentioned the precautions regarding data communication capacity for a long time, but the real thrill of lossless audio is that you can enjoy "better sound" by listening to it with compatible audio equipment. Apple is also confident in the distribution of the AAC version, especially the sound quality of the work corresponding to the "Apple Digital Masters" of "compressed but good sound" that we have been working on, so I introduced it earlier. Lossless audio isn't a very innovative experience compared to "spatial audio," but I think it's well worth a try. Here, we will explain how to enjoy lossless audio on iPhone.

First, update your iOS to the latest 14.6 or later. Then, as I mentioned earlier, go to "Audio Quality" from the "Music" app settings and activate "Lossless Audio". I will explain about the "high resolution lossless" lined up here later.

The easiest way to listen to lossless audio on your iPhone is with a "built-in speaker" listening style. However, compared to 3D audio, lossless audio may be a little harder to hear the difference through the built-in speakers. This is because if you are disturbed by the surrounding environmental sounds, the resolution of the sound and the difference in shades will be less likely to appear.

Therefore, for lossless audio, we recommend playing through headphones or earphones. However, there is something I want to be careful about here. This means that you cannot use headphones or earphones with Bluetooth connection for listening to lossless audio.

To be more precise, the Bluetooth audio currently used by Apple devices does not support lossless transmission, so if you listen with Bluetooth-connected headphones or earphones, including the AirPods series, Apple will give you high-quality sound. It's best to listen in the guaranteed AAC format.

How to choose the best earphones / headphones & USB-DAC

Let's get back to the topic and show you how to choose headphones and earphones to enjoy the lossless audio of Apple Music on your iPhone.

The recommended choices that I think are the easiest are Apple's genuine "EarPods with Lightning Connector" that can be directly connected to the Lightning terminal of the iPhone, or Lightning direct connection type wired earphones made by other companies. You can listen to 48kHz / 24bit, slightly high-quality lossless works with the same sound quality.

Alternatively, you can easily use the headphones and earphones you have at hand using the genuine Apple iPhone accessory "Lightning-3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter". You can also connect an audio cable to the adapter and connect it to a powered speaker with built-in amplifier or an audio component to listen.

Apple Music has more than 1 million songs from the beginning, which are compatible with high-resolution lossless audio that can be enjoyed with "sound quality as produced in the studio" of up to 192kHz / 24bit, which exceeds the amount of information of 48kHz / 24bit. rice field. It is a very attractive service as a "high resolution compatible" flat-rate music distribution service that can be easily enjoyed by audio fans from 980 yen per month (in the case of an individual plan).

In order to fully enjoy high resolution lossless on iPhone, prepare a headphone amplifier with built-in USB-DAC that supports high resolution. Some products can be directly connected to the iPhone by using the USB cable included with the audio device, but if not, connect via Apple's genuine "Lightning-USB camera adapter".

I also have some equipment to enjoy high resolution on iPhone, but many USB-DACs are not guaranteed to work by Apple, so even if you have the above equipment, it will consume audio equipment. Due to the high power consumption, it may not be usable in a portable environment. I think that components such as a stationary type headphone amplifier with a built-in USB-DAC are relatively easy to use, but we recommend that you consult with the staff of a home appliance / audio shop when considering purchasing. High-resolution lossless is not only good in sound quality, but also in the fact that it conveys the "difference in sound" of the selected product more clearly. I hope you will find an opportunity and enjoy yourself.

Author: Atsushi Yamamoto

Journalist and writer. He became a freelancer after working as a web editor and reporter for an audio-visual magazine. Since he has been interviewing the electronics show "IFA" held in Berlin, Germany every year, he is particularly familiar with the latest situation related to smart home appliances and IoT in Europe. He has a deep knowledge of audio-visual fields and covers a wide range from high resolution to music distribution, 4K and VOD. Taking advantage of his fluent English and French, he handles many events and interviews with developers from Japan to overseas.