Apple Music's lossless, high-resolution lossless service, which began to be offered in June 2021. I'm sure many users have been waiting for it, but in reality, lossless high resolution is not very common, and many of you may not be sure how to use them.
And unfortunately, things are a bit complicated, such as not being able to enjoy lossless audio on some Apple devices. Therefore, in this article, I would like to introduce devices that support Apple Music's lossless and high-resolution lossless services and how to actually use them.
Related articles Apple Music's lossless audio and spatial audio are now available 2021-06-08 Purchase the AirPods series on Apple's official website ▶ ︎ AirPods Pro ▶ ︎ AirPods (3rd generation) ▶ ︎ AirPods (2nd generation) ▶ ︎ AirPods MaxLossless high resolution lossless audio defined by Apple
In general, lossless audio is a general term for music data that uses a data compression method called lossless compression that does not involve data loss, and although it is compressed, it can be listened to with CD quality. This also applies to Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC).
High resolution lossless audio is an audio track with a quality of up to 24-bit / 192kHz. It has more than 6 times the amount of data as a CD, and is said to have higher sound quality than lossless quality.
Lossless audio in Apple Music is CD quality from 16-bit / 44.1kHz to 24-bit / 48kHz. The format is ALAC mentioned above. According to Apple, all 75 million songs distributed on Apple Music will support lossless audio.
On the other hand, high resolution lossless audio has a quality of up to 24-bit / 192kHz. However, it differs from lossless audio in that a separate USB DA converter is required to use this.
▶ ︎Buy a USB DAC on Amazon
Apple devices with lossless, high-resolution, lossless audio on Apple Music
According to Apple, there are six Apple devices that can use lossless audio with Apple Music: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K, HomePod, and HomePod mini. Although no specific model year or model is mentioned, it seems that almost all active models can be used.
Non-compliant devices are AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max. Beats wireless headphones are also not supported at this time.
Apple Music lossless compatible products
Apple Music non-lossless products
The reason why the AirPods series does not support lossless audio is that it is designed to operate with a Bluetooth connection. Apple only supports the AAC codec for Bluetooth connections and can't play music in lossless, high-resolution, lossless quality.
Although AirPods Max can be connected by wire, when trying to play a lossless sound source, it is converted to analog at the stage of going through Lightning, and then it is converted to digitization (24 bit / 48 kHz) again. Therefore, it seems that the reason is that it cannot be said that it can be played with lossless audio quality.
@vervegirlmag Wow! That sounds soo cool, what kind of things do they do?
— E✨ Sat Dec 08 19:36:34 +0000 2012
In other words, in order to enjoy lossless audio with Apple products alone, it is basically necessary to output audio directly from the built-in speaker of iPhone, iPad, Mac, HomePod, HomePod mini.
However, if you have a wired connection, you can theoretically use lossless audio with "EarPods with Lightning Connector". It seems that you can also listen to music with lossless sound sources using genuine "Lightning-3.5 mm headphone jack adapter" and "EarPods with 3.5 mm Headphone Plug" (whether you really want to listen with these earphones or not). ..
By the way, if you don't stick to Apple products, there are quite a lot of ways to enjoy lossless audio with Apple Music.
For example, you can connect a wired earphone to the 3.5mm earphone jack on your Mac, or use a 3.5mm converter that supports 24-bit / 48kHz output, such as the "Lightning-3.5 mm headphone jack adapter" and "Belkin Lightning Audio + Charge Rockstar" mentioned above. If you have an adapter, you should be able to listen to lossless audio via wired earphones and headphones even on an iPhone that has only a Lightning connector. By the way, I will use these methods to enjoy lossless audio on Sony's WH-1000XM4.
Related Articles WH-1000XM4 Review | Sony's over-ear headphones with industry-leading noise-canning and sound quality that are comfortable on airplanes 2020-09-14 Sony Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones WH-1000XM4posted with Kaereva Buy at AmazonAlso, with the recent availability of Apple Music on Android devices, devices that support the Bluetooth codec LDAC and AptX HD (such as Xperia) and wireless headphones will allow you to enjoy lossless audio wirelessly.
As for high-resolution audio, it seems that you will not be able to enjoy high-resolution sound quality wirelessly unless you use a smartphone and headphones that support the codec LDAC developed by Sony. However, even with this method, the quality of up to 24bit / 192kHz cannot be used (LDAC is 24bit / 96kHz), so I think it should be called "high resolution equivalent" instead of "high resolution quality".
To enjoy complete high resolution lossless, you still need a wired connection. Apple is calling for the use of USB DACs.
▶ ︎Buy a USB DAC on Amazon
By the way, the author was asked "Will Apple make the AirPods series high resolution in the future?", But it seems that there is a possibility to respond.
The method is to develop a codec equivalent to the above-mentioned Bluetooth codec LDAC independently, or to enable lossless and high resolution lossless quality music transfer with AirPlay 3. It's up to Apple to do that, so we users will have to wait for Apple to support it.
Apple AirPods Pro Wireless Charging Compatible posted with Kaeleva Buy at Amazon Apple AirPods Max – Silver posted with Kaeleva Buy at AmazonHow to use lossless high resolution lossless audio with Apple Music
To use lossless high-resolution lossless audio with Apple Music, you need to subscribe to Apple Music. Once you've subscribed, you can turn it on in Settings> Music> Audio Quality.
Lossless / high resolution Lossless requires a large amount of data communication, so care must be taken in the communication used. With the above settings, you can choose between normal sound quality for mobile communication and lossless or high resolution lossless for Wi-Fi environment, so be sure to choose the one that suits your environment.
Bonus: 3D audio is available on many Apple devices
Spatial audio (3D audio), the second major new feature of Apple Music, can be viewed on most Dolby Atmos-enabled iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple TVs.
The details of compatible devices are as follows.
Check Apple's support page below for more detailed terms.
Related articles-Compatible with Apple Music, lossless audio and spatial audio. Available from June at no additional cost
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