After a flood of leaks and teasers over the past few days, Apple has finally announced Hi-Res Lossless audio support for Apple Music. However, this new audio format will be useless for the company’s own lineup of audio accessories, including the AirPods, AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Max. These devices will not support lossless audio over Bluetooth.
For the uninitiated, Apple published an official press release yesterday, announcing the Hi-Fi Lossless Audio tier for Apple Music subscribers. The new audio format will be live for all Apple Music users starting next month. It will offer studio-quality audio for its entire catalog of songs, that too without any additional costs over your existing subscription.
AirPods Will Not Support Hi-Res Lossless Audio in Apple Music; Here’s Why
As per recent reports, Apple has confirmed that its upcoming Hi-Res Lossless audio tier will only work with wired headsets and might even require an additional dongle or a USB digital to analog converter. So, this chucks out Apple’s AirPods line as they are essentially truly wireless earbuds and headphones with no wires or dongles.
Moreover, Apple’s Lossless Audio comes encoded as Apple Lossless Audio Codec files. The lossless quality of the songs ranges from 16-bit 44.1 kHz to 24-bit 48 kHz playback. On the other hand, Hi-Res Lossless audio offers 24-bit 192 kHz playback.
Now, the AirPods, AirPods Max, and AirPods Pro are constrained to the Bluetooth AAC codec when connected to an Apple device. As a result, no AirPods model will be able to stream Hi-Res Lossless songs in Apple Music. Although the AirPods Max might be able to play the new format when connected via a wire. However, the company has confirmed that it will not be able to stream lossless audio using the usual Lightning cable.
While this is sad news for AirPods owners, the good news is that all the AirPods model will support Apple’s Spatial Audio technology along with Dolby Atmos. So, following the rollout of Hi-Fi lossless audio in Apple Music, users will be able to enjoy 360-degree audio with AirPods. Moreover, it gives artists a chance to create more immersive audio experiences for their fans.
The new Hi-Res Lossless Audio tier and the support for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos are coming to Apple Music sometime in June. And existing Apple Music subscribers will be able to get access to it without any additional cost.
