Apple AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, HomePod, and HomePod mini Can’t Play Lossless Audio via Apple Music: Report

Apple Music Lossless Audio and Spatial Audio features will be available from June 2021 for subscribers at no extra cost.

By Satvik Khare | Updated: 18 May 2021 13:45 IST

Apple AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, HomePod, and HomePod mini Can’t Play Lossless Audio via Apple Music: Report

Photo Credit: Apple

Apple Music starts at Rs. 99 per month for general users and Rs. 49 per month for students

Highlights

Lossless Audio, Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio comes to Apple Music
Apple’s audio devices will support Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio
It will be available with iOS 14.6, iPad OS 14.6, macOS 11.4, tvOS 14.6

Apple AirPods Max, AirPods Pro, AirPods, HomePod, and HomePod mini won't support ‘Lossless Audio' that arrives on Apple Music in June, as per multiple reports. Apple recently announced Hi-Fi streaming support and 'Spatial Audio' with Dolby Atmos for its music player. The new audio features for Apple Music will be available to subscribers from June 2021. The reports say that Apple is using Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) to provide lossless audio via Apple Music, but its truly wireless stereo (TWS) earphones, premium headphones, and smart speakers use the Bluetooth AAC codec for audio playback.

Apple on Monday, May 17 announced that ‘Lossless Audio' streaming and ‘Spatial Audio' with Dolby Atmos support will be available to Apple Music subscribers from June 2021 at no extra cost.

Multiple publications, including T3, have cited Apple to confirm that Apple Music's new audio features won't be supported on AirPods Max, AirPods Pro, AirPods, Beats Solo Pro, Beats Solo 3 Wireless, Beats Studio 3, Beats Flex, BeatsX, Powerbeats Pro, and Powerbeats 3 Wireless. A report from MacRumors also says that lossless audio streaming via Apple Music will also not supported on HomePod and HomePod mini smart speakers.

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However, all these audio devices, along with the built-in speakers of iPhone, iPad, and Mac models, will be able to stream music using ‘Spatial Audio' with Dolby Atmos support. It's unclear if these devices will gain native support for lossless audio streaming in the future.

Apple Music subscribers using the latest iOS 14.6, iPad OS 14.6, macOS 11.4, and tvOS 14.6 or later can head to Settings > Music > Audio Quality to activate ‘Lossless Audio'. Apple says the quality of its ‘Lossless Audio' tier is akin to CD-quality, which is 16bit at 44.1kHz, and goes up to 24bit at 48kHz. Its ‘Hi-Res Lossless' tier offers up to 24bit at 192kHz.

Apple says subscribers will be able to listen to thousands of songs using the 'Spatial Audio' on Dolby Atmos with more being added regularly and ‘Lossless Audio' will be available for 20 million songs at launch in June, which will expand to 75 million songs by the end of the year.

We dive into all things Apple — iPad Pro, iMac, Apple TV 4K, and AirTag — this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Apple AirPods Max Wireless Headphones

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design / Comfort
Audio Quality
Battery Life
Value For Money

Good
Beautiful, comfortable, and luxurious 
Best-in-class controls 
Seamless connectivity with Apple devices 
Very good ANC and Transparency modes 
Wide, spacious soundstage 
Excellent, flexible sound

Bad
No power button, unpredictable power consumption  
Below-par battery life 
Smart Case is a bit silly 
Lightning charging port 
No ANC level adjustment

Read detailed Apple AirPods Max Wireless Headphones review

Headphone Type Over-Ear

Microphone Yes

Connectivity Wireless

Type Headphones

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Apple AirPods Pro True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Earphones

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design / Comfort
Audio Quality
Battery Life
Value For Money

Good
Improved design and fit
Superb sound quality
Very good battery life
Good active noise cancellation and Transparency mode

Bad
Expensive
No volume controls on the earphones
Lightning port for charging

Headphone Type In-Ear

Microphone Yes

Connectivity True Wireless Stereo (TWS)

Type Earphones

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Apple AirPods MRXJ2HN/A True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Earphones

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Colour White

Headphone Type In-Ear

Microphone Yes

Connectivity True Wireless Stereo (TWS)

Type Earphones

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Apple HomePod Speaker

KEY SPECS

Model HomePod

Color Space Gray, White

Power Requirement 100V to 240V AC

Touchpad Yes

Network connectivity Bluetooth v5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11ac

Display included No

Apple HomePod mini

REVIEW
KEY SPECS

Design
Smart Features
Audio Quality
Value For Money

Good
Looks great 
Clean, detailed sound 
Excellent soundstage 
Works very well within the Apple ecosystem

Bad
Some connectivity issues with stereo pairing 
Limited smart capabilities

Read detailed Apple HomePod mini review

Model HomePod mini

Touchpad Yes

Comments

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Further reading: Apple, Apple Music, Dolby Atmos, lossless audio, iOS 14.6, AirPods Max, AirPods Pro, Apple AirPods, Beats Solo Pro, Beats Solo 3 Wireless, Beats Studio 3, Beats Flex, BeatsX, Powerbeats Pro, Powerbeats 3 Wireless