Apple Music lossless supported devices: what will (and won't) play lossless and Spatial Audio, and why

[What Hi-Fi?]

Apple Music is getting a big upgrade, but Apple's headphones will miss out on some of these new features.

Apple Music lossless supported devices: what will (and won't) play lossless and Spatial Audio, and why : Read more

 

[uishido]

"But actually they only work with analogue audio sources in wired listening mode. Which again means no lossless listening."

This sentence confused me. Why do analogue sources mean no lossless audio? Isn't a wired headphone plugged into an analogue port how people usually listen to lossless/hi-res music?

 

[erbasically]

"But actually they only work with analogue audio sources in wired listening mode. Which again means no lossless listening."

This sentence confused me. Why do analogue sources mean no lossless audio? Isn't a wired headphone plugged into an analogue port how people usually listen to lossless/hi-res music?

It seems to mean that if you are using AirPods Max, you can get higher quality by using a wired connection but it will not truly be lossless because you have to use a Lightning-to-3.5mm cable not a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm cable. From Apple's support page:

Can I listen to lossless audio using the AirPods Max Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Cable?
The Lightning to 3.5 mm Audio Cable was designed to allow AirPods Max to connect to analog sources for listening to movies and music. AirPods Max can be connected to devices playing Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless recordings with exceptional audio quality. However, given the analog-to-digital conversion in the cable, the playback will not be completely lossless.

 

[Olive Reid]

To get the full benefit of the higher quality source, you need a high-resolution audio system. Frustratingly, transmitting Apple Music Classical output at full lossless res to a quality audio system is almost impossible from an iPhone.
So most of Apple's hype about quality is BS.

You can use Apple Music on a Apple TV to retrieve playlists set up on AM classical, but Apple TV resamples all audio to 48kz .

The lack of AM classical as an app on Apple TV is unforgivable.

I am hoping this omission is because Apple is waiting until the next version of Apple TV, and that that will support higher resolution output.