7 months later and Spotify still doesn't have lossless, Apple did a great job, if you have a good DAC and a good pair of headphones you will be good to go. Also good taste of music.
@kabokasajmer9696 from what I've researched, yes. Wired connection gives better data latency and better overall connection. Also be aware of your headphone/earbud impedence rating for compatibility between devices.
@@kabokasajmer9696not only recommended, but required. Bluetooth isn’t capable of transmitting the lossless codec to wireless headphones. Only AAC which is a lossy format. If you want lossless on headphones, you will NEED a usb c Dac with wired phones attached.
this is a huge step for the entire music industry , the industry is gonna have a lot more power and influence once this fully rolls out to spotify and everything
Excellent video, for audiophiles is a great step in the right direction, even if there are some glitches in the MAC OS, you still can use the IPhone or IPad to get Hi-Res audio. Congratulations Apple.
This is a fantastic video. I am a newbie and trying to learn more about Apple Music with my iPhone 13 and sound quality. I mostly use my PowerBeats Pro, which I know are capable of Spatial Audio and I also use the standard Apple Earbuds with the lightning connector. From what I can tell and correct me if I am wrong, with the standard Earbuds from Apple, the best quality sound I can hear is lossless. If songs are available in hi-res, I still cannot enjoy that sound quality with the earbuds. I think the same goes for the PowerBeats Pro, yes? 🤔
@@AudioFixation Based on this video I went searching for accessories and I found my Belkin 3.5mm iPhone Aux Adapter Features a DAC so I'll try the AUX port with my Apple earbuds and check out the audio quality. Thanks for clearing up the Bluetooth situation. Loud n clear-No bluetooth is going to help obtain lossless sound
@@AudioFixation If I connect Apple EarPods (wired) via 3.5mm jack on mac will they give me hi-res lossless or just lossless or Apple EarPods are limited to 48kHz?
What a palaver! I just bought a new hi res sony music player after selling my ipod and currently redownloading all my music. 101% happy to be reconnected with how music is supposed to sound once again without having to faff about with apple rules and shortcomings! Flacs all the way for me now no more nasty compressed files😎👍🏾👍🏾
This is helpful, thank you. I think one of the reasons things are different with Mac OSX is that Macs are often used not just for playback but recording and for this, one always sets the sample rate on the external DAC, which then instructs the DAW. This is because it's by no means a given that one wants to record at the highest possible sample rate.
But you can stream Lossless over Bluetooth now with AptX HD, AptX Adaptive as long as everything your using has the capability. Since no apple device can do this you would need to leave the cult apple and venture out on your own with a Hi-Res Audio player from Sony, Hiby, Fiio etc... Then you must have headphones wirelessly capable of receiving the signal like Bowers & Wilkins PI7 in ear headphones. Not sure why apple and others confuse this but at least they are not charging more for it and maybe that's because none of their headphones to date can handle the higher bit rate!
@E. O. True! They have not figured out how to stream the full width. There are adapters for MQA but there you go again, the end point needs to have a MQA unfolder or the main device does like the New Hiby R6 with it's list of Codecs and 16X unfolding. But while listening to MQA on Tidal I am only getting Apt X connection with the Hiby. So what exactly am I getting here. Tidal staes Master but what is it? I know I am loosing something but these headphones are simply stupid good! Then switching to a downloaded track on Hiby memory I know i am getting CD quality as it states 44.1khz/16bit/1490kbps
One more thing. If you connect any adaptor to your iPhone or iPad , the quality of the Audio depends on the DAC (Digital to Analog convertor) Instead of any Adaptor, if you have any home theatre decoder like the ones from Yamaha, Denon, Bose, Onkyo etc ... almost all of them have a port for iPod or iphone connectivity. That's the pure digital input. You will be passing the actual digital steam directly into the decoder. These high end decoder will have very very good quality DACs like the 'Ti Burr Brown' capable of 192Hz 24bit audio. Now start playing and you should actually get the perfect stereo how the music producer intended along with fidelity. These decoders also have inbuilt upmixing two channel stereo into 5.1 Dolby Pro logic, 5.1 DTS Neo or if more than 7 speakers, then converts to Dolby Atmos
If you want to get the full extent of the lossless streaming on your iPad I strongly suggest you get a dongle DAC like the THX Onyx and a great pair of headphones like the Hifiman Sundara planar magnetics. That’s what I use with my iPad and it’s awesome. The built in DAC in the iPad sucks. So listening with wired headphones without an external DAC like the THX Onyx is a total waste as you won’t hear the detail you are getting in the lossless stream.
@@HandM80 True. I have the older iPad Pro that does have a headphone jack and the newer one that doesn’t. In both cases a dongle DAC like the THX Onyx makes a huge difference. In the latter case the headphones have the DAC built in and in all cases those internal DACs suck compared to the THX Onyx and a wired pair of Hifiman Sundaras. And to really hear the difference between lossy and lossless you NEED the dongle DAC with wired headphones as the internal DACs on wireless headphones are not discerning enough to render the difference in sound quality between the two formats.
It's on Android now. I've been using it on my S21 ultra with the Sony xm4. Funny thing is I've been having Dolby Atmos before Apple supported it on the music app so the quality difference hasn't been as noticeable as it would be for an apple device.
Are you using xm4 connected wired in a dac on your S21U? Because it’ll not support ho res lossless via Bluetooth I suppose. Do tell about your setup. I have the same s21U and xm4 and want to enjoy hi res apple music using BTR5.
Hi! Firstly, love your videos. Super clear and helpful. I was wondering if that exact process/setup would work using Amazon Music HD instead of Apple Music? I plan on purchasing the BTR5 with a usb-c to lightning cable. Thanks a lot, cheers!
I saw Lucy’s Historian record in the thumbnail and now I’m watching. I only use lossless on my Apple TV through a Denon receiver, but it’s limited to ALAC up to 24-bit/48kHz.
Thanks for this video. Really helpful! Question; if I AirPlay (1) music from my iOS device to my Apple TV gen3, which links via optical to a DAC (then to amp and speakers), would I be able to get lossless output? Thank You.
Man I can hug you! I was messing around with my BTR5 and Apple Music trying to Figure out all this and now I know how. Btw, I also noticed the headphone matters a lot. I used multiple IEM balanced hardly noticed much of a difference, then I tied my master dynamic 40s and wow I got lost in lossless lol
Using a set of non apple bluetooth in ear, and loaded both lossless and non-lossless of the same album and it is very noticeable the difference regardless of the fact its not lossless any longer as it comes out of the bluetooth in ear's..... apples been working some magic.... because it's even different when comparing it to TIDAL (apples better) no idea why
Thanks for the how to! I have been wondering how to turn it on. I needed to go into the Audio Quality setting, that is what I missed the first few times haha, once more thanks. :) I'm no audiophile (even thought I REALLY wish I was) but I like to have the best audio quality I can get my hands on. lol
What about earphones like the Sony wf and wh 1000xm4? They’re wireless and their specs state they can support 24bit. Also just played some random songs without anything connected and was getting lossless
Bluetooth cannot portray lossless. It's just a compressed audio quality if you play over Bluetooth. But when you play using the provided wired cable, it's a different ball game.
Hi, thanks for the great vids! I've seen a lot of vids saying that using a computer as a streamer introduces a lot of noise to the digital out signal, which apparently seriously compromises the sound quality. Do you have any opinions as to which of an iPad, iPhone, iMac or Mac Mini will give the best, cleanest digital signal to an external DAC. I realise that this probably makes little difference when listening through headphones, but I am connecting my DAC to an 80 watt amp to drive floor-standing speakers.
I'm not sure about that. If you are using an external DAC, the computer should simply be streaming the digital data of the song, unadulterated from the servers holding the stored copy of the song, and all the processing happens in the DAC. Noise should only be an issue once the signal switches over to the analogue form, i.e. within the DAC. If you used the computer's built-in internal DAC, THEN noise from the other computer's components can be an issue. Please correct me anyone if I am mistaken in saying this.
I believe what you are referring to is noisy power over the usb port, where noise in the power is affecting the analog output within the dac after converted. The digital signal between the computer and the dac itself is not affected. Some usb powered dacs have filtering on the power to clean it up, or isolate it. If affected, you can also try plugging into a different usb port.
@@huckfin1100 well these xm4s are definitely louder and crispier than my Galaxy buds plus. I hope the ANC makes it so I don’t hear so many people talking and the car sounds when I’m traveling through my city. What you recommend I do for better sound
@@johnappleseed6926 yea I’ve seen reviews on AirPods and they’re not close to being as loud and rich as the m4s. I got my m4s already but they don’t really cancel out much noise. Idk if I’m doing something wrong but I can still hear quite a lot of pollution
but can you hear a difference from lossless vs high-res lossless? The jump from lossy to lossless is noticeable, but I'm not sure if the jump from lossless to a higher resolution of lossless would be as noticeable using standard headphones or speakers???
Depends also on your age, more probably than your equipment. Human hearing degrades steadily over time. Younger people with excellent hearing ability will in many cases notice a diff between 24/96 and 16/44.1 - in some cases a big difference. Audio Fixation is in his mid to late forties, so struggles to discern any tangible difference. Placebo effect plays a big role, if you know you are listening to the best possible sample and bit rates, then you no longer need to ‘wonder’. No FOMO.
There isn’t any. Though, there are many of us that are using good quality cans, or IEMs, with our DACs, that would love to have the convenience of lossless audio on a service like Apple Music. I’m actually looking forward to hearing the difference and quite possibly re-subscribe to the service again.
Hi, I am running Mojave (10.14.6) on a mid-2015 MacBook Pro. I also am still using an iPhone 6S running iOS 15.4.1. I do not have any other Apple devices like an iPad. I recently started updating my iTunes music and did not realize that when I was in iTunes and clicked on "Library" --> "Organize Library" that I was presented with 2 choices ("Consolidate files" and Reorganize files in the folder 'iTunes Music'." In my effort to organize my music on my MacBook Pro in the folder structure by "Artist", I didn't realize that iTunes doesn't organize the folders in reverse. In other words, the only way to structure the music in my iTunes "Music" folder is directly through iTunes and clicking on both "Album Info" and "Song Info". Modifications to the iTunes database including deleting an album and/or a song from the iTunes library (and also from the iTunes "Music" folder" into the Trash) are therefore as best I can tell are one-way only, and that being only through iTunes. If I'm the last to realize this, I am not surprised.
It should be pointed out that vintage albums, such as The Beatles, are analog magnetic tape recordings and were not hi-res recordings. Putting these recordings into a bigger bit bucket is pointless as detail lost in the original recording cannot be magically recovered. There are very few true hi-res recordings available and nearly all releases are CD quality which is audibly as good anyway.
Do you have a video of how to get lossless music from Apple or any other provider source, for that matter, through my Denon AV receiver, which has its own DACs? I would like to utilize some very high quality speakers I recently purchased.
Can’t believe Apple Macs didn’t get an update to fix the sample rate issue prior to release of lossless.I got a new iMac last week and was very surprised to learn about this.you would think it’s a no brainer (or are they expecting us all to rush out and buy a iPad now?) anyway great video.thanks for that info
I know right? Totally frustrating. Tidal on the Mac CAN automatically switch sample rate with a DAC as can Audirvana. But apple’s very own music app cannot. Go figure.
@@AudioFixation no way! I’m assuming they (Apple) will be fixing this issue asap if the whole idea is to dominate the music streaming market but you’d think they’d have done it ahead of the launch of lossless.I’ve been days trolling the net for information on it all.was totally confused as to why my ifi zen dac was sticking on one colour when trying out different audio formats.now I know 😩
@@benstiller9578 still no fix from Ben.there is a free app for iMac that will do the auto sample switch …I gave in and bought an iPad recently 🤦♂️ great for streaming music but I shouldn’t of had to
What I noticed is that on the iPad says 24bit/192Khz but in the external DAC it shows the 16, I guess it refers to 16bit instead of 24bit transmision. Is that because of an adjustment in the extrnl DAC? Thanks!
What a bath of cold water and a reality check. Wow! thank you for that , so it s all a lot of marketing jibbers and not so much the real stuff. Could you please do an update on the new updates and IOS 15/ Monterey / situation I bought rather expensive Airpod Max , hope to get Max out of it eventually . ☺️
can i play lossless audio by transfering lossless audio file from my laptop? or i just can play from apple music library? as a newbie i hope you will answer❤️
@@AudioFixation apple support for anything other than apple has always been poor. I don’t think Spotify will be too worried.This will be good for people who are part of the apple ecosystem but for the majority who might only have only a couple of apple products I think people won’t use the service as people like me would rather pay for one service across Multiplatform like say Deezer etc
Thank you so much for this video. I see that samsung has a usbc to 3.5mm dongle which support up to 24bit/192kHz, does it mean i can use it with the lossless Hi-res directly?
Well, I would love to use the lossless option on Apple Music, but I have bo way to do it. Sure, I can enable the option on my Android Smartphone and plug in some Headphones, but I don't listen to music on my phone. I have nice Speakers at home and I use those for Music, but right now Apple doesn't give me any option to transport the music there. Chronecast Audio doesnt work (only plays AAC) Heos, Musiccast, Sonos, BluSound etc...all either don't offer Apple Music at all or only offer the lossy AAC version, all because Apple doesn't provide an API for 3rd Party Hardware manufacturers to actually use Apple Music. And Apple doesn't offer any kind of Audio only Dongle (like the Chronecast Audio) either, and using an AppleTV isn't an option since I can't actually use that without a Display either. So...🤷♂️
I think I have understood you then that on mac we can listen to music in 192 kHz when it is available, but if the next thing we hear goes down, for example to 96 kHz, we will have to change it to 96 kHz also in the MIDI application. So we will always respect the quality that Apple Music is offering at all times. Is what I say correct?
Last Video: "Hi-Res Audio is pointless!" This Video: "Apple Lossless Hi-Res is here and here's how to get it to actually play in hi-res!" (We all do this sadly).
Hi, I am a happy Apple Music user, with a good pair of IEM (Thieaudio Monarch MKII) and a couple of decent DAC/AMPs (Hidizs S9 Pro, Fiio Q3). I am very happy of my setup, but I am considering another possibility: a DAP capable to play lossless Apple Music (possibly including hi-res), with a good sound quality (possibly even better than my current dac/amps). Do you have any suggestions? Thank you
Nice video Hari. Could you also please check if it’s possible to use a lightning to usb c directly with an iPhone or do I need the apple lightning to usb cck adapter. Would love if you could a video covering various iPhone / android + btr5 combinations. Thanks again
u can use the fiio lt lt1 cable, its a usb-c to lightning adaptor very convenient for the iphone/older ipad pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005002512507879.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.2741b90apRq5ov
Random question: when I’m playing music through my MacBook’s speakers, will that audio playing be lossless/ hi-res lossless or the default AAC? Same question for the iPhone.
How does Apple TV compare as a DAC? There is a clear and significant difference when I listen to a song on RU-vid and compared with the same song on Apple Music via Apple TV but have no idea if it is in the best resolution possible.
Reportedly Apple TV is limited to 24-bit, 48kHz -- even if connected to an AVR or soundbar that supports a higher bitrate. (Mine should arrive today.) Atmos may actually be the bigger deal on Apple TV, not only for this reason but also because it can take advantage of full home theater Atmos (usually 5.1.2 channels & up, far more than any mobile device).
Tell me about it James - unbelievably sloppy that iTunes/Apple Music (whatever it’s called on the mac) doesn’t have an exclusive mode which bypasses the audio midi mixer!
For those who own a wireless hifi set (e.g. WF/WH-1000XM4 & 5), you can actually listen to LDAC on your laptop by downloading something called Alternative A2DP, which bypasses the SBC codec that your laptop originally has.
Sony xm4’s wired sound better? I’m using iPhone 11 and I want to buy Sony xm 4. They are wireless so only plays aac codec. If I wire them to my phone will I be able to play Apple Lossless through Apple Music? Or Sony xm4 doesn’t support lossless audio through the wire?
According to Apple support on lossless apple music You can also use lossless on your ATV4K albeit only cd quality plus a bit via hdmi (aptv3?) and a receiver or maybe one of those NAIM or similar with HDMI i don’t know what the I2s connection or even a cheap hdmi audio extractor can do. I’m not an apple music user and was very cross when itunes didnt sell cd level music and Google stopped and Amazon made it conditional on buying physical media so now i hope Qobuz or Zdigital or HD Tracks survives coz otherwise it’s a dog’s breakfast to find my digital copies (or your word “chunes”).
I have an Iphone XS and several dongle DAC/Amps to go along with it and many open back and closed back headphones with not too high of an impedance and I'm never happy with the music coming out of the phone with my headphones which are the Sennheiser 598, 599, 560's, 569's and many others by different companies , it's never clear and sounds compressed, I'm not an Apple music subscriber but have my Itunes music synced up to my Iphone XS and under audio there is no option for me to select 24 bit 96KHZ or higher which I know my DAC's can do and would like an Lossless audio option for my synced music, may I ask why Apple doesn't have this option under their phones or if they do are they only for Apple music subscribers, I can't understand why I cannot choose my bit depth and sample rate at all, I feel Apple should do this for everyone who owns an Iphone regardless if your an Apple music subscriber it should be under the audio tab for anyone to select their output of audio which my P.C. let's me do.
I also use Apple TV, airplaying onto Auralic Mini… onto my HiFi… I get max 24/48… well at least hope so :-) It is neat to have GUI of aTV on my television…
There are people who cannot hear a difference between lossy and lossless audio. There may be many good reasons for this, including equipment incapable of reproducing lossy or ‘high res’ audio. But, if your gear Is up to the job and you still can’t differentiate, I issue you with this challenge. Compile a lengthy play list of your favourite tracks, using a lossy format. Compile a 2nd, identical play list, this time using a lossless or high res format. I can guarantee you, that you will suffer ‘listener fatigue’ far sooner when listening to the lossy play list, compared to listening to to the lossless play list.
