HomePod and HomePod mini can directly support lossless audio in Apple Music

As a major benefit given to Apple fans this year, Apple Music will start to provide lossless music services in June. Without increasing subscription fees, fans can enjoy Hi-Res lossless music with a sampling rate of up to 48kHz. So before that, I believe many people want to figure out how they can make Apple Music lossless music, and Apple’s latest support document further explains these common problems.

For iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, Apple said that due to Bluetooth audio transmission restrictions, its AirPods series and Beats brand wireless headphones cannot support lossless music. Of course, it’s not just that the sound cannot be released, but what you hear is not much different from the original specifications. To truly get a lossless music experience, you must at least use wired headphones and analog output. Because AirPods Max supports the wired method, it can be supported to lossless audio in Apple Music.

“Apple HomePod” by Joe Wilcox is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

As for those who want to hear a higher level of Hi-Res lossless (above 48kHz sampling rate), whether iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you have to use an external DAC decoder. At present, there are still many options for external DAC with a USB-C interface, but there are very few Lightning interfaces. So iPhone users want to experience the highest level of lossless music, which is still very troublesome, but what is interesting is that Apple mentioned that the speakers of iPhone and Mac can also be played directly.

However, in Apple’s existing devices, there is still direct support for playing lossless music, that is, the HomePod and HomePod mini. Apple said that it will support Apple Music’s lossless music through software upgrades. Finally, the lossless music of Apple Music also requires the device to be upgraded to the latest version of the operating system. iPhone and iPad must be iOS 14.6, iPadOS 14.6, and Mac requires macOS 11.4. These system versions have not been pushed and should be launched together with the lossless music service.