Apple Music - Lossless Audio
A earlier this year, the world was all in a tizzy over Spacial Audio and Lossless formats available within Apple Music.
More was said about the inability to play some of the lossless versions on bluetooth enable headphones or AirPods, but you could on wired headphones or using a Digital Audio Converter (DAC).
What is Lossless?
To some, be it an old timer or an audiophile the purest sound reproduction closest to the studio recording is vinyl, this analogue medium is compressed pretty much a 1:1 recording with all the low end and high end - how you hear the sound stage on the vinyl all comes down to how good the amplifier and speakers are.
Every medium after vinyl has compressed and lost parts of the sound stage, each generation sounding worst that those before
Vinyl > Cassette Tape > CD - [Mini Disc is a strange one] > MP3 and now Streaming
To get the song from Apples server to your phone over a data connection the original track needs compressing, and its not as simple as running the MP3 through winzip the upper and lower parts of the sound stage are removed reducing the songs size.
If you plug your headphones in to the device and play the track you’ll be hearing this compressed version, with Apple Music lossless turned on, the song file size is larger and less compression has taken place.
Settings > Music > Audio Quality
Audio Quality Settings
Leave Dolby Atmos alone for a second.
There is the option to turn Lossless Audio on. Once enabled it you’ll see three listening scenarios
Mobile Data Streaming
Wi-Fi Streaming
Downloads
If you then select a scenario you’ll see another 3 options
High Quality - AAC 256 kbps
Lossless - ALAC up to 24-bit/48 kHz
Hi-Res Lossless - ALAC up to 24-bit/192kHz
And its here we see the difference is file size, the sampling bit rate and frequency, with the Hi-Res Lossless able to produce levels equal to the studio masters, but with a whooping file size of 145 MB.
Is it worth listening to?
Really depends on what you’re listening to the music on, a high quality stereo system or headphones (over the ear) with a DAC powering them to allow the drivers (speakers) to move and produce the sound. You can 100% tell the difference.
In a car, a high end Bose like stereo will need the music supplied to the headunit over a aux cable or lightening to USB style connection, the results can be very good with richer bass levels and sharper top end from tweeter, predominately the level cut off when streaming allowing the mid bass/levels to over power the sound stage.
